Programmatically add custom event in the iPhone Calendar

Question

Is there any way to add iCal event to the iPhone Calendar from the custom App?

Solution 1

Based on Apple Documentation, this has changed a bit as of iOS 6.0.

1) You should request access to the user's calendar via "requestAccessToEntityType:completion:" and execute the event handling inside of a block.

2) You need to commit your event now or pass the "commit" param to your save/remove call

Everything else stays the same...

Add the EventKit framework and #import <EventKit/EventKit.h> to your code.

In my example, I have a NSString *savedEventId instance property.

To add an event:

    EKEventStore *store = [EKEventStore new];
    [store requestAccessToEntityType:EKEntityTypeEvent completion:^(BOOL granted, NSError *error) {
        if (!granted) { return; }
        EKEvent *event = [EKEvent eventWithEventStore:store];
        event.title = @"Event Title";
        event.startDate = [NSDate date]; //today
        event.endDate = [event.startDate dateByAddingTimeInterval:60*60];  //set 1 hour meeting
        event.calendar = [store defaultCalendarForNewEvents];
        NSError *err = nil;
        [store saveEvent:event span:EKSpanThisEvent commit:YES error:&err];
        self.savedEventId = event.eventIdentifier;  //save the event id if you want to access this later
    }];

Remove the event:

    EKEventStore* store = [EKEventStore new];
    [store requestAccessToEntityType:EKEntityTypeEvent completion:^(BOOL granted, NSError *error) {
        if (!granted) { return; }
        EKEvent* eventToRemove = [store eventWithIdentifier:self.savedEventId];
        if (eventToRemove) {
            NSError* error = nil;
            [store removeEvent:eventToRemove span:EKSpanThisEvent commit:YES error:&error];
        }
    }];

This adds events to your default calendar, if you have multiple calendars then you'll have find out which one that is

Swift version

You need to import the EventKit framework

import EventKit

Add event

let store = EKEventStore()
store.requestAccessToEntityType(.Event) {(granted, error) in
    if !granted { return }
    var event = EKEvent(eventStore: store)
    event.title = "Event Title"
    event.startDate = NSDate() //today
    event.endDate = event.startDate.dateByAddingTimeInterval(60*60) //1 hour long meeting
    event.calendar = store.defaultCalendarForNewEvents
    do {
        try store.saveEvent(event, span: .ThisEvent, commit: true)
        self.savedEventId = event.eventIdentifier //save event id to access this particular event later
    } catch {
        // Display error to user
    }
}

Remove event

let store = EKEventStore()
store.requestAccessToEntityType(EKEntityTypeEvent) {(granted, error) in
    if !granted { return }
    let eventToRemove = store.eventWithIdentifier(self.savedEventId)
    if eventToRemove != nil {
        do {
            try store.removeEvent(eventToRemove, span: .ThisEvent, commit: true)
        } catch {
            // Display error to user
        }
    }
}

Solution 2

You can do this using the Event Kit framework in OS 4.0.

Right click on the FrameWorks group in the Groups and Files Navigator on the left of the window. Select 'Add' then 'Existing FrameWorks' then 'EventKit.Framework'.

Then you should be able to add events with code like this:

#import "EventTestViewController.h"
#import <EventKit/EventKit.h>

@implementation EventTestViewController

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];

    EKEventStore *eventStore = [[EKEventStore alloc] init];

    EKEvent *event  = [EKEvent eventWithEventStore:eventStore];
    event.title     = @"EVENT TITLE";

    event.startDate = [[NSDate alloc] init];
    event.endDate   = [[NSDate alloc] initWithTimeInterval:600 sinceDate:event.startDate];

    [event setCalendar:[eventStore defaultCalendarForNewEvents]];
    NSError *err;
    [eventStore saveEvent:event span:EKSpanThisEvent error:&err];       
}

@end

Solution 3

Yes there still is no API for this (2.1). But it seemed like at WWDC a lot of people were already interested in the functionality (including myself) and the recommendation was to go to the below site and create a feature request for this. If there is enough of an interest, they might end up moving the ICal.framework to the public SDK.

https://developer.apple.com/bugreporter/

Solution 4

Calendar access is being added in iPhone OS 4.0:

Calendar Access
Apps can now create and edit events directly in the Calendar app with Event Kit.
Create recurring events, set up start and end times and assign them to any calendar on the device.

Solution 5

Swift 4.0 implementation :

use import in top of page by import EventKit

then

@IBAction func addtoCalendarClicked(sender: AnyObject) {

    let eventStore = EKEventStore()

    eventStore.requestAccess( to: EKEntityType.event, completion:{(granted, error) in

        if (granted) && (error == nil) {
            print("granted \(granted)")
            print("error \(error)")

            let event = EKEvent(eventStore: eventStore)

            event.title = "Event Title"
            event.startDate = Date()
            event.endDate = Date()
            event.notes = "Event Details Here"
            event.calendar = eventStore.defaultCalendarForNewEvents

            var event_id = ""
            do {
                try eventStore.save(event, span: .thisEvent)
                event_id = event.eventIdentifier
            }
            catch let error as NSError {
                print("json error: \(error.localizedDescription)")
            }

            if(event_id != ""){
                print("event added !")
            }
        }
    })
}

View more solutions

Comments

[David Carney]

Thanks for posting this. Just a reminder to all who read this: take care to watch for memory leaks. There are a couple in this code sample. Also, best practices would dictate that you check the value of 'err' after saveEvent:span:error and handle things accordingly.

[Jay Vachhani]

Do you know how to add recurrence event? like an event for every monday?

[DenTheMan]

Add recurrence event programmatically: check this out developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/EventKit/…. Another option is to use the default framework-supplied view controllers for adding/editing events (like the Calendar At-A-Glance app bit.ly/cJq4Bh). For this option, see developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/EventKitUI/…

[Nate]

To add frameworks in XCode 4 see this SO question: stackoverflow.com/questions/3352664/…

[Rajesh_Bangalore]

developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/DataManagemen‌​t/…

[coder1010]

Can Tapku Library calendar synchronise with calender app events

[Rajesh_Bangalore]

All i know is that Tapku library is a calendar component control which has an option called Data source. So its upto ur logic to write the where that source you are fetching from... Happy Coding :)

[Jasper]

answer is outdated, consider to remove this

[Boris Gafurov]

does not work for me, everything goes w/o errors but no event in calendar

[Boris Gafurov]

4.0? not gonna fly in 6 see above answer

[Admin]

Everything is storing in ekevent object but not storing inside the calendar hlp me

[Ans]

@William T: Can I present Add Event screen of Calendar app (using URL Scheme) and pass event's info so that when Add Event screen appear, it will have pre filled data. User just need to press add event button. In your example event added without any indication to user.

[zonabi]

if all seems to work yet no calendar appears, check to see if Cloud VS Local calendars is the issue. If you have a mix of Cloud and Local Calendars, Cloud calendars can force the local calendars to become hidden.

[Logger]

@William It is working for me. Here i am facing one problem if i add more than one events to the calendar and tried to remove event from the calendar, It is removing only last event from the calendar. How to get identifier for event when we are removing from the calendar.

[William T.]

@ReddyBasha when you add the event, you need to save off the eventIdentifier and store it for future use. You should use that event id when you go to remove it.

[moody]

And also remember that end date must be equal or bigger than the start date. Otherwise, you will get another error.

[Dilip Tiwari]

could u help me with google calendar regarding same answer @Dashrath