Vcard 4.0 Format

[Jule Kue]

vCard, also known as VCF (Virtual Contact File), is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards can be attached to e-mail messages, sent via Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), on the World Wide Web, instant messaging, NFC or through QR code. They can contain name and address information, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, URLs, logos, photographs, and audio clips.

vCard is used as a data interchange format in smartphone contacts, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal information managers (PIMs) and customer relationship management systems (CRMs). To accomplish these data interchange applications, other "vCard variants" have been used and proposed as "variant standards", each for its specific niche: XML representation, JSON representation, or web pages.

hCard is a microformat that allows a vCard to be embedded inside an HTML page. It makes use of CSS class names to identify each vCard property. Normal HTML markup and CSS styling can be used alongside the hCard class names without affecting the webpage's ability to be parsed by a hCard parser. h-card is the microformats2 update to hCard.

MeCard is a variation of vCard made by NTT DoCoMo for smartphones using QR codes. It uses a very similar syntax, but in a more consolidated way as the storage space on QR codes is limited. It's also limited in the amount of data that can be stored, not just by the standard but the size of QR codes.

All vCards begin with BEGIN:VCARD and end with END:VCARD. All vCards must contain the VERSION property, which specifies the vCard version. VERSION must come immediately after BEGIN, except in the vCard 2.1 and 3.0 standards, which allows it to be anywhere in the vCard. Otherwise, properties can be defined in any order.

Microsoft Outlook provides support for opening VCF files as well as convert to a number of other formats such as the popular MSG format. VCF file format enhanced with time from version 2.1 to 4.0 adding detailed information to the file format. The format is also used to export phone contacts and later import in another device.

You can click and save a .vcf file that you receive, adding it directly to your Outlook contacts, saving all the information. If you want to save an Outlook contact as a .vcf file, for example, for bulk distribution or to make that information available to others for download, you can do that too.

A vCard enables you to send contact information in a format that can be easily read in other e-mail programs. A vCard is saved as a .vcf file, which is the Internet standard for sharing contact information. When you send a vCard, its .vcf file is sent with the message as an attachment.

The .VCF format is a type of text file/data format used to store contact information. Based on the vCard file system, it stores the contact details of an individual - which can then be easily exchanged across platforms due to its simple text file foundation.

Built with a focus on simplifying contact info exchange, the system initially focused on email communication, but it quickly spread to other systems including mobile apps and more integrative contact/database management systems.

With the development of more complex contact database systems, .VCF files have started to integrate more contact info. Customised fields that may be relevant to specific notes (such as likes/dislikes in marketing, income for finance etc.) are often implemented into the files.

Alternatively, you can convert stored data from other formats such as .XLSX or .CSV to .VCF files using online tools. This makes managing the raw data much easier due to a more robust viewing set-up on more complex tools.

Finally, there are dedicated editors that make it simple to create and view .VCF files. Some great free options include SysTools vCard viewer and Turgs vCard viewer for Windows and MacUncle .VCF file viewer for Macs.

The .VCF format was invented in 1996 as the standard for maintaining contact data. Developed by the Internet Mail Consortium, it was initially meant for use in email, but it quickly became the go-to format for contact management across the majority of systems.

The appeal of these online cards is they are easy and efficient to exchange in email messages or applications. A user can click or import the card, and if they have a program that reads the vCard format, the data can be saved as a new contact record.

The key issue is whether the recipient has a contact program that uses the same fields. Sometimes, you have differences based on which vCard file version is used. Personal data, such as individual conversation records or text messages, is not included.

Below is a simple test record I exported from Google Contacts using the vCard option into a text editor. As you can see on Line 2, Google is using VCARD Version 3.0 (RFC 2426). This is the most widely used format at this time, but a newer version exists.

If I were to send this file as an attachment to an email account using Microsoft Outlook, the data would come across to the correct contact fields. I need to double-click the file, and Outlook creates the contact record below. Clearly, this saves us from having to type in all the information.

I'm trying to import my contacts from another Android phone. I exported them all in the Google contacts app on the other phone to a single .vcf file. When I try to import them to the default Graphene contacts app, I get a notification with an error that says: "Couldn't import vCard. The format isn't supported."

That seems like that has to be wrong, that it doesn't support .vcf files. Any idea what's going on? I thought it might be an issue with accessing files on the phone, but there is no option in the permissions for Contacts to allow it to access files on the device. Although when I select the import option in Contacts settings, it does launch the file browser without problem and let me locate the .vcf file in my internal storage.

Thanks for the quick reply. I get the same problem with the Google Contacts app. It says, "Couldn't import vCard." Also, in the permissions for the Google Contacts app, there is no option to allow access to storage.

Alright, I solved the problem. When I exported the contacts the first time, I did it by selecting all of the contacts in the list of contacts and then hitting the share button and exporting them to a file on the old phone's internal storage. That created what looked like a perfectly normal .vcf file (when opened in a text editing app). But it didn't work. So I exported the contacts again, from the "Fix & Manage" tab in Google Contacts and that .vcf file imported fine on the new phone.

Although, now that I look more closely, it looks like the original exported .vcf file, as stored on the old phone, is identical to the second one. But on the new phone the file size is smaller and the entries in the file are truncated before the end. So I guess the original file just didn't copy over to the new phone correctly or got corrupted in the process.

This is the issue of the VCF files. But we also have an alternative which is a CSV file. We can convert VCF to CSV file easily. After getting the CSV file we can import it to the destination account. I also found that transfer Google Contacts to another Google account is simpler.

According to David Woods in Programming Internet Email, vCard follows a straightforward structure composed of key-value pairs. It commences with a BEGIN keyword indicating the format and concludes with a corresponding END keyword. The version number is included, specifying the format used. Each piece of information in the vCard is represented by its own keyword. Custom tags can be added by applications, prefixed with "x-" as per the specification RFC 6350 Section 6.10. While parsing vCards, whitespaces are disregarded. Semicolons, when used within the text, need to be escaped with a backslash, particularly in properties like N and ADR.

vCard's content entity must initiate with the BEGIN property set to "VCARD," and the value is case-insensitive. While traditionally vCards conclude with "END:VCARD," the specification for Version 2.1 does not mandate this, making it optional. However, for Version 3 and above, "END:VCARD" became a requirement.

Originally known as "The Electronic Business Card". The 'v' in vCard stands for 'Versit' or 'virtual'. The terms Virtual Contact File and Virtual Card Format are used by some sources, but neither is official and is not referenced in the specification.

vCard has been widely adopted since the mid-1990s and has support from many major companies including: Apple, Claris, Four11, IBM, Lotus Development, Lucent Technologies, NetManage, Siemens, Google, and Novell.

Rights to vCard were held by the Versit Consortium until December 1996 when they were transferred to the Internet Mail Consortium (IMC). IMC held the rights until 2004 when they transferred to CalConnect.

Files primarily consist of key-value pairs and can be read using a text editor. Relatively easy to decipher and does not require specific tools to get information from the files with the exception of images which will not appear in a text editor.

vCard was initially created by Versit in 1990 as part of a global initiative founded by Apple Computer, AT&T, IBM, and Siemens. Over the years, the ownership and distribution of vCard technology transitioned to the Internet Mail Consortium (IMC) in 1996. At that time, the Versit Consortium, responsible for vCard, was disbanded, and IMC inherited the intellectual property. CalConnect gained rights to vCard in 2006.

In 2007, CalConnect hosted an open workshop, addressing existing issues and paving the way for a revision of vCard. The IETF took on the task, resulting in vCard 4.0, which addressed concerns raised during the workshop while maintaining compatibility with its predecessor. CalConnect, initiated in 2004, has played a crucial role in managing vCard standards since version 3.0. Its contributions are published through IETF RFCs for open adoption.

A vCard (or Virtual Contact File) is a specially formatted text that is used to transfer contacts between phones. Because it's just text, it's possible to create a QR code that can be scanned as a contact.

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