EventKit
Requesting Permission
Your app can’t access your reminders and your calendar without permission. Instead, it must show an alert to user, requesting him/her to grant access to events for the app.
To get started, import the EventKit framework:
Swift
import EventKitObjective-C
#import <EventKit/EventKit.h>Making an EKEventStore
Then, we make an EKEventStore object. This is the object from which we can access calendar and reminders data:
Swift
let eventStore = EKEventStore()Objective-C
EKEventStore *eventStore = [[EKEventStore alloc] init];Note
Making an
EKEventStoreobject every time we need to access calendar is not efficient. Try to make it once and use it everywhere in your code.
Checking Availability
Availability has three different status: Authorized, Denied and Not Determined. Not Determined means the app needs to grant access.
To check availability, we use authorizationStatusForEntityType() method of the EKEventStore object:
Swift
switch EKEventStore.authorizationStatusForEntityType(EKEntityTypeEvent){
case .Authorized: //...
case .Denied: //...
case .NotDetermined: //...
default: break
}Objective-C
switch ([EKEventStore authorizationStatusForEntityType:EKEntityTypeEvent]){
case EKAuthorizationStatus.Authorized:
//...
break;
case EKAuthorizationStatus.Denied:
//...
break;
case EKAuthorizationStatus.NotDetermined:
//...
break;
default:
break;
}Requesting Permission
Put the following code in NotDetermined case:
Swift
eventStore.requestAccessToEntityType(EKEntityTypeEvent, completion: { [weak self] (userGrantedAccess, _) -> Void in
if userGrantedAccess{
//access calendar
}
}Accessing different types of calendars
Accessing the array of calendars
To access the array of EKCalendars, we use the calendarsForEntityType method:
Swift
let calendarsArray = eventStore.calendarsForEntityType(EKEntityType.Event) as! [EKCalendar]Iterating through calendars
Just use a simple for loop:
Swift
for calendar in calendarsArray{
//...
}Accessing the calendar title and color
Swift
let calendarColor = UIColor(CGColor: calendar.CGColor)
let calendarTitle = calendar.titleObjective-C
UIColor *calendarColor = [UIColor initWithCGColor: calendar.CGColor];
NSString *calendarTitle = calendar.title;Adding an event
Creating the event object
Swift
var event = EKEvent(eventStore: eventStore)Objective-C
EKEvent *event = [EKEvent initWithEventStore:eventStore];Setting related calendar, title and dates
Swift
event.calendar = calendar
event.title = "Event Title"
event.startDate = startDate //assuming startDate is a valid NSDate object
event.endDate = endDate //assuming endDate is a valid NSDate objectAdding event to calendar
Swift
try {
do eventStore.saveEvent(event, span: EKSpan.ThisEvent)
} catch let error as NSError {
//error
}Objective-C
NSError *error;
BOOL *result = [eventStore saveEvent:event span:EKSpanThisEvent error:&error];
if (result == NO){
//error
}