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Applications and Real-Time Calendar Extensions vcard This document defines the vCard data format for representing and exchanging a variety of information about individuals and other entities (e.g., formatted and structured name and delivery addresses, email address, multiple telephone numbers, photograph, logo, audio clips, etc.). This document obsoletes RFC 6350.

Introduction Electronic address books have become ubiquitous. Their increased presence on portable, connected devices as well as the diversity of platforms that exchange contact data call for a standard. This memo defines the vCard format, which allows the capture and exchange of information normally stored within an address book or directory application. A high-level overview of the differences from RFCs 2425 and 2426 can be found in Appendix A.

Conventions The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in .

vCard Format Specification The text/vcard MIME content type (hereafter known as "vCard"; see ) contains contact information, typically pertaining to a single contact or group of contacts. The content consists of one or more lines in the format given below.

Charset The charset (see for internationalization terminology) for vCard is UTF-8 as defined in . There is no way to override this. It is invalid to specify a value other than "UTF-8" in the "charset" MIME parameter (see ).

Line Delimiting and Folding Individual lines within vCard are delimited by the line break, which is a CRLF sequence (U+000D followed by U+000A). Long logical lines of text can be split into a multiple-physical-line representation using the following folding technique. Content lines SHOULD be folded to a maximum width of 75 octets, excluding the line break. Multi-octet characters MUST remain contiguous. The rationale for this folding process can be found in , Section 2.1.1. A logical line MAY be continued on the next physical line anywhere between two characters by inserting a CRLF immediately followed by a single white space character (space (U+0020) or horizontal tab (U+0009)). The folded line MUST contain at least one character. Any sequence of CRLF followed immediately by a single white space character is ignored (removed) when processing the content type. For example, the line:

can be represented as:

It could also be represented as:

The process of moving from this folded multiple-line representation of a property definition to its single-line representation is called unfolding. Unfolding is accomplished by regarding CRLF immediately followed by a white space character (namely, HTAB (U+0009) or SPACE (U+0020)) as equivalent to no characters at all (i.e., the CRLF and single white space character are removed). Note: It is possible for very simple implementations to generate improperly folded lines in the middle of a UTF-8 multi-octet sequence. For this reason, implementations SHOULD unfold lines in such a way as to properly restore the original sequence. Note: Unfolding is done differently than in . Unfolding in only removes the CRLF, not the space following it. Folding is done after any content encoding of a type value. Unfolding is done before any decoding of a type value in a content line.

ABNF Format Definition The following ABNF uses the notation of , which also defines CRLF, WSP, DQUOTE, VCHAR, ALPHA, and DIGIT.

A line that begins with a white space character is a continuation of the previous line, as described in . The white space character and immediately preceeding CRLF should be discarded when reconstructing the original line. Note that this line-folding convention differs from that found in , in that the sequence <CRLF><WSP> found anywhere in the content indicates a continued line and should be removed. Property names and parameter names are case-insensitive (e.g., the property name "fn" is the same as "FN" and "Fn"). Parameter values MAY be case-sensitive or case-insensitive, depending on their definition. Parameter values that are not explicitly defined as being case-sensitive are case-insensitive. Based on experience with vCard 3 interoperability, it is RECOMMENDED that property and parameter names be upper-case on output. The group construct is used to group related properties together. The group name is a syntactic convention used to indicate that all property names prefaced with the same group name SHOULD be grouped together when displayed by an application. It has no other significance. Implementations that do not understand or support grouping MAY simply strip off any text before a "." to the left of the type name and present the types and values as normal. Property cardinalities are indicated using the following notation, which is based on ABNF (see , Section 3.6): Cardinality Meaning 1 Exactly one instance per vCard MUST be present. *1 Exactly one instance per vCard MAY be present. 1* One or more instances per vCard MUST be present. * One or more instances per vCard MAY be present. Properties defined in a vCard instance may have multiple values depending on the property cardinality. The general rule for encoding multi-valued properties is to simply create a new content line for each value (including the property name). However, it should be noted that some value types support encoding multiple values in a single content line by separating the values with a comma ",". This approach has been taken for several of the content types defined below (date, time, integer, float). A property whose value is structured, such as ADR or ORG, MUST NOT combine multiple instances on a single content line; each instance is placed on its own line.

Property Value Escaping Within a property value, certain characters are escaped using a BACKSLASH character (U+005C). A COMMA (U+002C) or a SEMICOLON (U+003B) is escaped by preceding it with a BACKSLASH, so that it is not taken for a separator; a literal BACKSLASH is written as two BACKSLASH characters; and a NEWLINE (U+000A) is encoded as a BACKSLASH followed by an 'n' (U+006E) or an 'N' (U+004E). Which of these characters must be escaped depends on the value's type. A "text" value MUST escape any COMMA it contains, even for a property that does not allow multiple values (for consistency), and MUST escape any BACKSLASH or NEWLINE. It MAY escape a SEMICOLON but need not, because within a "text" value a SEMICOLON is ordinary content rather than a separator. A "component" value -- the building block of structured properties like those of N, ADR, and ORG values -- MUST escape any COMMA, SEMICOLON, BACKSLASH, or NEWLINE it contains, even where the structure does not allow multiple values (for consistency). Outside of "text" and "component" values, none of these characters is escaped. Most value types cannot contain any of them, and although a "uri" value may contain a COMMA or a SEMICOLON (), a URI is never in a list or component list. For tolerance of vCards produced under earlier specifications, a parser MAY accept a backslash-escaped COMMA or SEMICOLON within a "uri" value as the literal character. A few properties define a structured value as a fixed sequence of fields rather than from "component" values; CLIENTPIDMAP and GENDER are examples in this document. In each, the field preceding the semicolon cannot itself contain a semicolon, so the grammar locates the separator unambiguously; the semicolon is not escaped, and each field is interpreted according to its own type. In all other cases, escaping MUST NOT be used.

Property Value Data Types Standard value types are defined below.

iana-valuespec = ; a publicly defined valuetype format, registered ; with IANA, as defined in Section 10.2.5 of this ; document. ]]>

TEXT "text": The "text" value type should be used to identify values that contain human-readable text. As for the language, it is controlled by the LANGUAGE property parameter defined in . Examples for "text":

A formatted text line break in a text value type MUST be represented as the character sequence backslash (U+005C) followed by a Latin small letter n (U+006E) or a Latin capital letter N (U+004E), that is, "\n" or "\N". For example, a multiple line NOTE value of:

could be represented as:

demonstrating the \n literal formatted line break technique, the CRLF-followed-by-space line folding technique, and the backslash escape technique.

URI "uri": The "uri" value type should be used to identify values that are referenced by a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) instead of encoded in-line. These value references might be used if the value is too large, or otherwise undesirable to include directly. The format for the URI is as defined in Section 3 of . Note that the value of a property of type "uri" is what the URI points to, not the URI itself. Examples for "uri":

DATE, TIME, DATE-TIME, DATE-AND-OR-TIME, and TIMESTAMP "date", "time", "date-time", "date-and-or-time", and "timestamp": Each of these value types is based on the definitions in . Multiple such values can be specified using the comma-separated notation. Only the basic format is supported.

DATE A calendar date as specified in , Section 4.1.2. Reduced accuracy, as specified in , Sections 4.1.2.3 a) and b), but not c), is permitted. Expanded representation, as specified in , Section 4.1.4, is forbidden. Truncated representation, as specified in , Sections 5.2.1.3 d), e), and f), is permitted. Examples for "date":

Note the use of YYYY-MM in the second example above. YYYYMM is disallowed to prevent confusion with YYMMDD. Note also that YYYY-MM-DD is disallowed since we are using the basic format instead of the extended format.

TIME A time of day as specified in , Section 4.2. Reduced accuracy, as specified in , Section 4.2.2.3, is permitted. Representation with decimal fraction, as specified in , Section 4.2.2.4, is forbidden. The midnight hour is always represented by 00, never 24 (see , Section 4.2.3). Truncated representation, as specified in , Sections 5.3.1.4 a), b), and c), is permitted. Examples for "time":

DATE-TIME A date and time of day combination as specified in , Section 4.3. Truncation of the date part, as specified in , Section 5.4.2 c), is permitted. Examples for "date-time":

DATE-AND-OR-TIME Either a DATE-TIME, a DATE, or a TIME value. To allow unambiguous interpretation, a stand-alone TIME value is always preceded by a "T". Examples for "date-and-or-time":

TIMESTAMP A complete date and time of day combination as specified in , Section 4.3.2. Examples for "timestamp":

BOOLEAN "boolean": The "boolean" value type is used to express boolean values. These values are case-insensitive. Examples:

INTEGER "integer": The "integer" value type is used to express signed integers in decimal format. If sign is not specified, the value is assumed positive "+". Multiple "integer" values can be specified using the comma-separated notation. The maximum value is 9223372036854775807, and the minimum value is -9223372036854775808. These limits correspond to a signed 64-bit integer using two's- complement arithmetic. Examples:

FLOAT "float": The "float" value type is used to express real numbers. If sign is not specified, the value is assumed positive "+". Multiple "float" values can be specified using the comma-separated notation. Implementations MUST support a precision equal or better than that of the IEEE "binary64" format . Note: Scientific notation is disallowed. Implementers wishing to use their favorite language's %f formatting should be careful. Examples:

UTC-OFFSET "utc-offset": The "utc-offset" value type specifies that the property value is a signed offset from UTC. This value type can be specified in the TZ property. The value type is an offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). It is specified as a positive or negative difference in units of hours and minutes (e.g., +hhmm). The time is specified as a 24-hour clock. Hour values are from 00 to 23, and minute values are from 00 to 59. Hour and minutes are 2 digits with high-order zeroes required to maintain digit count. The basic format for ISO 8601 UTC offsets MUST be used.

LANGUAGE-TAG "language-tag": A single language tag, as defined in .

Property Parameters A property can have attributes associated with it. These "property parameters" contain meta-information about the property or the property value. In some cases, the property parameter can be multi- valued in which case the property parameter value elements are separated by a COMMA (U+002C). Property parameter value elements that contain the COLON (U+003A), SEMICOLON (U+003B), or COMMA (U+002C) character separators MUST be specified as quoted-string text values. Property parameter values MUST NOT contain the DQUOTE (U+0022) character. The DQUOTE character is used as a delimiter for parameter values that contain restricted characters or URI text. Applications MUST ignore x-param and iana-param values they don't recognize.

LANGUAGE The LANGUAGE property parameter is used to identify data in multiple languages. There is no concept of "default" language, except as specified by any "Content-Language" MIME header parameter that is present . The value of the LANGUAGE property parameter is a language tag as defined in Section 2 of . Examples:

ABNF:

VALUE The VALUE parameter is OPTIONAL, used to identify the value type (data type) and format of the value. The use of these predefined formats is encouraged even if the value parameter is not explicitly used. By defining a standard set of value types and their formats, existing parsing and processing code can be leveraged. The predefined data type values MUST NOT be repeated in COMMA-separated value lists except within the N, NICKNAME, ADR, and CATEGORIES properties. Although the VALUE parameter is OPTIONAL, a property defined outside this document whose default value type is not "text" SHOULD nonetheless include it on each instance, stating the type explicitly. A consumer that does not recognize a property cannot determine its value type from the property name alone, and so may mishandle a non-text value -- for example, treating a COMMA within a URI value as a value separator. See for the matching registration guidance. ABNF:

PREF The PREF parameter is OPTIONAL and is used to indicate that the corresponding instance of a property is preferred by the vCard author. Its value MUST be an integer between 1 and 100 that quantifies the level of preference. Lower values correspond to a higher level of preference, with 1 being most preferred. When the parameter is absent, the default MUST be to interpret the property instance as being least preferred. Note that the value of this parameter is to be interpreted only in relation to values assigned to other instances of the same property in the same vCard. A given value, or the absence of a value, MUST NOT be interpreted on its own. This parameter MAY be applied to any property that allows multiple instances. ABNF:

ALTID The ALTID parameter is used to "tag" property instances as being alternative representations of the same logical property. For example, translations of a property in multiple languages generates multiple property instances having different LANGUAGE () parameter that are tagged with the same ALTID value. This parameter's value is treated as an opaque string. Its sole purpose is to be compared for equality against other ALTID parameter values. Two property instances are considered alternative representations of the same logical property if and only if their names as well as the value of their ALTID parameters are identical. Property instances without the ALTID parameter MUST NOT be considered an alternative representation of any other property instance. Values for the ALTID parameter are not globally unique: they MAY be reused for different property names. Property instances having the same ALTID parameter value count as 1 toward cardinality. Therefore, since N () has cardinality *1 and TITLE () has cardinality *, these three examples would be legal:

;;;; N;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=en:Yamada;Taro;;; ( denotes a UTF8-encoded Unicode character.) TITLE;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=fr:Patron TITLE;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=en:Boss TITLE;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=fr:Patron TITLE;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=en:Boss TITLE;ALTID=2;LANGUAGE=en:Chief vCard Evangelist ]]>

while this one would not:

;;;; N:Yamada;Taro;;; (Two instances of the N property.) ]]>

and these three would be legal but questionable:

;;;; N;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=en:Yamada;Taro;;; N;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=en:Smith;John;;; (The last line should probably have ALTID=2. But that would be illegal because N has cardinality *1.) ]]>

The ALTID property MAY also be used in many contexts other than with the LANGUAGE parameter. Here's an example with two representations of the same photo in different file formats:

ABNF:

PID The PID parameter is used to identify a specific property among multiple instances. It plays a role analogous to the UID property () on a per-property instead of per-vCard basis. It MAY appear more than once in a given property. It MUST NOT appear on properties that may have only one instance per vCard. Its value is either a single small positive integer or a pair of small positive integers separated by a dot. Multiple values may be encoded in a single PID parameter by separating the values with a comma ",". See for more details on its usage. ABNF:

TYPE The TYPE parameter has multiple, different uses. In general, it is a way of specifying class characteristics of the associated property. Most of the time, its value is a comma-separated subset of a predefined enumeration. In this document, the following properties make use of this parameter: FN, NICKNAME, PHOTO, ADR, TEL, EMAIL, IMPP, LANG, TZ, GEO, TITLE, ROLE, LOGO, ORG, RELATED, CATEGORIES, NOTE, SOUND, URL, KEY, FBURL, CALADRURI, and CALURI. The TYPE parameter MUST NOT be applied on other properties defined in this document. The "work" and "home" values act like tags. The "work" value implies that the property is related to an individual's work place, while the "home" value implies that the property is related to an individual's personal life. When neither "work" nor "home" is present, it is implied that the property is related to both an individual's work place and personal life in the case that the KIND property's value is "individual", or to none in other cases. ABNF:

MEDIATYPE The MEDIATYPE parameter is used with properties whose value is a URI. Its use is OPTIONAL. It provides a hint to the vCard consumer application about the media type of the resource identified by the URI. Some URI schemes do not need this parameter. For example, the "data" scheme allows the media type to be explicitly indicated as part of the URI . Another scheme, "http", provides the media type as part of the URI resolution process, with the Content-Type HTTP header . The MEDIATYPE parameter is intended to be used with URI schemes that do not provide such functionality (e.g., "ftp" ). ABNF:

CALSCALE The CALSCALE parameter is identical to the CALSCALE property in iCalendar (see , Section 3.7.1). It is used to define the calendar system in which a date or date-time value is expressed. The only value specified by iCalendar is "gregorian", which stands for the Gregorian system. It is the default when the parameter is absent. Additional values may be defined in extension documents and registered with IANA (see ). A vCard implementation MUST ignore properties with a CALSCALE parameter value that it does not understand. ABNF:

SORT-AS The "sort-as" parameter is used to specify the string to be used for national-language-specific sorting. Without this information, sorting algorithms could incorrectly sort this vCard within a sequence of sorted vCards. When this property is present in a vCard, then the given strings are used for sorting the vCard. This parameter's value is a comma-separated list that MUST have as many or fewer elements as the corresponding property value has components. This parameter's value is case-sensitive. ABNF:

Examples: For the case of surname and given name sorting, the following examples define common sort string usage with the N property.

If sorted by surname, the results would be:

If sorted by given name, the results would be:

GEO The GEO parameter can be used to indicate global positioning information that is specific to an address. Its value is the same as that of the GEO property (see ). ABNF:

TZ The TZ parameter can be used to indicate time zone information that is specific to an address. Its value is the same as that of the TZ property. ABNF:

vCard Properties What follows is an enumeration of the standard vCard properties.

General Properties

BEGIN

Purpose

To denote the beginning of a syntactic entity within a text/vcard content-type.

Value type

text

Cardinality

1

Special notes

The content entity MUST begin with the BEGIN property with a value of "VCARD". The value is case-insensitive. The BEGIN property is used in conjunction with the END property to delimit an entity containing a related set of properties within a text/vcard content-type. This construct can be used instead of including multiple vCards as body parts inside of a multipart/ alternative MIME message. It is provided for applications that wish to define content that can contain multiple entities within the same text/vcard content-type or to define content that can be identifiable outside of a MIME environment.

ABNF:

Example:

END

Purpose

To denote the end of a syntactic entity within a text/vcard content-type.

Value type

text

Cardinality

1

Special notes

The content entity MUST end with the END type with a value of "VCARD". The value is case-insensitive. The END property is used in conjunction with the BEGIN property to delimit an entity containing a related set of properties within a text/vcard content-type. This construct can be used instead of or in addition to wrapping separate sets of information inside additional MIME headers. It is provided for applications that wish to define content that can contain multiple entities within the same text/vcard content-type or to define content that can be identifiable outside of a MIME environment.

ABNF:

Example:

SOURCE

Purpose

To identify the source of directory information contained in the content type.

Value type

uri

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The SOURCE property is used to provide the means by which applications knowledgable in the given directory service protocol can obtain additional or more up-to-date information from the directory service. It contains a URI as defined in and/or other information referencing the vCard to which the information pertains. When directory information is available from more than one source, the sending entity can pick what it considers to be the best source, or multiple SOURCE properties can be included.

ABNF:

Examples:

KIND

Purpose

To specify the kind of object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

*1

Special notes

The value may be one of the following: "individual" for a vCard representing a single person or entity. This is the default kind of vCard. "group" for a vCard representing a group of persons or entities. The group's member entities can be other vCards or other types of entities, such as email addresses or web sites. A group vCard will usually contain MEMBER properties to specify the members of the group, but it is not required to. A group vCard without MEMBER properties can be considered an abstract grouping, or one whose members are known empirically (perhaps "IETF Participants" or "Republican U.S. Senators"). All properties in a group vCard apply to the group as a whole, and not to any particular MEMBER. For example, an EMAIL property might specify the address of a mailing list associated with the group, and an IMPP property might refer to a group chat room. "org" for a vCard representing an organization. An organization vCard will not (in fact, MUST NOT) contain MEMBER properties, and so these are something of a cross between "individual" and "group". An organization is a single entity, but not a person. It might represent a business or government, a department or division within a business or government, a club, an association, or the like. All properties in an organization vCard apply to the organization as a whole, as is the case with a group vCard. For example, an EMAIL property might specify the address of a contact point for the organization. "location" for a named geographical place. A location vCard will usually contain a GEO property, but it is not required to. A location vCard without a GEO property can be considered an abstract location, or one whose definition is known empirically (perhaps "New England" or "The Seashore"). All properties in a location vCard apply to the location itself, and not with any entity that might exist at that location. For example, in a vCard for an office building, an ADR property might give the mailing address for the building, and a TEL property might specify the telephone number of the receptionist. An x-name. vCards MAY include private or experimental values for KIND. Remember that x-name values are not intended for general use and are unlikely to interoperate. An iana-token. Additional values may be registered with IANA (see ). A new value's specification document MUST specify which properties make sense for that new kind of vCard and which do not. Implementations MUST support the specific string values defined above. If this property is absent, "individual" MUST be assumed as the default. If this property is present but the implementation does not understand its value (the value is an x-name or iana-token that the implementation does not support), the implementation SHOULD act in a neutral way, which usually means treating the vCard as though its kind were "individual". The presence of MEMBER properties MAY, however, be taken as an indication that the unknown kind is an extension of "group". Clients often need to visually distinguish contacts based on what they represent, and the KIND property provides a direct way for them to do so. For example, when displaying contacts in a list, an icon could be displayed next to each one, using distinctive icons for the different kinds; a client might use an outline of a single person to represent an "individual", an outline of multiple people to represent a "group", and so on. Alternatively, or in addition, a client might choose to segregate different kinds of vCards to different panes, tabs, or selections in the user interface. Some clients might also make functional distinctions among the kinds, ignoring "location" vCards for some purposes and considering only "location" vCards for others. When designing those sorts of visual and functional distinctions, client implementations have to decide how to fit unsupported kinds into the scheme. What icon is used for them? The one for "individual"? A unique one, such as an icon of a question mark? Which tab do they go into? It is beyond the scope of this specification to answer these questions, but these are things implementers need to consider.

ABNF:

Example: This represents someone named Jane Doe working in the marketing department of the North American division of ABC Inc.

This represents the department itself, commonly known as ABC Marketing.

XML

Purpose

To include extended XML-encoded vCard data in a plain vCard.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The content of this property is a single XML 1.0 element whose namespace MUST be explicitly specified using the xmlns attribute and MUST NOT be the vCard 4 namespace ("urn:ietf:params:xml:ns:vcard-4.0"). (This implies that it cannot duplicate a standard vCard property.) The element is to be interpreted as if it was contained in a <vcard> element, as defined in . The fragment is subject to normal line folding and escaping, i.e., replace all backslashes with "\", then replace all newlines with "\n", then fold long lines. Support for this property is OPTIONAL, but implementations of this specification MUST preserve instances of this property when propagating vCards. See for more information on the intended use of this property.

ABNF:

Identification Properties These types are used to capture information associated with the identification and naming of the entity associated with the vCard.

FN

Purpose

To specify the formatted text corresponding to the name of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

1*

Special notes

This property is based on the semantics of the X.520 Common Name attribute . The property MUST be present in the vCard object.

ABNF:

Example:

N

Purpose

To specify the components of the name of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single structured text value. Each component can have multiple values.

Cardinality

*1

Special note

The structured property value corresponds, in sequence, to the Family Names (also known as surnames), Given Names, Additional Names, Honorific Prefixes, and Honorific Suffixes. The text components are separated by the SEMICOLON character (U+003B). Individual text components can include multiple text values separated by the COMMA character (U+002C). This property is based on the semantics of the X.520 individual name attributes . The property SHOULD be present in the vCard object when the name of the object the vCard represents follows the X.520 model. The SORT-AS parameter MAY be applied to this property.

ABNF:

Examples:

NICKNAME

Purpose

To specify the text corresponding to the nickname of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

One or more text values separated by a COMMA character (U+002C).

Cardinality

*

Special note

The nickname is the descriptive name given instead of or in addition to the one belonging to the object the vCard represents. It can also be used to specify a familiar form of a proper name specified by the FN or N properties.

ABNF:

Examples:

PHOTO

Purpose

To specify an image or photograph information that annotates some aspect of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single URI.

Cardinality

*

ABNF:

Examples:

]]>

BDAY

Purpose

To specify the birth date of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

The default is a single date-and-or-time value. It can also be reset to a single text value.

Cardinality

*1

ABNF:

Examples:

ANNIVERSARY

Purpose

The date of marriage, or equivalent, of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

The default is a single date-and-or-time value. It can also be reset to a single text value.

Cardinality

*1

ABNF:

Examples:

GENDER

Purpose

To specify the components of the sex and gender identity of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single structured value with two components. Each component has a single text value.

Cardinality

*1

Special notes

The components correspond, in sequence, to the sex (biological), and gender identity. Each component is optional. Sex component: A single letter. M stands for "male", F stands for "female", O stands for "other", N stands for "none or not applicable", U stands for "unknown". Gender identity component: Free-form text.

ABNF:

Examples:

Delivery Addressing Properties These types are concerned with information related to the delivery addressing or label for the vCard object.

ADR

Purpose

To specify the components of the delivery address for the vCard object.

Value type

A single structured text value, separated by the SEMICOLON character (U+003B).

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The structured type value consists of a sequence of address components. The component values MUST be specified in their corresponding position. The structured type value corresponds, in sequence, to the post office box; the extended address (e.g., apartment or suite number); the street address; the locality (e.g., city); the region (e.g., state or province); the postal code; the country name (full name in the language specified in ). When a component value is missing, the associated component separator MUST still be specified. Experience with vCard 3 has shown that the first two components (post office box and extended address) are plagued with many interoperability issues. To ensure maximal interoperability, their values SHOULD be empty. The text components are separated by the SEMICOLON character (U+003B). Where it makes semantic sense, individual text components can include multiple text values (e.g., a "street" component with multiple lines) separated by the COMMA character (U+002C). The property can include the "PREF" parameter to indicate the preferred delivery address when more than one address is specified. The GEO and TZ parameters MAY be used with this property. The property can also include a "LABEL" parameter to present a delivery address label for the address. Its value is a plain-text string representing the formatted address. Newlines are encoded as \n, as they are for property values.

ABNF:

Example: In this example, the post office box and the extended address are absent.

Communications Properties These properties describe information about how to communicate with the object the vCard represents.

TEL

Purpose

To specify the telephone number for telephony communication with the object the vCard represents.

Value type

By default, it is a single free-form text value (for backward compatibility with vCard 3), but it SHOULD be reset to a URI value. It is expected that the URI scheme will be "tel", as specified in , but other schemes MAY be used.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

This property is based on the X.520 Telephone Number attribute . The property can include the "PREF" parameter to indicate a preferred-use telephone number. The property can include the parameter "TYPE" to specify intended use for the telephone number. The predefined values for the TYPE parameter are: Value Description text Indicates that the telephone number supports text messages (SMS). voice Indicates a voice telephone number. fax Indicates a facsimile telephone number. cell Indicates a cellular or mobile telephone number. video Indicates a video conferencing telephone number. pager Indicates a paging device telephone number. textphone Indicates a telecommunication device for people with hearing or speech difficulties. The default type is "voice". These type parameter values can be specified as a parameter list (e.g., TYPE=text;TYPE=voice) or as a value list (e.g., TYPE=text,voice). The default can be overridden to another set of values by specifying one or more alternate values. For example, the default TYPE of "voice" can be reset to a VOICE and FAX telephone number by the value list TYPE=voice,fax. If this property's value is a URI that can also be used for instant messaging, the IMPP () property SHOULD be used in addition to this property.

ABNF:

Example:

EMAIL

Purpose

To specify the electronic mail address for communication with the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The property can include type "PREF" parameter to indicate a preferred-use email address when more than one is specified. Even though the value is free-form UTF-8 text, it is likely to be interpreted by a Mail User Agent (MUA) as an "addr-spec", as defined in , Section 3.4.1. Readers should also be aware of the current work toward internationalized email addresses .

ABNF:

Example:

IMPP

Purpose

To specify the URI for instant messaging and presence protocol communications with the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single URI.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The property may include the "PREF" parameter to indicate that this is a preferred address and has the same semantics as the "PREF" parameter in a TEL property. If this property's value is a URI that can be used for voice and/or video, the TEL property () SHOULD be used in addition to this property. This property is adapted from , which is made obsolete by this document.

ABNF:

Example:

LANG

Purpose

To specify the language(s) that may be used for contacting the entity associated with the vCard.

Value type

A single language-tag value.

Cardinality

*

ABNF:

Example:

Geographical Properties These properties are concerned with information associated with geographical positions or regions associated with the object the vCard represents.

TZ

Purpose

To specify information related to the time zone of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

The default is a single text value. It can also be reset to a single URI or utc-offset value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

It is expected that names from the public-domain Olson database will be used, but this is not a restriction. See also . Efforts are currently being directed at creating a standard URI scheme for expressing time zone information. Usage of such a scheme would ensure a high level of interoperability between implementations that support it. Note that utc-offset values SHOULD NOT be used because the UTC offset varies with time -- not just because of the usual daylight saving time shifts that occur in may regions, but often entire regions will "re-base" their overall offset. The actual offset may be +/- 1 hour (or perhaps a little more) than the one given.

ABNF:

Examples:

GEO

Purpose

To specify information related to the global positioning of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single URI.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The "geo" URI scheme is particularly well suited for this property, but other schemes MAY be used.

ABNF:

Example:

Organizational Properties These properties are concerned with information associated with characteristics of the organization or organizational units of the object that the vCard represents.

TITLE

Purpose

To specify the position or job of the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

This property is based on the X.520 Title attribute .

ABNF:

Example:

ROLE

Purpose

To specify the function or part played in a particular situation by the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

This property is based on the X.520 Business Category explanatory attribute . This property is included as an organizational type to avoid confusion with the semantics of the TITLE property and incorrect usage of that property when the semantics of this property is intended.

ABNF:

Example:

LOGO

Purpose

To specify a graphic image of a logo associated with the object the vCard represents.

Value type

A single URI.

Cardinality

*

ABNF:

Examples:

]]>

ORG

Purpose

To specify the organizational name and units associated with the vCard.

Value type

A single structured text value consisting of components separated by the SEMICOLON character (U+003B).

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The property is based on the X.520 Organization Name and Organization Unit attributes . The property value is a structured type consisting of the organization name, followed by zero or more levels of organizational unit names. The SORT-AS parameter MAY be applied to this property.

ABNF:

Example: A property value consisting of an organizational name, organizational unit #1 name, and organizational unit #2 name.

MEMBER

Purpose

To include a member in the group this vCard represents.

Value type

A single URI value. It MAY also be reset to free-form text. A URI value MAY refer to something other than a vCard object; for example, an email distribution list could employ the "mailto" URI scheme for efficiency. A text value references a member vCard by its UID, and is used when that UID is itself a text value (see ), as is common for data originating in vCard 3.0.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

This property MUST NOT be present unless the value of the KIND property is "group". A MEMBER value that identifies another vCard does so by matching that vCard's UID. A MEMBER value and a UID value identify the same vCard when they are equivalent as described in ; in particular, a text MEMBER value can reference a vCard whose UID is a text value.

ABNF:

Examples:

RELATED

Purpose

To specify a relationship between another entity and the entity represented by this vCard.

Value type

A single URI. It can also be reset to a single text value. The text value can be used to specify textual information.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The TYPE parameter MAY be used to characterize the related entity. It contains a comma-separated list of values that are registered with IANA as described in . The registry is pre-populated with the values defined in . This document also specifies two additional values: agent: an entity who may sometimes act on behalf of the entity associated with the vCard. emergency: indicates an emergency contact

ABNF:

Examples:

Explanatory Properties These properties are concerned with additional explanations, such as that related to informational notes or revisions specific to the vCard.

CATEGORIES

Purpose

To specify application category information about the vCard, also known as "tags".

Value type

One or more text values separated by a COMMA character (U+002C).

Cardinality

*

ABNF:

Example:

NOTE

Purpose

To specify supplemental information or a comment that is associated with the vCard.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

The property is based on the X.520 Description attribute .

ABNF:

Example:

PRODID

Purpose

To specify the identifier for the product that created the vCard object.

Type value

A single text value.

Cardinality

*1

Special notes

Implementations SHOULD use a method such as that specified for Formal Public Identifiers in or for Universal Resource Names in to ensure that the text value is unique.

ABNF:

Example:

REV

Purpose

To specify revision information about the current vCard.

Value type

A single timestamp value.

Cardinality

*1

Special notes

The value distinguishes the current revision of the information in this vCard for other renditions of the information.

ABNF:

Example:

SOUND

Purpose

To specify a digital sound content information that annotates some aspect of the vCard. This property is often used to specify the proper pronunciation of the name property value of the vCard.

Value type

A single URI.

Cardinality

*

ABNF:

Example:

]]>

UID

Purpose

To specify a value that represents a globally unique identifier corresponding to the entity associated with the vCard.

Value type

A single URI value. It MAY also be reset to free-form text.

Cardinality

*1

Special notes

This property is used to uniquely identify the object that the vCard represents. The "uuid" URN namespace defined in is particularly well suited to this task, but other URI schemes MAY be used. Free-form text MAY also be used. Two identifier values -- each of them either a UID value or a MEMBER value () -- are compared for equivalence as follows. First, the content of each value is determined: for a text value, this is the value with the escaping described in removed; for a URI value, it is the value exactly as written. If both values are URI values and both are valid URIs, they are equivalent when they are equivalent under , Section 6. Otherwise, the two values are equivalent when their content is identical, character for character.

ABNF:

Example:

CLIENTPIDMAP

Purpose

To give a global meaning to a local PID source identifier.

Value type

A single structured text value consisting of components separated by the SEMICOLON character (U+003B). The first component is a small integer corresponding to the second component of a PID parameter instance. The second component is a URI. The "uuid" URN namespace defined in is particularly well suited to this task, but other URI schemes MAY be used.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

PID source identifiers (the source identifier is the second field in a PID parameter instance) are small integers that only have significance within the scope of a single vCard instance. Each distinct source identifier present in a vCard MUST have an associated CLIENTPIDMAP. See for more details on the usage of CLIENTPIDMAP. PID source identifiers MUST be strictly positive. Zero is not allowed. As a special exception, the PID parameter MUST NOT be applied to this property.

ABNF:

Example:

URL

Purpose

To specify a uniform resource locator associated with the object to which the vCard refers. Examples for individuals include personal web sites, blogs, and social networking site identifiers.

Cardinality

*

Value type

A single uri value.

ABNF:

Example:

VERSION

Purpose

To specify the version of the vCard specification used to format this vCard.

Value type

A single text value.

Cardinality

1

Special notes

This property MUST be present in the vCard object, and it must appear immediately after BEGIN:VCARD. The value MUST be "4.0" if the vCard corresponds to this specification. Note that earlier versions of vCard allowed this property to be placed anywhere in the vCard object, or even to be absent.

ABNF:

Example:

Security Properties These properties are concerned with the security of communication pathways or access to the vCard.

KEY

Purpose

To specify a public key or authentication certificate associated with the object that the vCard represents.

Value type

A single URI. It can also be reset to a text value.

Cardinality

*

ABNF:

Examples:

]]>

Calendar Properties These properties are further specified in .

FBURL

Purpose

To specify the URI for the busy time associated with the object that the vCard represents.

Value type

A single URI value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

Where multiple FBURL properties are specified, the default FBURL property is indicated with the PREF parameter. The FTP or HTTP type of URI points to an iCalendar object associated with a snapshot of the next few weeks or months of busy time data. If the iCalendar object is represented as a file or document, its file extension should be ".ifb".

ABNF:

Examples:

CALADRURI

Purpose

To specify the calendar user address to which a scheduling request should be sent for the object represented by the vCard.

Value type

A single URI value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

Where multiple CALADRURI properties are specified, the default CALADRURI property is indicated with the PREF parameter.

ABNF:

Example:

CALURI

Purpose

To specify the URI for a calendar associated with the object represented by the vCard.

Value type

A single URI value.

Cardinality

*

Special notes

Where multiple CALURI properties are specified, the default CALURI property is indicated with the PREF parameter. The property should contain a URI pointing to an iCalendar object associated with a snapshot of the user's calendar store. If the iCalendar object is represented as a file or document, its file extension should be ".ics".

ABNF:

Examples:

Extended Properties and Parameters The properties and parameters defined by this document can be extended. Non-standard, private properties and parameters with a name starting with "X-" may be defined bilaterally between two cooperating agents without outside registration or standardization.

Synchronization vCard data often needs to be synchronized between devices. In this context, synchronization is defined as the intelligent merging of two representations of the same object. vCard 4.0 includes mechanisms to aid this process.

Mechanisms Two mechanisms are available: the UID property is used to match multiple instances of the same vCard, while the PID parameter is used to match multiple instances of the same property. The term "matching" is used here to mean recognizing that two instances are in fact representations of the same object. For example, a single vCard that is shared with someone results in two vCard instances. After they have evolved separately, they still represent the same object, and therefore may be matched by a synchronization engine.

Matching vCard Instances vCard instances for which the UID properties () are equivalent MUST be matched. Equivalence of UID values is determined as described in . In all other cases, vCard instances MAY be matched at the discretion of the synchronization engine.

Matching Property Instances Property instances belonging to unmatched vCards MUST NOT be matched. Property instances whose name (e.g., EMAIL, TEL, etc.) is not the same MUST NOT be matched. Property instances whose name is CLIENTPIDMAP are handled separately and MUST NOT be matched. The synchronization MUST ensure that there is consistency of CLIENTPIDMAPs among matched vCard instances. Property instances belonging to matched vCards, whose name is the same, and whose maximum cardinality is 1, MUST be matched. Property instances belonging to matched vCards, whose name is the same, and whose PID parameters match, MUST be matched. See for details on PID matching. In all other cases, property instances MAY be matched at the discretion of the synchronization engine.

PID Matching Two PID values for which the first fields are equivalent represent the same local value. Two PID values representing the same local value and for which the second fields point to CLIENTPIDMAP properties whose second field URIs are equivalent (as specified in , Section 6) also represent the same global value. PID parameters for which at least one pair of their values represent the same global value MUST be matched. In all other cases, PID parameters MAY be matched at the discretion of the synchronization engine. For example, PID value "5.1", in the first vCard below, and PID value "5.2", in the second vCard below, represent the same global value.

Example

Creation The following simple vCard is first created on a given device.

This new vCard is assigned the UID "urn:uuid:4fbe8971-0bc3-424c-9c26-36c3e1eff6b1" by the creating device. The FN and EMAIL properties are assigned the same local value of 1, and this value is given global context by associating it with "urn:uuid:53e374d9-337e-4727-8803-a1e9c14e0556", which represents the creating device. We are at liberty to reuse the same local value since instances of different properties will never be matched. The N property has no PID because it is forbidden by its maximum cardinality of 1.

Initial Sharing This vCard is shared with a second device. Upon inspecting the UID property, the second device understands that this is a new vCard (i.e., unmatched) and thus the synchronization results in a simple copy.

Adding and Sharing a Property A new phone number is created on the first device, then the vCard is shared with the second device. This is what the second device receives:

Upon inspecting the UID property, the second device matches the vCard it received to the vCard that it already has stored. It then starts comparing the properties of the two vCards in same-named pairs. The FN properties are matched because the PID parameters have the same global value. Since the property value is the same, no update takes place. The N properties are matched automatically because their maximum cardinality is 1. Since the property value is the same, no update takes place. The EMAIL properties are matched because the PID parameters have the same global value. Since the property value is the same, no update takes place. The TEL property in the new vCard is not matched to any in the stored vCard because no property in the stored vCard has the same name. Therefore, this property is copied from the new vCard to the stored vCard. The CLIENTPIDMAP property is handled separately by the synchronization engine. It ensures that it is consistent with the stored one. If it was not, the results would be up to the synchronization engine, and thus undefined by this document.

Simultaneous Editing A new email address and a new phone number are added to the vCard on each of the two devices, and then a new synchronization event happens. Here are the vCards that are communicated to each other:

On the first device, the same PID source identifier (1) is reused for the new EMAIL and TEL properties. On the second device, a new source identifier (2) is generated, and a corresponding CLIENTPIDMAP property is created. It contains the second device's identifier, "urn:uuid:1f762d2b-03c4-4a83-9a03-75ff658a6eee". The new EMAIL properties are unmatched on both sides since the PID global value is new in both cases. The sync thus results in a copy on both sides. Although the situation appears to be the same for the TEL properties, in this case, the synchronization engine is particularly smart and matches the two new TEL properties even though their PID global values are different. Note that in this case, the rules of state that two properties MAY be matched at the discretion of the synchronization engine. Therefore, the two properties are merged. All this results in the following vCard, which is stored on both devices:

Global Context Simplification The two devices finish their synchronization procedure by simplifying their global contexts. Since they haven't talked to any other device, the following vCard is for all purposes equivalent to the above. It is also shorter.

The details of global context simplification are unspecified by this document. They are left up to the synchronization engine. This example is merely intended to illustrate the possibility, which investigating would be, in the author's opinion, worthwhile.

Example: Author's vCard

Security Considerations Internet mail is often used to transport vCards and is subject to many well-known security attacks, including monitoring, replay, and forgery. Care should be taken by any directory service in allowing information to leave the scope of the service itself, where any access controls or confidentiality can no longer be guaranteed. Applications should also take care to display directory data in a "safe" environment. vCards can carry cryptographic keys or certificates, as described in . vCards often carry information that can be sensitive (e.g., birthday, address, and phone information). Although vCards have no inherent authentication or confidentiality provisions, they can easily be carried by any security mechanism that transfers MIME objects to address authentication or confidentiality (e.g., S/MIME , OpenPGP ). In cases where the confidentiality or authenticity of information contained in vCard is a concern, the vCard SHOULD be transported using one of these secure mechanisms. The KEY property () can be used to transport the public key used by these mechanisms. The information in a vCard may become out of date. In cases where the vitality of data is important to an originator of a vCard, the SOURCE property () SHOULD be specified. In addition, the "REV" type described in can be specified to indicate the last time that the vCard data was updated. Many vCard properties may be used to transport URIs. Please refer to , Section 7, for considerations related to URIs.

IANA Considerations

Media Type Registration IANA has registered the following Media Type (in http://www.iana.org/) and marked the text/directory Media Type as DEPRECATED.

To

ietf-types@iana.org

Subject

Registration of media type text/vcard

Type name

text

Subtype name

vcard

Required parameters

none

Optional parameters

version The "version" parameter is to be interpreted identically as the VERSION vCard property. If this parameter is present, all vCards in a text/vcard body part MUST have a VERSION property with value identical to that of this MIME parameter. "charset": as defined for text/plain ; encodings other than UTF-8 MUST NOT be used.

Encoding considerations

8bit

Security considerations

See .

Interoperability considerations

The text/vcard media type is intended to identify vCard data of any version. There are older specifications of vCard still in common use. While these formats are similar, they are not strictly compatible. In general, it is necessary to inspect the value of the VERSION property (see ) for identifying the standard to which a given vCard object conforms. In addition, the following media types are known to have been used to refer to vCard data. They should be considered deprecated in favor of text/vcard. text/directory text/directory; profile=vcard text/x-vcard

Published specification

RFC 6350

Applications that use this media type

They are numerous, diverse, and include mail user agents, instant messaging clients, address book applications, directory servers, and customer relationship management software.

Additional information : Magic number(s): File extension(s): .vcf .vcard Macintosh file type code(s):

Person & email address to contact for further information

vCard discussion mailing list vcarddav@ietf.org

Intended usage

COMMON

Restrictions on usage

none

Author

Simon Perreault

Change controller

IETF

Registering New vCard Elements This section defines the process for registering new or modified vCard elements (i.e., properties, parameters, value data types, and values) with IANA.

Registration Procedure The IETF has created a mailing list, vcarddav@ietf.org, which can be used for public discussion of vCard element proposals prior to registration. Use of the mailing list is strongly encouraged. The IESG has appointed a designated expert who will monitor the vcarddav@ietf.org mailing list and review registrations. Registration of new vCard elements MUST be reviewed by the designated expert and published in an RFC. A Standards Track RFC is REQUIRED for the registration of new value data types that modify existing properties. A Standards Track RFC is also REQUIRED for registration of vCard elements that modify vCard elements previously documented in a Standards Track RFC. The registration procedure begins when a completed registration template, defined in the sections below, is sent to vcarddav@ietf.org and iana@iana.org. Within two weeks, the designated expert is expected to tell IANA and the submitter of the registration whether the registration is approved, approved with minor changes, or rejected with cause. When a registration is rejected with cause, it can be re-submitted if the concerns listed in the cause are addressed. Decisions made by the designated expert can be appealed to the IESG Applications Area Director, then to the IESG. They follow the normal appeals procedure for IESG decisions. Once the registration procedure concludes successfully, IANA creates or modifies the corresponding record in the vCard registry. The completed registration template is discarded. An RFC specifying new vCard elements MUST include the completed registration templates, which MAY be expanded with additional information. These completed templates are intended to go in the body of the document, not in the IANA Considerations section. Finally, note that there is an XML representation for vCard defined in . An XML representation SHOULD be defined for new vCard elements.

Vendor Namespace The vendor namespace is used for vCard elements associated with commercially available products. "Vendor" or "producer" are construed as equivalent and very broadly in this context. A registration may be placed in the vendor namespace by anyone who needs to interchange files associated with the particular product. However, the registration formally belongs to the vendor or organization handling the vCard elements in the namespace being registered. Changes to the specification will be made at their request, as discussed in subsequent sections. vCard elements belonging to the vendor namespace will be distinguished by the "VND-" prefix. This is followed by an IANA- registered Private Enterprise Number (PEN), a dash, and a vCard element designation of the vendor's choosing (e.g., "VND-123456- MUDPIE"). While public exposure and review of vCard elements to be registered in the vendor namespace are not required, using the vcarddav@ietf.org mailing list for review is strongly encouraged to improve the quality of those specifications. Registrations in the vendor namespace may be submitted directly to the IANA.

Registration Template for Properties A property is defined by completing the following template.

Namespace

Empty for the global namespace, "VND-NNNN-" for a vendor- specific property (where NNNN is replaced by the vendor's PEN).

Property name

The name of the property.

Purpose

The purpose of the property. Give a short but clear description.

Value type

Any of the valid value types for the property value needs to be specified, together with the default value type. When the default value type is not "text", the registration SHOULD specify "no default", which makes the VALUE parameter REQUIRED on every instance of the property, so that a consumer that does not recognize the property can still determine its value type.

Cardinality

See .

Property parameters

Any of the valid property parameters for the property MUST be specified.

Description

Any special notes about the property, how it is to be used, etc.

Format definition

The ABNF for the property definition needs to be specified.

Example(s)

One or more examples of instances of the property need to be specified.

Registration Template for Parameters A parameter is defined by completing the following template.

Namespace

Empty for the global namespace, "VND-NNNN-" for a vendor- specific property (where NNNN is replaced by the vendor's PEN).

Parameter name

The name of the parameter.

Purpose

The purpose of the parameter. Give a short but clear description.

Description

Any special notes about the parameter, how it is to be used, etc.

Format definition

The ABNF for the parameter definition needs to be specified.

Example(s)

One or more examples of instances of the parameter need to be specified.

Registration Template for Value Data Types A value data type is defined by completing the following template.

Value name

The name of the value type.

Purpose

The purpose of the value type. Give a short but clear description.

Description

Any special notes about the value type, how it is to be used, etc.

Format definition

The ABNF for the value type definition needs to be specified.

Example(s)

One or more examples of instances of the value type need to be specified.

Registration Template for Values A value is defined by completing the following template.

Value

The value literal.

Purpose

The purpose of the value. Give a short but clear description.

Conformance

The vCard properties and/or parameters that can take this value needs to be specified.

Example(s)

One or more examples of instances of the value need to be specified.

The following is a fictitious example of a registration of a vCard value:

Value

supervisor

Purpose

It means that the related entity is the direct hierarchical superior (i.e., supervisor or manager) of the entity this vCard represents.

Conformance

This value can be used with the "TYPE" parameter applied on the "RELATED" property.

Example(s):

Initial vCard Elements Registries The IANA has created and will maintain the following registries for vCard elements with pointers to appropriate reference documents. The registries are grouped together under the heading "vCard Elements".

Properties Registry The following table has been used to initialize the properties registry. Namespace Property Reference   SOURCE RFC 6350, Section 6.1.3   KIND RFC 6350, Section 6.1.4   XML RFC 6350, Section 6.1.5   FN RFC 6350, Section 6.2.1   N RFC 6350, Section 6.2.2   NICKNAME RFC 6350, Section 6.2.3   PHOTO RFC 6350, Section 6.2.4   BDAY RFC 6350, Section 6.2.5   ANNIVERSARY RFC 6350, Section 6.2.6   GENDER RFC 6350, Section 6.2.7   ADR RFC 6350, Section 6.3.1   TEL RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1   EMAIL RFC 6350, Section 6.4.2   IMPP RFC 6350, Section 6.4.3   LANG RFC 6350, Section 6.4.4   TZ RFC 6350, Section 6.5.1   GEO RFC 6350, Section 6.5.2   TITLE RFC 6350, Section 6.6.1   ROLE RFC 6350, Section 6.6.2   LOGO RFC 6350, Section 6.6.3   ORG RFC 6350, Section 6.6.4   MEMBER RFC 6350, Section 6.6.5   RELATED RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6   CATEGORIES RFC 6350, Section 6.7.1   NOTE RFC 6350, Section 6.7.2   PRODID RFC 6350, Section 6.7.3   REV RFC 6350, Section 6.7.4   SOUND RFC 6350, Section 6.7.5   UID RFC 6350, Section 6.7.6   CLIENTPIDMAP RFC 6350, Section 6.7.7   URL RFC 6350, Section 6.7.8   VERSION RFC 6350, Section 6.7.9   KEY RFC 6350, Section 6.8.1   FBURL RFC 6350, Section 6.9.1   CALADRURI RFC 6350, Section 6.9.2   CALURI RFC 6350, Section 6.9.3

Parameters Registry The following table has been used to initialize the parameters registry. Namespace Parameter Reference   LANGUAGE RFC 6350, Section 5.1   VALUE RFC 6350, Section 5.2   PREF RFC 6350, Section 5.3   ALTID RFC 6350, Section 5.4   PID RFC 6350, Section 5.5   TYPE RFC 6350, Section 5.6   MEDIATYPE RFC 6350, Section 5.7   CALSCALE RFC 6350, Section 5.8   SORT-AS RFC 6350, Section 5.9   GEO RFC 6350, Section 5.10   TZ RFC 6350, Section 5.11

Value Data Types Registry The following table has been used to initialize the data types registry. Value Data Type Reference BOOLEAN RFC 6350, Section 4.4 DATE RFC 6350, Section 4.3.1 DATE-AND-OR-TIME RFC 6350, Section 4.3.4 DATE-TIME RFC 6350, Section 4.3.3 FLOAT RFC 6350, Section 4.6 INTEGER RFC 6350, Section 4.5 LANGUAGE-TAG RFC 6350, Section 4.8 TEXT RFC 6350, Section 4.1 TIME RFC 6350, Section 4.3.2 TIMESTAMP RFC 6350, Section 4.3.5 URI RFC 6350, Section 4.2 UTC-OFFSET RFC 6350, Section 4.7

Values Registries Separate tables are used for property and parameter values. The following table is to be used to initialize the property values registry. Property Value Reference BEGIN VCARD RFC 6350, Section 6.1.1 END VCARD RFC 6350, Section 6.1.2 KIND individual RFC 6350, Section 6.1.4 KIND group RFC 6350, Section 6.1.4 KIND org RFC 6350, Section 6.1.4 KIND location RFC 6350, Section 6.1.4 VERSION 4.0 RFC 6350, Section 6.7.9 The following table has been used to initialize the parameter values registry. Property Parameter Value Reference FN, NICKNAME, PHOTO, ADR, TEL, EMAIL, IMPP, LANG, TZ, GEO, TITLE, ROLE, LOGO, ORG, RELATED, CATEGORIES, NOTE, SOUND, URL, KEY, FBURL, CALADRURI, and CALURI TYPE work RFC 6350, Section 5.6 FN, NICKNAME, PHOTO, ADR, TEL, EMAIL, IMPP, LANG, TZ, GEO, TITLE, ROLE, LOGO, ORG, RELATED, CATEGORIES, NOTE, SOUND, URL, KEY, FBURL, CALADRURI, and CALURI TYPE home RFC 6350, Section 5.6 TEL TYPE text RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1 TEL TYPE voice RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1 TEL TYPE fax RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1 TEL TYPE cell RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1 TEL TYPE video RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1 TEL TYPE pager RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1 TEL TYPE textphone RFC 6350, Section 6.4.1 BDAY, ANNIVERSARY CALSCALE gregorian RFC 6350, Section 5.8 RELATED TYPE contact RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE acquaintance RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE friend RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE met RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE co-worker RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE colleague RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE co-resident RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE neighbor RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE child RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE parent RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE sibling RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE spouse RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE kin RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE muse RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE crush RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE date RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE sweetheart RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE me RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 and RELATED TYPE agent RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6 RELATED TYPE emergency RFC 6350, Section 6.6.6

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Tim Howes, Mark Smith, and Frank Dawson, the original authors of and , Pete Resnick, who got this effort started and provided help along the way, as well as the following individuals who have participated in the drafting, review, and discussion of this memo: Aki Niemi, Andy Mabbett, Alexander Mayrhofer, Alexey Melnikov, Anil Srivastava, Barry Leiba, Ben Fortuna, Bernard Desruisseaux, Bernie Hoeneisen, Bjoern Hoehrmann, Caleb Richardson, Chris Bryant, Chris Newman, Cyrus Daboo, Daisuke Miyakawa, Dan Brickley, Dan Mosedale, Dany Cauchie, Darryl Champagne, Dave Thewlis, Filip Navara, Florian Zeitz, Helge Hess, Jari Urpalainen, Javier Godoy, Jean-Luc Schellens, Joe Hildebrand, Jose Luis Gayosso, Joseph Smarr, Julian Reschke, Kepeng Li, Kevin Marks, Kevin Wu Won, Kurt Zeilenga, Lisa Dusseault, Marc Blanchet, Mark Paterson, Markus Lorenz, Michael Haardt, Mike Douglass, Nick Levinson, Peter K. Sheerin, Peter Mogensen, Peter Saint-Andre, Renato Iannella, Rohit Khare, Sly Gryphon, Stephane Bortzmeyer, Tantek Celik, and Zoltan Ordogh.

International Telephone and Telegraph Consultative Committee Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers International Organization for Standardization International Organization for Standardization This initial document specifies the various headers used to describe the structure of MIME messages. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document defines procedures for the specification and registration of media types for use in MIME and other Internet protocols. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. In many standards track documents several words are used to signify the requirements in the specification. These words are often capitalized. This document defines these words as they should be interpreted in IETF documents. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. ISO/IEC 10646-1 defines a large character set called the Universal Character Set (UCS) which encompasses most of the world's writing systems. The originally proposed encodings of the UCS, however, were not compatible with many current applications and protocols, and this has led to the development of UTF-8, the object of this memo. UTF-8 has the characteristic of preserving the full US-ASCII range, providing compatibility with file systems, parsers and other software that rely on US-ASCII values but are transparent to other values. This memo obsoletes and replaces RFC 2279. This document specifies the Internet Message Format (IMF), a syntax for text messages that are sent between computer users, within the framework of "electronic mail" messages. This specification is a revision of Request For Comments (RFC) 2822, which itself superseded Request For Comments (RFC) 822, "Standard for the Format of ARPA Internet Text Messages", updating it to reflect current practice and incorporating incremental changes that were specified in other RFCs. [STANDARDS-TRACK] Internet technical specifications often need to define a formal syntax. Over the years, a modified version of Backus-Naur Form (BNF), called Augmented BNF (ABNF), has been popular among many Internet specifications. The current specification documents ABNF. It balances compactness and simplicity with reasonable representational power. The differences between standard BNF and ABNF involve naming rules, repetition, alternatives, order-independence, and value ranges. This specification also supplies additional rule definitions and encoding for a core lexical analyzer of the type common to several Internet specifications. [STANDARDS-TRACK] A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) is a compact sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource. This specification defines the generic URI syntax and a process for resolving URI references that might be in relative form, along with guidelines and security considerations for the use of URIs on the Internet. The URI syntax defines a grammar that is a superset of all valid URIs, allowing an implementation to parse the common components of a URI reference without knowing the scheme-specific requirements of every possible identifier. This specification does not define a generative grammar for URIs; that task is performed by the individual specifications of each URI scheme. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document describes the structure, content, construction, and semantics of language tags for use in cases where it is desirable to indicate the language used in an information object. It also describes how to register values for use in language tags and the creation of user-defined extensions for private interchange. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. This second document defines the general structure of the MIME media typing system and defines an initial set of media types. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document defines the iCalendar data format for representing and exchanging calendaring and scheduling information such as events, to-dos, journal entries, and free/busy information, independent of any particular calendar service or protocol. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document defines the XML schema of the vCard data format. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document specifies the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) scheme "tel". The "tel" URI describes resources identified by telephone numbers. This document obsoletes RFC 2806. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document specifies a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) for geographic locations using the 'geo\' scheme name. A 'geo' URI identifies a physical location in a two- or three-dimensional coordinate reference system in a compact, simple, human-readable, and protocol-independent way. The default coordinate reference system used is the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS-84). [STANDARDS-TRACK] This specification defines a Uniform Resource Name namespace for UUIDs (Universally Unique IDentifier), also known as GUIDs (Globally Unique IDentifier). A UUID is 128 bits long, and can guarantee uniqueness across space and time. UUIDs were originally used in the Apollo Network Computing System and later in the Open Software Foundation\'s (OSF) Distributed Computing Environment (DCE), and then in Microsoft Windows platforms. This specification is derived from the DCE specification with the kind permission of the OSF (now known as The Open Group). Information from earlier versions of the DCE specification have been incorporated into this document. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This memo defines three mechanisms for obtaining a URI to a user's calendar and free/busy time. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document specifies a protocol that uses the iCalendar object specification to provide scheduling interoperability between different calendaring systems. This is done without reference to a specific transport protocol so as to allow multiple methods of communication between systems. Subsequent documents will define profiles of this protocol that use specific, interoperable methods of communication between systems. The iCalendar Transport-Independent Interoperability Protocol (iTIP) complements the iCalendar object specification by adding semantics for group scheduling methods commonly available in current calendaring systems. These scheduling methods permit two or more calendaring systems to perform transactions such as publishing, scheduling, rescheduling, responding to scheduling requests, negotiating changes, or canceling. [STANDARDS-TRACK] International Organization for Standardization Full internationalization of electronic mail requires not only the capabilities to transmit non-ASCII content, to encode selected information in specific header fields, and to use non-ASCII characters in envelope addresses. It also requires being able to express those addresses and the information based on them in mail header fields. This document specifies an experimental variant of Internet mail that permits the use of Unicode encoded in UTF-8, rather than ASCII, as the base form for Internet email header field. This form is permitted in transmission only if authorized by an SMTP extension, as specified in an associated specification. This specification Updates section 6.4 of RFC 2045 to conform with the requirements. This memo defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community. Internet Mail Consortium This document provides a glossary of terms used in the IETF when discussing internationalization. The purpose is to help frame discussions of internationalization in the various areas of the IETF and to help introduce the main concepts to IETF participants. This memo provides information for the Internet community. This document defines a "Content-language:" header, for use in cases where one desires to indicate the language of something that has RFC 822-like headers, like MIME body parts or Web documents, and an "Accept-Language:" header for use in cases where one wishes to indicate one's preferences with regard to language. [STANDARDS-TRACK] A new URL scheme, "data", is defined. It allows inclusion of small data items as "immediate" data, as if it had been included externally. [STANDARDS-TRACK] HTTP has been in use by the World-Wide Web global information initiative since 1990. This specification defines the protocol referred to as "HTTP/1.1", and is an update to RFC 2068. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document specifies a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), the syntax and semantics of formalized information for location and access of resources via the Internet. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document describes an extension to vCard to support Instant Messaging (IM) and Presence Protocol (PP) applications. IM and PP are becoming increasingly common ways of communicating, and users want to save this contact information in their address books. It allows a URI that is associated with IM or PP to be specified inside a vCard. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document defines the format of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) to identify resources that are reached using Internet mail. It adds better internationalization and compatibility with Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs; RFC 3987) to the previous syntax of 'mailto' URIs (RFC 2368). [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document lays out general definitions of and mechanisms for establishing Uniform Resource Names (URN) "namespaces". The URN WG has defined a syntax for URNs in RFC 2141, as well as some proposed mechanisms for their resolution and use in Internet applications in RFC 3401 and RFC 3405. The whole rests on the concept of individual "namespaces" within the URN structure. Apart from proof-of-concept namespaces, the use of existing identifiers in URNs has been discussed in RFC 2288. This document specifies an Internet Best Current Practices for the Internet Community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. This document defines Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) version 3.2. S/MIME provides a consistent way to send and receive secure MIME data. Digital signatures provide authentication, message integrity, and non-repudiation with proof of origin. Encryption provides data confidentiality. Compression can be used to reduce data size. This document obsoletes RFC 3851. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document is maintained in order to publish all necessary information needed to develop interoperable applications based on the OpenPGP format. It is not a step-by-step cookbook for writing an application. It describes only the format and methods needed to read, check, generate, and write conforming packets crossing any network. It does not deal with storage and implementation questions. It does, however, discuss implementation issues necessary to avoid security flaws. OpenPGP software uses a combination of strong public-key and symmetric cryptography to provide security services for electronic communications and data storage. These services include confidentiality, key management, authentication, and digital signatures. This document specifies the message formats used in OpenPGP. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This memo defines the profile of the MIME Content-Type for directory information for a white-pages person object, based on a vCard electronic business card. [STANDARDS-TRACK] This document defines a MIME Content-Type for holding directory information. [STANDARDS-TRACK]

Differences from RFCs 2425 and 2426 This appendix contains a high-level overview of the major changes that have been made in the vCard specification from RFCs 2425 and 2426. It is incomplete, as it only lists the most important changes.

New Structure and have been merged. vCard is now not only a MIME type but a stand-alone format. A proper MIME type registration form has been included. UTF-8 is now the only possible character set. New vCard elements can be registered from IANA.

Removed Features The CONTEXT and CHARSET parameters are no more. The NAME, MAILER, LABEL, and CLASS properties are no more. The "intl", "dom", "postal", and "parcel" TYPE parameter values for the ADR property have been removed. In-line vCards (such as the value of the AGENT property) are no longer supported.

New Properties and Parameters The KIND, GENDER, LANG, ANNIVERSARY, XML, and CLIENTPIDMAP properties have been added. , which defines the FBURL, CALADRURI, CAPURI, and CALURI properties, has been merged in. , which defines the IMPP property, has been merged in. The "work" and "home" TYPE parameter values are now applicable to many more properties. The "pref" value of the TYPE parameter is now a parameter of its own, with a positive integer value indicating the level of preference. The ALTID and PID parameters have been added. The MEDIATYPE parameter has been added and replaces the TYPE parameter when it was used for indicating the media type of the property's content.

Updated Property Value Data Types The syntax of the UTC-OFFSET property value type has changed from:

to

The default value type for the UID property has changed from TEXT to URI. The default value type for the PHOTO, LOGO, SOUND, and KEY properties has changed from BINARY to URI. The default value type for the TZ property has changed from UTC-OFFSET to TEXT. The value type for the GEO property has changed from a structured value of the form: float ";" float to a URI.