How to: Share Calendar Information Through E-Mail

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This example shows how to share information from a calendar by e-mail in the iCalendar format.

Example

The iCalendar format allows you to send items to other Outlook or non-Outlook clients via standard Internet mail formats and protocols. The code sample uses the CalendarSharing object that supports exporting information from a calendar folder to the iCalendar format.

The code sample first calls GetCalendarExporter on the default Calendar folder to obtain a CalendarSharing object. Then it sets properties of the CalendarSharing object to specify criteria for the export, such as the date range of calendar information, whether to include attachments, and details of appointments that are marked "private."

To send the calendar information by e-mail, the code sample calls the ForwardAsICal method of the CalendarSharing object.

If you use Microsoft Visual Studio to test this code sample, you must first add a reference to the Microsoft Outlook 12.0 Object Library component and specify the Outlook variable when you import the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook namespace. The Imports or using statements must not occur right before the functions in the Code section but must be added before the public Class declaration. The following lines of code show how to do the import and assignment in Visual Basic and in C#:

Imports Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;

Private Sub SendNextWeekToAddress(ByVal sendToAddresses As String)
    If String.IsNullOrEmpty(sendToAddresses) Then
        Throw New ArgumentException( _
            "Parameter must contain a value.", "sendToAddress")
    End If

    Dim calendar As Outlook.Folder = TryCast( _
        Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder( _
        Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderCalendar), Outlook.Folder)
    Dim exporter As Outlook.CalendarSharing = calendar.GetCalendarExporter()

    '' Set the properties for the export
    exporter.CalendarDetail = Outlook.OlCalendarDetail.olFullDetails
    exporter.IncludeAttachments = True
    exporter.IncludePrivateDetails = False
    exporter.RestrictToWorkingHours = False
    exporter.StartDate = DateTime.Today.Date
    exporter.EndDate = DateTime.Today.Date.AddDays(7)

    '' Create a new mail item
    Dim calendarMail As Outlook.MailItem = exporter.ForwardAsICal _
        (Outlook.OlCalendarMailFormat. _
        olCalendarMailFormatDailySchedule)
    calendarMail.To = sendToAddresses
    calendarMail.Send()
    calendarMail.Display()
End Sub

private void SendNextWeekToAddress(string sendToAddresses)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(sendToAddresses))
        throw new ArgumentException(
        "sendToAddress","Parameter must contain a value.");
    Outlook.Folder calendar = 
        Application.Session.GetDefaultFolder(
        Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderCalendar)
        as Outlook.Folder;
    Outlook.CalendarSharing exporter = calendar.GetCalendarExporter();

    // Set the properties for the export
    exporter.CalendarDetail = Outlook.OlCalendarDetail.olFullDetails;
    exporter.IncludeAttachments = true;
    exporter.IncludePrivateDetails = false;
    exporter.RestrictToWorkingHours = false;
    exporter.StartDate = DateTime.Today.Date;
    exporter.EndDate = DateTime.Today.Date.AddDays(7);

    // Create a new mail item
    Outlook.MailItem calendarMail = 
        exporter.ForwardAsICal(Outlook.OlCalendarMailFormat.
        olCalendarMailFormatDailySchedule);
    calendarMail.To = sendToAddresses;
    ((Outlook.MailItemClass)calendarMail).Send();
    ((Outlook.MailItemClass)calendarMail).Display(Type.Missing);
}