This is a migrated thread and some comments may be shown as answers.

Scheduler - iCalendar Export & Outlook 2003

20 Answers 555 Views

Scheduler

This is a migrated thread and some comments may be shown as answers.

Trevor asked on 02 Oct 2007, 07:41 PM

I am getting this: Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerParserErrorException error pops saying "Error parsing near Begin:VCALENDAR " or something similar... The Export Button above the Scheduler doesn't throw this error, only when clicking on the Export buttons inside the calendar. However when I try to import the .ICS file that is generated from the 'above the scheduler export button', Outlook barks and throws this error:
Microsoft Office Outlook cannot import vCalendar file. This error can appear if you have attempted to save a recurring Lunar appointment in iCalendar format. To avoid this error, set the appointment option to Gregorian instead of Lunar.
Can anyone help me get this Export to ICS working? it works on Teleriks site - what am I doing wrong I'm going nuts and will be a big hero once this works right! lol

20 Answers, 1 is accepted

answered on 03 Oct 2007, 03:20 PM

Okay the sys.webforms parsing error happens whether I preview it in VS 2005 using the internal (Cerini) web server, or if I push it up to my win2k dev web server running IIS. To answer your question, it works perfect when I view the demo on your site - and even the generated Outlook .ICS file imports into my Outlook 2003. So I know this can be made to work!! lol Also I've even tried using my same code - but stripped out the extra stuff/formatting/DHTML menus, etc.... and while the Javascript error I am having goes away, the sys.webforms error persists.

Here is my ASPX and VB Code Behind - hopefully something I'm doing wrong will jump out at you guys. Thanks for your help.

ASPX Page - note the crazy javascript is for my rollovers and DHTML menus I have on the page.... the way I am calling the ASP:Scheduler should be just like the Telerik sample more or less.

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="calendar.aspx.vb" Inherits="marketing_calendar" StylesheetTheme="Main" Theme="Main" EnableEventValidation="False" %> 

<%@ Register Assembly="Telerik.Web.UI" Namespace="Telerik.Web.UI" TagPrefix="telerik" %> 

<%@ Register Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=1.0.61025.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" 

    Namespace="System.Web.UI" TagPrefix="asp" %> 

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> 

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">  

<head id="Head1" runat="server" > 

    <telerik:RadCodeBlock ID="RadCodeBlock1" runat="server" > 

        <script type="text/javascript">  

            function Export(sender, e)  

            {  

                $find("<%= RadAjaxManager1.ClientID %>").__doPostBack(sender.name, "");  

            }  

        </script> 

    </telerik:RadCodeBlock> 

<title>Marketing</title> 

<style type="text/css">  

    input.blue {background-color: #3a66a5; font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; color: white;}  

    input.plum {background-color: #342430; font-weight: bold; font-size: 12px; color: white;}  

    .style1 {  

    text-align: center;  

    }  

</style> 

<script type="text/javascript">  

    <!--  

    function FP_swapImg() {//v1.0  

     var doc=document,args=arguments,elm,n; doc.$imgSwaps=new Array(); for(n=2; n<args.length;  

     n+=2) { elm=FP_getObjectByID(args[n]); if(elm) { doc.$imgSwaps[doc.$imgSwaps.length]=elm;  

     elm.$src=elm.src; elm.src=args[n+1]; } }  

    }  

    function FP_preloadImgs() {//v1.0  

     var d=document,a=arguments; if(!d.FP_imgs) d.FP_imgs=new Array();  

     for(var i=0; i<a.length; i++) { d.FP_imgs[i]=new Image; d.FP_imgs[i].src=a[i]; }  

    }  

    function FP_getObjectByID(id,o) {//v1.0  

     var c,el,els,f,m,n; if(!o)o=document; if(o.getElementById) el=o.getElementById(id);  

     else if(o.layers) c=o.layers; else if(o.all) el=o.all[id]; if(el) return el;  

     if(o.id==id || o.name==id) return o; if(o.childNodes) c=o.childNodes; if(c)  

     for(n=0; n<c.length; n++) { el=FP_getObjectByID(id,c[n]); if(el) return el; }  

     f=o.forms; if(f) for(n=0; n<f.length; n++) { els=f[n].elements;  

     for(m=0; m<els.length; m++){ el=FP_getObjectByID(id,els[n]); if(el) return el; } }  

     return null;  

    }  

    function FP_swapImgRestore() {//v1.0  

     var doc=document,i; if(doc.$imgSwaps) { for(i=0;i<doc.$imgSwaps.length;i++) {  

      var elm=doc.$imgSwaps[i]; if(elm) { elmelm.src=elm.$src; elm.$src=null; } }   

      doc.$imgSwaps=null; }  

    }  

    // --> 

</script> 

</head> 

<body style="background-color:#cccccc; background-image:url(/images/main-bg.jpg); background-repeat:repeat-x" onload="FP_preloadImgs(/*url*/'/images/attorneysonly_on.gif',/*url*/'/images/partneronly_on.gif',/*url*/'/images/qlinks_marketing_on.gif')">  

<div id="dmbri" style="position:absolute;">  

<img src="/images/dmb_i.gif" name="dmbif" width="1" height="1" alt="">  

<img src="/images/dmb_m.gif" name="dmbjs" width="1" height="1" alt="">  

</div> 

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">  

var rimPath=null;var rjsPath=null;var rPath2Root=null;function InitRelCode(){var iImg;var jImg;var tObj;if(!document.layers){iImg=document.images['dmbif'];jImg=document.images['dmbjs'];tObj=jImg;}else{tObj=document.layers['dmbri'];if(tObj){iImg=tObj.document.images['dmbif'];jImg=tObj.document.images['dmbjs'];}}if(!tObj){window.setTimeout("InitRelCode()",700);return false;}rimPath=_gp(iImg.src);rjsPath=_gp(jImg.src);rPath2Root=rjsPath+"../";return true;}function _purl(u){return xrep(xrep(u,"%%REP%%",rPath2Root),"\\","/");}function _fip(img){if(img.src.indexOf("%%REL%%")!=-1) img.src=rimPath+img.src.split("%%REL%%")[1];return img.src;}function _gp(p){return p.substr(0,p.lastIndexOf("/")+1);}function xrep(s,f,n){if(s) ss=s.split(f).join(n);return s;}InitRelCode();  

</script> 

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">  

function LoadMenus() {if(!rjsPath){window.setTimeout("LoadMenus()", 10);return false;}var navVer = navigator.appVersion;  

if(navVer.substr(0,3) >= 4)  

if((navigator.appName=="Netscape") && (parseInt(navigator.appVersion)==4)) {  

document.write('<' + 'script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="' + rjsPath + 'nsmenu.js"><\/script\>');  

} else {  

document.write('<' + 'script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="' + rjsPath + 'iemenu.js"><\/script\>');  

}return true;}LoadMenus();</script> 

<!-- DHTML Menu Builder Loader Code END -->          

<form id="form1" method="post" runat="server">  

    <asp:ScriptManager ID="ScriptManager1" runat="server">  

    </asp:ScriptManager> 

<!-- Begin Container --> 

<div id="container">  

    <!-- Begin Masthead --> 

    <div id="Masthead">  

    <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">  

    <tr> 

    <td rowspan="2" align="left" valign="top">  

        <img id="Img1" src="/images/hp_banner_left.gif" alt="" runat="server" /></td>  

        <td valign="top" align="right">  

        <asp:Panel ID="SearchPanel" runat="server" DefaultButton="submit">  

            <!-- Search Code --> 

            <input id="target" name="target" type="text" /><asp:Button ID="submit" runat="server" 

                CssClass="plum" PostBackUrl="/search/ISSearch.asp" Text="Search" /> 

            <input style="display: none" type="text" /> 

            <!-- end Search Code --> 

        </asp:Panel>           

        </td> 

    </tr><tr valign="bottom">  

    <td align="right" valign="bottom">  

        <asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder1" runat="server" Visible="false"><a href="/secure/partners/partners.aspx" ><img src="/images/secure_partnerOFF.jpg" alt="" style="border-style:none;" id="img2" onmouseout="FP_swapImgRestore()" onmouseover="FP_swapImg(1,1,/*id*/'img1',/*url*/'/images/secure_partnerON.jpg')" /></a></asp:PlaceHolder><asp:PlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolder2" runat="server" Visible="false"><a href="/secure/attorneys/attorneys.aspx"><img src="/images/secure_attyOFF.jpg" alt="" style="border-style:none;" id="img3" onmouseout="FP_swapImgRestore()" onmouseover="FP_swapImg(1,1,/*id*/'img2',/*url*/'/images/secure_attyON.jpg')" /></a></asp:PlaceHolder></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2"><img id="Img4" src="/images/hp_banner3.jpg" alt="" runat="server" /></td></tr> 

    </table> 

    </div> 

    <!-- End Masthead --> 

    <!-- Begin Navigation --> 

    <div id="navigation">  

        <img src="/images/1pixspacerTRANSPARENT.gif" height="20" alt="" /> 

    </div> 

    <!-- End Navigation --> 

    <!-- Begin Page Content --> 

    <div id="page_content">  

        <!-- Begin Left Column --> 

        <div id="column_l" style="left: 0px; width: 720px; top: 0px;">  

            <!-- #BeginEditable "content" --> 

  <telerik:RadAjaxManager ID="RadAjaxManager1" runat="server">  

            <AjaxSettings> 

                <telerik:AjaxSetting AjaxControlID="RadScheduler1">  

                    <UpdatedControls> 

                        <telerik:AjaxUpdatedControl ControlID="RadScheduler1" LoadingPanelID="RadAjaxLoadingPanel1" /> 

                    </UpdatedControls> 

                </telerik:AjaxSetting> 

            </AjaxSettings> 

        </telerik:RadAjaxManager> 

        <div style="margin:0.3em 0">  

<asp:ImageButton runat="server" ID="Button2" ImageUrl="/images/exportButton.gif" AlternateText="Export All to iCalendar" 

OnClientClick="Export(this, event); return false;" OnClick="Button2_Click"  /> 

        </div> 

        <telerik:RadAjaxLoadingPanel ID="RadAjaxLoadingPanel1" runat="server" Transparency="30" 

            BackColor="#E0E0E0" InitialDelayTime="500" > 

<asp:Image ID="Image1" Style="margin-top: 200px" runat="server" ImageUrl="/images/loading.gif" 

BorderWidth="0px" AlternateText="Loading"></asp:Image> 

        </telerik:RadAjaxLoadingPanel> 

        <telerik:RadScheduler runat="server" ID="RadScheduler1" Width="730px" Skin="Default" 

            EnableEmbeddedSkins="True" TimeZoneOffset="03:00:00" DayStartTime="08:00:00" DayEndTime="18:00:00" DataSourceID="Events_Sqldatasource" 

            DataKeyField="ID" DataSubjectField="subject" DataStartField="start_time" DataEndField="end_time" 

            DataRecurrenceField="recurrenceRule" DataRecurrenceParentKeyField="recurrenceParentID" 

            OnAppointmentCommand="RadScheduler1_AppointmentCommand">  

         <ResourceTypes> 

            <telerik:ResourceType DataSourceID="EventsTypeName_sqldatasource" ForeignKeyField="EventTypeID" 

                KeyField="EventTypeID" Name="Event Types" TextField="EventTypeName" /> 

        </ResourceTypes> 

            <AppointmentTemplate> 

                <%# Eval("Subject") %> 

                <div style="text-align: right;">  

                    <span style="cursor: pointer; cursor: hand;">  

<asp:ImageButton runat="server" ID="Button1" ImageUrl="/images/Outlook.gif" AlternateText="Export to iCalendar" 

CommandName="Export" OnClientClick="Export(this, event); return false;"  /> 

                    </span> 

                </div> 

            </AppointmentTemplate> 

        </telerik:RadScheduler> 

    <asp:SqlDataSource ID="EventsTypeName_sqldatasource" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:IntranetDBConnectionString %>" 

        SelectCommand="SELECT [EventTypeID], [EventTypeName] FROM [EventTypes]"></asp:SqlDataSource> 

    <asp:SqlDataSource ID="Events_Sqldatasource" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:IntranetDBConnectionString %>" 

        DeleteCommand="DELETE FROM [Events] WHERE [ID] =@ID" InsertCommand="INSERT INTO [Events] ([subject],[start_time],[end_time],[roomID],[userID],[recurrenceRule],[recurrenceParentID]) VALUES (@subject, @start_time, @end_time, @roomID, @userID, @recurrenceRule, @recurrenceParentID)" 

        SelectCommand="SELECT [EventTypeID], [ID], [subject], [start_time], [end_time], [roomID], [userID], [recurrenceRule], [recurrenceParentID] FROM [Events]" 

        UpdateCommand="UPDATE [Events] SET [subject] = @subject, [start_time] = @start_time, [EventTypeID] = @EventTypeID, [end_time] =@end_time, [roomID] = @roomID, [userID] = @userID, [recurrenceRule] = @recurrenceRule,  [recurrenceParentID] = @recurrenceParentID WHERE (ID = @ID)">  

        <DeleteParameters> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="ID" /> 

        </DeleteParameters> 

        <UpdateParameters> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="subject" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="start_time" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="end_time" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="roomID" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="userID" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="recurrenceRule" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="recurrenceParentID" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="ID" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="EventTypeID" /> 

        </UpdateParameters> 

        <InsertParameters> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="subject" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="start_time" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="end_time" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="roomID" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="userID" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="recurrenceRule" /> 

            <asp:Parameter Name="recurrenceParentID" /> 

        </InsertParameters> 

    </asp:SqlDataSource>                  

            <!-- #EndEditable --> 

        </div> 

        <!-- End Left Column --> 

        </div> 

        <!-- End Page Content --> 

        <!-- Begin Footer --> 

        <div id="footer">  

        <p>Copyright © 2007 Downey Brand LLP. All Rights Reserved.</p> 

        </div> 

        <!-- End Footer --> 

        </div> 

        <!-- End Container --> 

    </form> 

</body> 

</html>

And here is the VB Code Behind page

Imports System  

Imports System.Web.UI  

Imports Telerik.Web.UI  

Partial Public Class marketing_calendar  

    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page  

    Private Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)  

    End Sub  

    Protected Sub RadScheduler1_AppointmentCommand(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As AppointmentCommandEventArgs) Handles RadScheduler1.AppointmentCommand  

        If e.CommandName = "Export" Then  

            WriteCalendar(RadScheduler.ExportToICalendar(e.Container.Appointment))  

        End If  

    End Sub  

    Protected Sub Button2_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As ImageClickEventArgs)  

        WriteCalendar(RadScheduler.ExportToICalendar(RadScheduler1.Appointments))  

    End Sub  

    Private Sub WriteCalendar(ByVal data As String)  

        Dim response As HttpResponse = Page.Response  

        response.Clear()  

        response.Buffer = True 

        response.ContentType = "text/calendar" 

        response.ContentEncoding = Encoding.UTF8  

        response.Charset = "utf-8" 

        response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=""RadSchedulerExport.ics""")  

        response.Write(data)  

        response.End()  

    End Sub  

End Class

answered on 19 Oct 2007, 04:11 PM

I need a little more help understanding something... Everything works now - but when I click the Export button in the scheduler control on a day, it's creating the iCalendar file and pops open Outlook....but the date or time is always off. Even when I set the TimeZoneOffset Property to 0:00:00 and my Rad:Scheduler and SQL database show the same info - when I export the appointment (using the sample code you provide) it's always off by numerous hours... How do I get the Export to be the same as what they are seeing on the Calendar? My Outlook is 2003. I just want my export to always be the same thing that's in my SQL.

answered on 23 Oct 2007, 12:58 PM

Hi Trevor,

I acknowledge this shortcoming in the current version. The problem is that in the exported file the time is marked as UTC, otherwise it is unchanged. When you import this data it gets converted to local time, hence the difference.

We have addressed the issue in the upcoming Service Pack by adding two new overloads to the RadScheduler.Export method. They take a TimeSpan as a parameter and add it to the appointment.

For example, you will be able to use:

TimeSpan currentOffset = TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone.GetUtcOffset(DateTime.Now); 
string iCal = RadScheduler.Export(apt, currentOffset); 

The service pack is due in a few days.

Kind regards,
Tsvetomir Tsonev
the Telerik team

Instantly find answers to your questions at the new Telerik Support Center

answered on 26 Oct 2007, 10:48 PM

I would like to see more fields available for export to calendar format. Sometimes you need more info in the calendar file than is exported. A URL to the calendar page is a nice touch. Until I can get the fields I need from the control's method, I use something like this in an .ashx file. This eliminates the parser error when call write() method, too.

public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)  
 {  
   HttpResponse response = context.Response;  
   HttpRequest request = context.Request;  
   response.BufferOutput = true;  
   response.ContentType = "text/calendar"; 
   response.AddHeader("Content-disposition", "attachment;  filename=appointment.vcs");  
   response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.NoCache);  
//your appointment id    
  int ID = Convert.ToInt32(request.QueryString["ID"]);  
//your method to query the database and write your own output 
   writeEntry(EventID, response.Output);  
   response.End();  
 } 

in the writeEntry method, do things like this using the values from your appointment table row. (note: forming a vCalendar, iCalendar is probably newer than this code)

output.WriteLine("BEGIN:VCALENDAR"); 
 
            output.WriteLine("VERSION:2.0"); 
            output.WriteLine("PRODID:" + url); 
            output.WriteLine("METHOD:PUBLISH"); 
            output.WriteLine("BEGIN:VEVENT"); 
            output.WriteLine("UID:" + Guid.NewGuid().ToString()); 
            output.WriteLine("DTSTAMP:" + DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime().ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmss") + "Z"); 
            output.WriteLine("CATEGORIES:APPOINTMENT;PERSONAL"); 
            output.WriteLine(EncodeProperty("DESCRIPTION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:", description)); 
            output.WriteLine("DTEND:" + endtime.ToUniversalTime().ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmss") + "Z"); 
            if (!(location == null)) 
            { 
                output.WriteLine(EncodeProperty("LOCATION;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:", location)); 
            } 
            output.WriteLine("PRIORITY:0"); 
            output.WriteLine("DTSTART:" + starttime.ToUniversalTime().ToString("yyyyMMddTHHmmss") + "Z"); 
            output.WriteLine("STATUS:NEEDS ACTION"); 
            output.WriteLine(EncodeProperty("SUMMARY;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:", title)); 
            output.WriteLine("URL:" + url); 
            output.WriteLine("END:VEVENT"); 
 
            output.WriteLine("END:VCALENDAR"); 

answered on 12 Nov 2007, 11:15 PM

Okay... Here is my latest stab at getting this to work. This time I am using the '-' currentOffset and I still have a werid Export time. Outlook opens up and say's a 1pm-2pm on 11/14/07 appt is a 9pm-10pm appt on 11/13/07!!! now what.... here's my code.

Protected Sub RadScheduler1_AppointmentCommand(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As AppointmentCommandEventArgs) Handles RadScheduler1.AppointmentCommand

Dim currentOffSet As TimeSpan = TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone.GetUtcOffset(DateTime.Now)

Dim iCal As String = RadScheduler.ExportToICalendar(e.Container.Appointment, -currentOffSet)

If e.CommandName = "Export" Then

WriteCalendar(iCal)

End If
End Sub

answered on 13 Nov 2007, 08:39 AM

Telerik.Web.UI_2007_2_1107_trial_hotfix.zip

Hello Trevor,

Please, ignore the last suggestion. We are sorry for misleading you, the time zone offset should be passed in without a minus sign.

The real problem turned to be a bug in our code. I am attaching a trial hotfix here.

Best wishes,
Tsvetomir Tsonev
the Telerik team

Instantly find answers to your questions at the new Telerik Support Center

answered on 20 Nov 2008, 06:51 PM

Hi Debbie,

This might be a result of Daylight Saving Time changes. If the appointment is created before the DST transition, it will be off by one hour. We can take the time zone offset for the date when the appointment is created to correct this:

    
            DateTime aptStart = DateTime.SpecifyKind(e.Container.Appointment.Start, DateTimeKind.Local); 
        
            TimeSpan currentOffset = TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone.GetUtcOffset(aptStart); 
        
            WriteCalendar(RadScheduler.ExportToICalendar(e.Container.Appointment, currentOffset));

Let us know how it goes.

Sincerely yours,
Tsvetomir Tsonev
the Telerik team

Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.

answered on 23 Mar 2009, 12:57 PM

This fixed the problem:

    
                Protected Sub RadScheduler1_AppointmentCommand(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As AppointmentCommandEventArgs)  
        
                    If e.CommandName = "Export" Then  
        
                        Dim aptStart As DateTimeDateTime = DateTime.SpecifyKind(e.Container.Appointment.Start, DateTimeKind.Local)  
        
                        Dim currentOffset As TimeSpan = TimeZone.CurrentTimeZone.GetUtcOffset(aptStart)  
        
                        WriteCalendar(RadScheduler.ExportToICalendar(e.Container.Appointment, currentOffset))  
        
                    End If  
        
                End Sub

Thanks for the quick response.