We do something similar for Google and Apple/Outlook Calendars and Appointment Reminders. Maybe it helps

We trigger an email off a Custom Event with dataFields which houses the links living in href={{googleLink}} and the href={{icsDownloadLink}} as dataFields in the Custom Event schema. We upload the calendar icons into Iterable as src

If you’re using the drag/drop template you can place an HTML block.

*You have to replace the icon links, src, any customization, and add any other calendar option you want

<tr>
                <td
                   align="left" class="text" style="font-size:0px;padding:10px 25px;padding-right:20px;padding-bottom:40px;padding-left:20px;word-break:break-word;"
                >

      <div
         style="font-family:Sofia Pro, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:16px;line-height:1.5;text-align:left;color:#606969;"
      ><img alt="Google Calendar Icon" height="24" src="INSERT YOUR GOOGLE ICON" style="position: relative; top: 6px;" width="24" class="link-icon" />
          <a class="link" href="{{REPLACE WITH YOUR DATAFIELD}}" style="padding-right: 0px">
            Google</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&emsp;<img alt="iCal Apple Icon" height="24" src="INSERT YOUR APPLE ICON" style="position: relative; top: 6px;" width="24" class="link-icon" /><a class="link" href="{{REPLACE WITH YOUR DATAFIELD}}" style="padding-right: 0px">
            iCal</a></div>

                </td>
              </tr>

@Alexis Mencos the key here being the link itself! Everything you’re looking for is actually available via Google Calendar, not Iterable. Ask OpenAI or another well-trained AI for how to do it and they’ll lead you in the right direction!

If you still need help after some self-guided searching, DM me and I’ll see if I can help. Cheers!

We’re looking to do the same thing. I’m not quite following all the technical pieces in this thread though. Can someone help me?

Do we need a unique .ics link as a dataField in the event per calendar type?

Hi ​@Dina McClelland and ​@Alexis Mencos ! 

Chiming in here :)

This is a tricky one unfortunately. We don't allow for the use of .ics files for security and deliverability reasons (send high volumes of attachments is just not a good idea). You can see how that would work here: https://www.litmus.com/blog/how-to-create-an-add-to-calendar-link-for-your-emails/

Alternatively Gmail natively supports calendar invites I believe (although limited to Gmail users only) or you could suggest using markup in html emails to display calendar/rsvp actions to the user: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/reference

Please let me know if you have any additional questions/concerns!

​@noa1udler what about an ice link? is that the same thing or different than an ics file?

Hey ​@Dina McClelland!

Depending on the complexity of your requirements you’re either going to want to use the Google Calendar API to create each user-specific calendar event, or you can simply use Google Calendar’s URL parameters, if they cover your bases.

The format for a Google Calendar URLs is:
 

<a href="https://www.google.com/calendar/render?action=TEMPLATE&text=Meeting+with+Customer&dates=20241212T150000Z/20241212T160000Z&details=Discuss+project+details&location=123+Main+St,+Anytown,+USA" target="_blank">
    Add to Google Calendar
</a>

The real trick here is in where you get the data that goes in the parameters.

The first reply above from ​@LPapada discusses using a custom event to provide the Booking Link and an ICS download link. You can do it this way, if your team wants to build the link themselves, or they can simply provide you the confirmation event that an appointment is based on with the relevant data and you can build the booking URL yourself in the email HTML.

Either way, the best way to handle this is to take a look at your booking confirmation event -- or whatever event a calendar event/appointment is based on for your users -- and use the data fields on that event to build your calendar URL. I agree with ​@noa1udler and would skip the ICS download entirely, but that’s just me.

Let me know if that makes sense or if you have any follow-up questions!

Thank you ​@drakeballew for digging into how to use the Gmail calendar invite method - there are similar methods for other mailbox providers, too - we suggest this route since we don’t allow for the use of .ics files, and these methods use a native integration that goes around that, while still getting to the end goal of creating calendar/rsvp actions within an email that users can click on! 

Like Drake mentioned, the method that ​@LPapada suggested uses custom event data and Iterable handlebars to reference/render that data within a link that resembles an .ics link (but isn’t) to open up and send users to a specific page once clicked.

However, since Iterable doesn’t allow for .ics links and download attachments within emails, as Drake suggested, either one of the methods discussed above should work - it’s whatever sounds best/easiest to you! ​@Dina McClelland 

Please let us know if you have any additional thoughts/questions/concerns! :)

Hi ​@Dina McClelland ! Will reached out to me regarding some confusion still about .ics link usage within Iterable - my apologies on that! We realized there’s some conflicting information that we’re seeing related to whether they’re allowed or not within the platform. I’m going to do some additional digging to get you more information on that to clear things up! I appreciate your patience!

I do still think that a native Gmail or any other mailbox provider’s calendar invite method would be the easiest route for what you’re trying to achieve (although one caveat is that it will have to be added to each template manually that requires it, but you’ll be able to have each of those templates as base templates and re-use them in various campaigns) :)

Hi ​@Dina McClelland ! I wanted to let you know that I’m still working on confirming some details for you to ensure you have all of the correct information to make an informed decision for the route you want to take to achieve this goal, but I should have more information early next week Have a great weekend!

Great, thank you ​@noa1udler 

Okay! I have an update ​@Dina McClelland :) Happy Monday!

It seems that you can’t attach a .ics file, but you can use a link. You can do this via Google Calendar as mentioned before: https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/41207?visit_id=638222845037217829-2312699886&rd=1.

However, that’s limited to Google calendar, so the alternative is that you point the URL you’re using to download an .ics file like this:

<a href="URL_TO_ICS_FILE">Add to Calendar</a>

You would replace “URL_TO_ICS_FILE” with the actual URL of your hosted .ics file.When users click on the “Add to Calendar” link in the email, it will download the .ics file. Users can then import the file into their preferred calendar app by opening it!

Please let me know if you have any additional questions/concerns!

Thank you ​@noa1udler . I’ll pass this over to our eng team for configuration in the event

Of course, my pleasure, and anytime ​@Dina McClelland ! Sounds good - don’t hesitate to reach out with any additional questions by submitting a Support email ticket! :)