Is it possible to create a meeting request for outlook with nodeJS?
For those still looking for an answer, here's how I managed to get the perfect solution for me. I used iCalToolkit to create a calendar object.
It's important to make sure all the relevant fields are set up (organizer and attendees with RSVP).
Initially I was using the Postmark API service to send my emails but this solution was only working by sending an ics.file attachment.
I switched to the Postmark SMTP service where you can embed the iCal data inside the message and for that I used nodemailer.
This is what it looks like :
var icalToolkit = require('ical-toolkit');
var postmark = require('postmark');
var client = new postmark.Client('xxxxxxxKeyxxxxxxxxxxxx');
var nodemailer = require('nodemailer');
var smtpTransport = require('nodemailer-smtp-transport');
//Create a iCal object
var builder = icalToolkit.createIcsFileBuilder();
builder.method = meeting.method;
//Add the event data
var icsFileContent = builder.toString();
var smtpOptions = {
host:'smtp.postmarkapp.com',
port: 2525,
secureConnection: true,
auth:{
user:'xxxxxxxKeyxxxxxxxxxxxx',
pass:'xxxxxxxPassxxxxxxxxxxx'
}
};
var transporter = nodemailer.createTransport(smtpTransport(smtpOptions));
var mailOptions = {
from: '[email protected]',
to: meeting.events[0].attendees[i].email,
subject: 'Meeting to attend',
html: "Anything here",
text: "Anything here",
alternatives: [{
contentType: 'text/calendar; charset="utf-8"; method=REQUEST',
content: icsFileContent.toString()
}]
};
//send mail with defined transport object
transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, function(error, info){
if(error){
console.log(error);
}
else{
console.log('Message sent: ' + info.response);
}
});
This sends a real meeting request with the Accept, decline and Reject button.
It's really unbelievable the amount of work you need to go through for such a trivial functionality and how all of this not well documented. Hope this helps.
Instead of using 'ical-generator', I used 'ical-toolkit' to build a calender invite event. Using this, the invite directly gets appended in the email instead of the attached .ics file object.
Here is a sample code:
const icalToolkit = require("ical-toolkit");
//Create a builder
var builder = icalToolkit.createIcsFileBuilder();
builder.method = "REQUEST"; // The method of the request that you want, could be REQUEST, PUBLISH, etc
//Add events
builder.events.push({
start: new Date(2020, 09, 28, 10, 30),
end: new Date(2020, 09, 28, 12, 30),
timestamp: new Date(),
summary: "My Event",
uid: uuidv4(), // a random UUID
categories: [{ name: "MEETING" }],
attendees: [
{
rsvp: true,
name: "Akarsh ****",
email: "Akarsh **** <akarsh.***@abc.com>"
},
{
rsvp: true,
name: "**** RANA",
email: "**** RANA <****[email protected]>"
}
],
organizer: {
name: "A****a N****i",
email: "A****a N****i <a****a.r.n****[email protected]>"
}
});
//Try to build
var icsFileContent = builder.toString();
//Check if there was an error (Only required if yu configured to return error, else error will be thrown.)
if (icsFileContent instanceof Error) {
console.log("Returned Error, you can also configure to throw errors!");
//handle error
}
var mailOptions = { // Set the values you want. In the alternative section, set the calender file
from: obj.from,
to: obj.to,
cc: obj.cc,
subject: result.email.subject,
html: result.email.html,
text: result.email.text,
alternatives: [
{
contentType: 'text/calendar; charset="utf-8"; method=REQUEST',
content: icsFileContent.toString()
}
]
}
//send mail with defined transport object
transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, function(error, info){
if(error){
console.log(error);
}
else{
console.log('Message sent: ' + info.response);
}
});
If you do not want to use smtp server approach in earlier accepted solution, you have Exchange focused solution available. Whats wrong in current accepted answer? it does not create a meeting in sender's Calendar, you do not have ownership of the meeting item for further modification by the sender Outlook/OWA.
here is code snippet in javascript using npm package ews-javascript-api
var ews = require("ews-javascript-api");
var credentials = require("../credentials");
ews.EwsLogging.DebugLogEnabled = false;
var exch = new ews.ExchangeService(ews.ExchangeVersion.Exchange2013);
exch.Credentials = new ews.ExchangeCredentials(credentials.userName, credentials.password);
exch.Url = new ews.Uri("https://outlook.office365.com/Ews/Exchange.asmx");
var appointment = new ews.Appointment(exch);
appointment.Subject = "Dentist Appointment";
appointment.Body = new ews.TextBody("The appointment is with Dr. Smith.");
appointment.Start = new ews.DateTime("20170502T130000");
appointment.End = appointment.Start.Add(1, "h");
appointment.Location = "Conf Room";
appointment.RequiredAttendees.Add("[email protected]");
appointment.RequiredAttendees.Add("[email protected]");
appointment.OptionalAttendees.Add("[email protected]");
appointment.Save(ews.SendInvitationsMode.SendToAllAndSaveCopy).then(function () {
console.log("done - check email");
}, function (error) {
console.log(error);
});