I’m trying to create a .vcs file in C#. Basically in outlook if you add a calendar appointment it creates a file that in outlook looks like this:
You can actually export this file, right click on it and open it up in your favorite text editor. It looks something like this:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Flo Inc.//FloSoft//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:6/12/2012 12:00:00 PM
DTEND:6/12/2012 1:00:00 PM
LOCATION:Meeting room 1
DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Learn about assets.
SUMMARY:asset management training.
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:OOF
PRIORITY:5
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR
So what I am having a problem with is the actual time in DTSTART and DTEND from above. You can see that when I open the outlook file it says 11:00am (as the screen shot shows) but in the text file I have it as 12:00pm.
So I have an application (training application) where I dynamically create one of these vcs files. Using C# I gather the subject, location, description and dates (with times) like so:
protected void btnOutlook_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string location;
string description;
string subject;
string fromTime;
string toTime;
location = txtLocation.Text;
description = txtDescription.Text;
subject = lblTitle.Text;
fromTime = ddlFromTimeHH.SelectedItem.Text + ":" + ddlFromTimeMM.SelectedItem.Text + ddlFromTimeAMPM.SelectedItem.Text;
toTime = ddlToTimeHH.SelectedItem.Text + ":" + ddlToTimeMM.SelectedItem.Text + ddlToTimeAMPM.SelectedItem.Text;
string begin = lblDate.Text + " " + fromTime;
string end = lblDate.Text + " " + toTime;
string format = "dd/MM/yyyy h:mmtt";
DateTime trainingDateBegin;
DateTime trainingDateEnd;
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(begin, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out trainingDateBegin))
{
//good date
}
if (DateTime.TryParseExact(end, format, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture, DateTimeStyles.None, out trainingDateEnd))
{
//good date
}
OpenVCSFile("vcsFile.aspx?TrainingDateBegin=" + trainingDateBegin + "&TrainingDateEnd=" + trainingDateEnd + "&Location=" + location + "&Subject=" + subject + "&Description=" + description, "Utilities", "toolbar=0,scrollbars=1,location=0,statusbar=0,menubar=0,resizable=0,width=800,height=500,left=10,top=20");
}
So in the above code fromTime just becomes for instance 7:00 am and toTime becomes something like 8:00 am. I then use DateTime.TryParseExact to merge the date with the time so it becomes for instance 06/01/2012 7:00 am for beginDate and for endDate it becomes for instance 06/01/2012 8:00 am.
So far so good…then I just call a function OpenVCSFile which is just some javascript to open the passed in url like so:
protected void OpenVCSFile(string url, string name, string att)
{
Response.Write("<script language='JavaScript'>");
Response.Write("x=window.open('" + url + "', '" + name + "','" + att + "');");
Response.Write("x.focus();");
Response.Write("</script>");
}
This then calls the vcsFile.aspx page where I can fill in the outlook values…
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
DateTime beginDate;
DateTime endDate;
string location;
string description;
string subject;
beginDate = Convert.ToDateTime(Request.QueryString["TrainingDateBegin"]);
endDate = Convert.ToDateTime(Request.QueryString["TrainingDateEnd"]);
location = Request.QueryString["Location"];
description = Request.QueryString["Description"];
subject = Request.QueryString["Subject"];
MemoryStream mStream = new MemoryStream();
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(mStream);
writer.AutoFlush = true;
//header
writer.WriteLine("BEGIN:VCALENDAR");
writer.WriteLine("PRODID:-//Flo Inc.//FloSoft//EN");
writer.WriteLine("BEGIN:VEVENT");
//BODY
writer.WriteLine("DTSTART:" + beginDate); //why dont the times come out right...
writer.WriteLine("DTEND:" + endDate); //same here
writer.WriteLine("LOCATION:" + location);
writer.WriteLine("DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:" + description);
writer.WriteLine("SUMMARY:" + subject);
writer.WriteLine("X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:OOF");
//FOOTER
writer.WriteLine("PRIORITY:5");
writer.WriteLine("END:VEVENT");
writer.WriteLine("END:VCALENDAR");
//MAKE IT DOWNLOADABLE
Response.Clear(); //clears the current output content from the buffer
Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=AddToOutlookCalendar.vcs");
Response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", mStream.Length.ToString());
Response.ContentType = "application/download";
Response.BinaryWrite(mStream.ToArray());
Response.End();
}
Everything appears to work EXCEPT the most important part, the section where I do this:
writer.WriteLine("DTSTART:" + beginDate); //why dont the times come out right...
writer.WriteLine("DTEND:" + endDate); //same here
The date comes out right as you see in the outlook screen shot, but the time is always wrong…
Usually outlook will open it up with 10:00 am till 11:00 am. But it never takes the time that I give it. For instance, in my c# code here is the watch screen:
trainingDateBegin {12/6/2012 12:00:00 PM}
trainingDateEnd {12/6/2012 1:00:00 PM}
So my app is passing in the date of 12/6/2012 with a time of 12:00:00 pm till 12/6/2012 1:00:00 pm.
But then when the vcs file is generated here is the result:
(if the image doesnt show up basically outlook is having all the correct information: subject, location, start date end date BUT the time is wrong. It says 11am till 12pm. Its almost like its using my system clock EST)…
Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong. Sorry for the long post:(.
I think it’s to do with timezones; you could either add a timezone or (much simpler) use the UTC time in your file.
If you do add a timezone you’ll need to use vCal version 2, since Outlook doesn’t support timezones in version 1.
EDIT: This is an example of the syntax taken from the Wikipedia article on VCalendar. This event occurs July 14, 1997 17:00 (UTC) through July 15, 1997 03:59:59 (UTC):