[android] How to add calendar events in Android?

I'm just getting up to speed on Android, and today in a project meeting someone said that Android has no native calendar app so users just use whatever calendar app they like.

Is this true, and if so how do I programmatically add an event to the user's calendar? Is there a common API they all share?

For what it's worth, we're probably targeting Android 2.x.

This question is related to android calendar

The answer is


Try this in your code:

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();              
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_EDIT);
intent.setType("vnd.android.cursor.item/event");
intent.putExtra("beginTime", cal.getTimeInMillis());
intent.putExtra("allDay", true);
intent.putExtra("rrule", "FREQ=YEARLY");
intent.putExtra("endTime", cal.getTimeInMillis()+60*60*1000);
intent.putExtra("title", "A Test Event from android app");
startActivity(intent);

you have to add flag:

intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK);

or you will cause error with:

startActivity() from outside of an Activity context requires the FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK


Google calendar is the "native" calendar app. As far as I know, all phones come with a version of it installed, and the default SDK provides a version.

You might check out this tutorial for working with it.


As of Android version 4.0 official APIs and intents are available to interact with the available calendar providers.


if you have a given Date string with date and time .

for e.g String givenDateString = pojoModel.getDate()/* Format dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm:ss */

use the following code to add an event with date and time to the calendar

Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
cal.setTime(new SimpleDateFormat("dd-MMM-yyyy hh:mm:ss").parse(givenDateString));
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_EDIT);
intent.setType("vnd.android.cursor.item/event");
intent.putExtra("beginTime", cal.getTimeInMillis());
intent.putExtra("allDay", false);
intent.putExtra("rrule", "FREQ=YEARLY");
intent.putExtra("endTime",cal.getTimeInMillis() + 60 * 60 * 1000);
intent.putExtra("title", " Test Title");
startActivity(intent);

i used the code below, it solves my problem to add event in default device calendar in ICS and also on version less that ICS

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 14) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_INSERT)
        .setData(Events.CONTENT_URI)
        .putExtra(CalendarContract.EXTRA_EVENT_BEGIN_TIME, beginTime.getTimeInMillis())
        .putExtra(CalendarContract.EXTRA_EVENT_END_TIME, endTime.getTimeInMillis())
        .putExtra(Events.TITLE, "Yoga")
        .putExtra(Events.DESCRIPTION, "Group class")
        .putExtra(Events.EVENT_LOCATION, "The gym")
        .putExtra(Events.AVAILABILITY, Events.AVAILABILITY_BUSY)
        .putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, "[email protected],[email protected]");
         startActivity(intent);
}

    else {
        Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();              
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_EDIT);
        intent.setType("vnd.android.cursor.item/event");
        intent.putExtra("beginTime", cal.getTimeInMillis());
        intent.putExtra("allDay", true);
        intent.putExtra("rrule", "FREQ=YEARLY");
        intent.putExtra("endTime", cal.getTimeInMillis()+60*60*1000);
        intent.putExtra("title", "A Test Event from android app");
        startActivity(intent);
        }

Hope it would help.....


Use this API in your code.. It will help u to insert event, event with reminder and event with meeting can be enabled... This api works for platform 2.1 and above Those who uses less then 2.1 instead of content://com.android.calendar/events use content://calendar/events

 public static long pushAppointmentsToCalender(Activity curActivity, String title, String addInfo, String place, int status, long startDate, boolean needReminder, boolean needMailService) {
    /***************** Event: note(without alert) *******************/

    String eventUriString = "content://com.android.calendar/events";
    ContentValues eventValues = new ContentValues();

    eventValues.put("calendar_id", 1); // id, We need to choose from
                                        // our mobile for primary
                                        // its 1
    eventValues.put("title", title);
    eventValues.put("description", addInfo);
    eventValues.put("eventLocation", place);

    long endDate = startDate + 1000 * 60 * 60; // For next 1hr

    eventValues.put("dtstart", startDate);
    eventValues.put("dtend", endDate);

    // values.put("allDay", 1); //If it is bithday alarm or such
    // kind (which should remind me for whole day) 0 for false, 1
    // for true
    eventValues.put("eventStatus", status); // This information is
    // sufficient for most
    // entries tentative (0),
    // confirmed (1) or canceled
    // (2):
    eventValues.put("eventTimezone", "UTC/GMT +2:00");
   /*Comment below visibility and transparency  column to avoid java.lang.IllegalArgumentException column visibility is invalid error */

    /*eventValues.put("visibility", 3); // visibility to default (0),
                                        // confidential (1), private
                                        // (2), or public (3):
    eventValues.put("transparency", 0); // You can control whether
                                        // an event consumes time
                                        // opaque (0) or transparent
                                        // (1).
      */
    eventValues.put("hasAlarm", 1); // 0 for false, 1 for true

    Uri eventUri = curActivity.getApplicationContext().getContentResolver().insert(Uri.parse(eventUriString), eventValues);
    long eventID = Long.parseLong(eventUri.getLastPathSegment());

    if (needReminder) {
        /***************** Event: Reminder(with alert) Adding reminder to event *******************/

        String reminderUriString = "content://com.android.calendar/reminders";

        ContentValues reminderValues = new ContentValues();

        reminderValues.put("event_id", eventID);
        reminderValues.put("minutes", 5); // Default value of the
                                            // system. Minutes is a
                                            // integer
        reminderValues.put("method", 1); // Alert Methods: Default(0),
                                            // Alert(1), Email(2),
                                            // SMS(3)

        Uri reminderUri = curActivity.getApplicationContext().getContentResolver().insert(Uri.parse(reminderUriString), reminderValues);
    }

    /***************** Event: Meeting(without alert) Adding Attendies to the meeting *******************/

    if (needMailService) {
        String attendeuesesUriString = "content://com.android.calendar/attendees";

        /********
         * To add multiple attendees need to insert ContentValues multiple
         * times
         ***********/
        ContentValues attendeesValues = new ContentValues();

        attendeesValues.put("event_id", eventID);
        attendeesValues.put("attendeeName", "xxxxx"); // Attendees name
        attendeesValues.put("attendeeEmail", "[email protected]");// Attendee
                                                                            // E
                                                                            // mail
                                                                            // id
        attendeesValues.put("attendeeRelationship", 0); // Relationship_Attendee(1),
                                                        // Relationship_None(0),
                                                        // Organizer(2),
                                                        // Performer(3),
                                                        // Speaker(4)
        attendeesValues.put("attendeeType", 0); // None(0), Optional(1),
                                                // Required(2), Resource(3)
        attendeesValues.put("attendeeStatus", 0); // NOne(0), Accepted(1),
                                                    // Decline(2),
                                                    // Invited(3),
                                                    // Tentative(4)

        Uri attendeuesesUri = curActivity.getApplicationContext().getContentResolver().insert(Uri.parse(attendeuesesUriString), attendeesValues);
    }

    return eventID;

}

Just in case if someone needs this for Xamarin in c#:

        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ActionInsert);
        intent.SetData(Android.Provider.CalendarContract.Events.ContentUri);
        intent.PutExtra(Android.Provider.CalendarContract.ExtraEventBeginTime, Utils.Tools.CurrentTimeMillis(game.Date));
        intent.PutExtra(Android.Provider.CalendarContract.EventsColumns.AllDay, false);
        intent.PutExtra(Android.Provider.CalendarContract.EventsColumns.EventLocation, "Location");
        intent.PutExtra(Android.Provider.CalendarContract.EventsColumns.Description, "Description");
        intent.PutExtra(Android.Provider.CalendarContract.ExtraEventEndTime, Utils.Tools.CurrentTimeMillis(game.Date.AddHours(2)));
        intent.PutExtra(Android.Provider.CalendarContract.EventsColumns.Title, "Title");
        StartActivity(intent);

Helper Functions:

    private static readonly DateTime Jan1st1970 = new DateTime(1970, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);

    public static long CurrentTimeMillis(DateTime date)
    {
        return (long)(date.ToUniversalTime() - Jan1st1970).TotalMilliseconds;
    }

Try this ,

   Calendar beginTime = Calendar.getInstance();
    beginTime.set(yearInt, monthInt - 1, dayInt, 7, 30);



    ContentValues l_event = new ContentValues();
    l_event.put("calendar_id", CalIds[0]);
    l_event.put("title", "event");
    l_event.put("description",  "This is test event");
    l_event.put("eventLocation", "School");
    l_event.put("dtstart", beginTime.getTimeInMillis());
    l_event.put("dtend", beginTime.getTimeInMillis());
    l_event.put("allDay", 0);
    l_event.put("rrule", "FREQ=YEARLY");
    // status: 0~ tentative; 1~ confirmed; 2~ canceled
    // l_event.put("eventStatus", 1);

    l_event.put("eventTimezone", "India");
    Uri l_eventUri;
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 8) {
        l_eventUri = Uri.parse("content://com.android.calendar/events");
    } else {
        l_eventUri = Uri.parse("content://calendar/events");
    }
    Uri l_uri = MainActivity.this.getContentResolver()
            .insert(l_eventUri, l_event);