Sending Gmail calendar events in Rails 4

How to send gmail calendar events to user emails in Rails? Lets see how we can do this. Here we use Rails 4.2 and Ruby 2.2.1 versions.

For this we can use the best available package the ‘icalnder’ gem.

Icalender Github

In Gemfile add:

gem 'icalendar'

We have a user_mailer.rb for sending emails to User. And suppose we are sending emails to manager (User type 1) and a participant (User type 2) when a conversation is scheduled between them.

Create a method as below:

in user_mailer.rb

   def conversation_scheduled(conversation_id, opts={})
      @conversation = Conversation.find_by_id(conversation_id)
      @manager = @conversation.try(:manager)
      @participant = @conversation.try(:participant)
      @base_url = opts['base_url']

      if opts[:send_to] == 'manager'
        cal = calender_event(@conversation, @manager, "Conversation is scheduled with #{@participant.full_name}", "You have scheduled a conversation with Mr/Mrs #{@participant.full_name} on #{@conversation.starting_time}")  
        attachments['conversation_sheduled.ics'] = { :mime_type => 'text/calendar',
                              :content => cal.to_ical }

        mail(to: @manager.try(:email),
             subject: "Conversation is scheduled with #{@participant.full_name}",
             template_name: 'scheduled_manager')
      elsif opts[:send_to] == 'participant'
        cal = calender_event(@conversation, @manager, "Conversation is scheduled with #{@manager.full_name}", "A conversation is scheduled with Mr/Mrs #{@manager.full_name} on #{@conversation.starting_time}")  
        attachments['conversation_sheduled.ics'] = { :mime_type => 'text/calendar',
                              :content => cal.to_ical }

        mail(to: @participant.try(:email),
             subject: "Conversation is scheduled with #{@manager.full_name}",
             template_name: 'scheduled_participant')
      end
    end

private 

def calender_event(conversation, manager, summary, description)
      cal = Icalendar::Calendar.new
      cal.event do |e|
        e.dtstart     = Icalendar::Values::Date.new(conversation.startime.to_date.strftime("%Y%m%dT%H%M%S%Z"))
        e.dtend       = Icalendar::Values::Date.new(conversation.end_time.strftime("%Y%m%dT%H%M%S%Z"))
        e.summary     = summary
        e.description = description
        e.ip_class    = "PRIVATE"
        e.organizer = Icalendar::Values::CalAddress.new("mailto:#{manager.try(:email)}", cn: manager.try(:full_name))
      end
      cal
    end

All we need to do is send an attachment to the email setting the proper mime type to ‘text/calendar’ and the content by calling the ‘to_ical’ method on the event and it returns the calender object.

With proper email templates I do receive the emails with Calendar events and I can add this event to my google calendar and I can update the event details etc.

Author: Abhilash

I'm Abhilash, a web developer who specializes in Ruby development. With years of experience working with various frameworks like Rails, Angular, Sinatra, Laravel, NodeJS, React and more, I am passionate about building robust and scalable web applications. Since 2010, I have been honing my skills and expertise in the Ruby on Rails platform. This blog is dedicated to sharing my knowledge and experience on topics related to Ruby, Ruby on Rails, and other subjects that I have worked with throughout my career. Join me on this journey to explore the exciting world of web development! View all posts by Abhilash