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iCalendar is a standard (RFC 2445 or RFC2445 Syntax Reference) for calendar data exchange. The standard is sometimes referred to as \"iCal\", which also is the name of the Apple Computer calendar program that provides one of the implementations of the standard. more...

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iCalendar allows users to send meeting requests and tasks to other users through emails. Recipients of the iCalendar email (with supported software) can respond to the sender easily or counter propose another meeting date/time.

It is implemented/supported by a large number of products, including 30 Boxes, AiAi, Apple's iCal application, Darwin Calendar Server, Contactizer and iPod, Chandler, Drupal with its event module, eventSherpa, FirstClass, Google Calendar, Jalios JCMS, KOrganizer, Kronolith, Lotus Notes, Lovento, Mozilla Calendar (including Mozilla Sunbird), Mulberry, Plum Canary Chirp, Novell Evolution, Nuvvo, ScheduleWorld, Simple Groupware, Upcoming.org, WebCalendar, Windows Calendar, Zimbra Collaboration Suite, and Microsoft Outlook (see below).

iCalendar data is typically exchanged using traditional email, but the standard is designed to be independent of the transport protocol. For example, it can also be shared and edited by using a WebDav server, or SyncML. Simple web servers (using just the HTTP protocol) are often used to distribute iCalendar data about an event and to publish busy times of an individual. Event sites on the web are embedding iCalendar data in web pages using hCalendar, a 1:1 representation of iCalendar in semantic XHTML.

Specification Basics

The iCalendar specification is a result of the work of the Internet Engineering Task Force Calendaring and Scheduling Working Group (chaired by Anik Ganguly of Open Text Corporation), and was authored by Frank Dawson of Lotus Development Corporation and Derik Stenerson of Microsoft Corporation. iCalendar is heavily based on the earlier vCalendar industry specification by the Internet Mail Consortium (IMC). After iCalendar was released, IMC stated that it \"hopes that all vCalendar developers take advantage of these new open standards and make their software compatible with both vCalendar 1.0 and iCalendar.\"

iCalendar data has the MIME content type text/calendar.

The file extension of \"ics\" is to be used to designate a file containing (an arbitrary set of) calendaring and scheduling information consistent with this MIME content type.

The file extension of \"ifb\" is to be used to designate a file containing free or busy time information consistent with this MIME content type.

The file type code of \"iCal\" is to be used in Apple Macintosh operating system environments to designate a file containing calendaring and scheduling information consistent with this MIME media type.

The file type code of \"iFBf\" is to be used in Apple Macintosh operating system environments to designate a file containing free or busy time information consistent with this MIME media type.

Read more at Wikipedia.org