Outlook Appointments, ASP and vCalendar Page 3
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vCalendar and ASP
Now comes the fun part ... seeing it work!
Below is posted the text of the ASP page, but due to difficulties with displaying
ASP code within an ASP page, I suggest that you download the
code and use that copy of the page instead of trying to copy and paste the code below.
The page is mostly self-explanatory for those familiar with ASP. In a nutshell, it
draws several input boxes on the screen that collect the information we want in our
appointment item: Start, End, Subject, Location and Description. The user is also
asked for a directory (on the server) where the file should be created. Of course
this wouldn't be done in production, but I included it in the ASP code since it is
necessary for the VB Class, and must be provided somewhere. It could be hard-coded
and in my example, defaults to "C:\" if the user provides nothing.
The most important part of the code is where the VCSWrap.ApptItem class is instantiated, its
properties are set and the CreateVCSEvent method is invoked. The vCalendar file is created
and its path is passed to the Response.Redirect method of the ASP page. Since a vcs file
cannot be displayed, it is opened automatically. If the user's PIM application is
designed to process .vcs files, as Outlook is, an appointment item is opened with all
the properties set from our web page.
Dim objVCal, VCalFile
Set objVcal = Server.CreateObject("VCalWrap.ApptItem")
With objVCal
.DTStart = DTStart
.DTEnd = DTEnd
.Subject = Subject
.Location = Location
.Description = Description
.OutputFilePath = OutputFilePath
.TimeZoneBias = -7
.CreateVCSEvent
VCalFile = .VCalFile
End With
Response.Redirect(VCalFile)
Conclusion
Some of you may not immediately see the benefits of this technology while others
are getting excited and anxious to try out the code. Addmittedly, I was not at first
convinced that vCalendar could add value to our web application. Then, our ASP
developer put together code similar to the above and did a demo for the sales and
marketing guys. Their excitement made up for my lack of it and I decided to give the
idea a second look. Although it doesn't solve every problem, it does make it easy to
"calendar-enable" your web application ... and it's cool to play with!
********* BEGIN ASP PAGE CODE HERE ************************************************
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=unicode" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META content="MSHTML 5.00.3207.2500" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY>
<FORM method=post action="TestVCal.asp" name="VCal">
<pre>
<P align=center><FONT face=Verdana size=4>
<STRONG>VCalendar Test Page</STRONG></FONT></P>
<%
Dim DTStart, DTEnd, Subject, Location
Dim Description, OutputFilePath
Dim fMissingCriticalData, strMsg, Pass
DTStart = Request.Form("DTStart")
DTEnd = Request.Form("DTEnd")
Subject = Request.Form("Subject")
Location = Request.Form("Location")
Description = Request.Form("Description")
OutputFilePath = Request.Form("OutputFilePath")
Pass = Request.Form("Pass")
fMissingCriticalData=0
strMsg = ""
' Put some default values in input boxes
If Len(Subject) = 0 Then Subject = "Undetermined"
If Len(Location) = 0 Then Location = "Undetermined"
If Len(Description) = 0 Then Description = "Undetermined"
If Len(OutputFilePath) = 0 Then OutputFilePath ="C:\"
If Len(Pass) = 0 Then Pass = 0
If Pass > 0 Then
If Len(DTStart)= 0 OR Not IsDate(DTStart) Then
fMissingCriticalData=1
strMsg = strMsg & "<Font color=red>Missing valid start date and time.</Font><BR>"
End If
If Len(DTEnd)= 0 OR Not IsDate(DTEnd) Then
fMissingCriticalData=1
strMsg = strMsg & "<Font color=red>Missing valid end date and time.</Font><BR>"
End If
Else
strMsg = "<B>Provide the following information to create the appointment item.</b>"
End If
If fMissingCriticalData=1 or pass=0 Then
Response.Write(strMsg)
%>
<FONT face=Veranda size=3>
<INPUT id=txtPass name=Pass style="VISIBILITY: hidden" value="<%=Pass + 1 %>">
<TABLE Border=0 align=center>
<tr>
<td>Start Date and Time:</td>
<td><INPUT align=right id=txtDTStart name=DTStart value=<%=DTStart %></td>
<td>(Format: mm/dd/yy hh:nn am/pm)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>End Date and Time:</td>
<td><INPUT align=right id=txtDTEnd name=DTEnd value=<%=DTEnd %></td>
<td>(Format: mm/dd/yy hh:nn am/pm)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Subject:</td>
<td><INPUT align=right id=txtSubject name=Subject value=<%=Subject %>></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Location:</td>
<td><INPUT align=right id=txtLocation name=Location value=<%=Location %>></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Description:</td>
<td><INPUT align=right id=txtDescription name=Description value=<%=Description %>></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Output File Path:</td>
<td><INPUT align=right id=txtOutputFilePath name=OutputFilePath value=<%=OutputFilePath %>></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><INPUT id=submit1 name=submit1 type=submit value=Submit></td>
<td><INPUT id=reset1 name=reset1 type=reset value=Reset></td>
</tr>
</FONT>
</TABLE>
<%
Else
If Len(Subject) = 0 Then Subject = "(No Subject Given)"
If Len(Location) = 0 Then Location = "(No Location Given)"
If Len(Description) = 0 Then Description = "(No Description Given)"
Dim objVCal, VCalFile
Set objVcal = Server.CreateObject("VCalWrap.ApptItem")
With objVCal
.DTStart = DTStart
.DTEnd = DTEnd
.Subject = Subject
.Location = Location
.Description = Description
.OutputFilePath = OutputFilePath
.TimeZoneBias = -7
.CreateVCSEvent
VCalFile = .VCalFile
End With
Response.Redirect(VCalFile)
End If
%gt
</FORM>
</BODY></HTML>
