Creating iCal Files in c#

Question

I\'m looking for a good method of generating an iCalendar file (*.ics) in c# (asp.net). I\'ve found a couple resources, but one thing that has been lacking is their support

Answer 1

I'm missing an example with custom time zones. So here a snippet that show how you can set a time zone in the ics (and send it to the browser in asp.net).

//set a couple of variables for demo purposes
DateTime IcsDateStart = DateTime.Now.AddDays(2);
DateTime IcsDateEnd = IcsDateStart.AddMinutes(90);
string IcsSummary = "ASP.Net demo snippet";
string IcsLocation = "Amsterdam (Netherlands)";
string IcsDescription = @"This snippes show you how to create a calendar item file (.ics) in ASP.NET.\nMay it be useful for you.";
string IcsFileName = "MyCalendarFile";

//create a new stringbuilder instance
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

//begin the calendar item
sb.AppendLine("BEGIN:VCALENDAR");
sb.AppendLine("VERSION:2.0");
sb.AppendLine("PRODID:stackoverflow.com");
sb.AppendLine("CALSCALE:GREGORIAN");
sb.AppendLine("METHOD:PUBLISH");

//create a custom time zone if needed, TZID to be used in the event itself
sb.AppendLine("BEGIN:VTIMEZONE");
sb.AppendLine("TZID:Europe/Amsterdam");
sb.AppendLine("BEGIN:STANDARD");
sb.AppendLine("TZOFFSETTO:+0100");
sb.AppendLine("TZOFFSETFROM:+0100");
sb.AppendLine("END:STANDARD");
sb.AppendLine("END:VTIMEZONE");

//add the event
sb.AppendLine("BEGIN:VEVENT");

//with a time zone specified
sb.AppendLine("DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:" + IcsDateStart.ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmm00"));
sb.AppendLine("DTEND;TZID=Europe/Amsterdam:" + IcsDateEnd.ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmm00"));

//or without a time zone
//sb.AppendLine("DTSTART:" + IcsDateStart.ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmm00"));
//sb.AppendLine("DTEND:" + IcsDateEnd.ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmm00"));

//contents of the calendar item
sb.AppendLine("SUMMARY:" + IcsSummary + "");
sb.AppendLine("LOCATION:" + IcsLocation + "");
sb.AppendLine("DESCRIPTION:" + IcsDescription + "");
sb.AppendLine("PRIORITY:3");
sb.AppendLine("END:VEVENT");

//close calendar item
sb.AppendLine("END:VCALENDAR");

//create a string from the stringbuilder
string CalendarItemAsString = sb.ToString();

//send the ics file to the browser
Response.ClearHeaders();
Response.Clear();
Response.Buffer = true;
Response.ContentType = "text/calendar";
Response.AddHeader("content-length", CalendarItemAsString.Length.ToString());
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=\"" + IcsFileName + ".ics\"");
Response.Write(CalendarItemAsString);
Response.Flush();
HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRequest();