Automated export of outlook shared folder to iCal file

Question

I'm trying to sync calendar appointments between two different calendar systems (Outlook 2007 and Lotus Notes) for a shared office with shared meeting rooms, and my current idea is to have something scheduled that exports the calendar from a shared folder in outlook to an iCalendar file (.ics) which is then mailed to the notes server and imported.

I'm having trouble finding an answer to the first half of the equation though - how to schedule a powershell script or similar that will export the shared folder's calendar and send by email.

Has anybody done this, or would anybody suggest an alternative? It needs to be automated, so that the calendars can sync regularly throughout the day.

-Brendan

Answer 1

You can use the CalendarSharing object to export a specified calendar to an .ics file: https://msdn.microsoft.com/EN-US/library/ff863593.aspx

However, automating this can be tricky. You cannot use the Outlook Object Model in the Task Scheduler or in a Windows Service: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/237913

So you'd have to use Extended MAPI with C++, or use a third-party library like Redemption - both of which can be run in a service.