martes, 6 de marzo de 2012

QR Code Tech Info: MECARD Format

Before anything: If you're looking for VCARD format, check wikipedia: 

Cool VCARD generator:
http://www.qrstuff.com/

So, what’s inside the MECARD format?
The first few characters are ‘MECARD:’ and this helps the decoding software to understand what it is looking at. The rest of the fields are as follows. Note that a) no field is compulsory – you can skip any of them and b) each field can be repeated. However, most likely your decoding application will be happy with multiple telephone numbers for a single contact, but multiple names are going to give it problems
The field names used are:
N: Contact name (if comma separated, uses LASTNAME,FIRSTNAME)
SOUND: Contact name in Japanese (Kana). Same comma rules as N:
TEL: Telephone number
TEL-AV: Videophone Tel number
EMAIL: Email address
NOTE: Memo text field
BDAY: Birthday (YYYMMDD format)
ADR: Address. Comma separated: PO box, room number, house number, city, prefecture, zip code and country
URL: Website
NICKNAME: Display name
(for more complete specs, please see DotCoMo’s website
Let’s look at one and see what we can get.
when we decode this, we get:
MECARD:N:Anonymous Aardvark;ADR:The Highstreet Cityville Big State 55555555 United Kingdom;TEL:+1111111111;TEL:+3333333333;TEL:+2222222222;TEL:+4444444444;
EMAIL:theqrplace@gmail.com;URL:theqrplace.wordpress.com;;
Adding in some line breaks:
MECARD:
N:Anonymous Aardvark;
ADR:The Highstreet Cityville Big State 55555555 United Kingdom;
TEL:+1111111111;
TEL:+3333333333;
TEL:+2222222222;
TEL:+4444444444;
EMAIL:theqrplace@gmail.com;
URL:theqrplace.wordpress.com;;
Now, at first glance, it seems fairly simple and comprehensive. However, taking some time to look deeper shows some potential problems that we should be aware of: specifically, there are 4 different telephone numbers, but no distinction between them. In this sample, we have a work, mobile, fax and home number, but no indication which is which.
If the same software is used to decode and encode the QR Code, then we should be alright, but there is no guarantee of this at all. Perhaps Encoder A believes that they are 1)work, 2)mobile, 3)fax, 4)home – but Decoder B believes they are 1)mobile, 2)work, 3)home 4)fax. The potential for mixing up a contact’s details is high.
A really good QR Code encoder will allow you to select which fields are included in the QR Code.
A really good and well-thought out QR Code decoder will allow you to edit the details of a contact and swap around the label of the various fields.
If you are creating your own QR Code for sharing your personal details (perhaps for printing on a business card, or similar), then it seems that the best option is to only include as much information as the MECARD standard defines; for example, one telephone number and one email address only.
If you are encoding QR Codes directly from your phone’s address book, be aware of the limitations of this format and choose an encoder that lets you limit the number of fields used.

QR Code Tech Info: MECARD Format « The QR Place