VCard
Encyclopedia
vCard is a file format
standard for electronic business card
s. vCards are often attached to e-mail
messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web
or Instant Messaging
. They can contain name
and address
information, phone numbers, e-mail
addresses, URLs
, logo
s, photograph
s, and audio clips.
, which consisted of Apple, AT&T Technologies (later Lucent), IBM
and Siemens
. In December 1996, ownership of the format was handed over to the Internet Mail Consortium, a trade association for companies with an interest in Internet e-mail.
Version 2.1 of the vCard standard is widely supported by e-mail clients. Version 3.0 of the vCard format is an IETF standards-track proposal contained in RFC 2425 and RFC 2426. Version 4.0 is defined in RFC 6350, with a new XML syntax, xCard, defined in RFC 6351. The commonly-used filename extension for vCards is vcf.
In RFC 4770, vCard Extensions for Instant Messaging, a new type of entry to hold an IMPP URI is defined, which is "IMPP". This is now part of the base vCard 4.0 spec.
vCard 2.1:
vCard 3.0:
vCard 4.0:
xCard:
In addition, because vCard augments RFC-2425, a standard for directory information, the following property types are also supported: SOURCE, NAME, PROFILE, BEGIN, END.
Some of these include:
Note: The Internet media type
text/vcard was used (incorrectly) in some SyncML
Documentation to refer to vCard 3.0, and the example was followed in various implementations.
File format
A file format is a particular way that information is encoded for storage in a computer file.Since a disk drive, or indeed any computer storage, can store only bits, the computer must have some way of converting information to 0s and 1s and vice-versa. There are different kinds of formats for...
standard for electronic business card
Business card
Business cards are cards bearing business information about a company or individual. They are shared during formal introductions as a convenience and a memory aid. A business card typically includes the giver's name, company affiliation and contact information such as street addresses, telephone...
s. vCards are often attached to e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
or Instant Messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
. They can contain name
Personal name
A personal name is the proper name identifying an individual person, and today usually comprises a given name bestowed at birth or at a young age plus a surname. It is nearly universal for a human to have a name; except in rare cases, for example feral children growing up in isolation, or infants...
and address
Address (geography)
An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or...
information, phone numbers, e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
addresses, URLs
Uniform Resource Locator
In computing, a uniform resource locator or universal resource locator is a specific character string that constitutes a reference to an Internet resource....
, logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
s, photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s, and audio clips.
History
Versitcard was originally proposed in 1995 by the Versit ConsortiumVersit Consortium
The Versit Consortium was a multivendor initiative founded by Apple Computer, AT&T, IBM and Siemens in the early 1990s in order to create Personal Data Interchange technology, open specifications for exchanging personal data over the Internet, wired and wireless connectivity and Computer Telephony...
, which consisted of Apple, AT&T Technologies (later Lucent), IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
. In December 1996, ownership of the format was handed over to the Internet Mail Consortium, a trade association for companies with an interest in Internet e-mail.
Version 2.1 of the vCard standard is widely supported by e-mail clients. Version 3.0 of the vCard format is an IETF standards-track proposal contained in RFC 2425 and RFC 2426. Version 4.0 is defined in RFC 6350, with a new XML syntax, xCard, defined in RFC 6351. The commonly-used filename extension for vCards is vcf.
In RFC 4770, vCard Extensions for Instant Messaging, a new type of entry to hold an IMPP URI is defined, which is "IMPP". This is now part of the base vCard 4.0 spec.
Compatibility
Through testing performed in October 2011, it seems that the Blackberry platform only supports versions up to and including vCard 2.1. Version 3.0 cards caused "rendering errors" when loaded in the web browser and in the e-mail client.Example vCard file
The following is an example of a VCard file containing information for one person:vCard 2.1:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Gump;Forrest
FN:Forrest Gump
ORG:Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
TITLE:Shrimp Man
TEL;WORK;VOICE:(111) 555-1212
TEL;HOME;VOICE:(404) 555-1212
ADR;WORK:;;100 Waters Edge;Baytown;LA;30314;United States of America
LABEL;WORK;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:100 Waters Edge=0D=0ABaytown, LA 30314=0D=0AUnited States of America
ADR;HOME:;;42 Plantation St.;Baytown;LA;30314;United States of America
LABEL;HOME;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:42 Plantation St.=0D=0ABaytown, LA 30314=0D=0AUnited States of America
EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:forrestgump@example.com
REV:20080424T195243Z
END:VCARD
vCard 3.0:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Gump;Forrest
FN:Forrest Gump
ORG:Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
TITLE:Shrimp Man
PHOTO;VALUE=URL;TYPE=GIF:http://www.example.com/dir_photos/my_photo.gif
TEL;TYPE=WORK,VOICE:(111) 555-1212
TEL;TYPE=HOME,VOICE:(404) 555-1212
ADR;TYPE=WORK:;;100 Waters Edge;Baytown;LA;30314;United States of America
LABEL;TYPE=WORK:100 Waters Edge\nBaytown, LA 30314\nUnited States of America
ADR;TYPE=HOME:;;42 Plantation St.;Baytown;LA;30314;United States of America
LABEL;TYPE=HOME:42 Plantation St.\nBaytown, LA 30314\nUnited States of America
EMAIL;TYPE=PREF,INTERNET:forrestgump@example.com
REV:20080424T195243Z
END:VCARD
vCard 4.0:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:4.0
N:Gump;Forrest;;;
FN: Forrest Gump
ORG:Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
TITLE:Shrimp Man
PHOTO:http://www.example.com/dir_photos/my_photo.gif
TEL;TYPE="work,voice";VALUE=uri:tel:+1-111-555-1212
TEL;TYPE="home,voice";VALUE=uri:tel:+1-404-555-1212
ADR;TYPE=work;LABEL="42 Plantation St.\nBaytown, LA 30314\nUnited States of America"
:;;42 Plantation St.;Baytown;LA;30314;United States of America
EMAIL:forrestgump@example.com
REV:20080424T195243Z
END:VCARD
xCard:
Gump
Forrest
Forrest Gump
Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.
<text>Shrimp Man</text>
http://www.example.com/dir_photos/my_photo.gif
work
voice
tel:+1-111-555-1212
home
voice
tel:+1-404-555-1212
work
42 Plantation St.
Baytown
LA
30314
United States of America
forrestgump@example.com
20080424T195243Z
Properties
vCard defines the following property types. According to the current (3.0) specification, vCards must contain the VERSION, N, and FN properties between the BEGIN:VCARD and END:VCARD entities.| Name | Description | Semantic |
|---|---|---|
| N | Name | A structured representation of the name of the person, place or thing associated with the vCard object. |
| FN | Formatted Name | The formatted name string associated with the vCard object |
| NICKNAME | Nickname | A descriptive or familiar name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to a person, place, or thing. |
| PHOTO | Photograph | An image or photograph of the individual associated with the vCard |
| BDAY | Birthday | Date of birth of the individual associated with the vCard |
| ADR | Delivery Address | A structured representation of the physical delivery address for the vCard object |
| LABEL | Label Address | Addressing label for physical delivery to the person/object associated with the vCard |
| TEL | Telephone | The canonical number string for a telephone number for telephony communication with the vCard object |
| The address for electronic mail communication with the vCard object | ||
| MAILER | Email Program (Optional) | Type of email program used |
| TZ | Time Zone | Information related to the standard time zone of the vCard object |
| GEO | Global Positioning | The property specifies a latitude and longitude |
| TITLE | Title | Specifies the job title, functional position or function of the individual associated with the vCard object within an organization (V. P. Research and Development) |
| ROLE | Role or occupation | The role, occupation, or business category of the vCard object within an organization (e.g. Executive) |
| LOGO | Logo | An image or graphic of the logo of the organization that is associated with the individual to which the vCard belongs |
| AGENT | Agent | 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 |
| ORG | Organization Name or Organizational unit | 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 |
| NOTE | Note | Specifies supplemental information or a comment that is associated with the vCard |
| REV | Last Revision | Combination of the calendar date and time of day of the last update to the vCard object |
| SOUND | Sound | By default, if this property is not grouped with other properties it specifies the pronunciation of the Formatted Name property of the vCard object. |
| URL | URL | A URL is a representation of an Internet location that can be used to obtain real-time information about the object to which the vCard refers. For example, a personal website or the company's web portal. |
| UID | Unique Identifier | Specifies a value that represents a persistent, globally unique identifier associated with the object |
| VERSION | Version | Version of the vCard Specification |
| KEY | Public Key | The public encryption key associated with the vCard object |
In addition, because vCard augments RFC-2425, a standard for directory information, the following property types are also supported: SOURCE, NAME, PROFILE, BEGIN, END.
vCard extensions
vCard supports private extensions, with an "X-" prefix, a number of which are in common usage.Some of these include:
| Extension | Used As | Data | Semantic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extensions supported by several different programs. | |||
| X-ABUID | property | string | Apple Address Book UUID for that entry |
| X-ANNIVERSARY | property | YYYY-MM-DD | arbitrary anniversary, in addition to BDAY = birthday |
| X-ASSISTANT | property | string | assistant name (instead of Agent) |
| X-MANAGER | property | string | manager name |
| X-SPOUSE | property | string | spouse name |
| X-GENDER | property | string | value "Male" or "Female" |
| X-AIM | property | string | Instant Messaging (IM) contact information; TYPE parameter as for TEL (I.e. WORK/HOME/OTHER) |
| X-ICQ | property | string | " |
| X-JABBER | property | string | " |
| X-MSN | property | string | " |
| X-YAHOO | property | string | " |
| X-TWITTER | property | string | " |
| X-SKYPE, X-SKYPE-USERNAME | property | string | " |
| X-GADUGADU | property | string | " |
| X-GROUPWISE | property | string | " |
| X-MS-IMADDRESS | property | string | " (IM address in VCF attachment from Outlook (right click Contact, Send Full Contact, Internet Format.) |
| X-MS-CARDPICTURE | property | string | Works as PHOTO or LOGO. Contains an image of the Card in Outlook. |
| X-PHONETIC-FIRST-NAME, X-PHONETIC-LAST-NAME | property | string | alternative spelling of name, used for Japanese names |
| introduced and used by Mozilla Mozilla Mozilla is a term used in a number of ways in relation to the Mozilla.org project and the Mozilla Foundation, their defunct commercial predecessor Netscape Communications Corporation, and their related application software.... , also used by Evolution (software) |
|||
| X-MOZILLA-HTML | property | TRUE/FALSE | mail recipient prefers HTML-formatted email |
| X-MOZILLA-PROPERTY | property | string | Thunderbird specific settings |
| introduced and used by Evolution (software) | |||
| X-EVOLUTION-ANNIVERSARY | property | YYYY-MM-DD | arbitrary anniversary, in addition to BDAY = birthday |
| X-EVOLUTION-ASSISTANT | property | string | assistant name (instead of Agent) |
| X-EVOLUTION-BLOG-URL | property | string/URL | blog URL |
| X-EVOLUTION-FILE-AS | property | string | file under different name (in addition to N = name components and FN = full name |
| X-EVOLUTION-MANAGER | property | string | manager name |
| X-EVOLUTION-SPOUSE | property | string | spouse name |
| X-EVOLUTION-VIDEO-URL | property | string/URL | video chat address |
| X-EVOLUTION-CALLBACK | TEL TYPE parameter value | - | callback phone number |
| X-EVOLUTION-RADIO | TEL TYPE parameter value | - | radio contact information |
| X-EVOLUTION-TELEX | TEL TYPE parameter value | - | Telex contact information |
| X-EVOLUTION-TTYTDD | TEL TYPE parameter value | - | TTY TDD Telecommunications device for the deaf A telecommunications device for the deaf is a teleprinter, an electronic device for text communication over a telephone line, that is designed for use by persons with hearing or speech difficulties... contact information |
| introduced and used by Kontact Kontact KMail supports folders, filtering, viewing HTML mail, and international character sets. It can handle IMAP, IMAP IDLE, dIMAP, POP3, and local mailboxes for incoming mail. It can send mail via SMTP or sendmail... and KAddressBook |
|||
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-BlogFeed | property | string/URL | blog URL |
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-X-Anniversary | property | ISO date | arbitrary anniversary, in addition to BDAY = birthday |
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-X-AssistantsName | property | string | assistant name (instead of Agent) |
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-X-IMAddress | property | string | im address |
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-X-ManagersName | property | string | manager name |
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-X-Office | property | string | office description |
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-X-Profession | property | string | profession |
| X-KADDRESSBOOK-X-SpouseName | property | string | spouse name |
Note: The Internet media type
Internet media type
An Internet media type, originally called a MIME type after MIME and sometimes a Content-type after the name of a header in several protocols whose value is such a type, is a two-part identifier for file formats on the Internet.The identifiers were originally defined in RFC 2046 for use in email...
text/vcard was used (incorrectly) in some SyncML
SyncML
SyncML is the former name for a platform-independent information synchronization standard. The project is currently referred to as Open Mobile Alliance Data Synchronization and Device Management...
Documentation to refer to vCard 3.0, and the example was followed in various implementations.
See also
- Convert from CSV to vCard
- Convert from vCard to CSV, LDIF
- CardDAVCardDAVCardDAV is an address book client/server protocol designed to allow users to access and share contact data on a server.The CardDAV protocol was developed by the IETF and has been published as RFC 6352....
- hCardHCardhCard is a microformat for publishing the contact details of people, companies, organizations, and places, in HTML, Atom, RSS, or arbitrary XML...
- a microformatMicroformatA microformat is a web-based approach to semantic markup which seeks to re-use existing HTML/XHTML tags to convey metadata and other attributes in web pages and other contexts that support HTML, such as RSS...
based on vCard - FOAFFOAF (software)FOAF is a machine-readable ontology describing persons, their activities and their relations to other people and objects. Anyone can use FOAF to describe him or herself...
- Geo URIGeo URIA geo' URI is a URI scheme defined by the Internet Engineering Task Force's RFC 5870 as:a Uniform Resource Identifier for geographic locations using the 'geo' scheme name...
- supported by the current revision of the vCard specification.
External links
- Internet mail Consortium - Personal Data Interchange
- vCard: The Electronic Business Card (Version 2.1) vCard 2.1 specification (Sept-18-1996)
- Representing vCard Objects in RDF, W3C Member Submission 20 January 2010
- hCard specification
- vCard implementations notes and bug reports
- vCard proposed errata
- RFC 2425 - A MIME Content-Type for Directory Information
- RFC 2426 - vCard MIME Directory Profile
- RFC 2739 - Calendar Attributes for vCard and LDAP
- RFC 4122 - UUID URN namespace (could be used for UID type)
- RFC 4770 - vCard Extensions for Instant Messaging
- RFC 6350 - vCard Format Specification
- IETF vCardDAV working group