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 EventKit

Objective-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 EKEventStore object 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 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.title

Objective-C

UIColor *calendarColor = [UIColor initWithCGColor: calendar.CGColor];
NSString *calendarTitle = calendar.title;

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 object

Adding 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
}