CODEWITHSUNDEEP
htmlcalendargoogle-calendar-apiicalendar
Hultner
Hultner

Reputation: 3780

How do I create a link to add an entry to a calendar?

I'm working for this nightclub and are currently making a website for them, they've got lots events and their site is built a lot around events, today they make an facebook event of every event but it would be killer to have a "Add to my Calendar" button which added it to your iCal or Google Calendar (or maybe even Outlook).

I've managed to figure out how to make an calendar feed but then it will be added as a new calendar, only good thing is that people can "subscribe to events" but it's quite messy to have an calendar for every event. So I would like to know how to implement a function which lets them add it to their main calendar easily. Think like a mailto: link but for calendars if that's possible.

Also while I'm on the subject, does anyone know if it's possible to automatically import an event from Facebook to WordPress or export an event from WordPress to Facebook that would be great, but that's not so important.

Upvotes: 111

Views: 221851

Answers (7)

Prashant
Prashant

Reputation: 328

Simple & Free solution

Using CDN library provided by add-to-calendar-button.com. See Live Demo

Given code will generate a button to add an event in calendar from 8 to 10am on 9th April 2024.

<script src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/add-to-calendar-button@2" async defer></script>

<add-to-calendar-button id="calendarButton"
  name="Sample Event"
  description="Sample Description"
  startDate="2024-04-09"
  startTime="08:00"
  endTime="10:00"
  timeZone="Asia/Calcutta"
  location="India"
  options="'Apple','Google','iCal','Outlook.com','Yahoo','MicrosoftTeams','Microsoft365'"
></add-to-calendar-button>

Additionally, I have built a JS function to add the details through a function call:

    function setCalendar() {
      const button = document.getElementById('calendarButton');
      if (button) {
        // Set event details
        button.setAttribute('name', 'Sample Event');
        button.setAttribute('description', 'Sample Description');
        button.setAttribute('startDate', '2024-04-09');
        button.setAttribute('startTime', '08:00');
        button.setAttribute('endTime', '10:00');
        button.setAttribute('timeZone', 'Asia/Calcutta');
        button.setAttribute('location', 'India');
        button.setAttribute('options', "'Apple','Google','iCal','Outlook.com','Yahoo','MicrosoftTeams','Microsoft365'");
      }
    }

    // Calling the function
    setCalendar();

For more customizations, visit here.

Upvotes: 0

jerald jacob
jerald jacob

Reputation: 635

You can generate a ics file which include the meeting information

the ics file look like this

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Michael Angstadt//biweekly 0.6.4//EN
METHOD:REQUEST
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:c7a913c7-3276-4828-8606-b841f2870475
DTSTAMP:20220519T070000Z
SUMMARY: Booking you for this date
DESCRIPTION:You having been invited to the event 
DTSTART:20220519T070000Z
DURATION:PT1H
ORGANIZER;CN=Company Team:mailto:[email protected]
ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;CN=Not Amazing Attendee:mailto:*********@gmail.com
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

also the java code to generate ics file is here

import java.io.BufferedWriter;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.PrintWriter;
import java.util.ArrayList;

public class iCal {

    private String version = "VERSION:1.0 \n";
    private String prodid = "PRODID://Elara/lofy/tanare/delp/314sum2015// \n";
    private String calBegin = "BEGIN:VCALENDAR \n";
    private String calEnd = "END:VCALENDAR \n";
    private String eventBegin = "BEGIN:VEVENT \n";
    private String eventEnd = "END:VEVENT \n";

    public void iCal() {
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {

    }

    public void write(String name) {
        StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
        builder.append(name);
        builder.append(".ics");

        String testExample = "UID:[email protected]\\nDTSTAMP:19970714T170000Z\\nORGANIZER;\n"
                + "    CN=John Doe:MAILTO:[email protected]\\nDTSTART:19970714T170000Z\n"
                + "    \\nDTEND:19970715T035959Z\\nSUMMARY:Bastille Day Party\\n";

        try {

            File file = new File(builder.toString());

            // if file doesnt exists, then create it
            if (!file.exists()) {
                file.createNewFile();
            }

            FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(file.getAbsoluteFile());
            BufferedWriter bw = new BufferedWriter(fw);
            bw.write(calBegin);
            bw.write(version);
            bw.write(prodid);
            bw.write(eventBegin);
            bw.write(testExample);
            bw.write(eventEnd);
            bw.write(calEnd);

            bw.close();

            System.out.println("Done");
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Upvotes: 1

John Rix
John Rix

Reputation: 6703

Litmus has a great post detailing how to build a neat solution that works well across the major email and calendar clients, including catering for users who use clients from different vendors.

It is far from trivial, given the non-standardised nature of this space, but if you're willing to roll up your sleeves for a couple of days, you can get something that works well and doesn't come with a monthly price tag and limits on usage!

https://www.litmus.com/blog/how-to-create-an-add-to-calendar-link-for-your-emails/

Upvotes: 2

squarecandy
squarecandy

Reputation: 5107

The links in Dave's post are great. Just to put a few technical details about the google links into an answer here on SO:

Google Calendar Link

<a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&text=Example%20Event&dates=20131124T010000Z/20131124T020000Z&details=Event%20Details%20Here&location=123%20Main%20St%2C%20Example%2C%20NY">Add to gCal</a>

the parameters being:

  • action=TEMPLATE (required)
  • text (url encoded name of the event)
  • dates (ISO date format, startdate/enddate - must have both start and end time - the button generator will let you leave the endtime blank, but you must have one or it won't work.)
    • to use the user's timezone: 20131208T160000/20131208T180000
    • to use global time, convert to UTC, then use 20131208T160000Z/20131208T180000Z
    • all day events, you can use 20131208/20131209 - note that the button generator gets it wrong. You must use the following date as the end date for a one day all day event, or +1 day to whatever you want the end date to be.
  • details (url encoded event description/details)
  • location (url encoded location of the event - make sure it's an address google maps can read easily)

Update Feb 2018:

Here's a new link structure that seems to support the new google version of google calendar w/o requiring API interaction:

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r/eventedit?text=My+Custom+Event&dates=20180512T230000Z/20180513T030000Z&details=For+details,+link+here:+https://example.com/tickets-43251101208&location=Garage+Boston+-+20+Linden+Street+-+Allston,+MA+02134

New base url: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/r/eventedit

New parameters:

  • text (name of the event)
  • dates (ISO date format, startdate/enddate - must have both start and end time)
    • an event w/ start/end times: 20131208T160000/20131208T180000
    • all day events, you can use 20131208/20131209 - end date must be +1 day to whatever you want the end date to be.
  • ctz (timezone such as America/New_York - leave blank to use the user's default timezone. Highly recommended to include this in almost all situations. For example, a reminder for a video conference: if three people in different timezones clicked this link and set a reminder for their "own" Tuesday at 10:00am, this would not work out well.)
  • details (url encoded event description/details)
  • location (url encoded location of the event - make sure it's an address google maps can read easily)
  • add (comma separated list of emails - adds guests to your new event)

Notes:

  • the old url structure above now redirects here
  • supports https
  • deals w/ timezones better
  • accepts + for space in addition to %20 (urlencode vs rawurlencode in php - both work)

Upvotes: 113

Dave
Dave

Reputation: 29141

UPDATE (free for personal use):
HTTPS IS NOW SUPPORTED

While my answer below detailing how-to for each service WILL work, IMO it's much easier now to go with a third-party like AddThisEvent [https://addthisevent.com]. It lets you customize lots of options as well as add to Facebook and more. Unfortunately, they've now made it a paid service for anything other than personal use and do enforce this.

I assume there are other third-party solutions like this one, but I can only speak to this one, and it has worked great for us so far.

For an "Add to my Google Calendar", they used to have a code generator form you could use, but have since taken it down. For more details on Google Calendar links, see squarecandy's answer below.

For Outlook, it's a BIT more complicated, but basically you need to create a .vcs file with the event's data, and just make a link to that file. Step-by-step instructions here.

For an iCal link, you could use a PHP class like this one, or follow this page's instructions on how to create an ics file (iCal file).

Upvotes: 55

Email
Email

Reputation: 2425

To add to squarecandy's google calendar contribution, here the brand new

OUTLOOK CALENDAR format (Without a need to create .ics) !!

<a href="https://bay02.calendar.live.com/calendar/calendar.aspx?rru=addevent&dtstart=20151119T140000Z&dtend=20151119T160000Z&summary=Summary+of+the+event&location=Location+of+the+event&description=example+text.&allday=false&uid=">add to Outlook calendar</a>

test it

Best would be to url_encode the summary, location and description variable's values.

For the sake of knowledge,

YAHOO CALENDAR format

<a href="https://calendar.yahoo.com/?v=60&view=d&type=20&title=Summary+of+the+event&st=20151119T090000&et=20151119T110000&desc=example+text.%0A%0AThis+is+the+text+entered+in+the+event+description+field.&in_loc=Location+of+the+event&uid=">add to Yahoo calendar</a>

test it

Doing it without a third party holds a lot of advantages for example using it in emails.

Upvotes: 10

fishcx
fishcx

Reputation: 115

You can have the program create an .ics (iCal) version of the calendar and then you can import this .ics into whichever calendar program you'd like: Google, Outlook, etc.

I know this post is quite old, so I won't bother inputting any code. But please comment on this if you'd like me to provide an outline of how to do this.

Upvotes: -3

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