vcard-implementations
vCard implementations
In the development of hCard and proxies like X2V, we have discovered various behaviors and quirks of vCard implementations. See also the vcard-errata.
Contributors
- Tantek Çelik
- Brian Suda
Products
Microsoft Outlook
version? platform?
URL handling
URL without non-standard TYPE param seems to be ignored.
ADR handling
Appears to not support the post-office-box sub-property of ADR.
Windows Address Book (WAB)
Version 6.00.X Win98 and Win XP Pro
vCard ENCODING
UTF-8 encoded vCard import prompts error as unrecognised vCard format. US ASCII 20127 encoded vCard successfully imported
ADR
If you do NOT specify TYPE=HOME,WORK,... then no address information is imported
TEL
If you do NOT specify TYPE=HOME,WORK,... then no address information is imported
PHOTO
Does not support Images
NOTE
According to the example in the RFC spec, all commas should be escaped, but WAB does not Un-escape them, leaving \, in the notes field.
Apple Address Book
On both OSX.3 and OSX.4
organization vs. individual
Summary: FN==ORG organization semantic supported for both import and export.
For organization contact info, sets the FN and ORG to the name of the organization and N to empty on exported vCards.
Also treats imported vCards like that as organization contact info cards visibly in the UI.
geo (lack of support)
The GEO field is ignored on imported vCards. It is only saved as part of the NOTE.
adr (behaviour)
If you do NOT specify which type of address information it is (like HOME or WORK) it is assumed to be a WORK address.
categories
Behavior confirmed on OSX.3 so far.
Summary: Exports native "Groups" as vCard CATEGORIES. Ignores CATEGORIES field when importing a vCard.
The UI lets you create distinct "Groups" which you can then drag contacts into. Contacts can be in more than one group. Upon exporting a contact that is in one or more Groups, those Groups are listed in the CATEGORIES field.
However, when importing vCards, the CATEGORIES field is totally ignored.
- It does not add vCards with a category that matches a current Group to that Group.
- It does not create new Groups for vCards with new categories.
- IT does not even add the CATEGORIES to the end of the notes field.
Evolution
On Linux.
geo (lack of support)
- ichigo, Frederic to fill in details