Face-to-face (plugin)

The Problem

Moodle's Face-to-Face module sends you an iCal invite that is not properly interpreted by MS Outlook client. The iCal invite comes through as a blank attachment. Apparently the iCal worked just fine on OWA and on Evolution running on Linux.

Our Environment

1. Moodle v.1.94+
2. MS Exchange server 2003 (don't know which patch level).

Disclaimer

The changes below are what got my problem fixed at work. I don't guarantee that it will work for you. Use this information at your own risk. I also won't pretend this is the best solution out there. I am positive it can be improve in many ways. If you have problems with this solution and if I have the time to revisit this in the future I may look into it.

A Tentative Solution

Change the /moodle/moodlelib.php and the /moodle/mod/facetoface/lib.php files on the following fashion:

moodle/mod/facetoface/lib.php

Around line 1374, change this code:

if (!email_to_user($user, $fromaddress, $attachment['subject'], $attachment['body'],
$attachment['htmlbody'], $attachment['filename'], $attachmentfilename)) {

if (!email_to_user($user, $fromaddress, $attachment['subject'], file_get_contents($CFG->dataroot . '/' .
 $attachment['filename']),'ical')) {

The change above will use the file attachment as the body if the user opted to send out an iCal invite and add a special marker ("ical") as the parameter for the changes we will make on the moodlelib.php

moodle/moodlelib.php

Around line 4117, after the global and static declarations, add the following code:

if ($messagehtml == 'ical') {
 $messagehtml = '';
 $is_this_an_ical_request = TRUE;
}

This will set a control variable if the user chose to send an iCal. Then, around the new line 4283, right before the if ($mail->Send()) {, add the following code:

if ($is_this_an_ical_request) {
 $mail->ContentType = 'text/calendar; method=REQUEST; charset="UTF-8"';
 $mail->Encoding = 'quoted-printable';
}