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vCard
The Electronic Business Card
Version 2.1
A versit Consortium Specification
September 18, 1996
Copyrights
? 1996, International Business Machines Corp., Lucent Technologies,
Inc., and Siemens. All rights reserved.
Permission is granted to copy and distribute this publication provided
that it is reproduced in its entirety without modification and
includes the above copyright notice and this permission notice.
No licenses, express or implied, are granted with respect to any of
the technology described in this publication. International Business
Machines Corp., Lucent Technologies, Inc., and Siemens retain all
their intellectual property rights in the technology described in this
publication.
Even though International Business Machines Corp., Lucent
Technologies, Inc., and Siemens have reviewed this specification,
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, INC, AND
SIEMENS, MAKE NO WARRANTY OR REPRESENTATION, EITHER EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, WITH RESPECT TO THIS PUBLICATION, ITS QUALITY OR ACCURACY,
NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
AS A RESULT, THIS SPECIFICATION IS DELIVERED "AS IS" AND THE READER
ASSUMES THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO ITS QUALITY, ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY FOR
ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE..
IN NO EVENT WILL INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., LUCENT
TECHNOLOGIES, INC, AND SIEMENS, BE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT,
SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ANY
DEFECT OR INACCURACY IN THIS PUBLICATION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
This publication is provided with RESTRICTED RIGHTS. Use, duplication,
or disclosure by the Government are subject to restrictions set forth
in DFARS 252.227-7013 or 48 CFR 52.227-19, as applicable.
Trademarks
versit, the versit logo, versitcard, vCard, and vCalendar are
trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., AT&T Corp., International Business
Machines Corp., and Siemens.
Apple, is a trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. registered in the U.S.
and other countries.
AT&T and ATTMail are registered trademarks of AT&T Corp.
IBM, IBM Mail, and OS/2 are registered trademarks of International
Business Machines Corporation.
America Online is a registered trademark of America Online, Inc.
CompuServe, CompuServe Information Services are registered trademarks
of Compuserve Incorporated.
MCIMail is a registered trademark of MCI Communications Corporation.
Microsoft is a registered trademark, and Microsoft Windows is a
trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Prodigy is a registered trademark of Prodigy Services Company.
Unicode is a registered trademark of Unicode, Inc.
Contributors
Roland Alden
Greg Ames, Ames & Associates
Masanari Arai, Puma Technologies
Stephen W. Bartlett
Donal Carroll
Liang-Jye Chang, Starfish Software
Frank Dawson, IBM Corporation
Ken Dobson, IntelliLink Inc.
Scott Feldstein, Nimble Software, Inc.
Anik Ganguly, OnTime/Division of FTP Software.
Beijing Goo, Microsoft
Arvind K. Goyal, Lotus Development Corporation
Gary Hand, IBM Corporation
Tim Howes, Netscape Communications Corporation
Mark Joseph, Attachmate Corporation
Kerry Kelly, Now Software, Inc.
Phac Letuan, Apple Computer, Inc.
Pat Megowan, Counterpoint Sytems Foundry Inc.
Tohri Mori, IBM Japan/Salutation Consortium
Ravi Pandya, NetManage, Inc.
Geoff Ralston, Four11 Corporation
Steven Rummel, Lucent Technologies
Michael Santullo, Four11 Corporation
Vinod Seraphin, Lotus Development Corporation
Dexter Seely, Corex Technologies, Inc.
Vlad Shmunis, Ring Zero Systems Inc.
Dean Stevens, Now Software, Inc.
Michelle Watkins, Netscape Communications Corporation
Horst Widlewski, Siemens
Reference Information
The cited references contain provisions which, through reference in
this specification, constitute provisions of this specification. At
the time of publication, the indicated versions in the following
references were valid. Parties to agreements based on this
specification are encouraged to research the possibility of revised
standards.
* ANSI X3.4-1977, Code for Information Interchange, American
National Standards Institute, 1977.
* CCITT (ITU) Recommendation E.163, Numbering Plan for The
International Telephone Service, CCITT Blue Book, Fascicle II.2, pp.
128-134, November, 1988.
* CCITT (ITU) Recommendation G.721, 32 kbit/s Adaptive Differential
Pulse Code Modulation (ADPCM), CCITT Red Book, Fascicle III.4,
November, 1988.
* CCITT (ITU) Recommendation X.121, International Numbering Plan
for Public Data Networks, CCITT Blue Book, Fascicle VIII.3, pp. 317-
332, November, 1988.
* CCITT (ITU) Recommendations X.500-X.521, Data Communication
Networks: Directory, CCITT Blue Book, Fascicle VIII.8, November, 1988.
* CCITT Recommendation X.520, The Directory-Selected Attribute
Types, 1988.
* CCITT Recommendation X.521, The Directory-Selected Object
Classes, 1988.
* IETF RFC 1738, Universal Resource Locator, December 1994.
* IETF Network Working Group RFC 1766, Tags for the Identification
of Languages, March 1995.
* IETF Network Working Group Draft, A MIME Content-Type for
Directory Information, January 1996. Available from the University of
Michigan, 535 W. William St., Ann Arbor, MI 48103-4943,
FTP://ds.internic.net/Internet-Drafts/draft-ietf-asid-mime-direct-
01.txt.
* IETF Network Working Group Draft, An Application/Directory MIME
Content-Type Electronic Business Card Profile, May 1996. Available
FTP://ds.internic.net/Internet-Drafts/draft-ietf-asid-mime-vcard-
00.txt.
* IETF Network Working Group Draft, UTF-8, A Transformation Format
of UNICODE and ISO 10646, July 1996. Available from
FTP://ds.internic.net/Internet-Drafts/draft-yergeau-utf8-01.txt.
* ISO 639, Code for The Representation of names of languages,
International Organization for Standardization, April, 1988.
* ISO 3166, Codes for The Representation of names of countries,
International Organization for Standardization, December, 1993.
* ISO 8601, Data elements and interchange formats-Information
interchange-Representation of dates and times, International
Organization for Standardization, June, 1988.
* ISO 8601, Technical Corrigendum 1, Data elements and interchange
formats-Information interchange-Representation of dates and times,
International Organization for Standardization, May, 1991.
* ISO 8859-1, Information Processing-8-Bit single-byte coded
graphic character sets-Part 1: Latin Alphabet No. 1, International
Organization for Standardization, February, 1987.
* ISO 9070, Information Processing-SGML support facilities-
Registration Procedures for Public Text Owner Identifiers, 1990-02-
01.[DS1]
? ISO/IEC 9070, Information Technology?SGML Support
Facilities?Registration Procedures for Public Text Owner Identifiers,
Second Edition, International Organization for Standardization, April,
1991.
? ISO/IEC 11180, Postal addressing, International Organization for
Standardization, 1993.
? Apple?s Representation of a Canonical Static DeviceID in The
Telephony Suite, version 1.0, Apple Computer, Inc., 1993.
* Microsoft TAPI in Microsoft Windows 3.1 Telephony Programmers'
Guide, version 1.0, Microsoft Corporation, 1993.
* RFC1521, MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part One:
Mechanisms for Specifying and Describing the Format of Internet
Message Bodies, Network Working Group, September, 1993.
* The Unicode Standard, Version 1.1: Version 1.0, Volume 1 (ISBN 0-
201-56788-1), version 1.0, volume 2 (ISBN 0-20-60845-6) and Unicode
Technical Report #4, The Unicode Standard, version 1.1, The Unicode
Consortium, October, 1991. Both references to be published by Addison-
Wesley.
versit Update
versit is a multivendor development initiative of the communication
and computer industries, founded by Apple, AT&T, IBM and Siemens. The
versit parties believe that great potential exists in improving the
nature of communications in the business world-permitting companies to
better manage their quality, productivity, customer satisfaction and
cost of operations, while expanding the market opportunities for a
variety of product and service vendors. versit parties will jointly
define and support open specifications that facilitate and promote the
interoperability of advanced personal information and communication
devices, networks and services.
The versit vision is to enable diverse communication and computing
devices, applications and services from competing vendors to
interoperate in all environments. Through developing a series of
specifications for interoperability among diverse communications and
computing devices, applications, networks and services, versit 's
vision will become a reality.
versit 's primary development areas are in:
* Personal Data Interchange (PDI)
* Computer Telephone Integration (CTI)
* Conferencing and Messaging (C&M)
* Wired and Wireless connectivity
versit specifications are directed at both the decision makers and the
implementation teams of:
* Equipment Manufacturers
* Independent Software Vendors
* Information Service Providers
* Online Service Providers
* Software Houses
* Users
versit specifications are made available to any interested party. In
turn, versit encourages the support of our goals by soliciting
feedback on versit specifications.
All comments relating to versit or the material within this
specification should be submitted to:
versit
(800) 803-6240
+1 (201) 327-2803 (Outside USA)
pdi@versit.com
http://www.versit.com/pdi
Contents
Section 1 : Introduction
1.1 Overview
1.2 Scope
1.3 Contents
1.4 Definitions and Abbreviations
Section 2 : vCard Specificiation
2.1 Encoding Characteristics
2.1.1 vCard Object
2.1.2 Property
2.1.3 Delimiters
2.1.4 Grouping
2.1.4.1 vCard Grouping
2.1.4.2 Property Grouping
2.1.5 Encodings
2.1.6 Character Set
2.1.7 Language
2.1.8 Value Location
2.1.9 Binary Values
2.2 Identification Properties
2.2.1 Formatted Name
2.2.2 Name
2.2.3 Photograph
2.2.3.1 Photo Format Type
2.2.4 Birthdate
2.3 Delivery Addressing Properties
2.3.1 Delivery Address
2.3.1.1 Delivery Address Type
2.3.2 Delivery Label
2.3.2.1 Delivery Label Type
2.4 Telecommunications Addressing Properties
2.4.1 Telephone Number
2.4.1.1 Telephone Type
2.4.2 Electronic Mail
2.4.2.1 Electronic Mail Type
2.4.3 Mailer
2.4.4 Geographical Properties
2.4.5 Time Zone
2.4.6 Geographic Position
2.5 Organizational Properties
2.5.1 Title
2.5.2 Business Category
2.5.3 Logo
2.5.3.1 Logo Format Type
2.5.4 Agent
2.5.5 Organization Name and Organizational Unit
2.6 Explanatory Properties
2.6.1 Comment
2.6.2 Last Revision
2.6.3 Sound
2.6.3.1 Sound Digital Audio Type
2.6.4 Uniform Resource Locator
2.6.5 Unique Identifier
2.6.6 Version
2.7 Security Properties
2.7.1 Public Key
2.7.2 Key Type
2.8 Miscellaneous Properties
2.8.1 Extensions
2.9 Formal Definition
Section 3 : Internet Recommendations
3.1 Recommended Practice with SMTP/MIME
3.1.1 Text/Plain Content Type
3.1.2 Text/X-vCard Content Type
3.1.3 Application/Directory Content Type
3.2 Recommended Practice with HTTP/HTML
3.2.1 Form Element Usage
3.2.2 Mapping To INPUT Element Attribute Names
3.2.3 Example HTML Code
Section 4 : UI Support Recommendations
4.1 File System
4.2 Clipboard
4.3 Drag/Drop
Section 5 : Conformance
Section 1 : Introduction
[DS2]
Personal Data Interchange (PDI) occurs every time two or more
individuals communicate, in either a business or personal context,
face-to-face, or across space and time. Such interchanges frequently
include the exchange of informal information, such as business cards,
telephone numbers, addresses, dates and times of appointments, etc.
Augmenting PDI with electronics and telecommunications can help ensure
that information is quickly and reliably communicated, stored,
organized and easily located when needed.
Personal information, by nature, is complex and diverse. Currently,
proprietary standards exist to structure some types of PDI
information, but no single, open specification comprehensively
addresses the needs of collecting and communicating PDI information
across many common communication channels such as telephones, voice-
mail, e-mail, and face-to-face meetings. versit is developing a
comprehensive family of PDI technologies based on open specifications
and interoperability agreements to help meet this technology need.
Overview
This specification defines a format for an electronic business card,
or vCard. The format is suitable as an interchange format between
applications or systems. The format is defined independent of the
particular method used to transport it. The transport for this
exchange might be a file system, point-to-point asynchronous
communication, wired-network transport, or some form of unwired
transport.
A vCard is a data stream consisting of one or more vCard objects. The
individual vCard definitions can be identified and parsed within the
datastream. The vCard data stream may exist as a persistent form in a
file system, document management system, network connection between
two network endpoints, or in any other digital transport that has an
abstraction of a stream of bytes.
Conceptually, a vCard Writer creates vCard data streams and a vCard
Reader interprets vCard data streams. The vCard Reader and Writer may
be implemented as a single application or as separate applications. It
is not the intent of this specification to define the implementation
of these processes beyond some fundamental capabilities related to the
format of the vCard data stream and a common set of conformance
requirements .
This specification provides for a clear-text encoding that is intended
to be based on the syntax used by the MIME specification (RFC 1521).
The encoding of this specification can be used in environments which
are constrained to 7-bit transfer encodings, short line lengths, and
low bandwidth. In addition, the encoding is simple in order to
facilitate the implementation of reader and writer applications on
small platforms, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), cellular
telephones, or alphanumeric pagers.
Scope
The vCard is intended to be used for exchanging information about
people and resources. In today's business environment, this
information is typically exchanged on business cards. It is
appropriate, then that this specification define this information in
terms of a paradigm based on an electronic business card object.
The ultimate destination for this information is often a collection of
business cards, Rolodex<65> file, or electronic contact manager. Prior to
the introduction of the vCard specification, users of such
applications typically had to re-key the original information, often
transcribing it from paper business cards. With the advent of the
vCard specification, this information can be exchanged in an automated
fashion.
The basis for the data types supported by this specification have
their origin in openly defined, international standards and in
additional capabilities based on enhancements suggested by the
demonstration of the exchange of prototypical vCards using the
Internet based World-Wide-Web, Infra-red data transport, and
simultaneous voice and data (SVD) modems.
The "person" object defined by the CCITT X.500 Series Recommendation
for Directory Services was the primary reference for the properties
that are defined by this specification. Every attempt was made to make
it possible to map the X.520/X.521 attributes and objects into and out
of an instance of a vCard. The vCard specification has extended the
capabilities that have been defined within the CCITT X.500 Series
Recommendation to allow the exchange of additional information often
recorded on business cards and electronic contact managers. For
example, this specification provides support for exchanging graphic
images representing company logos, photographs of individuals, geo-
positioning information, and other extensions to properties defined by
the X.500 Recommendation.
The specification of all date and time values are defined in terms of
the ISO 8601 standard for representation of dates and times. ISO 8601
supersedes all other international standards defined at the time this
specification was drafted.
The paradigm of an electronic business card is related to the concepts
of an entry in a LAN/WAN directory or an electronic mail address book
or distribution list. However, the requirements of the electronic
business card go beyond the definitions of a "person" object found in
either the CCITT X.500 Series Recommendation, network directory
services, or electronic mail address book products. The vCard
specification is needed to address the requirements for an interchange
format for the "person" personal data type or object.
Personal data applications such as Personal Information Managers (PIM)
often provide an import/export capability using Comma Separated Value
(CSV) or Tab Delimited Files (TDF) formats. However, these solutions
do not preserve the intent of the originating application. When a CSV
and TDF format is used by a PIM, the meta-data or semantics of the
originating object are only apparent to a similar version of the
originating application. Exchange of data between such applications is
another important application of an industry-standard specification
for an electronic business card interchange format, such as the vCard
specification.
Contents
This specification is separated into eight sections:
* "Section 1 : Introduction" introduces PDI and the vCard
specification with an overview, scope statement and section on
definitions and abbreviations.
* "Section 2 : vCard Specification" defines the semantics and
syntax for the vCard.
* "Section 3 : Internet Recommendations" specifies a set of
guidelines to facilitate the exchange of vCard objects over Internet
protocols such as HTTP using HTML and SMTP using MIME.
* "Section 4 : UI Support Recommendations" specifies a set of
guidelines to facilitate the exchange of vCard objects at the desktop
user interface using the file system, clipboard and drag/drop
capabilities of the operating system.
* "Section 5 : Conformance" defines minimum conformance
requirements to consider while developing support for this vCard
specification.
Definitions and Abbreviations
Definitions and abbreviations used within this specification follow.
Electronic Business Card: Also known as vCard.
FPI: Formal Public Identifier. A string expression that represents a
public identifier for an object. FPI syntax is defined by ISO 9070.
GUID: Globally Unique IDentifier
Internet: A WAN connecting thousands of disparate networks in
industry, education, government, and research. The Internet uses
TCP/IP as the standard for transmitting information.
ISO: Organization for International Standardization; a worldwide
federation of national standards bodies (ISO Member bodies).
MIME: Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, as defined in RFC1521.
PDA: Personal Digital Assistant computing device
PDI: Personal Data Interchange, a collaborative application area which
involves the communication of data between people who have a business
or personal relationship, but do not necessarily share a common
computing infrastructure.
PIM: Personal Information Manager
RFC#### documents: Internet "Request For Comment" documents (i.e.,
RFC822, RFC1521, etc.).
URL: Uniform Resource Locator; a string expression that can represent
any resource on the Internet or local system. RFC 1738 defines the
syntax for an URL.
UTC: Universal Time Coordinated; also known as UCT, for Universal
Coordinated Time.
vCard: The generic term for an electronic, virtual information card
that can be transferred between computers, PDAs, or other electronic
devices through telephone lines, or e-mail networks, or infrared
links. How, when, why, and where vCard are used depends on the
applications developed utilizing a vCard.
versitcard: a vCard.
WAN: Wide-Area Network
Section 2 : vCard Specificiation
[DS3]
This section defines the semantics and syntax for the vCard.
A vCard is a collection of one or more properties. A property is a
uniquely named value. A set of properties can be grouped within a
vCard. For example, the properties for a telephone number and comment
can be grouped in order to preserve the coupling of the annotation
with the telephone number. In addition to property groupings, a vC.
versit is developing a comprehensive family of PDI technologies based
on open specifications and interoperability agreements to help meet
this technology need.
Overview
This specification defines a format for an electronic business card,
or vCard. The format is suitable as an interchange format between
applications or systems. The format is defined independent of the
particular method used to transport it. The transport for this
exchange might be a file system, point-to-point asynchronous
communication, wired-network transport, or some form of unwired
transport.
A vCard is a data stream consisting of one or more vCard objects. The
individual vCard definitions can be identified and parsed within the
datastream. The vCard data stream may exist as a persistent form in a
file system, document management system, network connection between
two network endpoints, or in any other digital transport that has an
abstraction of a stream of bytes.
Conceptually, a vCard Writer creates vCard data streams and a vCard
Reader interprets vCard data streams. The vCard Reader and Writer may
be implemented as a single application or as separate applications. It
is not the intent of this specification to define the implementation
of these processes beyond some fundamental capabilities related to the
format of the vCard data stream and a common set of conformance
requirements .
This specification provides for a clear-text encoding that is intended
to be based on the syntax used by the MIME specification (RFC 1521).
The encoding of this specification can be used in environments which
are constrained to 7-bit transfer encodings, short line lengths, and
low bandwidth. In addition, the encoding is simple in order to
facilitate the implementation of reader and writer applications on
small platforms, such as Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), cellular
telephones, or alphanumeric pagers.
Scope
The vCard is intended to be used for exchanging information about
people and resources. In today's business environment, this
information is typically exchanged on business cards. It is
appropriate, then that this specification define this information in
terms of a paradigm based on an electronic business card object.
The ultimate destination for this information is often a collection of
business cards, Rolodex<65> file, or electronic contact manager. Prior to
the introduction of the vCard specification, users of such
applications typically had to re-key the original information, often
transcribing it from paper business cards. With the advent of the
vCard specification, this information can be exchanged in an automated
fashion.
The basis for the data types supported by this specification have
their origin in openly defined, international standards and in
additional capabilities based on enhancements suggested by the
demonstration of the exchange of prototypical vCards using the
Internet based World-Wide-Web, Infra-red data transport, and
simultaneous voice and data (SVD) modems.
The "person" object defined by the CCITT X.500 Series Recommendation
for Directory Services was the primary reference for the properties
that are defined by this specification. Every attempt was made to make
it possible to map the X.520/X.521 attributes and objects into and out
of an instance of a vCard. The vCard specification has extended the
capabilities that have been defined within the CCITT X.500 Series
Recommendation to allow the exchange of additional information often
recorded on business cards and electronic contact managers. For
example, this specification provides support for exchanging graphic
images representing company logos, photographs of individuals, geo-
positioning information, and other extensions to properties defined by
the X.500 Recommendation.
The specification of all date and time values are defined in terms of
the ISO 8601 standard for representation of dates and times. ISO 8601
supersedes all other international standards defined at the time this
specification was drafted.
The paradigm of an electronic business card is related to the concepts
of aQuoted-Printable lines of text must also be limited to less than
76 characters. The 76 characters does not include the CRLF (RFC 822)
line break sequence. For example a multiple line LABEL property value
of:
123 Winding Way
Any Town, CA 12345
USA
Would be represented in a Quoted-Printable encoding as:
LABEL;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:123 Winding Way=0D=0A=
Any Town, CA 12345=0D=0A=
USA
Property parameter substrings are delimited by a field delimiter,
specified by the Semi-colon character (ASCII decimal 59). A Semi-colon
in a property parameter value must be escaped with a Backslash
character (ASCII 92).
Compound property values are property values that also make use of the
Semi-colon, field delimiter to separate positional components of the
value. For example, the Name property is made up of the Family Name,
Given Name, etc. components. A Semi-colon in a component of a compound
property value must be escaped with a Backslash character (ASCII 92).
Grouping
There are two forms of grouping or collections supported within the
vCard. A collection of vCard objects can be grouped and a collection
of properties within an individual vCard can be grouped.
vCard Grouping
The vCard data stream can consist of multiple vCard objects. The vCard
data stream can, sequentially, contain one or more vCard objects., In
addition, the vCard data stream can contain a property whose value is
a nested vCard. In both of these cases, each vCard object will be
delimited by the vCard Delimiters. The vCard Reader conforming to this
specification must be able to parse and process any of these
combinations of vCard Groupings. The support for vCard Grouping is
optional for a vCard Writer conforming to this specification.
Property Grouping
A Property Grouping is the definition of a method for specifying a
collection of related properties within a vCard object. There is no
requirement on a vCard reader that it preserve the property group
name. However, the vCard reader is required to preserve the grouping
of the properties.
The Property Grouping is identified by a character string prefix to
the property name; separated by the Period character (ASCII decimal
46).
The grouping of a comment property with a telephone property is shown
in the following example:
A.TEL;HOME:+1-213-555-1234
A.NOTE:This is my vacation home.
The vCard Reader conforming to this specification must be able to
parse and process the property grouping. The support for Property
Grouping is optional for a vCard Writer conforming to this
specification.
Encodings
The default encoding for the vCard object is 7-Bit. The default
encoding can be overridden for an individual property value by using
the "ENCODING" property parameter. This parameter value can be either
"BASE64", "QUOTED-PRINTABLE", or "8BIT". This parameter may be used on
any property.
Some transports (e.g., MIME based electronic mail) may also provide an
encoding property at the transport wrapper level. This property can be
used in these cases for transporting a vCard data stream that has been
defined using a default encoding other than 7-bit (e.g., 8-bit).
Character Set
The default character set is ASCII. The default character set can be
overridden for an individual property value by using the "CHARSET"
property parameter. This property parameter may be used on any
property. However, the use of this parameter on some properties may
not make sense.
Any character set registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers
Authority (IANA) can be specified by this property parameter. For
example, ISO 8859-8 or the Latin/Hebrew character set is specified by:
ADR;CHARSET=ISO-8859-8:...
Some transports (e.g., MIME based electronic mail) may also provide a
character set property at the transport wrapper level. This property
can be used in these cases for transporting a vCard data stream that
has been defined using a default character set other than ASCII (e.g.,
UTF-8).
Language
The default language is "en-US" (US English). The default language can
be overridden for an individual property value by using the "LANGUAGE"
property parameter. The values for this property are a string
consistent with RFC 1766, Tags for the Identification of Languages.
This property parameter may be used on any property. However, the use
of this parameter on some properties, such as PHOTO, LOGO, SOUND, TEL,
may not make sense. Canadian French would be specified by this
parameter by the following:
ADR;LANGUAGE=fr-CA:...
Value Location
The default location of the property value is inline with the
property. However, for some properties, such as those that specify
multimedia values, it is efficient to organize the property value as a
separate entity (e.g., a file out on the network). The property
parameter "VALUE" can be specified to override the "INLINE" location
of the property value. In the case of the vCard being transported
within a MIME email message, the property value can be specified as
being located in a separate MIME entity with the "Content-ID" value,
or "CID" for short. In this case, the property value is the Content-ID
for the MIME entity containing the property value. In addition, the
property value can be specified as being located out on the network
within some Internet resource with the "URL" value. In this case, the
property value is the Uniform Resource Locator for the Internet
resource containing the property value. This property parameter may be
used on any property. However, the use of this parameter on some
properties may not make sense; for example the Version, Time Zone,
Comment, Unique Identifier, properties . The following specifies a
value not located inline with the vCard but out in the Internet:
PHOTO;VALUE=URL;TYPE=GIF:http://www.abc.com/dir_photos/my_photo.gif
SOUND;VALUE=CONTENT-ID:<jsmith.part3.960817T083000.xyzMail@host1.com
Binary Values
The vCard format supports inclusion of binary information, such as
computer graphic images, digital audio, or video graphic images. The
binary information may either be referenced with a Uniform Reference
Locator (URL) or placed inline in the vCard as the value of a
property. Inline binary information is included as a property value
after being encoded into clear-text with a Base 64 (default) or
Quoted-Printable encoding
Identification Properties
These property types are concerned with information associated with
the identification and naming of the individual or resource associated
with the vCard object.
Formatted Name
This property specifies the formatted name string associated with the
vCard object. This is the way that the name is to be displayed. It can
contain desired honorific prefixes, suffixes, titles, etc. For
example, "Mr. John Q. Public, Jr.", Dr. Ann Tyler, or Hon. Judge
Blackwell. This property is based on the semantics of the X.520 Common
Name attribute.
This property is identified by the property name FN. The following is
an example of the Formatted Name property:
FN:Mr. John Q. Public, Esq.
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Name
This property specifies a structured representation of the name of the
person, place or thing associated with the vCard object.
This property is identified by the property name N. This property is
defined to encapsulate the individual components of an object's name.
The property value consists of the components of the name specified as
positional fields separated by the Field Delimiter character (ASCII
decimal 59). The property value is a concatenation of the Family Name
(first field), Given Name (second field), Additional Names (third
field), Name Prefix (fourth field), and Name Suffix (fifth field)
strings. The following is an example of the Name property for a
person:
N:Public;John;Quinlan;Mr.;Esq.
The following is an example of the Name property for a resource or
place:
N:Veni, Vidi, Vici;The Restaurant.
Support for this property is mandatory for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification. All vCard data streams should include this
property to facilitate a common property for collating and sorting of
vCard objects.
Photograph
This property specifies an image or photograph of the individual
associated with the vCard.
The property is identified by the property name PHOTO. For example,
the following syntax is an example of a referenced image file:
PHOTO;VALUE=URL:file:///jqpublic.gif
The following example is the syntax for including an inline GIF image
file, using the Base 64 encoding:
PHOTO;ENCODING=BASE64;TYPE=GIF:
R0lGODdhfgA4AOYAAAAAAK+vr62trVIxa6WlpZ+fnzEpCEpzlAha/0Kc74+PjyGM
SuecKRhrtX9/fzExORBSjCEYCGtra2NjYyF7nDGE50JrhAg51qWtOTl7vee1MWu1
50o5e3PO/3sxcwAx/4R7GBgQOcDAwFoAQt61hJyMGHuUSpRKIf8A/wAY54yMjHtz
...
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Photo Format Type
This property parameter is provided to specify the graphics format for
the Photo property value. The property parameter includes the
following values:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates Graphics Interchange Format
GIF
Indicates ISO Computer Graphics Metafile
CGM
Indicates MS Windows Metafile
WMF
Indicates MS Windows Bitmap
BMP
Indicates IBM PM Metafile
MET
Indicates IBM PM Bitmap
PMB
Indicates MS Windows DIB
DIB
Indicates an Apple Picture format
PICT
Indicates a Tagged Image File Format
TIFF
Indicates Adobe PostScript format
PS
Indicates Adobe Page Description Format
PDF
Indicates ISO JPEG format
JPEG
Indicates ISO MPEG format
MPEG
Indicates ISO MPEG version 2 format
MPEG2
Indicates Intel AVI format
AVI
Indicates Apple QuickTime format
QTIME
Birthdate
This property specifies the date of birth of the individual associated
with the vCard. The value for this property is a calendar date in a
complete representation consistent with ISO 8601.
This property is identified by the property name BDAY. The property
value is a string conforming to the ISO 8601 calendar date, complete
representation, in either basic or extended format. The following
example is in the basic format of ISO 8601:
BDAY:19950415
The following example is in the extended format of ISO 8601:
BDAY:1995-04-15
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Delivery Addressing Properties
Delivery Address
This property specifies a structured representation of the physical
delivery address for the vCard object. The property is made up of
components that are based on the X.500 Post Office Box attribute, the
X.520 Street Address geographical attribute, the X.520 Locality Name
geographical attribute, the X.520 State or Province Name geographical
attribute, the X.520 Postal Code attribute, and the X.520 Country Name
geographical attribute.
This property is identified by the property name ADR. The property
value consists of components of the address specified as positional
fields separated by the Field Delimiter character (ASCII decimal 59).
The property value is a concatenation of the Post Office Address
(first field) Extended Address (second field), Street (third field),
Locality (fourth field), Region (fifth field), Postal Code (six
field), and Country (seventh field) strings. An example of this
property follows:
ADR;DOM;HOME:P.O. Box 101;Suite 101;123 Main Street;Any Town;CA;91921-
1234;
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Delivery Address Type
This property parameter specifies the sub-types of physical delivery
that is associated with the delivery address. For example, the label
may need to be differentiated for Home, Work, Parcel, Postal,
Domestic, and International physical delivery. One or more sub-types
can be specified for a given delivery address.
The property parameter can have one or more of the following values:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates a domestic address
DOM
Indicates an international address (Default)
INTL
Indicates a postal delivery address (Default)
POSTAL
Indicates a parcel delivery address (Default)
PARCEL
Indicates a home delivery address
HOME
Indicates a work delivery address (Default)
WORK
The default property parameter is overridden to some other set of
values by specifying one or more alternate values. For example, the
default of a delivery for INTL, WORK, POSTAL and PARCEL can be reset
to DOM, POSTAL, WORK and HOME in the following example:
ADR;DOM;WORK;HOME;POSTAL:P.O. Box 101;;;Any Town;CA;91921-1234;
Delivery Label
This property specifies the addressing label for physical delivery to
the person/object associated with the vCard. The property is intended
to include the information necessary to create a formatted delivery
address label. Typical information includes the name, street address,
possibly a Post Office or mail drop, city, state or province, zip or
postal code. An international delivery label would also include the
country name.
This property is based on the semantics of the X.520 Postal Address
attribute. This specification has added semantics to those defined by
the X.500 Series standard for differentiating Home, Work, Parcel,
Postal, Domestic, and International delivery label types.
This property is identified by the property name LABEL. This property
specifies the formatted delivery address label for the vCard object.
An example of a domestic delivery label follows:
LABEL;DOM;POSTAL;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:P. O. Box 456=0D=0A=
123 Main Street=0D=0A=
Any Town, CA 91921-1234
An example of an international delivery label follows:
LABEL;INTL;PARCEL,ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Suite 101=0D=0A=
123 Main Street=0D=0A=
Any Town, CA 91921-1234=0D=0A=
U.S.A.
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification. A vCard Reader supporting this property and
conforming to this specification should support a minimum of four
lines of text for this property.
Delivery Label Type
This property parameter specifies the sub-types of physical delivery
that is associated with the delivery label. For example, the label may
need to be differentiated for Home, Work, Parcel, Postal, Domestic,
and International physical delivery. One or more sub-types can be
specified for a given delivery label.
The property parameter can have one or more of the following values:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates a domestic address
DOM
Indicates an international address (Default)
INTL
Indicates a postal delivery address (Default)
POSTAL
Indicates a parcel delivery address (Default)
PARCEL
Indicates a home delivery address
HOME
Indicates a work delivery address (Default)
WORK
The default property parameter is overridden to some other set of
values by specifying one or more alternate values. For example, the
default of a delivery for INTL, WORK, POSTAL and PARCEL can be reset
to DOM and HOME in the following example:
LABEL;DOM;HOME,ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Suite 101=0D=0A=
123 Main Street=0D=0A=
Any Town, CA 91921-1234
Telecommunications Addressing Properties
These property types are concerned with information associated with
the telecommunications addressing of the vCard object.
Telephone Number
This property specifies the canonical number string for a telephone
number for telephony communication with the vCard object. The value of
this property is specified in a canonical form in order to specify an
unambiguous representation of the globally unique telephony endpoint.
This property is based on the X.520 Telephone Number attribute.
The canonical form cannot be dialed without first being transformed by
a dialing algorithm. The dialing algorithm combines the canonical
number string with knowledge of the local dialing procedures, in
effect at the time of call placement to produce actual dialing
instructions. The actual dialing algorithm is outside the scope of
this specification.
Two important canonical forms allowed by this specification are:
* Apple Computer's Representation of a Canonical Static DeviceID in
The Telephony Suite, version 1.0,
* Microsoft TAPI in the Microsoft Windows 3.1 Telephony
Programmer's Guide, version 1.0.
Software which creates this property can store a string in these
allowed formats. Dialing software should be prepared to parse numbers
from either of the supported formats; as neither format is considered
to be technically costly to support.
This property is identified by the property name TEL. An example of
this property follows:
TEL;PREF;WORK;MSG;FAX:+1-800-555-1234
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Telephone Type
This property parameter specifies the sub-type of telephone that is
associated with the telephone number (e.g., Home, Work, Cellular,
Facsimile, Video, Modem, Message Service, or Preferred). One or more
sub-type values can be specified for a given telephone number.
The property parameter can have one or more of the following values:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates preferred number
PREF
Indicates a work number
WORK
Indicates a home number
HOME
Indicates a voice number (Default)
VOICE
Indicates a facsimile number
FAX
Indicates a messaging service on the number
MSG
Indicates a cellular number
CELL
Indicates a pager number
PAGER
Indicates a bulletin board service number
BBS
Indicates a MODEM number
MODEM
Indicates a car-phone number
CAR
Indicates an ISDN number
ISDN
Indicates a video-phone number
VIDEO
The default property parameter is overridden to some other set of
values by specifying one or more alternate values. For example, the
default of a VOICE telephone number can be reset to a WORK and HOME,
VOICE and FAX telephone number in the following example:
TEL;WORK;HOME;VOICE;FAX:+1-800-555-1234
Electronic Mail
This property specifies the address for electronic mail communication
with the vCard object. The address is in the form of a specific
addressing type. For example, the Internet mail address for John
Public might be "John.Public@abc.com" or the CompuServe Information
Service address might be "71234,5678".This property is identified by
the property name EMAIL.
An example of this property follows:
EMAIL;INTERNET:john.public@abc.com
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Electronic Mail Type
This property parameter specifies the type of electronic mail address.
The following are some example values for this property parameter:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates America On-Line
AOL
Indicates AppleLink
AppleLink
Indicates AT&T Mail
ATTMail
Indicates CompuServe Information Service
CIS
Indicates eWorld
eWorld
Indicates Internet SMTP (default)
INTERNET
Indicates IBM Mail
IBMMail
Indicates MCI Mail
MCIMail
Indicates PowerShare
POWERSHARE
Indicates Prodigy information service
PRODIGY
Indicates Telex number
TLX
Indicates X.400 service
X400
Mailer
This property parameter specifies the type of electronic mail software
that is in use by the individual associated with the vCard object.
This information may provide assistance to a correspondent regarding
the type of data representation which can be used, and how they may be
packaged. This property parameter is based on currently accepted
practices within the Internet MIME community with the "X-Mailer"
header field.
This property is identified by the property name MAILER. Support for
this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to this
specification. An example of this property follows:
MAILER:ccMail 2.2
Geographical Properties
These property types are concerned with geographical positions or
region information associated with the vCard object.
Time Zone
This property specifies information related to the standard time zone
of the vCard object. The time zone is a string as specified in a
manner consistent with ISO 8601. It is an offset from Coordinated
Universal Time (UTC). An ISO 8601 UTC offset, in basic format, is
specified as a positive or negative difference in units of hours and
minutes (e.g., +hhmm). If minutes are zero, then they may be omitted
and the format would be specified in units of hours (e.g., +hh). The
time is specified as a 24-hour clock. Hour valult property parameter
is overridden to some other set of values by specifying one or more
alternate values. For example, the default of a delivery for INTL,
WORK, POSTAL and PARCEL can be reset to DOM, POSTAL, WORK and HOME in
the following example:
ADR;DOM;WORK;HOME;POSTAL:P.O. Box 101;;;Any Town;CA;91921-1234;
Delivery Label
This property specifies the addressing label for physical delivery to
the person/object associated with the vCard. The property is intended
to include the information necessary to create a formatted delivery
address label. Typical information includes the name, street address,
possibly a Post Office or mail drop, city, state or province, zip or
postal code. An international delivery label would also include the
country name.
This property is based on the semantics of the X.520 Postal Address
attribute. This specification has added semantics to those defined by
the X.500 Series standard for differentiating Home, Work, Parcel,
Postal, Domestic, and International delivery label types.
This property is identified by the property name LABEL. This property
specifies the formatted delivery address label for the vCard object.
An example of a domestic delivery label follows:
LABEL;DOM;POSTAL;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:P. O. Box 456=0D=0A=
123 Main Street=0D=0A=
Any Town, CA 91921-1234
An example of an international delivery label follows:
LABEL;INTL;PARCEL,ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Suite 101=0D=0A=
123 Main Street=0D=0A=
Any Town, CA 91921-1234=0D=0A=
U.S.A.
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification. A vCard Reader supporting this property and
conforming to this specification should support a minimum of four
lines of text for this property.
Delivery Label Type
This property parameter specifies the sub-types of physical delivery
that is associated with the delivery label. For example, the label may
need to be differentiated for Home, Work, Parcel, Postal, Domestic,
and International physical delivery. One or more sub-types can be
specified for a given delivery label.
The property parameter can have one or more of the following values:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates a domestic address
DOM
Indicates an international address (Default)
INTL
Indicates a postal delivery address (Default)
POSTAL
Indicates a parcel delivery address (Default)
PARCEL
Indicates a home delivery address
HOME
Indicates a work delivery address (Default)
WORK
The default property parameter is overridden to some other set of
values by specifying one or more alternate values. For example, the
default of a delivery for INTL, WORK, POSTAL and PARCEL can be reset
to DOM and HOME in the following example:
LABEL;DOM;HOME,ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Suite 101=0D=0A=
123 Main Street=0D=0A=
Any Town, CA 91921-1234
Telecommunications Addressing Properties
These property types are concerned with information associated with
the telecommunications addressing of the vCard object.
Telephone Number
This property specifies the canonical number string for a telephone
number for telephony communication with the vCard object. The value of
this property is specified in a canonical form in order to specify an
unambiguous representation of the globally unique telephony endpoint.
This property is based on the X.520 Telephone Number attribute.
The canonical form cannot be dialed without first being transformed by
a dialing algorithm. The dialing algorithm combines the canonical
number string with knowledge of the local dialing procedures, in
effect at the time of call placement to produce actual dialing
instructions. The actual dialing algorithm is outside the scope of
this specification.
Two important canonical forms allowed by this specification are:
* Apple Computer's Representation of a Canonical Static DeviceID in
The Telephony Suite, version 1.0,
* Microsoft TAPI in the Microsoft Windows 3.1 Telephony
Programmer's Guide, version 1.0.
Software which creates this property can store a string in these
allowed formats. Dialing s
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates Graphics Interchange Format
GIF
Indicates ISO Computer Graphics Metafile
CGM
Indicates MS Windows Metafile
WMF
Indicates MS Windows Bitmap
BMP
Indicates IBM PM Metafile
MET
Indicates IBM PM Bitmap
PMB
Indicates MS Windows DIB
DIB
Indicates an Apple Picture format
PICT
Indicates Tagged Image File Format
TIFF
Indicates Adobe Page Description Format
PDF
Indicates Adobe PostScript
PS
Indicates ISO JPEG format
JPEG
Indicates ISO MPEG format
MPEG
Indicates ISO MPEG version 2 format
MPEG2
Indicates Intel AVI format
AVI
Indicates Apple QuickTime format
QTIME
Agent
This property specifies information about another person who will act
on behalf of the vCard object. Typically this would be an area
administrator, assistant, or secretary for the individual. A key
characteristic of the Agent property is that it represents somebody or
something which is separately addressable. For example, if all phone
calls or e-mail messages are normally screened by an agent, this
property may not be needed. On the other hand, if an agent can act as
a proxy, and may otherwise need to be contacted separately, then an
Agent property is useful.
This property is equivalent to nesting another vCard with the
specified vCard.
This property is identified by the property name AGENT. The value of
this property is a string containing another vCard object. An example
of this property follows:
AGENT:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Friday;Fred
TEL;WORK;VOICE:+1-213-555-1234
TEL;WORK;FAX:+1-213-555-5678
END:VCARD
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Organization Name and Organizational Unit
This property specifies the name and optionally the unit(s) of the
organization associated with the vCard object. This property is based
on the X.520 Organization Name attribute and the X.520 Organization
Unit attribute. For example, "The AB Corporation" and the "North
American Division".
This property is identified by the property name ORG. This property is
defined to encapsulate the Organization Name and Organization Unit
properties as sub-properties. The property value consists of the
components of the organization specified as positional fields
separated by the Field Delimiter (ASCII decimal 59). The property
value is a concatenation of the Organization Name (first field),
Organizational Unit (second field) strings. Additional positional
fields, if specified, contain additional Organizational Units. The
following is an example of the Organization property:
ORG:ABC, Inc.;North American Division;Marketing
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Explanatory Properties
These property types are concerned with additional explanations, such
as that related to national language support, annotation, or encoding
of binary information about the vCard object.
Comment
This property specifies supplemental information or a comment that is
associated with the vCard. With the use of property grouping, the
association can be limited to a group of properties. The property is
based on the X.520 Description attribute.
This property is identified by the property name NOTE. An example of
this property follows:
NOTE;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:This facsimile machine if operational=
0830 to 1715 hours=0D=0A=
Monday through Friday. Call +1-213-555-1234 if you have
problems=0D=0A=
with access to the machine.
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Last Revision
This property specifies the combination of the calendar date and time
of day of the last update to the vCard object. The property value is a
character string conforming to the basic or extended format of ISO
8601. The value can either be in terms of local time or UTC.
This property is identified by the property name REV. Valid values for
this property are a character string representing a combination of the
calendar date and time of day conforming to the basic or extended
format of ISO 8601. The time of day can be either local time or UTC.
The following example is in the basic format and local time of ISO
8601:
REV:19951031T222710
The following example is in the extended format and UTC time of ISO
8601:
REV:1995-10-31T22:27:10Z
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Sound
This property specifies a sound annotation for the vCard object. By
default, if this property is not grouped with other properties it
specifies the pronunciation of the Formatted Name property of the
vCard object. Such information may be in the form of a string of
characters representing a phonetic sound or in the form of a digitized
sound, or both; subject to the limitations imposed by the encoding
used to communicate the vCard.
This property is identified by the property name SOUND. Valid values
for this property are either a string representation, a reference to a
digital audio representation, or an inline digital audio
representation of the phonetic pronunciation of the Formatted Name
property. The following example shows the string based phonetic
representation:
SOUND:JON Q PUBLIK
The following example shows the digtial sound representation and URL
based value:
SOUND;VALUE=URL:file///multimed/audio/jqpublic.wav
The following example shows the digtial sound representation and
INLINE value:
SOUND;WAVE;BASE64:
UklGRhAsAABXQVZFZm10IBAAAAABAAEAESsAABErAAABAAgAZGF0YesrAACAg4eC
eXR4e3uAhoiIiYmKjIiDfnx5eX6CgoKEhYWDenV5fH6BhISGiIiDfHZ2eXt/hIiK
jY2IhH12d3Vyc3uDiIiFf3l7fn18eXl+houFf319fnyAgHl5eoCIiISChIeAfnt2
...
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Sound Digital Audio Type
This property parameteris provided to specify the type of the digital
audio Pronunciation for the vCard object. The property parameter can
have the following values:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates Wave format
WAVE
Indicates MIME basic audio type
PCM
Indicates AIFF format
AIFF
Uniform Resource Locator
This property specifies a value that represents a Uniform Resource
Locator (URL). An URL is a representation of an Internet location that
can be used to obtain real-time information about the vCard object.
Application of this property might be to specify the location of a
publicly accessible directory where up-to-date or additional
information on the individual or resource associated with a vCard can
be found.
This property is identified by the property name URL. Valid values for
this property are a string conforming to the IETF RFC 1738, Uniform
Resource Locators. The following is an example of this property:
URL:http://abc.com/pub/directory/northam/jpublic.ecd
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Unique Identifier
This property specifies a value that represents a persistent, globally
unique identifier associated with the object. The property can be used
as a mechanism to relate different vCard objects. Some examples of
valid forms of unique identifiers would include ISO 9070 formal public
identifiers (FPI), X.500 distinguished names, machine-generated
"random" numbers with a statistically high likelihood of being
globally unique and Uniform Resource Locators (URL). If an URL is
specified, it is suggested that the URL reference a service which will
produce an updated version of the vCard.
This property is identified by the property name UID. This property is
provided to enable a vCard Reader and Writer to uniquely identify
either a vCard object instance or properties within a vCard object.
Valid values for this property are a unique character string. The
following is an example of this property:
UID:19950401-080045-40000F192713-0052
Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers conforming to
this specification.
Version
This property specifies the identifier corresponding to the highest
version number of the vCard Specification supported by the
implementation that created the vCard object. The value of this
property must be 2.1 to correspond to this specification..
This property is identified by the property name VERSION. The
following is an example of this property:
VERSION:2.1
Support for this property is mandatory for implementations conforming
to this specification. This property must appear within the vCard data
stream.
Security Properties
These property types are concerned with the security of the
information in the vCard object.
Public Key
This property specifies the public encryption key associated with the
vCard object.
This property is identified by the property name KEY. Valid values for
this property are a public key that conforms to a bilaterally agreed
to representation. If the representation is a binary format, then the
public key must be further encoded. The default format is clear-text.
If a binary format is used, then it is specified by the property
parameter. Support for this property is optional for vCard Writers
conforming to this specification.
Key Type
This property parameter is provided to specify the type of the public
key for the vCard object. The property parameter can have the
following values:
Description
Property Parameter Value
TYPE=
Indicates a X.509 public key certificate type of key
X509
Indicates an IETF PGP type of key
PGP
Miscellaneous Properties
Extensions
The vCard provides a ?standard mechanism for doing non-standard
things?. This extension support is provided for implementers to "push
the envelope" on the existing version of the specification. Extension
properties are specified by property and/or property parameter names
that have the initial sub-string of X- (the two character sequence:
Capital X character followed by the Dash character. It is recommended
that vendors concatenate onto this sentinel an added short sub-string
to identify the vendor. This will facilitate readability of the
extensions and minimize possible collision of names between different
vendors. For example, the following might be the ABC vendor's
extension for a video-clip form of identification property:
X-ABC-VIDEO;MPEG2:http://lonestar.bubbas.org/billibob.mpg
or, the following example might be an extension for grouping vCard
objects into a distribution list for the Design Work Group.
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
X-DL;Design Work Group:List Item 1;List Item 2;List Item 3
BEGIN:VCARD
UID:List Item 1
N:John Smith
TEL:+1-213-555-1111
END:VCARD
BEGIN:VCARD
UID:List Item 2
N:I. M. Big
TEL:+1-213-555-9999
END:VCARD
BEGIN:VCARD
UID:List Item 3
N:Jane Doe
TEL:+1-213-555-5555
END:VCARD
END:VCARD
At present, there is no registration authority for names of extension
properties.
Support for this property is mandatory for implementations conforming
to this specification. However, an implementation may not be able to
act on the extension property. Conformance only requires that an
implementation be able to parse vCard data streams with extensions.
The implementation need not act on them.
Formal Definition
The following modified Backus-Naur Notation (BNF) is provided to
assist developers in building parsers for the vCard.
This syntax is written according to the form described in RFC 822, but
it references just this small subset of RFC 822 literals:
CR = <ASCII CR, carriage return> ; ( 15, 13.)
LF = <ASCII LF, linefeed> ; ( 12, 10.)
CRLF = CR LF
SPACE = <ASCII SP, space> ; ( 40, 32.)
HTAB = <ASCII HT, horizontal-tab> ; ( 11, 9.)
All literal property names are valid as upper, lower, or mixed case.
ws = 1*(SPACE / HTAB)
; "whitespace," one or more spaces or tabs
wsls = 1*(SPACE / HTAB / CRLF)
; whitespace with line separators
word = <any printable 7bit us-ascii except []=:., >
groups = groups "." word
/ word
vcard_file = [wsls] vcard [wsls]
vcard = "BEGIN" [ws] ":" [ws] "VCARD" [ws] 1*CRLF
items *CRLF "END" [ws] ":" [ws] "VCARD"
items = items *CRLF item
/ item
; these may be "folded"
item = [groups "."] name
[params] ":" value CRLF
/ [groups "."] "ADR"
[params] ":" addressparts CRLF
/ [groups "."] "ORG"
[params] ":" orgparts CRLF
/ [groups "."] "N"
[params] ":" nameparts CRLF
/ [groups "."] "AGENT"
[params] ":" vcard CRLF
; these may be "folded"
name = "LOGO" / "PHOTO" / "LABEL" / "FN" / "TITLE"
/ "SOUND" / "VERSION" / "TEL" / "EMAIL" / "TZ" / "GEO" /
"NOTE"
/ "URL" / "BDAY" / "ROLE" / "REV" / "UID" / "KEY"
/ "MAILER" / "X-" word
; these may be "folded"
value = 7bit / quoted-printable / base64
7bit = <7bit us-ascii printable chars, excluding CR LF>
8bit = <MIME RFC 1521 8-bit text>
quoted-printable = <MIME RFC 1521 quoted-printable text>
base64 = <MIME RFC 1521 base64 text>
; the end of the text is marked with two CRLF sequences
; this results in one blank line before the start of the next
property
params = ";" [ws] paramlist
paramlist = paramlist [ws] ";" [ws] param
/ param
param = "TYPE" [ws] "=" [ws] ptypeval
/ "VALUE" [ws] "=" [ws] pvalueval
/ "ENCODING" [ws] "=" [ws] pencodingval
/ "CHARSET" [ws] "=" [ws] charsetval
/ "LANGUAGE" [ws] "=" [ws] langval
/ "X-" word [ws] "=" [ws] word
/ knowntype
ptypeval = knowntype / "X-" word
pvalueval = "INLINE" / "URL" / "CONTENT-ID" / "CID" / "X-" word
pencodingval = "7BIT" / "8BIT" / "QUOTED-PRINTABLE" / "BASE64" / "X-
" word
charsetval = <a character set string as defined in Section 7.1 of
RFC 1521>
langval = <a language string as defined in RFC 1766>
addressparts = 0*6(strnosemi ";") strnosemi
; PO Box, Extended Addr, Street, Locality, Region, Postal Code,
Country Name
orgparts = *(strnosemi ";") strnosemi
; First is Organization Name, remainder are Organization Units.
nameparts = 0*4(strnosemi ";") strnosemi
; Family, Given, Middle, Prefix, Suffix.
; Example:Public;John;Q.;Reverend Dr.;III, Esq.
strnosemi = *(*nonsemi ("\;" / "\" CRLF)) *nonsemi
; To include a semicolon in this string, it must be escaped
; with a "\" character.
nonsemi = <any non-control ASCII except ";">
knowntype = "DOM" / "INTL" / "POSTAL" / "PARCEL" / "HOME" / "WORK"
/ "PREF" / "VOICE" / "FAX" / "MSG" / "CELL" / "PAGER"
/ "BBS" / "MODEM" / "CAR" / "ISDN" / "VIDEO"
/ "AOL" / "APPLELINK" / "ATTMAIL" / "CIS" / "EWORLD"
/ "INTERNET" / "IBMMAIL" / "MCIMAIL"
/ "POWERSHARE" / "PRODIGY" / "TLX" / "X400"
/ "GIF" / "CGM" / "WMF" / "BMP" / "MET" / "PMB" / "DIB"
/ "PICT" / "TIFF" / "PDF" / "PS" / "JPEG" / "QTIME"
/ "MPEG" / "MPEG2" / "AVI"
/ "WAVE" / "AIFF" / "PCM"
/ "X509" / "PGP"
Section 3 : Internet Recommendations
[DS4] 1
Recommended Practice with SMTP/MIME
The vCard information can be transported through SMTP/MIME based
electronic mail services. Interoperability of vCard information over
SMTP/MIME transports can be better assured by following a common set
of recommended practices for encapsulation of the vCard.
Text/Plain Content Type
Without any change to existing SMTP or MIME compliant user agents, a
vCard can be included within Internet email messages. This might be
the case for an existing, simple user agent such as a legacy SMTP mail
system. While this approach provides for transport of vCards over SMTP
services, it does not allow for the end user to take advantage of the
full capabilities of either the vCard or Internet email (i.e., MIME)
functionality.
The following demonstrates how a vCard can be included as an epilog to
a SMTP message made up of a RFC 822 message. This may be an initial
method for incorporating vCard objects into SMTP messages.
Date: Thr, 25 Jan 96 0932 EDT
From: john.smith@host.com
Subject: Re: RFC822 vCard Example
Sender: john.smith@host.com
To: smartin@host2.com
Message-ID: <JOHNSMITH.960125T091020.xyzMail@host3.com>
Steve: Thanks for the call earlier today. I am unable to
use your material at this time. Please feel free to contact
me in the future.
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Smith;John;M.;Mr.;Esq.
TEL;WORK;VOICE;MSG:+1 (919) 555-1234
TEL;WORK;FAX:+1 (919) 555-9876
ADR;WORK;PARCEL;POSTAL;DOM:Suite 101;1 Central St.;Any Town;NC;27654
END:VCARD
The following example demonstrates how a vCard can be included as a
separate text/plain content portion within current MIME user agents.
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 07:53:00 -0500
From: smartin@host2.com
Subject: RE: Text/Plain MIME vCard Example
To: fdawson@VNET.IBM.COM
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=vcard
Message-ID: <ABC-1.00-Note-martin-steve-0824475754>
--vcard
Content-Type:text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
John: I have looked over my material and feel that you may
have over looked a couple of appropriate pieces. Please give
me a call so that we can discuss further.
--vcard
Content-Type:text/plain; charset=us-ascii; name="MARTIN.VCF"
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Martin;Stephen
TEL;HOME;VOICE:+1 (210) 555-1357
TEL;HOME;FAX:+1 (210) 555-0864
ADR;WORK;PARCEL;POSTAL;DOM:123 Cliff Ave.;Big Town;CA;97531
END:VCARD
--vcard--
Text/X-vCard Content Type
A vCard object may also be transferred in a (RFC 1521) MIME entity as
a non-standard "text/x-vCard" content-type. This (RFC 1521) MIME type
maybe useful in those cases where the MIME compliant messaging service
does not yet support the "application/directory" and
"multipart/related" MIME content-types and yet the specificity of a
calendaring and scheduling media type is required.
The following example demonstrates how a vCard can be included as a
separate non-standard text/x-vCard content portion within current MIME
user agents.
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 07:53:00 +0000
From: smartin@host2.com
Subject: RE: Text/x-vCard MIME vCard Example
To: fdawson@VNET.IBM.COM
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary=vcard
Message-ID: <ABC-1.00-Note-martin-steve-0824475754>
--vcard
Content-Type:text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
John: I have looked over my material and feel that you may
have over looked a couple of appropriate pieces. Please give
me a call so that we can discuss further.
--vcard
Content-Type:text/x-vCard; charset=us-ascii; name="MARTIN.VCF"
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1N:Martin;Stephen
TEL;HOME;VOICE:+1 (210) 555-1357
TEL;HOME;FAX:+1 (210) 555-0864
ADR;WORK;PARCEL;POSTAL;DOM:123 Cliff Ave.;Big Town;CA;97531
END:VCARD
--vcard--
Application/Directory Content Type
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Access and Searching of
Internet Directories (ASID) working group has produced an Internet
Draft defining the "application/directory" MIME content type. The
current draft name is draft-ietf-asid-mime-direct-01.txt. This
specification is intended to be aligned with this work. Internet
Drafts are working documents of an IETF working group, valid for at
most six months, and should be considered "works in progress".
This MIME content type was designed to be used to transport directory
information across MIME based electronic mail services. The internet
draft is directly applicable to the exchange of business card data,
such as that defined by the vCard specification.
The versit PDI Team has worked within the IETF ASID Working Group to
draft an application/directory profile that registers the method for
transporting a vCard as an application/directory Content-Type. The
current draft name is draft-ietf-asid-mime-vcard-00.txt. This work is
expected to be progressed to a Request For Comment after the
publication of this version of the vCard specification. In the
interim, the following guidelines are provided to describe how a vCard
might be conveyed using the application/directory draft specification.
A vCard should be included in a MIME message that has a Content-Type
header field value of "multipart/related". The vCard is included in
the message as the primary body part. The position of the body part
entity can also be specified with the "start=" parameter. This MIME
body part entity has a Content-Type body part header field value of
"application/directory" with a "profile" parameter value of "vcard".
Any vCard binary information, such as a logo, picture, or digital
audio pronunciation can be included inline within the vCard, as is
specified by the vCard specification. Preferably, the binary
information should be extracted from the vCard object and contained in
the MIME message as secondary body part entities. The binary content
in the secondary body part entities can be referenced from within the
vCard object through the use of the "VALUE=" property parameter. In
this latter case, the binary information should be transformed into a
content type nominally supported by MIME user agents. For image
content, this would be the Graphics Image Format (GIF) or Joint
Picture Encoding Group (JPEG) formats. For audio content, this would
be the 8-bit mu-law (PCM) format specified by the MIME specification.
The following example defines how this might be specified:
Date: Mon, 29 Jan 96 0830 EDT
From: john.smith@host.com
Subject: Re: MIME application/directory vCard Example
Sender: john.smith@host.com
To: smartin@host2.com
Message-ID: <JOHNSMITH.960129T083020.xyzMail@host3.com>
Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="vcard";
type=application/directory;
start=<JOHNSMITH.part1.960129T083020.xyzMail@host3.com>
--vcard
Content-Type: application/directory; charset=us-ascii;
source="file://versit.or2"; profile="vcard"
Content-ID: <<JOHNSMITH.part1.960129T083020.xyzMail@host3.com>
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Smith;John;M.;Mr.;Esq.
TEL;WORK;VOICE;MSG:+1 (919) 555-1234
TEL;CELL:+1 (919) 554-6758
TEL;WORK;FAX:+1 (919) 555-9876
PHOTO;GIF;MIME:<<JOHNSMITH.part3.960129T083020.xyzMail@host3.com>
ADR;WORK;PARCEL;POSTAL;DOM:Suite 101;1 Central St.;Any Town;NC;27654
END:VCARD
--vcard
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-ID: <<JOHNSMITH.part2.960129T083020.xyzMail@host3.com>
Steve:
I am not in the office today. You may want to try
reaching me either on my cellular telephone or fax your
new ideas to my office.
Let's setup a face-to-face meeting later this week, after I review
your updated material. I am including a picture in my business card
data, since we have not met yet.
-- John
--vcard
Content-Type: image/gif
Content-ID: <<JOHNSMITH.part3.960129T083020.xyzMail@host3.com>
...image data would go here...
--vcard--
Recommended Practice with HTTP/HTML
A vCard object should be transferred over HTTP with the non-standard
MIME type/subtype value of "text/x-vCard". The non-standard subtype
should be used because the vCard has not been registered as a MIME
media type with the IANA.
The vCard information can be captured with a FORM type of HTML
document. Interoperability of of vCard information can be better
assured by following a common set of recommended practices for mapping
vCard information into and out of HTML documents.
Form Element Usage
The HTML FORM element is a useful method for capturing data intended
for input into individual vCard property values. The following
recommended practices are provided for such use.
Mapping To INPUT Element Attribute Names
An HTML form data set is a useful mechanism for capturing vCard data
within the Internet WWW. The use of a consistent naming scheme for the
name attributes within a form element will permit implementations to
support automatic fill-in of forms with existing vCard data. In
addition, such a consistent naming scheme will provide a greater
assurance of interoperability between HTML based applications that use
vCard data.
The following table provides a recommended mapping of vCard properties
and name attributes within a form element.
Identification Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Formatted Name
FN
Name
N
Individual components of name property are captured as separate input
elements with the names N.Family, N.First, N.Middle, N.Prefix,
N.Suffix.
Photograph
PHOTO
Only the URL based specification is supported by this mapping. Value
is the URL for the graphic.
Photograph Format Type
PHOTO.Type
Where the value is one of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard
specification.
Birthdate
BDAY
Delivery Addressing Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Delivery Address
ADR
TYPE=TEXTAREA
Address Type
ADR.x
TYPE=CHECKBOX. Separate input elements are used to capture the
possible delivery types. The elements are named ADR.x, where x is one
of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard specification.
Delivery Label
LABEL
Label Type
LABEL.x
TYPE=CHECKBOX. Separate input elements are used to capture the
possible delivery types. The elements are named LABEL.x, where x is
one of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard specification.
Telecommunications Addressing Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Telephone Number
TEL
Telephone Type
TEL.x
TYPE=CHECKBOX. Separate input elements are used to capture the
possible telephone types. The elements are named TEL.x, where x is one
of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard specification.
Electronic Mail Address
EMAIL
Electronic Mail Address Type
EMAIL.Type
Selection option from a list of alternatives.
Mailer
MAILER
Geographical Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Time Zone
TZ
Geographic Position
GEO
Organizational Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Title
TITLE
Business Category
ROLE
Logo
LOGO
Only the URL based specification is supported by this mapping. Value
is the URL for the graphic.
Logo Format Type
LOGO.Type
Where the value is one of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard
specification.
Agent
Captured through a separate form element using the mapping defined in
these tables.
Organization
ORG
TYPE=TEXT. Separate input elements for the organizational name and
unit. The name ORG.Name is used to capture the organizational name.
The name ORG.UNIT is used to capture the organizational unit. If there
are multiple organizational units, it is captured in a form with name
attributes ORG.UNIT1, ORG.UNIT2, etc.
Explanatory Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Comment
NOTE
TYPE=TEXT
Last Revision
REV
A hidden field.
Version
VERSION
A hidden field with the value set to the string ?2.1?.
Language
LANG
A hidden field with the value set to the string associated with the
default language used in the form (e.g., US-eng).
Sound
SOUND
TYPE=TEXT
Sound Type
N/A
Uniform Resource Locator
URL
TYPE=TEXT
Unique Identifier
UID
TYPE=TEXT
Binary Encoding
BE.x
Where x is one of the enumerated encoding types defined by the vCard
specification.
Security Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Public Key
KEY
Key Type
KEY.Type.x
Where x is one of the enumerated encoding types defined by the vCard
specification.
MISCELLANEOUS PROPERTIES
Extensions
X-x
Where x is a string defined by the extension author.
Where multiple properties (e.g., telephone numbers) appear, a label
prefix should be used. For example, telephone #1 might have a name
attribute of ?A.TEL?, telephone #2 might have a name attribute of
?B.TEL?, etc.
Example HTML Code
The following HTML code is an example of the use of the mapping of
INPUT element attributes names to vCard property names. The code can
be used to capture input data for creating a vCard on a Web homepage.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<head>
<title>Create Your Own Versitcard</title>
</head>
<IMG src="versit.gif">
<h1>Create Your Own Versitcard</h1>
<P> Fill out this form and we'll
create a <b>Versitcard</b> for you and send it to the email address of
your choice,
along with more information on the Versitcard format.</P>
<hr><!-- Identification And Organizational Properties -->
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/vcard-maker">
Formatted Name:<INPUT name="FN" type=text size=32 maxlength=64
value=""><br>
Phoenetic Pronunciation:<INPUT name="SOUND" type=text size=32
maxlength=128 value=""><br>
Company Name:<INPUT name="ORG.Name" type=text size=32 maxlength=64
value=""><br>
Company Unit:<INPUT name="ORG.Unit" type=text size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Title:<INPUT name="TITLE" type=text size=32 maxlength=64
value="">
<hr><!-- Name Property Component Values -->
Family Name:<INPUT name="N.Family" type=text size=32 maxlength=64
value=""><br>
Given Name:<INPUT name="N.Given" type=text size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Middle Name:<INPUT name="N.Middle" type=type size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Name Prefix:<INPUT name="N.Prefix" type=type size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Name Suffix:<INPUT name="N.Suffix" type=type size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
<hr><!-- Delivery Addressing Properties -->
Delivery Label:<TEXTAREA name="LABEL" cols=64 ROWS=5>
</TEXTAREA><br><br>
Post Office Address:<INPUT name="ADR.POAddr" type=text size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Extended Address:<INPUT name="ADR.ExtAddr" type=text size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Street Address:<INPUT name="ADR.Street" type=text size=62
maxlength=128 value=""><br>
City:<INPUT name="ADR.Locality" type=text size=16 maxlength=32
value="">
Region:<INPUT name="ADR.Region" type=text size=16 maxlength=32
value="">
Postal Code:<INPUT name="ADR.PostalCode" type=text size=16
maxlength=32
value=""><br>
Country Name:<INPUT name="ADR.CountryName" type=text size=16
maxlength=32 value="USA">
<INPUT type=checkbox name="ADR.Work" value=WORK checked>Work
<INPUT type=checkbox name="ADR.Home" value=HOME>Home
<INPUT type=checkbox name="ADR.Parcel" value=PARCEL checked>Parcel
<INPUT type=checkbox name="ADR.Postal" value=POSTAL checked>Postal<br>
<hr><!-- Geographical Properties -->
TimeZone:<INPUT name="TZ" type=text size=3 maxlength=8
value="-06">
Location:<INPUT name="GEO" type=text size=16 maxlength=32
value=""><br>
<hr><!-- Telephony Addressing Properties -->
<!-- Telephone #1 -->
Telephone #1:<INPUT type=text name="A.TEL" size=20 maxlength=40
value="+1 (000) 000-0000"><br>
<INPUT type=checkbox name="A.TEL.Work" value=WORK checked>Work
<INPUT type=checkbox name="A.TEL.Home" value=HOME>Home
<INPUT type=checkbox name="A.TEL.Voice" value=VOICE checked>Voice
<INPUT type=checkbox name="A.TEL.Msg" value=MSG checked>Msg <INPUT
type=checkbox name="A.TEL.Fax" value=FAX>Fax <INPUT type=checkbox
name="A.TEL.Prefer" value=PREFER checked>Preferred<br>
<hr><!-- Telephone #2 -->
Telephone #2:<INPUT type=text name="B.TEL" size=20 maxlength=40
value="+1 (000) 000-0000"><br>
<INPUT type=checkbox name="B.TEL.Work" value=WORK checked>Work <INPUT
type=checkbox name="B.TEL.Home" value=HOME>Home
<INPUT type=checkbox name="B.TEL.Voice" value=VOICE>Voice <INPUT
type=checkbox name="B.TEL.Msg" value=MSG>Msg
<INPUT type=checkbox name="B.TEL.Fax" value=FAX checked>Fax
<INPUT type=checkbox name="B.TEL.Prefer" value=PREFER>Preferred<br>
<hr><!-- Telephone #3 -->
Telephone #3:<INPUT type=text name= "C.TEL" size=20 maxlength=40
value="+1 (000) 000-0000"><br>
<INPUT type=checkbox name="C.TEL.Work" value=WORK>Work
<INPUT type=checkbox name="C.TEL.Home" value=HOME checked>Home <INPUT
type=checkbox name="C.TEL.Voice" value=VOICE checked>Voice <INPUT
type=checkbox name="C.TEL.Msg" value=MSG checked>Msg
<INPUT type=checkbox name="C.TEL.Fax" value=FAX checked>Fax <INPUT
type=checkbox name="D.Prefer" value=PREFER>Preferred<br>
<hr><!-- Email D -->
EmailAddress: <select name="D.EMAILTYPE">
<option selected>INTERNET:
<option>CompuServe:
<option>AOL:
<option>Prodigy:
<option>eWorld:
<option>AppleLink:
<option>AppleTalk:
<option>PowerShare:
<option>IBMMail:
<option>ATTMail:
<option>MCIMail:
<option>X.400:
<option>TLX:
</select><INPUT type=text name="D.EMAIL" size=32 maxlength=64
value="">
<INPUT type=checkbox name="D.EMAIL.Work" value=WORK checked>Work
<INPUT type=checkbox name="D.EMAIL.Home" value=HOME checked>Home<br>
<hr><!-- End of vCard Input -->
Send my Versitcard to this <b>internet</b> email address:
<INPUT type=text name="SENDTOADDR" size=32 maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Press <INPUT TYPE=SUBMIT value="Send"> to send the form now. Or, press
<INPUT TYPE=RESET value="Reset"> to reset values to the form defaults.
</form>
</body>
Section 4 : UI Support Recommendations
[DS5]
When integrating vCard support into an application, an implementor
needs to consider a number of user interface (UI) implications. Most
appliss Type
ADR.x
TYPE=CHECKBOX. Separate input elements are used to capture the
possible delivery types. The elements are named ADR.x, where x is one
of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard specification.
Delivery Label
LABEL
Label Type
LABEL.x
TYPE=CHECKBOX. Separate input elements are used to capture the
possible delivery types. The elements are named LABEL.x, where x is
one of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard specification.
Telecommunications Addressing Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Telephone Number
TEL
Telephone Type
TEL.x
TYPE=CHECKBOX. Separate input elements are used to capture the
possible telephone types. The elements are named TEL.x, where x is one
of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard specification.
Electronic Mail Address
EMAIL
Electronic Mail Address Type
EMAIL.Type
Selection option from a list of alternatives.
Mailer
MAILER
Geographical Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Time Zone
TZ
Geographic Position
GEO
Organizational Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Title
TITLE
Business Category
ROLE
Logo
LOGO
Only the URL based specification is supported by this mapping. Value
is the URL for the graphic.
Logo Format Type
LOGO.Type
Where the value is one of the enumerated strings defined by the vCard
specification.
Agent
Captured through a separate form element using the mapping defined in
these tables.
Organization
ORG
TYPE=TEXT. Separate input elements for the organizational name and
unit. The name ORG.Name is used to capture the organizational name.
The name ORG.UNIT is used to capture the organizational unit. If there
are multiple organizational units, it is captured in a form with name
attributes ORG.UNIT1, ORG.UNIT2, etc.
Explanatory Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Comment
NOTE
TYPE=TEXT
Last Revision
REV
A hidden field.
Version
VERSION
A hidden field with the value set to the string ?2.1?.
Language
LANG
A hidden field with the value set to the string associated with the
default language used in the form (e.g., US-eng).
Sound
SOUND
TYPE=TEXT
Sound Type
N/A
Uniform Resource Locator
URL
TYPE=TEXT
Unique Identifier
UID
TYPE=TEXT
Binary Encoding
BE.x
Where x is one of the enumerated encoding types defined by the vCard
specification.
Security Properties
Description
Attribute Name
Comment
Public Key
KEY
Key Type
KEY.Type.x
Where x is one of the enumerated encoding types defined by the vCard
specification.
MISCELLANEOUS PROPERTIES
Extensions
X-x
Where x is a string defined by the extension author.
Where multiple properties (e.g., telephone numbers) appear, a label
prefix should be used. For example, telephone #1 might have a name
attribute of ?A.TEL?, telephone #2 might have a name attribute of
?B.TEL?, etc.
Example HTML Code
The following HTML code is an example of the use of the mapping of
INPUT element attributes names to vCard property names. The code can
be used to capture input data for creating a vCard on a Web homepage.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0//EN">
<head>
<title>Create Your Own Versitcard</title>
</head>
<IMG src="versit.gif">
<h1>Create Your Own Versitcard</h1>
<P> Fill out this form and we'll
create a <b>Versitcard</b> for you and send it to the email address of
your choice,
along with more information on the Versitcard format.</P>
<hr><!-- Identification And Organizational Properties -->
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="/cgi-bin/vcard-maker">
Formatted Name:<INPUT name="FN" type=text size=32 maxlength=64
value=""><br>
Phoenetic Pronunciation:<INPUT name="SOUND" type=text size=32
maxlength=128 value=""><br>
Company Name:<INPUT name="ORG.Name" type=text size=32 maxlength=64
value=""><br>
Company Unit:<INPUT name="ORG.Unit" type=text size=32
maxlength=64 value=""><br>
Title:<INPUT name="TITLE" type=text size=32 maxlength=64
value="">
<hr><!-- Name Property Component Values -->
Family Name:<INPUT nies.
All forms of vCard Grouping must be able to be parsed and processed.
Property Grouping must be able to be parsed and processed.
Additionally, in order for a vCard Writer to conform to this
specification it must meet the following additional criteria:
Must be able to send at least the Version, Formatted Name, Name,
Address, Telephone, Email, and Mailer properties.
[DS1]This entry (merged from the ?TRIAL USE (TU)? document) appears to
be a duplicate of the already-existing entry that follows, except for
the publicaton/edition date. I would assume that it?s OK to delete
this item, but, ?
[DS2]This entry/line in the section is assigned the style for the
level 1 heading. This is done so that a section number can be given in
the chapter title (style "chptr_title") and so that "heading 1" (more
specifically, the format/heading numbering of the form "1. Overview")
can be "skipped," and the appropriate form for the next-level of
heading can be properly displayed (eg., "1.1 Overview"). It is, and
must be, formatted as "hidden text" prior to pagination and/or
printing.
[DS3]This entry/line in the section is assigned the style for the
level 1 heading. This is done so that a section number can be given in
the chapter title (style "chptr_title") and so that "heading 1" (more
specifically, the format/heading numbering of the form "1. Overview")
can be "skipped," and the appropriate form for the next-level of
heading can be properly displayed (eg., "1.1 Overview"). It is, and
must be, formatted as "hidden text" prior to pagination and/or
printing.
[DS4]This entry/line in the section is assigned the style for the
level 1 heading. This is done so that a section number can be given in
the chapter title (style "chptr_title") and so that "heading 1" (more
specifically, the format/heading numbering of the form "1. Overview")
can be "skipped," and the appropriate form for the next-level of
heading can be properly displayed (eg., "1.1 Overview"). It is, and
must be, formatted as "hidden text" prior to pagination and/or
printing.
[DS5]This entry/line in the section is assigned the style for the
level 1 heading. This is done so that a section number can be given in
the chapter title (style ?chptr_title") and so that "heading 1" (more
specifically, the format/heading numbering of the form "1. Overview")
can be "skipped," and the appropriate form for the next-level of
heading can be properly displayed (eg., "1.1 Overview"). It is, and
must be, formatted as "hidden text" prior to pagination and/or
printing.
[DS6]This entry/line in the section is assigned the style for the
level 1 heading. This is done so that a section number can be given in
the chapter title (style ?chptr_title") and so that "heading 1" (more
specifically, the format/heading numbering of the form "1. Overview")
can be "skipped," and the appropriate form for the next-level of
heading can be properly displayed (eg., "1.1 Overview"). It is, and
must be, formatted as "hidden text" prior to pagination and/or
printing.
$paratext[Pr.Preface]
vi vCard Specification, Version 2.1
v
versit Update vii
36 vCard Specification, Version 2.1
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39
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