Handling .ics attachments

[l_kris06]

Hi all,

I have a php application that generates .ics files and then sends them
as attachment to users within organization. When the attendees receive
this attachement, and open it, an entry is added to their calendar and
further they can accept/reject etc.
So far so good. The problem is, the Organizer's calendar is not
updated. When he opens the attachment, the meeting request reads as "As
an organizer, you do not need to accept this meeting" or something of
that sort, and his calendar does not have this entry. I have tried to
add organizer to the attendee list and still no go.

My questions:

1. How do I go about putting an entry in the organizer's
calendar when he opens the .ics attachment.?
2. Outlook does not recognize the METHOD:CANCEL when it receives
a .ics attachment with method set to CANCEL , why ?

I hope somebody out there can help out.

Best,
Krishna

 

[Vince Averello]

I'd think you'd have to use a different organizer than the real one to get
the item on to their calendar via ICS file. Not sure about the CANCEL thing
but what version of Outlook are you using?

 

[l_kris06]

I'd think you'd have to use a different organizer than the real one to
get the item on to their calendar via ICS file."

I think in this case, its very specific to outlook's way of
implementing RFC 2445 and RFC 2446. For the organizer(almost always
creator of the meeting), outlook will add it to their calendar only
when its generated from the organizers inbox(meaning must reside in
sent items). When i see the .ICS file generated from outlook, I see no
difference to the one i created.

About the CANCEL method, RFC 2446 says , for a CANCEL(non recurring)
method, the sequence number needs to be incremented by 1, and Event
timestamps are optional. But which ever way i try, outlook will not
recognize the CANCEL method. And outlook's compliance with the RFC
report says its complaint with RFC 2446. For instance, i create a
meeting and i cancel that from outlook, when i use the same .ICS files
(1 for REQUEST, 1 for CANCEL). REQUEST gets registered in outlook, but
CANCEL method is ignored.

This is not good. There is too much dependency on the email
client(outlook) here, and for my Question number 1. I found a
workaround, I generate a complete different .ICS file for the
organizer, the only difference is, the method used is PUBLISH, and not
REQUEST.

Vince,
I use outlook 2007. I dont think the version here makes a difference.
Outlook's just not compliant with the standard

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

you need to use the same uid for cancel to work and I think it needs
imported to offer delete, not opened from an email and saved to the
calendar.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]



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