Has anyone used the 'Create-an-Add-to-Outlook-link'?

[RyanSpaulding]

http://howto.caspio.com/customization/i ... 441-2.html

I've read it multiple times and just don't understand how it works...particularly the ICS file portion. How does Outlook know how to translate what Caspio sends? How does it know the subject, time, body, ect? There wasn't a demo or anything...I'm just confused. The help doc seems a bit incomplete on info.

[RyanSpaulding]

Upon further testing...I think the title is a bit misleading of the help document. The workflow shown goes as follows....

1. Create a meeting/appt in Outlook with no attendees but with all other info

2. Save that meeting to an ICS file

3. When adding the calendar appt to your datapage, upload the ICS file.

4. Now when you view your calendar, there is an 'Add to outlook' link to click on.

Not sure I understand the purpose of this "common customization". The title of the guide insinuates you can create your meeting in Caspio and create a link that mirrors that appt in Outlook, effectively saving a step for users. Instead, you have to create it in Outlook, save it, then create it in Caspio and upload the file. The link to the ICS file doesn't even open Outlook by default, nor does Outlook treat it as an appt request. It doesn't add it to the calendar or anything. Disappointing result of a feature I thought was going to be a big timesaver...

[derekcaldwell]

I agree that help file is very misleading and makes no sense. Who would actually go through that effort of adding the link in Caspio on a Calendar page when the primary Calendar Mail software being used is Outlook or Gmail Calendars and most people are looking for ways to create snippets of various Caspio data and then get a handy little .ICS snippet that actually creates a Outlook Meeting/Event based on the Caspio data the user was using. Between not having easy to use Date/Email based triggers (other than the emails sent upon updating records) and not having a way to easily create common 3rd party calendar link snippets I'm finding more and more of my clients/users are simply copying data from the screen they are on and then pasting that into their Calendar/Mail program of choice. While that does work it puts me and my services in jeopardy of losing out to another SaaS service that has more bells and whistles. Thank goodness Caspio has solid code embedding in external sites that allow me to add nifty UI features for users and thank goodness Caspio does have solid Architecture that delivers the apps I develop to my clients fast. Those things are pluses and I hope Caspio adds more nifty and cool tools similar to Zapier, IFTT and other API services. If Caspio could open up their APIs and create a partnership with Zapier then that would open up the doors TREMENDOUSLY.  That's my two cents for what it's worth. :-) hanks.

[Kurumi]

Hi everyone - Just wanted to share this solution. If you want to save the date in your Calendar or download it as a .ics file. You may use an external JS library called Add-to-Calendar Button:
https://jekuer.github.io/add-to-calendar-button/
https://github.com/jekuer/add-to-calendar-button

[Kurumi]

Hi - Good news! Caspio has a new Tech tip called Downloading Appointments to Calendars Using ICS Files. To know more on how to implement it in the DataPage, you can check it here: https://howto.caspio.com/tech-tips-and-articles/advanced-customizations/download-appointments-to-calendars-using-ics-files/