Microsoft KB Archive/307313

= Outlook 2000 iCalendar interoperability problems =

Article ID: 307313

Article Last Modified on 1/31/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Outlook 2007
 * Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
 * Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q307313



SYMPTOMS
When you receive a meeting request in Microsoft Outlook 2000 from a Microsoft Outlook 2002 user or a Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 user or a Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 user, the meeting request may appear as a message with a message body that contains text. This text represents the iCalendar data. This issue affects clients when they are configured to use Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP), Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).



CAUSE
This behavior occurs because Outlook 2000 clients do not correctly interpret the TRIGGER keyword when a hyphen symbol (-) is present. Outlook 2000 clients incorrectly emit the TRIGGER keyword without the hyphen.

The TRIGGER keyword in the VALARM object contains a hyphen to denote a time before the start of the event. The TRIGGER keyword notes an alarm that should take place 15 minutes before the start of this meeting request.

This is the correct behavior per RFC2445 section 4.8.6.3.

Starting with Outlook 2002 clients, Outlook clients correctly interpret the TRIGGER keyword when a hyphen is present, tolerate the omission of a hyphen, and correctly emit the TRIGGER keyword with the hyphen.



WORKAROUND
To work around this behavior, omit the meeting reminder from the appointment when you submit a meeting request from an Outlook 2002 client, an Outlook 2003 client, or an Outlook 2007 client to Outlook 2000 clients. The meeting reminder is the option that causes the TRIGGER keyword to be used.



MORE INFORMATION
The iCalendar specification is discussed in RFC2445.

The following information is an example of the data that can appear in the message body of the Outlook 2000 client: BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID:-//Microsoft Corporation//Outlook 10.0 MIMEDIR//EN VERSION:2.0 METHOD:REQUEST BEGIN:VEVENT ATTENDEE;CN=outlook2002@company.com;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;RSVP=TRUE:MAILTO:outlook2002@company.com ORGANIZER:MAILTO:outlook2000@company.com DTSTART:20010823T023000Z DTEND:20010823T030000Z LOCATION:my office TRANSP:OPAQUE SEQUENCE:0 UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E00800000000903FC6413F2BC101000000000000000010000000D05E59B078F19941AD2E25FCACF8BD60 DTSTAMP:20010823T021842Z DESCRIPTION:When: Wednesday\, August 22\, 2001 7:30 PM-8:00 PM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)\; Tijuana.\nWhere: my office\n\n*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*\n\n\n SUMMARY:Important Business Meeting with 15 minute reminder PRIORITY:5 CLASS:PUBLIC BEGIN:VALARM TRIGGER:-PT15M ACTION:DISPLAY DESCRIPTION:Reminder END:VALARM END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR

