{"id":3812,"date":"2013-03-22T15:20:25","date_gmt":"2013-03-22T13:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/?p=3812"},"modified":"2013-06-25T23:24:42","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T21:24:42","slug":"html-formatted-content-in-the-description-field-of-an-icalendar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/html-formatted-content-in-the-description-field-of-an-icalendar","title":{"rendered":"HTML formatted content in the description field of an iCalendar"},"content":{"rendered":"

By default, the iCalendar specification allows only plain text to be used in the description of an Event object. <\/p>\n

X-ALT-DESC header<\/h2>\n

However Outlook can recognize HTML formatted content. This is supported using an additional field in the Event object called “X-ALT-DESC”, rather than the existing field:<\/p>\n

\r\nDESCRIPTION:Reminder\r\nX-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text\/html:<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC ""-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 3.2\/\/E\r\n N""><HTML><BODY>\\nhtml goes here\\n<\/BODY><\/HTML>\r\n<\/pre>\n
Using Mail.dll you can set this field with no extra hassle:<\/p>\n
\r\n\/\/ C#\r\n\r\nAppointment appointment = new Appointment();\r\nEvent e = appointment.AddEvent();\r\ne.XAltDescription = @"<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC ""-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 3.2\/\/EN""><HTML><BODY>\r\nhtml goes here\r\n<\/BODY><\/HTML>";\r\n<\/pre>\n
\r\n' VB.NET\r\n\r\nDim appointment As New Appointment()\r\nDim e As [Event] = appointment.AddEvent()\r\ne.XAltDescription = "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC ""-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 3.2\/\/EN""><HTML><BODY>" _ \r\n & vbCr & vbLf & "html goes here"  _ \r\n & vbCr & vbLf & "<\/BODY><\/HTML>"\r\n<\/pre>\n
\nLearn how to send iCalendar meeting requests in .NET<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
Adding custom headers<\/h2>\n
This is also good sample to show how to add a custom header<\/strong> to any PDI object:<\/p>\n
\r\n\/\/ C#\r\n\r\nAppointment appointment = new Appointment();\r\nEvent e = appointment.AddEvent();\r\n\r\nconst string html = @"<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC ""-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 3.2\/\/EN""><HTML><BODY>\r\nhtml goes here\r\n<\/BODY><\/HTML>";\r\n\r\nPdiHeader header = new PdiHeader("X-ALT-DESC", html);\r\nheader.KeyParameters.Add(new KeyValues("FMTTYPE", "text\/html"));\r\ne.AddCustomHeader(header);\r\n<\/pre>\n
\r\n' VB.NET\r\n\r\nDim appointment As New Appointment()\r\nDim e As [Event] = appointment.AddEvent()\r\n\r\nConst  html As String = "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC ""-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 3.2\/\/EN""><HTML><BODY>" _\r\n & vbCr & vbLf & "html goes here" _\r\n & vbCr & vbLf & "<\/BODY><\/HTML>"\r\n\r\nDim header As New PdiHeader("X-ALT-DESC", html)\r\nheader.KeyParameters.Add(New KeyValues("FMTTYPE", "text\/html"))\r\ne.AddCustomHeader(header)\r\n<\/pre>\n
ALTREP parameter<\/h2>\n
It is worth mentioning that RFC defines a way of specifying HTML content. The problem is that, it requires additional source (like email attachment or http address). Address of this resource, for example using “cid:” is set using ALTREP DESCRIPTION header:<\/p>\n
\r\nDESCRIPTION;ALTREP="CID:part3.msg.970415T083000@example.com":\r\n Project XYZ Review Meeting will include the following agenda\r\n   items: (a) Market Overview\\, (b) Finances\\, (c) Project Man\r\n agement\r\n<\/pre>\n
Mail.dll supports this feature also. <\/p>\n
First we’ll define MIME object containing html data. Note that we are setting ContentId property.<\/p>\n
\r\n\/\/ C#\r\n\r\nMimeText html = new MimeFactory().CreateMimeText();\r\nhtml.ContentType = ContentType.TextHtml;\r\nhtml.Text = "<html><body>Html<\/body><\/html>";\r\nhtml.ContentId = "part3.msg.970415T083000@example.com";\r\n<\/pre>\n
\r\n' VB.NET\r\n\r\nDim html As MimeText = New MimeFactory().CreateMimeText()\r\nhtml.ContentType = ContentType.TextHtml\r\nhtml.Text = "<html><body>Html<\/body><\/html>"\r\nhtml.ContentId = "part3.msg.970415T083000@example.com"\r\n<\/pre>\n
Now we’ll create event:<\/p>\n
\r\n\/\/ C#\r\n\r\nAppointment appointment = new Appointment();\r\nEvent e = appointment.AddEvent();\r\n\r\ne.Description = "Project XYZ Review Meeting will include the following agenda items: (a) Market Overview, (b) Finances, (c) Project Management";\r\ne.DescriptionAltRep = "CID:" + html.ContentId;\r\n<\/pre>\n
\r\n' VB.NET\r\n\r\nDim appointment As New Appointment()\r\nDim e As [Event] = appointment.AddEvent()\r\n\r\ne.Description = "Project XYZ Review Meeting will include the following agenda items: (a) Market Overview, (b) Finances, (c) Project Management"\r\ne.DescriptionAltRep = "CID:" + html.ContentId\r\n<\/pre>\n
Finally we need to create an email with the event and html data:<\/p>\n
\r\n\/\/ C#\r\n\r\nMailBuilder builder = new MailBuilder();\r\nbuilder.AddAttachment(html);\r\nbuilder.AddAppointment(appointment);\r\nIMail email = builder.Create();\r\n<\/pre>\n
\r\n' VB.NET\r\n\r\nDim builder As New MailBuilder()\r\nbuilder.AddAttachment(html)\r\nbuilder.AddAppointment(appointment)\r\nDim email As IMail = builder.Create()\r\n<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By default, the iCalendar specification allows only plain text to be used in the description of an Event object. X-ALT-DESC header However Outlook can recognize HTML formatted content. This is supported using an additional field in the Event object called “X-ALT-DESC”, rather than the existing field: DESCRIPTION:Reminder X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text\/html:<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC ""-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 3.2\/\/E N""><HTML><BODY>\\nhtml goes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[15,26,57],"class_list":["post-3812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mail-dll","tag-c","tag-icalendar","tag-vb-net"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3812"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4114,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3812\/revisions\/4114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.limilabs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}