What is the minimal Format of an iCal event to attach to an email?

I am searching and searching. I have two iCal attached files. The first one is named prag.ics the second one is name.ics Only the second one is not imported.

Both are nearly identical. Really I checked even the line endings (Unix) - and the rest is Unicode (utf8 without BOM). prag.ics has no line ending after the last line. So I changed the same in name.ics

Only differences are the time strings for: DTEND; DTSTART; DTSTAMP:

Putting all time strings from prag.ics to name.ics the name.ics is imported into iCal

If I change DTSTAMP: only from prag.ics to name.ics the iCal tries to import and import, until I have to finish it with "force quit".

So what the **** is the magic with DTSTAMP: ? Do I need here the string of creation date, when the iCal-event is saved on the desktop?

Here are coming both events. You may test. Be aware, testing "name.ics" you have to make a "force quit" clicking in the dock with ALT ...

***prag.ics***

BEGIN:VCALENDAR

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120527T064500

SUMMARY:München->Prag

DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120527T054500

DTSTAMP:20120521T190638Z

LOCATION:HBF

SEQUENCE:0

BEGIN:VALARM

TRIGGER:-PT1H

DESCRIPTION:Event reminder

ACTION:DISPLAY

END:VALARM

END:VEVENT

END:VCALENDAR

***name.ics***

BEGIN:VCALENDAR

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120608T172500

SUMMARY:Name

DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120608T182500

DTSTAMP:20120521T190638Z

LOCATION:MUC

SEQUENCE:0

BEGIN:VALARM

TRIGGER:-PT1H

DESCRIPTION:Event reminder

ACTION:DISPLAY

END:VALARM

END:VEVENT

END:VCALENDAR

Surprise Surprise!

I realized after heavy testing, that a DTSTAMP: is not needed.

But there is apparently a problem with the DATE-TIME format: Perhaps for other readers, which are in such a desparate situation, as I am since two days now!!! here some explanations:

The reference about iCal format you find in RFC 5546

DTSTART; and DTEND; have a time string like follows:

yyyymmddThhmmss

In the middle the big letter "T". But you have to add the time zone: for me it is the following:

DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120608T062500

Now the big surprise: this time format with an hour over 12 ooops! I tested now once again like follows

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120608T212500

DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120608T202500

changing the hh (hours) with one hour difference up until here. 10 Minutes again, iCal was freezing with hours over 19. I swear!

Ok to answer my original question: What is the minimal format of an iCal event, which you may attach to an email:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR

BEGIN:VEVENT

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120608T212500

SUMMARY:Name

DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Berlin:20120608T202500

LOCATION:MUC

SEQUENCE:0

BEGIN:VALARM

TRIGGER:-PT1H

DESCRIPTION:Event reminder

ACTION:DISPLAY

END:VALARM

END:VEVENT

END:VCALENDAR

But be aware, that this is buggy. Be carefull and have a nice evening

marek

So here again a tip:

Take care of line endings with trailing white space! Remove them, if not iCal will not be able to read the .ics file.

Hope this helps someone one day :-)

marek