Each line in a vCard is a separate component of the vCard. A component line consists of three things:
the component type-defnition (N
,
ADR
, TEL
, etc);
optionally, parameters for the component, such as whether or not the data is binary-encoded, or the type of data (home/work/preferred/etc), and so on; and
the component value (which may be a single text value, repeated text values, or a structured text value).
For example, consider the following component lines:
ADR;TYPE=WORK,PREF:;;123 Main;Beverly Hills;CA;90210;US
EMAIL;TYPE=HOME;TYPE=INTERNET:nobody@example.com
CATEGORIES:Personal,Business,Family
PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;VALUE=URI:http://example.com/photo.jpg
Component line 1 has an ADR
type-definition
(meaning a delivery address).
It has a TYPE
parameter of
WORK
and PREF
,
indicating that this a work address and is
the preferred address for deliveries.
Finally, the value of the component is a structured text value.
Structured text value parts are delimited by semicolons;
in the case of ADR
components, the structured
value parts are
p.o. box, extended address, street address, city/locality,
state/region, zip/postal code, and country.
Component line 2 has an EMAIL
type-definition
(meaning an email address).
It has a TYPE
parameter of
HOME
and INTERNET
(meaning an internet email address for home).
The component value is a single text value indicating the
email address.
Component line 3 has a CATEGORIES
type-definition
(meaning the general categories of of this vCard).
There are no parameters for this component.
The component value is a repeating-text value.
Repeated text values a delimited by commas.
Component line 4 has a PHOTO
type-definition
(meaning a personal photograph).
The parameters indicate that the photo TYPE
is JPEG
(giving a hint to vCard decoders how to handle the
PHOTO
value) and that the component VALUE
will be
a URI
(that is, a link to an external photo file).
Finally, the component value is a single text value,
revealing in this case the URI
of the photo.