Cannot accept new proposed times for appointments

Aspose.Email Product Family
1

Hi,

We are using version 2.2.0.1 for the Aspose.EMAIL. We upgraded to this hotfix version due to the error we were getting that is reported in this post: <a href="https://forum.aspose.com/t/38826

Our main use is to send out calendar appointments. This is working fine, however, if a meeting attendee proposes a new time for a meeting request that has been sent via the aspose libraries, the meeting organiser is unable to accept this new time. The outlook 2010 client has this button greyed out. If we create a manual meeting request, and an attendee proposes a new time, the meeting organiser can accept this change without any problems.

The following is a sample of the code used to create the appointment. As mentioned, the appointment is sent out fine, the problem occurs when an attendee attempts to propose a new time.

var msg = new MailMessage();
msg.From = from; //set the sender
msg.Body = emailBody;
msg.Subject = emailSubject;
msg.IsBodyHtml = true;
msg.To = to;
//create Appointment instance
Appointment app = new Appointment(location, startDateTime, endDateTime, msg.From, msg.To);

app.Summary = appointmentSubject;
app.Description = appointmentBody;
//add appointment to the message
msg.AddAlternateView(app.RequestApointment());

SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient(GetSmtpServer());

smtp.AuthenticationMethod = SmtpAuthentication.Auto;

smtp.Send(msg);

Any help would be appreciated.

2

Hi Salim,


Thank you for using Aspose.Email and we are sorry for a delayed response.

I was able to reproduce this issue at my end using the information you provided above. I have logged this issue in our issue tracking system as NETWORKNET-33493 for our development team to look into it. We will update you here once we have any information from our development team in this regard. Your patience towards the resolution of this issue is highly appreciated.
3

Thanks for the update. Is there an ETA on when this issue will be resolved?

4

Hi Salim,


Thank you for contacting us.

I am afraid to inform you that your issue is currently pending for analysis by our development team. We will update you here once we have any information from our development team in this regard. We are thankful for your patience in this regard.
5

Hi,

Is there any update on this issue? This is quite critical for us as we cannot launch the product in to production without this issue resolved
6

Hi Salim,


We are sorry for a delayed response.

I am afraid but we have no update on this issue till yet. I have forwarded your concerns to our development team for getting the progress on this issue and will update you once there is any information available in this regard. We are sorry for the inconvenience you are facing and will try to help you as soon as possible.
7

Hi

Has there been any update? It has been two weeks. We need to know so we can decide whether or not to find another solution or change our design.
8

Hi Salim,


We are sorry for the inconvenience you are facing.

I have inquired from our development team about the resolution of this issue, and came to know that this issue has been scheduled in the release of Aspose.Email for .NET 2.4.0. Hopefully, our development team will fix it by then and we will update you once the release is in place. We are thankful for your patience in this regard.
9
This is a high priority issue for us.

Please advise of the ETA for the release of 2.4.0

Is there a way to get a hotfix?
10

Hi Salim,


The ETA for Aspose.Email for .NET 2.4.0 is by the end of Nov,2012, which seems to be a little late for you in this case. I have inquired the development team if we can schedule a quick fix for this issue and will update you here once I have any information in this regard.
11

Thanks for the reply,


yes it is very late, we really need a hotfix ASAP as it is impacting hundreds of users.
12

Any answer to my previous question?

13

Hi Salim,


I have inquired from the development team about the availability of a hotfix for this problem. Unfortunately, this issue is still in the process of investigation under the Aspose.Email iCalendar’s component and we can not provide an ETA in this respect until the investigation is complete. However, development team is looking into this issue and we may update you about our findings by next week. We are sorry for the inconvenience you are facing.


14

Hi,
Please give us an update regarding the availability of a hotfix by 5PM AEST 6/11/2012 as that is our deadline to make a decision on whether or not to investigate other solutions using another provider.


15

Hi Salim,

I have forwarded your concerns to our development team to obtain latest status about this issue, and will update you ASAP upon receiving information in this regard.

16

We are willing to pay something for it please advise!

17

Hi Salim,


We are sorry for inconvenience caused to you.

I have again forwarded your concerns to the development team and please spare us little time to discuss the issue. I will write back immediately when some feedback is given by the development team.

Please visit Priority Support and Enterprise Support to have a look at the policies and privileges provided by Aspose to its valuable customers.


18
Hi Salim,

Following is the response received from the developers. Please give a try to the code below and let us know your feedback.

This situation is not a bug of aspose components. Small investigation shows that problem arises because of specific behavior of outlook and selected way of sending appointment.

Apointment contains VCALENDAR structure.

Here is sample

BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//hacksw/handcal//NONSGML v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:c3Qgb2YgdGhlIG1pbmQsIHRoYXQgYnkgYSBwZXJzZXZlcmFuY2Ugb2YgZGVsaWdodCBpbiB0
DTSTAMP:19970714T170000Z
ORGANIZER;CN=John Doe:MAILTO:john.doe@example.com
DTSTART:19970714T170000Z
DTEND:19970715T035959Z
SUMMARY:Bastille Day Party
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR

VCALENDAR structure contains UID (Unique Identifier of VCALENDAR instance)
When you send appointment with aspose components - you just send email with VCALENDAR structure.
When you try to approve changes in outlook, outlook first of all try to find event which will be updated according to changes. Outlook performs search by UID in its own calendar.

You may see "This meeting is not in the calendar; it may have been moved or deleted." Outlook can't find this appointment because of appointment hasn't been stored in the calendar.

*To confirm this you may perform next steps:*
Code snippet below send appointment and save ICS file to disk

var msg3 = new MailMessage();
msg3.From = "organizer@gmail.com"; //set the sender
msg3.Body = "Appointment Body";
msg3.Subject = "Appointment Subject";
msg3.IsBodyHtml = true;
msg3.To.Add("attendee1@test.com");
msg3.To.Add("attendee2@test.com");
DateTime StDt = new DateTime(2012, 11, 7, 23, 0, 0);
DateTime EnDt = new DateTime(2012, 11, 7, 23, 30, 0);
Appointment app3 = new Appointment("Appointment Location", StDt, EnDt, msg3.From, msg3.To);
app3.Summary = "Appointment Subject";
app3.Description = "Appointment Body";
string ics = app3.Summary + ".ics";
app3.Save(ics);
msg3.AddAlternateView(app3.RequestApointment());


When you sent appointment you have to import ICS file stored to disk in the outlook of organizer.

Then attendee may change date.

If ics has been imported in the outlook of organizer, organizer will be possible to approve it.