How to Read the ICS File?

ICS files are plain text files that include calendar event details like a description, start and end times, location, organizer etc. The ICS format is typically used to send meeting requests, and is also a popular means for subscribing to holiday or birthday calendars.

The Calendaring and Scheduling Core Object consists of calendaring and scheduling information. This information will consist of single and multiple iCalendar objects sequentially grouped together in a single iCalendar stream. The first and the last line in the stream indicates the beginning and ending of an iCalendar, and is a must to determine that it is an iCalendar file.

The downloaded zip file from the Download Bulk Read Result API call contains the ICS file with all the recurring and non-recurring events that match the criteria you specified while creating the bulk read job.

Below is a sample ICS file when opened in a text editor.

The below table describes the different fields available in the ICS file.

Field	Description
BEGIN:VCALENDAR and END:VCALENDAR	The beginning and ending of the iCalendar.
PRODID	The identifier of the product that created the iCalendar Object. Example: PRODID:-//Zoho CRM//NONSGML Calendar//EN
VERSION	The version number used to interpret the iCalendar object.
X-WR-TIMEZONE	The current user's timezone.
X-WR-CALNAME	The display name of the calendar.
METHOD	To define the iCalendar object method.
CALSCALE	To determine the calendar scale used for the calendar information.
CALSCALE	To determine the calendar scale.
UID	The record ID of the event.
SUMMARY	The Subject of the event.
DESCRIPTION	A description of the event.
ORGANIZER	The name of organizer that hosts the particular event. This comprises two attributes—CN (common name or the full name) and mailto (the email ID of the organizer).
RRULE	Represents that the event is a recurring one and comprises frequency(daily, weekly, monthly, yearly), interval(how often the event recurs), and count(number of times the event recurs).
DTSTART	Represents the start time of the event. For all-day events, the value is in the format yyyy-mm-dd. For recurring events, the value is in the ISO8601 format with the timezone being the current user's timezone. For non-recurring events, the value is in the ISO8601 format with the GMT timezone.
DTEND	Represents the end time of the event. For all-day events, the value is in the format yyyy-mm-dd. For recurring events, the value is in the ISO8601 format with the timezone being the current user's timezone. For non-recurring events, the value is in the ISO8601 format with the GMT timezone.
DTSTAMP	Represents the date and time that the iCalendar object was created. This value is in the ISO8601 format in the GMT timezone.
RECURRENCE-ID	Represents the unique ID for the break event. It also comprises TZID that represents the current user's country locale and the timezone in the ISO8601 format.
ATTENDEES	Represents the details of the participants. ROLE - Indicates whether it is mandatory for the participant to attend the event. PARTSTAT - Indicates the status of the participant whether they have accepted the event invitation. Possible values are "ACCEPTED" - the participant has accepted the event invitation. "DECLINED" - the participant has declined the event invitation. "TENTATIVE" - the participant may or may not attend the event. Default value is "NEEDS ACTION". CN - Full name of the participant. mailTo - Participant's email ID.
EX-DATE	Represents the date(for all-day events) or date/time on which a particular recurring event is deleted.
LOCATION	Represents the venue where the event will take place.
CREATED	Represents the date and time(in the GMT timezone) on which the calendar information was created.
LAST-MODIFIED	Represents the date and time(in the GMT timezone) on which a particular event was modified.
X-EVENT OWNER	Represents the ID of the user who created the event.