.NET vCard API for creating and parsing vCards

Screenshot - NET_vCard_API.gif

Introduction

Here I will discuss a .NET vCard API for creating and parsing vCards. Basically, a vCard is an electronic business card that can store such elements as Name, Phones, Photo, Emails, etc. This article assumes that you already have a little knowledge about vCard. If not, then for detailed information about vCard see RFC 2426. There is nothing more to tell you. Just get started by launching the vCard viewer application. I have made a well-commented and clear example application that is available for download at the top of this article. I hope that you don't need any more. vCard code is part of the LumiSoft.Net library. The LumiSoft.Net.Mime.vCard namespace contains all vCard related classes. You can get latest here and join in discussions on the forum.

History

18 October, 2006 -- Original version posted
22 June, 2007 -- Article edited and moved to the main CodeProject.com article base

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

About the Author

Ivar Lumi

Estonia

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Comments and Discussions

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My vote of 3

amirHarirbafan

19:45 18 Nov '11

not enough description
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What are the terms of use to your vcard library

Gary Dryden

7:20 11 Mar '11

We need a copy of your licence terms on file. Can you please post it here. Thanks.
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Re: What are the terms of use to your vcard library

Ivar Lumi

22:00 11 Mar '11

Hi, In general as long as you don't rename class names and namespaces, there are no restrictions.
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bug report

pipiwei

21:46 7 Jan '10

PhoneNumber.cs internal static PhoneNumber Parse(Item item) { ... if(item.ParametersString.ToUpper().IndexOf("WORK") != -1){ type \|= PhoneNumberType_enum.Voice; <-- should be Work here } ... }
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Re: bug report

Ivar Lumi

22:20 7 Jan '10

Hi, Seems you use very old version. Get latest from: http://www.lumisoft.ee/lswww/download/downloads/[^] But thanks for reporting it, most users wont do it .. .
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cannot open vCards on mac?

MarkoKovacic

11:06 25 Nov '09

Hello

Respect for all the work in the component so far.
I've got a problem... created vcf files can't be read properly at my friends on mac. It displays the data properly, but not the labels... here is the screen shot of displaying the data on mac:
http://img.skitch.com/20091125-jidwn2gsba5d8jd6n6abxk2c28.jpg[^]
You can see that where it should say "tel" or "address" it says "other" and "work".

So I've looked into the file.. the one he sent me that works and the one created by the component are fairly different. His has "type=" before the types, I think this is the main difference with it. Can you help me with this?

His file data, working:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Kontin;Darko;;;
FN:Darko Kontin
EMAIL;type=INTERNET;type=HOME;type=pref:darko@kontin.info
TEL;type=CELL;type=pref:00385 98 504606
item1.ADR;type=HOME;type=pref:;;Prigorska 7;KriĹľevci;;48260;Croatia
item1.X-ABADR:hr
item2.URL;type=pref:http\://www.kontin.info
item2.X-ABLabel:_$!<HomePage>!$_
BDAY;value=date:1986-07-04
X-AIM;type=HOME;type=pref:darkokontin@me.com
X-ABUID:74079C4D-8835-4508-BEA2-6AB4FA737177\:ABPerson
END:VCARD

Component created file data, labels not working:
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
UID:0d57e331-2804-4a35-a6a1-8e49a4467e3f
N:Ivana;Majdak;;;
ADR;Preferred:;;;;;;Croatia
EMAIL;INTERNET:ivana.majdak@gmail.com
TEL;PREF:09898989898
URL;HOME:
END:VCARD

Re: cannot open vCards on mac?

Ivar Lumi

20:34 25 Nov '09

Hi, Upper vcard has invalid syntax like: item1. .... item2. .... :_$!<HomePage>!$_ Latest version is: http://www.lumisoft.ee/lswww/download/downloads/Examples/[^]
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Re: cannot open vCards on mac?

MarkoKovacic

9:45 26 Nov '09

Hello,

Yes that may be invalid, but it is not the problem. The main problem itself is that vcards created by the component can't be read properly on mac. I've downloaded the vcard viewer from examples and created a vcard with all the data.. some aren't properly shown, as you can see on the screen shot:
http://img.skitch.com/20091126-835w4duqb6i78agntrjkm4u8g6.jpg[^]
Now question is does the mac address book has the correct standard or does the component? Please tell me what you think, this is the code for the vcard:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
UID:d1fc570f-8421-49eb-8a5b-42bd43d19b84
EMAIL;INTERNET:kova1337@gmail.com
EMAIL;INTERNET,PREF:marko@3linije.hr
N;ENCODING=b;CHARSET=utf-8:S292YcSNacSHO01hcmtvOzttci47
FN;ENCODING=b;CHARSET=utf-8:TWFya28gIEtvdmHEjWnEhw==
NICKNAME:Kova
BDAY:19850211
ADR;HOME:;;SomeStreetAddres 99;SomeCity;SomeProvince;99999;SomeCountry
TEL;HOME,VOICE:385 1 1111111
TEL;HOME,VOICE:385 1 2222222
TEL;CELL:385 1 3333333
URL;HOME:http://www.3LinesSoftware.com
ADR;Work:;;SomeBusinessStreet;SomeBusinessCity;SomeBusinessState;22222;SomeBusinessCo
untry
ORG:3 Linije;SomeDepartment;SomeOffice
TITLE:Director
TEL;VOICE,WORK:385 2 1111111
TEL;FAX,WORK:385 2 2222222
TEL;PAGER:385 2 3333333
URL;WORK:http://www.3linije.hr
NOTE:SomeNotes
END:VCARD

bug when parsing vcard like this

andrey.shredder

18:31 4 Jun '09

`BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 N;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE;CHARSET=UTF-8:= =D0=A8=D0=B5=D0=BB=D0=B5=D0=B3=D0=B5=D0=B9=D0=BA=D0=BE;=D0=A2=D0=B0=D1=82= =D1=8C=D1=8F=D0=BD=D0=B0;;; TEL;CELL:+37529221212 END:VCARD` VCard.Name.LastName and VCard.Name.FirstName are empty
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Re: bug when parsing vcard like this

Ivar Lumi

21:20 4 Jun '09

Hi, This is version 2.1, i support 3.x only. I rember right, 3.x is always utf-8 .... . There is some discussion at the end of: http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2426.txt[^]
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generating vcard problems with special caracters

Member 4540595

3:04 17 Oct '08

hello, i'm using your library for generating vcards and it works well. However, when the user have a name with special caracters like 'ê' or 'ë' for example, it generates something like this: N;ENCODING=b;CHARSET=utf-8:QkFMTEVZO05vw6tsOzs7 So when Outlook 2003 reads the Vcard it uses QkFMTEVZO05vw6tsOzs7 like the name... Have you an idea to resove my problem ? Thanks you
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Re: generating vcard problems with special caracters

Ivar Lumi

3:49 17 Oct '08

Hi, Email 1 example vcard file, i'll look what id oses with other clients. Do you use latest from: http://www.lumisoft.ee/lswww/download/downloads/Examples/[^]
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what's the license for this?

Adam Hurwitz

6:30 17 Apr '08

what's the license for using this library?
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Re: what's the license for this?

Ivar Lumi

6:50 17 Apr '08

Hi,

Something like this

General usage terms:

*) If you use/redistribute compiled binary, there are no restrictions.
You can use it in any project, commercial and no-commercial.

*) It's allowed to complile source code parts to your application,
but then you may not rename class names and namespaces.

*) Anything is possible, if special agreement between LumiSoft.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE
FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE,
ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Outlook 2007 and Phone Numbers

pooldimps

21:04 14 Apr '08

Hi mate, That's some good work. Really useful. I am having trouble with outlook 2007 vCards. It extracts home, phone and mobile numbers as same (the value of mobile number is assigned to all 3 numbers) into one number only. Is that happening to me only or it's a known issue? I can send a sample vCard to illustrate what I mean. Regards, Pool
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Re: Outlook 2007 and Phone Numbers

Ivar Lumi

20:45 15 Apr '08

Hi email vcard example.
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Re: Outlook 2007 and Phone Numbers

Ivar Lumi

22:14 20 Apr '08

Hi, There is 1 bug in it. All users ... get latest from: http://www.lumisoft.ee/lswww/download/downloads/Examples/[^]
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Visual Studio 2003

pooldimps

15:01 24 Nov '06

Can this be opened in Visual Studio 2003?
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Re: Visual Studio 2003

Ivar Lumi

21:19 24 Nov '06

Nope, just get free c# express edition.
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Good work

Gonzalo Brusella

3:27 24 Oct '06

As usual Ivar your posts are very usefull... Thanks. By the way: did you get the changes to your FTP_Client class (OS/400 support)?? I'm on a Fuzzy State: Between 0 an 1
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Re: Good work

Ivar Lumi

21:27 24 Oct '06

Yep, i got ftp stuff, but i havent go time to look it yet.... .
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UnhandledException while saving data

pawels100

11:22 23 Oct '06

Am I the only lucky who gets UnhandledException while saving data? Anyhow, Ivar , great job, I have seen some of you prevoius works and its very usefull. Cheers Paweł Stanek
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Re: UnhandledException while saving data

Ivar Lumi

11:24 23 Oct '06

Hi, Do you use code rpject version or http://www.lumisoft.ee/lswww/download/downloads/Examples/vCardViewer.zip[^] How to reproduce ?
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Re: UnhandledException while saving data

pawels100

12:55 23 Oct '06

Its when I press the save button on the dialog. Version that I'm using is this one linked to the top of the page. I was unable to debug it because every time when I run the project in VS 2005 I get the error "Unable to debug" I will try to download from lumisoft (ee - is it estonian domain ??) and then we will Cheers thx for help Paweł Stanek
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Re: UnhandledException while saving data

pawels100

13:24 23 Oct '06

It must be fault of my VS that I can't run it. I just downloaded the newest version and I get the same error "Unable to debug. The binding handle is invalid" well then I will take care of it later. Paweł Stanek
Sign In·View Thread·Permalink	2.00/5 (1 vote)