I want to add events to my outlook calendar from the php code. As outlook can accept a file of extension “.ics”, I have tried this sample code to generate an ics file:
<?php
header("Content-Type: text/Calendar");
header("Content-Disposition: inline; filename=calendar.ics");
echo "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\n";
echo "VERSION:2.0\n";
echo "PRODID:www.testMeiCalendar.net\n";
echo "METHOD:REQUEST\n"; // requied by Outlook
echo "BEGIN:VEVENT\n";
echo "DTSTART:20101231T230000\n";
echo "DTEND:20110101T010000\n";
echo "SUMMARY:New Years Eve Reminder\n";
echo "LOCATION:Downtown\n";
echo "DESCRIPTION:Let's get together for New Years Eve\n";
echo "UID:ABCD1234\n";
echo "SEQUENCE:0\n";
echo "DTSTAMP:20101125T112600\n";
echo "END:VEVENT\n";
echo "END:VCALENDAR\n";
?>
So now when I run this code in Firefox, I got a pop-up asking to open the generated ics file using the Microsoft Outlook and I opened it and saved it to outlook and finally an event is added in outlook.
But is there a way I can automate this process? I mean, can I store the event in Outlook calendar directly from a php script, without needing to generate an ics file and saving it?
How your server application should be able to access a client application? You may send an email to your client with a calendar entry. Maybe this is slightly more comfortable for your user.