I was asked to find a way to send a Microsoft Outlook Appointment Request email using ColdFusion cfmail tag.  I was very much in luck with ColdFusion 8.  Below is cfmail code I found that produces the outlook meeting request.

<cfmail to="test@test.com" from="youremail@test.com" subject="Test appointment" type="multipart"> <cfmailparam name="content-class" value="urn:content-classes:calendarmessage"> <cfmailparam name="content-type" value="text"> <cfmailparam name="method" value="request"> <cfmailparam name="charset" value="utf-8"> <cfmailparam name="content-transfer-encoding" value="7bit"> <cfmailpart type="text"> TEST TEST TEST </cfmailpart> <cfmailpart type="text/calendar"> BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 11.0 MINMEDIR//EN VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART:20080317T123000Z DTEND:20080317T133000Z LOCATION: Reno TRANSP:OPAQUE SEQUENCE:0 UID:0 DTSTAMP:20080303T140000Z DESCRIPTION:Descriptive text here.\n SUMMARY:Short summary here PRIORITY:5 X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1 CLASS:PUBLIC END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR </cfmailpart> </cfmail>

All you need to do is setup a simple input form and call the appropriate variables needed (recipient email, body of email, DTSTART, DTEND etc.).  For more information on how to create a vCalendar file check out the following link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287625

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7 responses to “Using ColdFusion CFMail to send Microsoft Outlook Appointment Request”

1. Troy Says:
   Nov 12, 2008 at 11:40 PM I have a similar blog entry describing a UDF I wrote for generating an iCalendar file which could then be emailed. http://blog.webdh.com/index.cfm/2008/3/21/Generating-an-iCalendar-ics-file
2. John Gag Says:
   Nov 13, 2008 at 9:55 AM @Troy - Cool, I will have to check that out
3. Anthony Says:
   Feb 25, 2009 at 4:03 PM This builds an ICS file OK. Something is fishy though. When other applications send me a message with an ICS attached, my iphone will pop up and tell me there is an appointment. However this method doesnt do that. Anone have a fix for the seemless integration to the iphone? Other apps create ICS files that do this so I suppose it is possible.
4. Dave Says:
   Mar 29, 2009 at 11:39 PM how does one make the user accept the meeting request ? Im truly baffled by how that part works ? any ideas ?
5. John Gag Says:
   Apr 1, 2009 at 6:24 PM @Anthony - Sorry I do not know the answer to the iPhone problem. @Dave - I am not really sure what your question is?
6. Jas Says:
   Jun 16, 2009 at 4:08 AM Very cool!! is there anyway I can adapt to get an accept response from the sender?
7. John Gag Says:
   Jun 16, 2009 at 11:19 AM @Jas - I have not not tried that. Thats a good question. I would like to know how that goes if you figure it out.

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