How to send a meeting request correctly with nodemailer?

Question

I am trying to use the following code to send out meeting request using nodemailer. The problem I am facing is that the meeting invite is going as an attachment ics file instead of request where one can directly add. I have tried it on multiple mail client. Any pointers would be highly appreciated.

transport.sendMail({
                    from: 'BakBak.io <biplav.saraf@gmail.com>',
                    to: 'biplav.saraf@gmail.com',
                    subject: 'Meeting',
                    //html: "Hi",
                    text: "Hola!!",
                    alternative: {
                      contentType: "text/calendar; method=REQUEST; name='meeting.ics';component=VEVENT",
                      contents: new Buffer(cal.toString()),
                      contentEncoding:"7bit",
                      "Content-Class":"urn:content-classes:calendarmessage"
                    },
                    headers: {
                              "Content-Type": "text/calendar", 
                              //"charset":"utf-8",
                              "method":"REQUEST",
                              "component":"VEVENT",
                              "Content-Class":"urn:content-classes:calendarmessage"
                            }//,
                    //attachments : [{filename:'invite.ics',contents: cal.toString()}]
                    }, function(err, responseStatus) {
                    if (err) {
                        console.log(err);
                        res.render('schedule',{errors: err.message});
                    } else {
                        console.log(responseStatus.message);
                        res.render('schedule',{success_msg: "Successfully Created!"});
                    }
                });

Answer 1

Gmail does not show meeting request and give an option to add to calendar if sender and receiver are same.

This is what worked for me:

transport.sendMail({
                    from: 'BakBak.io <biplav.saraf@gmail.com>',
                    to: 'donateoldspectacles@gmail.com',
                    subject: 'Meeting',
                    html: "Hiya!!",
                    text: "Hola!!",
                    alternatives: [{
                      contentType: "text/calendar",
                      content: new Buffer(ical)
                    }]
                    }, function(err, responseStatus) {
                    if (err) {
                        console.log(err);
                        res.render('schedule',{errors: err.message});
                    } else {
                        console.log(responseStatus.message);
                        res.render('schedule',{success_msg: "Successfully Created!"});
                    }
                });

Answer 2

This worked for me without using ical-generator

const express    = require('express');
const http       = require('http');
const bodyParser = require('body-parser');
const nodeMailer = require('nodemailer');
const cors  = require('cors');

const app = express();

app.use(cors());

app.use(bodyParser.json());
app.use(bodyParser.urlencoded({ extended: true }));

app.post("/v1/sendemail", (req, res) => {

  let transporter = nodeMailer.createTransport({
    host: "smtp.xxx.de",
    secureConnection: true,
    port: 465,
    tls: {
      chipers: "SSLv3"
    },
    auth: {
      user: "xxx@xxx.xxx",
      pass: "xxx"
    }
  });
  let content = 'BEGIN:VCALENDAR\n' +
        'VERSION:2.0\n' +
        'BEGIN:VEVENT\n' +
        'SUMMARY:Summary123\n' +
        'DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20201030T093000Z\n' +
        'DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20201030T113000Z\n' +
        'LOCATION:Webex \n' +
        'DESCRIPTION:Description123\n' +
        'STATUS:CONFIRMED\n' +
        'SEQUENCE:3\n' +
        'BEGIN:VALARM\n' +
        'TRIGGER:-PT10M\n' +
        'DESCRIPTION:Description123\n' +
        'ACTION:DISPLAY\n' +
        'END:VALARM\n' +
        'END:VEVENT\n' +
        'END:VCALENDAR';

  let mailOptions = {
    from: "from@xxx.xx",
    to: "to@xxx.xx",
    subject: "Subject",
    text: "Test",
    icalEvent: {
        filename: "invitation.ics",
        method: 'request',
        content: content
        }
      };

  transporter.sendMail(mailOptions, function(error, info) {
    if (error) {
      res.status(500).send({
        message: {
          Error: "Could not sent email"
        }
      })
    }
  });
});

const port = process.env.PORT || '3001';
app.set('port', port);

const server = http.createServer(app);
server.listen(port, () => {
  console.log(`API running on localhost:${port}`);
});

Answer 3

I think the issue is here: "Content-Type": "text/calendar" If you want to simply add the content as plain text or HTML, where the user can click a link in the email to add it, then you might want to use text or an HTML header. You can simply send the link to the Google calendar for example from where the user can simply click & join the event.

The "Content-Type": "text/calendar" is making the mail sender / client belive that there is an actual file attached or associated with the email.

Update:

The attached ICS file must be attached else the mail client cannot tell it is an event, you just need to use the proper headers. For example:

Content-Type: text/calendar; method=REQUEST
Content-Transfer-Encoding: Base64
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=iCal-20140610-083450.ics

The attach the .ics file. The mail client will be smart enough to figure it out and give an option to add to the local calendar if clicked.

There are some mail clients, like AirMail that automatically detects any dates in the text, no attachments required, and allows the user to directly integrate the event to the local calendar but this feature is not widely available.