How to generate a vCard file

Ever needed to dinamically generate a vCard file? The syntax is very simple. Just generate a .vcf text file and open it!

You can find many link resources here. Also, you can find a nice generator here: http://www.vicintl.com/vcf/.

I managed to create a simple C# script that generates this file. The result was as expected:

BEGIN:VCARD
FN:Mr. John P. Smith, Jr.
TITLE:General Manager
ORG:XYZ Corp.;North American Division;Manufacturing
ADR;POSTAL;WORK:;;P.O. Box 10010;AnyCity;AnyState;00000;U.S.A.
LABEL;POSTAL;WORK;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:P.O. Box 10010=0D=0A=
Anywhere, TN  37849=0D=0A=U.S.A.
ADR;PARCEL;WORK:;133 Anywhere St.;Suite 360;AnyCity;AnyState;00000;U.S.A.
LABEL;POSTAL;WORK;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:133 Anywhere St.=0D=0A=
Anywhere, TN  37849=0D=0A=U.S.A.
TEL;Work;VOICE;MESG;PREF:+1-234-456-7891 x56473
TEL;Home:+1-234-456-7891
TEL;Pager:+1-234-456-7891
TEL;Cell:+1-234-456-7891
TEL;Modem;FAX:+1-234-456-7891,,*3
EMAIL;Internet:webmaster@anywhere.com
URL:http://www.anywhere.com/mrh.vcf
UID:http://www.anywhere.com/mrh.vcf
TZ:-0500
BDAY:1997-11-29
REV:20090401T065518
VERSION:2.1
END:VCARD

generated this:

The real challenge camed when I treid to add a image to my vCard file. I couldn’t fint it on the Internet to a quick Export using the Outlook 2007 revealed the secret: all you have to do is to add a new line to your .vcf file:

PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;ENCODING=BASE64:
YOUR BASE64 ENCODED IMAGE HERE

In order to generate the “YOUR BASE64 ENCODED IMAGE HERE” string in C# you can use the following method:

private string EncodeWithString(string ImagePath)
	{
		System.IO.FileStream inFile;
		byte[] binaryData;

		try
		{
			inFile = new System.IO.FileStream(ImagePath,
											  System.IO.FileMode.Open,
											  System.IO.FileAccess.Read);
			binaryData = new Byte[inFile.Length];
			long bytesRead = inFile.Read(binaryData, 0,
										(int)inFile.Length);
			inFile.Close();
		}
		catch (System.Exception exp)
		{
			// Error creating stream or reading from it.
			//System.Console.WriteLine("{0}", exp.Message);
			//return;
			return exp.Message;
		}

		// Convert the binary input into Base64 UUEncoded output.
		string base64String;
		try
		{
			base64String =
			   System.Convert.ToBase64String(binaryData,
											 0,
											 binaryData.Length);
		}
		catch (System.ArgumentNullException)
		{
			//System.Console.WriteLine("Binary data array is null.");
			//return;
			return "Binary data array is null.";
		}

		// Write the UUEncoded version to the output file.

		return base64String;
	}

Now, the new result is real magic: