Send outlook calendar invite from salesforce lightning

If you’ve ever wondered how to send an outlook calendar invite from the salesforce apex, here’s everything you need to know.

Email format

Meeting invite

Let's code

Step 1: Create a new class to generate meeting invite (class name: NPS_MeetingInviteGenerator)

//codekiat.com

public class NPS_MeetingInviteGenerator {

    public String startDate{get;set;}

    public String endDate{get;set;}

    public String meetingSubject{get;set;}

    public String meetingBody{get;set;}

    public String displayName{get;set;}

    public String attachmentName{get;set;}

    public string fromAddress{get;set;}

    public string toAddressList{get;set;}

    public Messaging.EmailFileAttachment generateMeetingInvite(){

        Messaging.EmailFileAttachment meetingInviteIcs = new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment();

        Blob b = doIcsAttachment();

        meetingInviteIcs.setFileName(attachmentName);

        meetingInviteIcs.setBody(b); 

        return meetingInviteIcs;

    }

   

    public Blob doIcsAttachment(){  

        String [] icsTemplate = new List<String> {'BEGIN:VCALENDAR',

            'PRODID:-//Schedule a Meeting',

            'VERSION:2.0',

            'METHOD:REQUEST',

            'BEGIN:VEVENT',

            'DTSTART: ' + startDate,

            'DTEND: ' + endDate,

            'UID: ' + String.valueOf(Crypto.getRandomLong()),

            'DESCRIPTION: ' + meetingBody,

            'X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html: ' + meetingBody,

            'SUMMARY: ' + meetingSubject,

            'ORGANIZER:MAILTO: ' + fromAddress,

            'ATTENDEE;CN="' + displayName + '";RSVP=TRUE:mailto: ' + toAddressList,

            'BEGIN:VALARM',

            'TRIGGER:-PT1080M',

            'ACTION:DISPLAY',

            'DESCRIPTION:Reminder',

            'END:VALARM',

            'END:VEVENT',

            'END:VCALENDAR'

            };

         return Blob.valueof(String.join(icsTemplate, '\n'));

    }

}

 
Step 2: create email utility class to send an email

//codekiat.com

public class NPS_EmailUtility {

    public String fromAddress{get;set;}

    public String[] toAddressList{get;set;}

    public String subject{get;set;}

    public String body{get;set;}

    public Id orgWideEmailAddrId{get;set;}

    public List<Messaging.EmailFileAttachment> emailAttachmentList{get;set;}

    public void sendEmail(){

        Messaging.SingleEmailMessage emailMsg = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();

        List<Messaging.Emailfileattachment> fileAttachments = new List<Messaging.Emailfileattachment>();

        emailMsg.setReplyTo(fromAddress);

        emailMsg.setToAddresses(toAddressList);

        emailMsg.setSubject(subject);

        emailMsg.setHtmlBody(body);

        emailMsg.setOrgWideEmailAddressId(orgWideEmailAddrId);

       

        if(emailAttachmentList != null && emailAttachmentList.size() > 0){

            for(Messaging.Emailfileattachment efa: emailAttachmentList){

                fileAttachments.add(efa);

            }

        }

        emailMsg.setFileAttachments(fileAttachments);

        system.debug('Send email >> ' + emailMsg);

        try{

            Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] { emailMsg }); 

        }catch(System.EmailException ex){

            system.debug('Issue in sending email >> ' + ex.getMessage());

        }     

    }

}

Test this functionality in the Developer console > Anonymous window 

//Generate Meeting invite

NPS_MeetingInviteGenerator icsGenerator = new NPS_MeetingInviteGenerator();

List<Messaging.Emailfileattachment> fileAttachments = new List<Messaging.Emailfileattachment>();

icsGenerator.meetingSubject = 'Invite - Test subject';

icsGenerator.meetingBody = 'Invite - Test body';

icsGenerator.startDate =  '04/10/2021 10:30:00PM';

icsGenerator.endDate = '14/10/2021 10:30:00PM';

icsGenerator.fromAddress = 'test@example.com';

icsGenerator.displayName = 'NPS';

icsGenerator.attachmentName = 'MeetingInvite.ics';

Messaging.EmailFileAttachment meetingInviteIcs = icsGenerator.generateMeetingInvite();       

fileAttachments.add(meetingInviteIcs);

 
//Send Email

NPS_EmailUtility emailUtils = new NPS_EmailUtility();

emailUtils.toAddressList = new String[] {'test@example.com'};

emailUtils.subject = 'Test email subject';

OrgWideEmailAddress[] orgWideEmailAddr = [select Id from OrgWideEmailAddress];

if (!orgWideEmailAddr.isEmpty()) {

    emailUtils.orgWideEmailAddrId = orgWideEmailAddr[0].Id;

}

emailUtils.body = 'Test attachment body';

emailUtils.emailAttachmentList = fileAttachments;

emailUtils.sendEmail();

Execute the code and check your outlook mailbox.

Considerations

As the meeting invite includes the dates logic, if your application is implemented for multiple time zones, make sure to convert the time to the respective time zone.

Code for converting the date to user time zone

public static string convertDateTimeToUserTimezone(DateTime DateInGMT, String TimeZoneKey){

        return DateInGMT.format('yyyy-MM-dd\'T\'HH:mm:ss', TimeZoneKey);

}

Conclusion

Now you know how to send an email with an attachment in salesforce lightning.

Let me know your thoughts and feedback in the comments section below and also, I would like to know if you have tried any other approach to send a meeting invite to the outlook.

In the upcoming post, we will discuss inserting the user data using an apex data loader with important factors to consider.

Until then…