How to just open user's windows outlook calendar on a button click of my ASP.NET web application.

Question

1.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

How to just open user's windows outlook calendar on a button click of my Asp.net web application.

What I have tried:

I tried using interop but did not get anything.

Posted 3-Aug-17 23:43pm

IamWsk

Updated 4-Aug-17 0:02am

Add a Solution

3 solutions

Solution 3

Completely agree with solution 2 but it did not worked in my case.

So i created my own custom uri Scheme by creating below registry entry

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\outlookwebcal]
@="URL:Outlook Add Internet Calendar"
"URL Protocol"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\outlookwebcal\shell]
@="open"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\outlookwebcal\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\outlookwebcal\shell\open\command]
@="\"C:\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\root\\office16\\Outlook.exe\" /select outlook:calendar"

Posted 2-Sep-18 2:37am

Rajesh Kumar Bhawsar

Updated 2-Sep-18 3:59am

v2

Solution 1

Take a look at this thread: windows - Launch application from a browser - Stack Overflow[^]

A web browser can't launch another application without some sort of extension or plug-in. This is done for security reasons. Think about how many viruses, malware, or damaging actions could take place if browsers launched unknown applications.

If Outlook is installed on their computer, you can have it download a calendar file which would open up the event in their Outlook calendar and allow them to save it.
Difference between iCalendar (.ics) and the vCalendar (.vcs) - Stack Overflow[^]

Posted 4-Aug-17 0:01am

virusstorm

Comments

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 4-Aug-17 6:04am

On the other hand, you can use the Uri Scheme of the Outlook Calendar and launch it through JavaScript dynamically.

Please see Solution 2 for more on this.

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-04T00:02:00

Solution 2

You need to launch a protocol as a hyperlink in the web page, and then Outlook Calendar (if available on the user's machine), would launch by default to take control of the data processing request. The default URI scheme for Outlook Calendar is, outlookcal:, so you need to write the following code in the button.

JavaScript

window.open("outlookcal:");

Your HTML content, precisely would be,

HTML

<button id="outlookCalendarBtn" onclick="window.open('outlookcal:')">
   Open Outlook Calendar
</button>

This code requires Outlook Calendar, installation. If Outlook is not installed — or some other application controls this URI schemes are default handler, results are undefined and not certain. So, take proper countermeasures for those scenarios as well.

Javascript - Open a given URL in a new tab by clicking a button - Stack Overflow[^]

Posted 4-Aug-17 0:02am

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan

Updated 4-Aug-17 0:04am

v2

Comments

Thomas Daniels 4-Aug-17 6:04am

+5!

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 4-Aug-17 6:05am

Thank you!

IamWsk 4-Aug-17 6:42am

Thank you @Afzaal but it opens windows calendar not outlook calendar. How can I change my default handler for it?

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 4-Aug-17 7:24am

You would need to check for these settings inside the Settings (Windows 10) or inside the Registry (all Windows editions, and versions). There you would be able to change this.

As I have already mentioned, this is all upto the user to manage which application he wants to open for this operations. Sometimes, other applications override this setting by themselves as well. A lot of other certain problems can also be encountered, and there is nothing that a web application can do for this.

IamWsk 4-Aug-17 7:57am

Yes I have checked with my windows 10 settings only windows calendar is available to select default app for OUTLOOKCAL: protocol. is there any other approach to change setting or open outlook calendar?

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 4-Aug-17 7:59am

Indeed, and that would require you, and your users to make the change and there is nothing which we can do from a web application. Sadly, that is how web standards are designed. :-)

IamWsk 4-Aug-17 8:03am

My application's users will change the setting but outlook calendar is not listed when they are trying to change the protocol setting.

Karthik_Mahalingam 6-Aug-17 23:54pm

5

Afzaal Ahmad Zeeshan 7-Aug-17 7:10am

Thank you, Karthik.