3.1. CREATED

Property name:

CREATED¶

Purpose:

Defines the date and time when the vCard was created.¶

Value type:

A single timestamp value.¶

Cardinality:

*1¶

Property parameters:

VALUE¶

Description:

This is the timestamp when the vCard was created. Copying the vCard across systems does not count as a new creation nor a new revision. Instead, the timestamp value typically stays unchanged for the existence of the vCard.¶

Format definition:

created       = "CREATED" createdparam ":" timestamp

createdparam  = *(
                 ;
                 ; The following are OPTIONAL
                 ; but MUST NOT occur more than once.
                 ;
                 (";" "VALUE" "=" "timestamp") /
                 ;
                 ; The following are OPTIONAL
                 ; and MAY occur more than once.
                 ;
                 (";" any-param)
                 ;
                 )

¶

Example(s):

CREATED:20220705T093412Z
CREATED;VALUE=TIMESTAMP:20211022T140000-05

¶

3.2. GRAMGENDER

Property name:

GRAMGENDER¶

Purpose:

Defines which grammatical gender to use in salutations and other grammatical constructs.¶

Value type:

A single text value that is restricted to an enumerated list of allowed values.¶

Cardinality:

*¶

Property parameters:

LANGUAGE¶

Description:

This property defines the grammatical gender that the contact prefers to be addressed by or referred to as in written or spoken form. For example, the German language distinguishes by grammatical gender in salutations such as "Sehr geehrte" (feminine) and "Sehr geehrter" (masculine). Multiple occurrences of this property MUST be distinguished by the LANGUAGE parameter.¶

Format definition:

gramgender       = "GRAMGENDER" gramgender-param
                      ":" gramgender-value

gramgender-param =
                *(
                 ;
                 ; The following are OPTIONAL
                 ; but MUST NOT occur more than once.
                 ;
                 (";" language-param) /
                 ;
                 ; The following are OPTIONAL
                 ; and MAY occur more than once.
                 ;
                 (";" any-param)
                 ;
                 )

gramgender-value = "animate" /
                   "common" /
                   "feminine" /
                   "inanimate" /
                   "masculine" /
                   "neuter" /
                   iana-token /
                   x-name

¶

Example(s):

GRAMGENDER;LANGUAGE=de:feminine

¶

3.3. LANGUAGE

Property name:

LANGUAGE¶

Purpose:

Defines the default language that human-readable text values in this vCard are assumed to be written in.¶

Value type:

A single Language-Tag value as defined in Section 4 of [RFC6350].¶

Cardinality:

*1¶

Property parameters:

The LANGUAGE parameter MUST NOT be assigned to this property.¶

Description:

This property defines the language that property values of type TEXT are assumed to be written in for this vCard. If a vCard property includes the LANGUAGE parameter, then the parameter value has higher precedence than the LANGUAGE property value.¶

Format definition:

language-prop       = "LANGUAGE" any-param ":" Language-Tag
               ; Language-Tag is defined in RFC 6350, Section 4.

¶

Example(s):

LANGUAGE:de-AT

¶

3.4. PRONOUNS

Property name:

PRONOUNS¶

Purpose:

Defines the pronouns that shall be used to refer to the entity represented by this vCard.¶

Value type:

A single text value.¶

Cardinality:

*¶

Property parameters:

LANGUAGE, PREF, TYPE, ALTID¶

Description:

This property contains the pronouns that the contact chooses to use for themselves. The value is free-form text. These pronouns shall be used when addressing or referring to the contact. Multiple occurrences of this property MAY define pronouns for multiple languages, preferences, and contexts. Multiple pronouns in the same language SHOULD use the PREF parameter; otherwise, the order of preference is implementation-specific.¶

Format definition:

pronouns       = "PRONOUNS" pronouns-param ":" text

pronouns-param =
                *(
                 ;
                 ; The following are OPTIONAL
                 ; but MUST NOT occur more than once.
                 ;
                 (";" language-param) /
                 (";" pref-param) /
                 (";" type-param) /
                 (";" altid-param) /
                 ;
                 ; The following are OPTIONAL
                 ; and MAY occur more than once.
                 ;
                 (";" any-param)
                 ;
                 )

¶

Example(s):

PRONOUNS;LANGUAGE=en;PREF=1:xe/xir
PRONOUNS;LANGUAGE=en;PREF=2:they/them

¶

3.5. SOCIALPROFILE

Property name:

SOCIALPROFILE¶

Purpose:

Specifies the URI or username for social media profiles associated with the object the vCard represents.¶

Value type:

A single URI or TEXT value. The default value type is URI.¶

Cardinality:

*¶

Property parameters:

The SERVICE-TYPE parameter MUST be assigned to this property if the value type is TEXT, and it MAY be assigned if the value type is URI. In either case, it MUST NOT be assigned more than once.¶

Description:

Several vCard address book implementations currently use an experimental X-SOCIALPROFILE property to store social media profiles for contacts. This specification provides an IANA-registered property for the same purpose. In addition to the typical use of this property with URI values, it also allows setting usernames for social media services as free-text TEXT values, in which case the service name MUST be provided as a parameter. Names MUST be considered equal if they match case-insensitively.¶

Format definition:

socialpr       = "SOCIALPROFILE" socialpr-param ":"
                                 socialpr-value

socialpr-param = "VALUE=uri" / "VALUE=text" /
                 service-type-param / any-param

socialpr-value = URI / text

¶

Example(s):

SOCIALPROFILE;SERVICE-TYPE=Mastodon:https://example.com/@foo
SOCIALPROFILE:https://example.com/ietf
SOCIALPROFILE;SERVICE-TYPE=SomeSite;VALUE=text:peter94

¶

4.1. AUTHOR

Parameter name:

AUTHOR¶

Purpose:

Identifies the author of the associated property value.¶

Description:

This parameter MAY be set on any property where conveying authorship is desired. It identifies the author as a URI [RFC3986]. Since every valid URI includes the COLON (U+003A) character, the parameter value MUST be quoted. As an alternative or in addition to this parameter, the AUTHOR-NAME parameter allows naming an author as a free-text value (see Section 4.2).¶

Format definition:

author-param    = "AUTHOR" "=" DQUOTE URI DQUOTE

¶

Example(s):

NOTE;AUTHOR="mailto:john@example.com":This is some note.

¶

4.2. AUTHOR-NAME

Parameter name:

AUTHOR-NAME¶

Purpose:

Names the author of the associated property value.¶

Description:

This parameter MAY be set on any property where conveying authorship is desired. It names the author as a free-text value. The parameter value MUST NOT be empty. Implementations MUST take care to quote the name part; if otherwise, the part will not be a valid "param-value" (see Section 3.3 of [RFC6350]). As an alternative or in addition to this parameter, the AUTHOR parameter allows identifying an author by URI (see Section 4.1).¶

Format definition:

author-name-param    = "AUTHOR-NAME" "=" param-value ; not empty

¶

Example(s):

NOTE;AUTHOR-NAME=John Doe:This is some note.
NOTE;AUTHOR-NAME="_:l33tHckr:_":A note by an unusual author name.

¶

4.3. CREATED

Parameter name:

CREATED¶

Purpose:

Defines the date and time when a property was created in a vCard.¶

Description:

This parameter MAY be set on any property to define the point in time when the property was created. The value MUST be a valid TIMESTAMP value as defined in Section 4.3.5 of [RFC6350]. Generally, updating a property value SHOULD NOT change the creation timestamp.¶

Format definition:

created-param = "CREATED" "=" param-value
             ; a valid TIMESTAMP of Section 4.3.5 of RFC 6350

¶

Example(s):

NOTE;CREATED=20221122T151823Z:This is some note.

¶

4.4. DERIVED

Parameter name:

DERIVED¶

Purpose:

Specifies that the value of the associated property is derived from some other property values in the same vCard.¶

Description:

This property parameter SHOULD be specified on a property if the property value is derived from some other properties in the same vCard. When present with a value of "true", clients MUST NOT update the property.¶

As an example, an implementation may derive the value of the FN property from the name components of the N property. It indicates this fact by setting the DERIVED parameter on the FN property to "true".¶

Format definition:

derived-param    = "DERIVED" "=" ("true" / "false")
; Default is false

¶

Example(s):

N:;John;Quinlan;Mr.;
FN;DERIVED=TRUE:Mr. John Quinlan

¶

4.5. LABEL

Parameter name:

LABEL¶

Purpose:

Used with the ADR property. Its value contains a formatted text representation of that address, e.g., for delivery.¶

Description:

Section 6.3.1 of [RFC6350] defines the ADR property, noting that the property can also include a LABEL parameter to present a delivery address label for the address. But this parameter was not included in the IANA "vCard Parameters" registry (Section 10.3.2 of [RFC6350]) and, accordingly, is not a registered standard vCard element. This specification defines and registers the LABEL parameter for use with the ADR property as originally intended.¶

Format definition:

label-param    = "LABEL" "=" param-value

¶

Example(s):

The LABEL parameter as illustrated in the ADR property example in Section 6.3.1 of [RFC6350].¶

ADR;LABEL="Mr. John Q. Public, Esq.\nMail Drop: TNE QB\n123
  Main Street\nAny Town, CA  91921-1234\nU.S.A.":
  ;;123 Main Street;Any Town;CA;91921-1234;U.S.A.

¶

4.6. PHONETIC

Parameter name:

PHONETIC¶

Purpose:

Defines how to pronounce the value of another property in the same vCard.¶

Description:

This property parameter indicates that the value of its property contains the phonetic representation of another same-named property in the same vCard. Exemplary uses are defining how to pronounce Japanese names and romanizing Mandarin or Cantonese names and address components.¶

The parameter value indicates the phonetic system and MUST be one of the values enumerated in the IANA "vCard Parameter Values" registry (Section 7.4). This specification defines the following values:¶

"ipa":

denotes the International Phonetic Alphabet [IPA].¶

"jyut":

denotes the Cantonese romanization system "Jyutping".¶

"piny":

denotes the Standard Mandarin romanization system "Hanyu Pinyin".¶

"script":

denotes the unknown phonetic system. The SCRIPT (Section 4.8) parameter MUST be set in addition to the PHONETIC parameter.¶

The value type of the property on which the PHONETIC parameter is set MUST be of the same type as its related property. If a component value is set in the property on which the PHONETIC parameter is set, then a component value also MUST be set at that same position in the related property. On the other hand, not every component value in the related property needs to have a phonetic representation.¶

The ALTID (Section 5.4 of [RFC6350]) parameter MUST be set with equal values on both the related property and the property having the PHONETIC parameter set. If more than one same-named property has both the PHONETIC parameter set and an equal ALTID parameter value, then at most, one of these properties MAY not have the LANGUAGE parameter set, and all others MUST have the LANGUAGE parameter set. The LANGUAGE parameters MUST NOT have equal values. The LANGUAGE parameter value SHOULD NOT contain a script subtag in its Language-Tag value, and any such subtag MUST be ignored in favor of the SCRIPT (Section 4.8) parameter value.¶

This specification defines the PHONETIC parameter for use with the ADR and N properties.¶

Format definition:

phonetic-param = "PHONETIC=" phonetic-value

phonetic-value = "ipa" / "piny" / "jyut" / "script" /
                 iana-token / x-name

¶

Example(s):

N;ALTID=1;LANGUAGE=zh-Hant:孫;中山;文,逸仙;;;;
N;ALTID=1;PHONETIC=jyut;
  SCRIPT=Latn;LANGUAGE=yue:syun1;zung1saan1;man4,jat6sin1;;;;

¶

4.7. PROP-ID

Parameter name:

PROP-ID¶

Purpose:

Identifies a property among all its siblings of the same property name.¶

Description:

This parameter uniquely identifies a property among all of its siblings with the same name within a vCard. A valid PROP-ID value must be of 1 and a maximum of 255 octets in size, and it MUST only contain the ASCII alphanumeric characters ("A-Za-z0-9"), hyphen (-), and underscore ("_"). The identifier's only purpose is to uniquely identify siblings; its value has no other meaning. If an application makes use of PROP-ID, it SHOULD assign a unique identifier to each sibling property of the same name within their embedding component. The same identifier MAY be used for properties of a different name, and it MAY also be assigned to a same-named property that is not a sibling.¶

Resolving duplicate identifier conflicts is specific to the application. Similarly, handling properties where some but not all siblings have a PROP-ID assigned is application-specific.¶

Format definition:

prop-id-param  = "PROP-ID" "=" 1*255(ALPHA / DIGIT / "-"/ "_")

¶

Example(s):

PHOTO;PROP-ID=p827:data:image/jpeg;base64,MIICajCCAdOgAwIBAg
        <...remainder of base64-encoded data...>

¶

4.8. SCRIPT

Parameter name:

SCRIPT¶

Purpose:

Defines the script that a property value is written in.¶

Description:

This parameter allows defining a script for a property value without also defining a language as the LANGUAGE parameter would. The value MUST be a script subtag as defined in Section 2.2.3 of [RFC5646]. This specification makes use of the SCRIPT parameter in combination with the PHONETIC (Section 4.6) parameter.¶

Format definition:

script-param = 4ALPHA

¶

Example(s):

SCRIPT=Latn

¶

4.9. SERVICE-TYPE

Parameter name:

SERVICE-TYPE¶

Purpose:

Defines the online service name associated with a messaging or social media profile.¶

Description:

This parameter MAY be specified on an Instant Messaging and Presence Protocol (IMPP) or a SOCIALPROFILE property to name the online service associated with that property value. Its value is case-sensitive; its letter cases MUST be preserved.¶

Several vCard address book implementations currently use an experimental X-SERVICE-TYPE parameter. This specification provides an IANA-registered parameter for the same purpose.¶

Format definition:

service-type-param    = "SERVICE-TYPE" "=" param-value

¶

Example(s):

SOCIALPROFILE;SERVICE-TYPE=Mastodon:https://example.com/@foo

¶

4.10. USERNAME

Parameter name:

USERNAME¶

Purpose:

Defines a username such as the user of a messaging or social media service.¶

Description:

This parameter MAY be specified on an IMPP or a SOCIALPROFILE property to name the user with that property value. Its value is case-sensitive; its letter cases MUST be preserved. The IMPP or SOCIALPROFILE value type MUST be URI.¶

Format definition:

username-param    = "USERNAME" "=" param-value

¶

Example(s):

SOCIALPROFILE;USERNAME="The Foo":https://example.com/@foo

¶

5.1. Billing Address Type Value

Value:

billing¶

Purpose:

Indicates using this address for billing, e.g., to send invoices to.¶

Conformance:

This value can be used with the TYPE parameter applied on the ADR property.¶

Example(s):

ADR;TYPE=billing:;;123 Main Street;Any Town;CA;91921-1234;U.S.A.

¶

5.2. Delivery Address Type Value

Value:

delivery¶

Purpose:

Indicates using this address for delivery, e.g., to send packages to.¶

Conformance:

This value can be used with the TYPE parameter applied on the ADR property.¶

Example(s):

ADR;TYPE=delivery:;;123 Main Street;Any Town;CA;91921-1234;U.S.A.

¶

7.4. Changes to the vCard Parameter Values Registry

IANA has added the following entries to the "vCard Parameter Values" registry, as defined in Section 10.3.4 of [RFC6350].¶