Do you know if Outlook needs to read these items as part of the header? (I'm guessing it does) If so, when you send via PHP mail, try adding the info to the header section instead of as an attachement.

You may want to look through MSDN for some ideas, too.

thanks bob - I tried sending it in the headers, but it is not working - no sign of it even.

Does anybody know of a good way to do this so that it doesn't come through as an email, but a event in the vcalendar?

Thanks

Are there mime headers for the vcalendar?

Yes there are - I am not sure which is correct, but even when I use them, it does not work.
content-type: text/calendar
and I also found this one
content-type: text/x-vcalendar

I tried using these in the headers, but then I do not know where to put the other information (the vcalendar code).

If this can not be done, I could do it another way. The first would be prefered, but perhaps if I let the user upload their vcalendar onto the server, and then from that code I could make a calendar. I do not know if this is possible, but if the first scenario does not work, then this one will do.

Thanks for all of your replies.

[subscribes to thread]

This will be really useful info when it all gets figured out! Please post some sample PHP code when you get things squared away for all of us to enjoy! /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

Hi again, I played around with some code that I found at http://www.scit.wlv.ac.uk/rfc/rfc24xx/RFC2447.html but that code is not intended for mail with php I think. Here is what I have thus far:

THat does NOT work. I am almost certain that I have something wrong in the headers. When the email comes through, it has all the header info and then the message.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

This part of this line looks fishy....

I've never seen that used in MIME Email headers before...

I don't know where the vcalendar part comes in, but I sent an appointment from my work account (Exchange 2003) using the Web mail interface, and this is what I got (email addresses etc edited)

In Outlook, it prompted me to accept/decline the appoiuntment when I opened the message (not an attachement). The message format was simple enough!

Bobbymac Thanks for your reply - the email which you recieved is the exact email that I need php mail to send - do you know what sort of headers are associated with php mail and how they would be sent?

Thanks so much.

Hi Ladies and Gents,

So I have now tried everything that my mind can think - including taking out the method, changing it etc... I will be more than willing to read from tutorials or articles if any of you guys do know about this. And yes, tubbytreats I will post all the script here if I ever figure out how /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />.

Thanks!

Something you could try with your bit of code (or using Paul's) is explicitly adding a "\r\n" to the end of each header line. That may be the reason the headers are being dumped into the message.

The "\r\n" is the standard delimiter for each header. And since they are escape characters, they must be used in double quotes. Single quotes will treat them as a literal.

Here's a slight adjustment to your code using the data presented by Paul.

if (mail($email, $subject, $message, $headers)) {
echo 'Congrats on a job well done';
};

?>

Figured this was appropriate to the conversation...

HOW TO VIEW MESSAGE SOURCE IN OUTLOOK 2003:
http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/view_source.htm

I can't get either Bob's or bobbymac's code to work here sending PHP mail() from a Windows IIS 6.0 server to an Outlook email account. I get an email, but it just has plaintext in it, and is NOT formatted as an Outlook "Appointment Request" message.

Here's what happens when I send a message from Outlook 2003 to an external webmail account:

I've updated the previously posted code. There was a typo following the content-type. Sorry, I don't use a calendaring program so I couldn't test. With all that I learned, I'll install one soon enough. /wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

To send in vCalendar format just send a .vcs file as an attachment. The contents of the file should have everything between and including the BEGIN: and END:VCALENDAR lines that was posted earlier. The suggestion about placing them as headers was a mistake.

Here are some key points that I've learned (some resources below).
1. There are two main calendar formats - vCalendar(.vcs) and iCalendar(.ics). Outlook seems to have its own thing but can support the others.
2. vCalendar is much easier to implement.
3. Method=Request. The method here tells Outlook if this is a request, reply, etc. It is not GET, POST, etc.
4. There are various levels of compliance, even across versions of Outlook, that need to be considered when developing. Basically, the newer the software, the more robust.

Other resources:
Using PHP to Make Basic vCalendar/iCalendar Events
MSDN Calendaring
Outlook 2000 and Outlook 2002 iCalendar interoperability problems
iCalendar PHP Class
vCalendar PHP Class
Outlook Appointments, ASP and vCalendar
vCal code for GeekLog
iCalendar File Builder Demo

Hi

Thanks for your input - sorry i couldn't relpy. I was away for the weekend. I am looking through all the posts closely and will post when I figure it out or get stuck.

Thanks.

Ok

After spending the whole day pasting code from several other sites, I accidentally found some code that will work. In the code, a user is registering for an event, and this script will set up a calendar event in the Outlook so they can accept/deny/etc

Please note that the Description is currently not working (tomorrow's task) for some reason.

$to = $formVars['email'];
$subject = "Training Registration";
$message = "Thank you for participating in the Technical Certification training program.\n\n";
//==================
$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
$messaje = "BEGIN:VCALENDAR\n";
$messaje .= "VERSION:2.0\n";
$messaje .= "PRODID:PHP\n";
$messaje .= "METHOD:REQUEST\n";
$messaje .= "BEGIN:VEVENT\n";
$messaje .= "DTSTART:" . $date_array[1] . $momth . $day1 . "T080000\n";
$messaje .= "DTEND:" . $date_array[1] . $momth . $day2. "T170000\n";
$messaje . "DESCRIPTION: You have registered for the class\n";
$messaje .= "SUMMARY:Technical Training\n";
$messaje .= "ORGANIZER; CN=\"Corporate\":mailto:training@corporate.com\n";
$messaje .= "Location:" . $location . "\n";
$messaje .= "UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E00800000006FC30E6C39DC004CA782E0C002E01A81\n";
$messaje .= "SEQUENCE:0\n";
$messaje .= "DTSTAMP:".date('Ymd').'T'.date('His')."\n";
$messaje .= "END:VEVENT\n";
$messaje .= "END:VCALENDAR\n";
$headers .= $messaje;
mail($to, $subject, $message, $headers);

Finally works!!!

I have implemented the above code seeme to work fine but the
message ($message = "Thank you for participating in the Technical Certification training program.\n\n";)
in email is empty .Please help out.