Meeting Emails - ICS attachments

Overview

Meeting-related emails sent from the Meeting Program include an ICS calendar attachment so participants can add, update, or remove the meeting directly from their personal calendar (Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and other ICS-compliant clients).

When ICS files are attached

An ICS file is attached to the following email types:

• Meeting request received — sent to the recipient when a new request is created.

• Meeting confirmed — sent to both participants when the request is accepted.

• Meeting rescheduled — sent to both participants when the time or location changes.

• Meeting cancelled — sent to both participants when a confirmed meeting is cancelled.

ICS file contents

Each ICS file describes a single calendar event with the following fields populated:

Behaviour in calendar clients

• New meeting — opening the ICS adds the event to the user's calendar.

• Rescheduled meeting — because UID is preserved and SEQUENCE is incremented, calendar clients update the existing event in place rather than creating a duplicate.

• Cancelled meeting — the ICS uses METHOD:CANCEL so calendar clients remove or mark the event as cancelled automatically.

Time zones

Times are written in the event's configured time zone using a TZID block, so participants in different regions see the correct local time in their calendar without manual adjustment.

Edge cases

• If a meeting has no location assigned, the LOCATION field is omitted.

• If a participant's email address is missing, the ATTENDEE entry for that participant is omitted but the event itself is still generated.

• ICS attachments are sent in addition to, not instead of, the standard email body so the email remains readable for clients that do not parse attachments.