How to create iCal calendar using Power Automate flow?

[aaedla]

Hi,

I am trying to create a flow to get the dat from sql and then send an email to users. In email notification I want to send an ical attachment so that users can open the evnt and save to their outlook.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[David_MA · Accepted solution]

I have not used this in a while, but it may work for you. This creates an ics file that can be opened to add a calendar event to Outlook.

1. Initialize a string variable. I named the variable ICS.
2. Use the Create file action to generate the file with the content of the variable.
3. You can then use the Get file content to attach it to Outlook.

The steps will look like:

This is the content of the initialize string variable action:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//NA Registration Training//Power Automate//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID: @{triggerOutputs()?['body/Author/Email']}
DTSTAMP: @{formatDateTime(utcNow(), 'YYYYMMDDThhmmssZ')}
DTSTART: @{outputs('Get_item')?['body/EventDate']}
DTEND: @{outputs('Get_item')?['body/EndDate']}
SUMMARY: @{outputs('Get_item')?['body/Title']}
DESCRIPTION: @{outputs('Compose_Link_for_Description')}
LOCATION: @{outputs('Get_item')?['body/Location']}
URL: @{outputs('Get_item')?['body/{Link}']}
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

It has been so long since I created this, I don't know if there are any special requirements for the PRODID value. I would first try changing "NA Registration Training" with something relevant for your needs and see if it works. The EN at the end probably designates the language.

[David_MA]

Here are the requirements for the PRODID value: iCalendar spec: 4.7.3 Product Identifier (kanzaki.com)

[aaedla]

@David_MA  Thank you for your comments. What is PRODID? Is it required ? I tried with and without PRODID but not working as expected. When I try to add event to calendar, outlook calendar is opening but event is not being added to calendar and I see the following error message. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

And I tried as per below link as well but no success.

Create and Send ICS Calendar Invites with Flow - Power Platform Community (microsoft.com)

[aaedla · Accepted solution]

At last I was able to resolve the issue. Here are the details for ical file.

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 16.0 MIMEDIR//EN
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:
DTSTAMP: 20240425T190426Z
DTSTART;TZID="Central Standard Time":20240427T113000
DTEND;TZID="Central Standard Time":20240427T123000
SUMMARY: TEST ICAL SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION: TEST ICAL DESCRIPTION
LOCATION: TEST ICAL LOCATION
URL:
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:BUSY
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1
X-MICROSOFT-DISALLOW-COUNTER:FALSE
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

[David_MA]

You got everything working? It is interesting that it is working with this format. But if it does, awesome.

[aaedla]

@David_MA One more question regarding more details.

How to add more details to ical body?

I tried to add more details to description section but somehow it's showing up.

Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

[David_MA]

The description field works for me without any issues. I just ran the flow and confirmed it. Are you using plain text for the description? If you are using a rich text field, maybe that is the issue.

[aaedla]

@David_MA  Thank you for checking. I am using Following description property to add multiple lines of text or variables within flow but somehow I can see only 1st line with around 62 characters limit.

SUMMARY: TEST ICAL SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION: TEST ICAL DESCRIPTION
LOCATION: TEST ICAL LOCATION

Is there any other property which I can use for multiple lines of combination of variable and text?

ANy suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

[David_MA]

The description needs to be all on one line. If it is multiple lines, it only includes the first line as you have seen.

[aaedla]

Thank you. Is there any other property which I can use for multulines?

[David_MA]

Not that I am aware of. But maybe someone else knows something I don't. Although, I found this, iCalendar spec: 4.8.1.5 Description (kanzaki.com), which seems to suggest putting \n in the text will force a line break.

[aaedla]

@David_MA  Thank you for your support. I was able to add multiple to lines with line break 

                      I added for line breaks \N

                  and \ for special characters. For example \: or \,