How to create an outlook calendar meeting request in PHP?

Question

Can someone point me in the right direction? I know it has to do with attaching a .ics file, but I can only get it to the point where a user can download and then import the event into their outlook calendar? How can I programmatically create these meeting requests?

Answer 1

Here is working example with multiple participants:

<?php

    $to = 'boushh@arturito.net,bobafett@arturito.net';
    $subject = "Millennium Falcon";

    $organizer          = 'Darth Vader';
    $organizer_email    = 'darthvader@arturito.net';

    $participant_name_1 = 'Boushh';
    $participant_email_1= 'boushh@arturito.net';

    $participant_name_2 = 'Boba Fett';
    $participant_email_2= 'bobafett@arturito.net';  

    $location           = "Stardestroyer-013";
    $date               = '20131026';
    $startTime          = '0800';
    $endTime            = '0900';
    $subject            = 'Millennium Falcon';
    $desc               = 'The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the capture of Millennium Falcon and its crew.';

    $headers = 'Content-Type:text/calendar; Content-Disposition: inline; charset=utf-8;\r\n';
    $headers .= "Content-Type: text/plain;charset=\"utf-8\"\r\n"; #EDIT: TYPO

    $message = "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\r\n
    VERSION:2.0\r\n
    PRODID:-//Deathstar-mailer//theforce/NONSGML v1.0//EN\r\n
    METHOD:REQUEST\r\n
    BEGIN:VEVENT\r\n
    UID:" . md5(uniqid(mt_rand(), true)) . "example.com\r\n
    DTSTAMP:" . gmdate('Ymd').'T'. gmdate('His') . "Z\r\n
    DTSTART:".$date."T".$startTime."00Z\r\n
    DTEND:".$date."T".$endTime."00Z\r\n
    SUMMARY:".$subject."\r\n
    ORGANIZER;CN=".$organizer.":mailto:".$organizer_email."\r\n
    LOCATION:".$location."\r\n
    DESCRIPTION:".$desc."\r\n
    ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN".$participant_name_1.";X-NUM-GUESTS=0:MAILTO:".$participant_email_1."\r\n
    ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN".$participant_name_2.";X-NUM-GUESTS=0:MAILTO:".$participant_email_2."\r\n
    END:VEVENT\r\n
    END:VCALENDAR\r\n";

    $headers .= $message;
    mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);    
?>

If you need to add/remove options here is a reference of VCALENDAR: VCALENDAR on Wikipedia

Answer 2

You can programmatically generate an .ics :)

Here's how:

• Adding Events to Microsoft Outlook from PHP using ICAL

<?php
    $date      = $_GET['date'];
    $startTime = $_GET['startTime'];
    $endTime   = $_GET['endTime'];
    $subject   = $_GET['subject'];
    $desc      = $_GET['desc'];

    $ical = "BEGIN:VCALENDAR
    VERSION:2.0
    PRODID:-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN
    BEGIN:VEVENT
    UID:" . md5(uniqid(mt_rand(), true)) . "example.com
    DTSTAMP:" . gmdate('Ymd').'T'. gmdate('His') . "Z
    DTSTART:".$date."T".$startTime."00Z
    DTEND:".$date."T".$endTime."00Z
    SUMMARY:".$subject."
    DESCRIPTION:".$desc."
    END:VEVENT
    END:VCALENDAR";

    //set correct content-type-header
    header('Content-type: text/calendar; charset=utf-8');
    header('Content-Disposition: inline; filename=calendar.ics');
    echo $ical;
    exit;
?>