So I was able to connect SendIcal to a custom CalendarWorkItemHandler so that it actually sends an .ics file attached to the email
The problem now is that the webmail outlook exchange doesn't recognize the ics file and simply has it as an attachment, whereas Gmail properly parses the ics file format so it actually looks like a calendar invite event.
Attached below is the output of my ics file, does anyone know why outlook isn't recognizing it?
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
METHOD:REQUEST
PRODID:Microsoft Exchange Server 2007
VERSION:2.0
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:Central Standard Time
BEGIN:STANDARD
DTSTART:16010101T020000
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0600
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=1SU;BYMONTH=11
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
DTSTART:16010101T020000
TZOFFSETFROM:-0600
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;INTERVAL=1;BYDAY=2SU;BYMONTH=3
END:DAYLIGHT
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
ORGANIZER;CN="Zhang, Qihan":mailto:qihan.zhang@xyz.com
ATTENDEE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TRUE;CN=abc@gmail.com:MAILTO:abc@gmail.com
DESCRIPTION;LANGUAGE=en-US:
________________________________________
From: Zhang\, Qihan
Sent: Tuesday\, May 15\, 2012 6:10 PM
To: Zhang\, Qihan
Subject: TestSubject
When: Tuesday\, May 15\, 2012 6:30 PM-7:30 PM.
Where: TestLocation
When: Tuesday\, May 15\, 2012 6:30 PM-7:30 PM. Central Standard Time
Where: TestLocation
+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+
test
SUMMARY;LANGUAGE=en-US:FW: TestSubject
DTSTART;TZID=Central Standard Time:20120515T183000
DTEND;TZID=Central Standard Time:20120515T193000
UID:040000008200E00074C5B7101A82E0080000000096537CF3EF32CD01000000000000000010000000D9F563E58A5DB64294F3E76FF2371D0B
CLASS:PUBLIC
PRIORITY:2
DTSTAMP:20120515T231157Z
TRANSP:OPAQUE
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SEQUENCE:0
LOCATION;LANGUAGE=en-US:TestLocation
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-APPT-SEQUENCE:0
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-OWNERAPPTID:2110093462
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-BUSYSTATUS:TENTATIVE
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-INTENDEDSTATUS:BUSY
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-ALLDAYEVENT:FALSE
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-IMPORTANCE:1
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-INSTTYPE:0
BEGIN:VALARM
ACTION:DISPLAY
DESCRIPTION:REMINDER
TRIGGER;RELATED=START:-PT15M
END:VALARM
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR