Meeting Invite (ICS) with RSVP to Google Gmail/Calendar

[Robert Beeman]

We have just recently switched our domain from Outlook/Exchange to Google Apps. In Outlook, our meeting invites that come from OoB Changes worked just fine. Once we switched to Google, our users were just receiving a blank email with an attached ICS file that Gmail wouldn't parse. We have an older instance and I found that the change.calendar.integration email template had this line with a variable that resolved to nothing.

PRIORITY:${priority}

I checked a clean personal developer instance, and I saw that they now hardcode it to this:

PRIORITY:3

After I changed that line on our template, Gmail now parses it, but it just has an "Add to Calendar" option instead of a "Yes, No, Maybe" RSVP.

Current State:

We noticed that without the RSVP, the invite does not get recognized on iPhones as a meeting request so it doesn't get automatically added to users' calendars. We are trying to get the Yes, No, Maybe options from an RSVP like this:

Desired State:

We are using the OoB change.calendar.integration template, which is:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Service-now.com//Outlook 11.0 MIMEDIR//EN
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:REQUEST
BEGIN:VEVENT
ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;RSVP=TRUE:MAILTO:${to}
ORGANIZER:MAILTO:${from}
DTSTART:${dtstart}
DTEND:${dtend}
LOCATION:${location}
TRANSP:OPAQUE
SEQUENCE:${sys_mod_count}
UID:${number}
DTSTAMP:${dtstamp}
DESCRIPTION:${description}
SUMMARY:${summary}
PRIORITY:3
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:${priority}
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CLASS:PUBLIC
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

Has anyone got this to work properly with Google specifically?

[German Alvarez2]

Let's try with side-thinking...

Have you checked if that line is no longer than 75 characters? (77 counting with CRLF)

At RFC5545 states that it's not possible a line larger than 75 (77) characters, and, without email, you are in 53...

Also, at RFC5545, chapter 3.1.1, there is an example, in which changes the order:

  ATTENDEE;RSVP=TRUE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT:mailto:jsmith@example.com

As you can see, maybe is a problem on how strict google is...

Finally, I'm not sure if VEVENTs accept attendees... But I'm not sure. Yes, it accepts

[Robert Beeman]

Hi German,

Thanks for the reply. I just tried changing the order, and I didn't have any better luck. I just went into our instances sent mail. This is the body text if it helps (with email addresses mask, but accurate letter count). So the attendee line is at 72 characters.

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Service-now.com//Outlook 11.0 MIMEDIR//EN
VERSION:2.0
METHOD:REQUEST
BEGIN:VEVENT
ATTENDEE;RSVP=TRUE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT:mailto:xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com
ORGANIZER:MAILTO:xxxxxxxxx@service-now.com
DTSTART:20151112T190407Z
DTEND:20151112T190409Z
LOCATION:
TRANSP:OPAQUE
SEQUENCE:2
UID:CHG0037810
DTSTAMP:20151112T190503Z
DESCRIPTION:(This message was automatically sent\, please do not reply)\nChange CHG0037810 is scheduled for this time period.   You have received this invitation because you are either the Assignee\, Subject Matter Expert\, Additional Resource\, or Recovery Contact.\n \n To view it\, please click the link below.\n \n Link: https://irvinedev.service-now.com/nav_to.do?uri=change_request.do%3Fsys_id=495d0e37132f0a001c7871522... \n Description:\n test\nNotification: Notify Change Calendar\n
SUMMARY:TIC Routine - Change Request: CHG0037810 has been approved - Calendar
PRIORITY:3
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:
STATUS:CONFIRMED
CLASS:PUBLIC
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

[German Alvarez2]

Hi,

I don ´t have here the RFC book ... but... STATUS TAG? Check if this is the problem, that you're confirming something in the request, but I don't remember that this tag means this.

Also, Description field is too large, remember 75 rule ... use this:

_fixLineLenghts: function(text) {
   totalOctets = 0;
   var exit = ""
   for (var i = 0; i < text.length; i++) {
   exit += text[i];
   totalOctets++;


   if (text[i] == String.fromCharCode(13) || text[i] == String.fromCharCode(13)) {
   totalOctets = 0;
   }


   if (totalOctets == 75) {
   exit += String.fromCharCode(13, 10, 32)
   }


   }
   return exit;
},

Finally, try to create an event using google, and send it to your email, download the ics file, and strip it down, line by line, Also there are some webpages to create it online, create an example one, and try to understand the difference.

Hope it helps, tomorrow more

[Robert Beeman]

Hello German,

I tried hardcoding a short Short Description and Description so they are much under the 75 characters, and I have the same effect. Also, when I click on Add to Calendar, it does have the full information in it so its not being truncated.

I'll try going through a Google Calendar created ICS line by line, but I'll post their ICS here for reference:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Google Inc//Google Calendar 70.9054//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:REQUEST
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20151115T223000Z
DTEND:20151115T233000Z
DTSTAMP:20151112T214628Z
ORGANIZER;CN=Full Name:mailto:xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com
UID:orprgbsiga8otk1g04fcvlfais@google.com
ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE
 ;CN=Full Name;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com
ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=
 TRUE;CN=xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.com;X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:xxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx
 xx.com
CREATED:20151112T214627Z
DESCRIPTION:View your event at https://www.google.com/calendar/event?action
 =VIEW&eid=b3Jwcmdic2lnYThvdGsxZzA0ZmN2bGZhaXMgcmJlZW1hbkBpcnZpbmVjb21wYW55L
 mNvbQ&tok=MjcjaXNhYmVsbGVlQGlydmluZWNvbXBhbnkuY29tYTc0NDdiYzU3Y2RjOWIwNGI3N
 jM2NGM5YTcyNjhhN2RhZjc0ZDIwNw&ctz=America/Los_Angeles&hl=en.
LAST-MODIFIED:20151112T214627Z
LOCATION:TBD
SEQUENCE:0
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SUMMARY:Test
TRANSP:OPAQUE
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

It has the same STATUS:CONFIRMED. Also, I see what you mean about them line wrapping but still maintaining all of the data.

Thanks for looking into this. I very much appreciate it.