Time format used in .ics file?

Question

I am creating an .ics file in Java, and I need to know what date and time format to use.

Here is the current format of my ics file:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20120901T180000
DTEND:20120901T183000
SUMMARY:my birthday
LOCATION:Bangalore
DESCRIPTION:Every one is welcome..!! time to party
PRIORITY:3
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

I used ISO_DATETIME_TIME_ZONE_FORMAT to convert my date to the required format, but it returned 2012-09-01T18:00:00+00:00

What is the date format used in the DTSTART and DTEND values? Specifically, how can I format this properly in Java?

Answer 1

With Java you could use

DateFormat dateFormat = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyyMMdd'T'HHmmss");

See more at iCalendar RFC 5545