The vCard/vCalendar C interface is implemented in the set of files as follows: vcc.y, yacc source, and vcc.c, the yacc output you will use implements the core parser vobject.c implements an API that insulates the caller from the parser and changes in the vCard/vCalendar BNF port.h defines compilation environment dependent stuff vcc.h and vobject.h are header files for their .c counterparts vcaltmp.h and vcaltmp.c implement vCalendar "macro" functions which you may find useful. test.c is a standalone test driver that exercises some of the features of the APIs provided. Invoke test.exe on a VCARD/VCALENDAR input text file and you will see the pretty print output of the internal representation (this pretty print output should give you a good idea of how the internal representation looks like -- there is one such output in the following too). Also, a file with the .out suffix is generated to show that the internal representation can be written back in the original text format. ----------------------------------------------------------------- VObject for VCard/VCalendar Table of Contents ================= 1. VObject 2. Internal Representations of VCard/VCalendar 3. Iterating Through VObject's Properties or Values 4. Pretty Printing a VObject Tree 5. Building A VObject Representation of A VCard/VCalendar 6. Converting A VObject Representation Into Its Textual Representation 7. Miscellaneous Notes On VObject APIs usages 8. Brief descriptions of each APIs 9. Additional Programming Notes. This document is mainly about the VObject and its APIs. The main use of a VObject is to represent a VCard or a VCalendar inside a program. However, its use is not limited to aforemention as it can represent an arbitrary information that makes up of a tree or forest of properties/values. 1. VObject ======= A VObject can have a name (id) and a list of associated properties and a value. Each property is itself a VObject. 2. Internal Representations of VCard/VCalendar =========================================== A list of VCard or a VCalendar is represented by a list of VObjects. The name (id) of the VObjects in the list is either VCCardProp or VCCalProp. Each of these VObjects can have a list of properties. Since a property is represented as a VObject, each of these properties can have a name, a list of properties, and a value. For example, the input file "vobject.vcf": BEGIN:VCARD N:Alden;Roland FN:Roland H. Alden ORG:AT&T;Versit Project Office TITLE:Consultant EMAIL;WORK;PREF;INTERNET:sf!rincon!ralden@alden.attmail.com EMAIL;INTERNET:ralden@sfgate.com EMAIL;MCIMail:242-2200 LABEL;DOM;POSTAL;PARCEL;HOME;WORK;QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Roland H. Alden=0A= Suite 2208=0A= One Pine Street=0A= San Francisco, CA 94111 LABEL;POSTAL;PARCEL;HOME;WORK;QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Roland H. Alden=0A= Suite 2208=0A= One Pine Street=0A= San Francisco, CA 94111=0A= U.S.A. TEL;WORK;PREF;MSG:+1 415 296 9106 TEL;WORK;FAX:+1 415 296 9016 TEL;MSG;CELL:+1 415 608 5981 ADR:;Suite 2208;One Pine Street;San Francisco;CA;94111;U.S.A. SOUND:ROW-LAND H ALL-DIN LOGO;GIF;BASE64: R0lGODdhpgBOAMQAAP///+/v797e3s7Ozr29va2trZycnIyMjHt7e2NjY1JSUkJC QjExMSEhIRAQEO///87v9973/73n95zW71K13jGl1nvG50Kt3iGc1gCMzq3e94zO 7xCU1nO952O15wAAACwAAAAApgBOAAAF/yAgjmRpnmiqrmzrvnAsz3Rt33iu73zv /8CgcEj8QTaeywWTyWCUno2kSK0KI5tLc8vtNi+WiHVMlj0mFK96nalsxOW4fPSw cNj4tQc+7xcjGh4WExJTJYUTFkp3eU0eEH6RkpOUlTARhRoWm5ydFpCWoS0QEqAu ARKaHRcVjV0borEoFl0cSre4Sq67FA+yvwAeTU8XHZ7HmxS6u2wVfMCVpAE3pJoW ylrMptDcOqSF4OHg3eQ5pInInb7lcc86mNbLzBXsZbRfUOn6ucyNHvVWJHCpQFDf MWwEEzLqx2YCQCqF3OnItClJNmYcJD7cSAKTuI/gtnEcOQKkyVIk6/+ds5CkFcMM 61LiENikwi1jBnNyuvUSjwWZOS5uIZarqNFcNl32XMMB6I06GgoJ+bZp1ZKeDl8E +MC1K1cBIhZ4HUu2LAsCZdOWRQDt20lxIlccSHsgrNq7Xc/ixcsWmNu34WKyYJCW gQjCe9XqTZy2L4pv04gg2sSKSc8OLgTcBSuWsdkVaD2TdXyiQxebFyjo1Gnx6tJm LuaqrdtZtNfFtruSNmF5IKujwIsmJbjwtRqNJhrcNVw79wcRAgogmE4ArIjQzj/s JvHAGCFDQR4UqigPK4sBe62XwO51OwADiMcqUG+iOdcFAL+hW20BfAoEexlwAnu6 mZDAXQ1EVh//WfhxJB5gIbHgwFgOTOiVAgOuVQKAfKFg3weGwSBYFZMp4hpDGKyA 3lgJKECWgiMQyBVpW+0V4oJjNfhCNkR1IgWEb21QlRK9GdfFCgeOZYBsXgm4noYj GEBhAQHYh0J8XenoQnFGdrkUciJY6FUAK15ogozakcBhliKsyZWHDMZQ0wWC/Aim DB6h01KRr/lXQgFxAqDcWDACgCZpUnrVQJtjwTnWjS6MWAYqqfDnSaEkJOlVXQBo 2pWTMUJ53WgAuPncCR9q6VQMAYjZlXWJmknCoSUM2p4BC+SaKwG88hoZlvfFMM4f hQh5TXkv+RklWYtC91mopJIAKFkJlDAW/wF25ShnLbeo5gmQ+1FGkJdrKCuCi2OR BuwHBcwqKgABrMtVAgpem61XkLbAJ7n8uiIpvGVhO4KpH1QLbbpqLheZvQCkGoNL thSzSTg2UGVBBzbtaxwKsYrmgLvRAlCmWgwMAADD66rKAgR3XlGspcdkZYK8ibU7 asgEl+XAyB8I7PCqMWiWncGGimpfAgO4ypXSPpOVLwsRCDJxRD2AoyeRRv5kApO5 fXwzwvfOKLKtaTWtbQxccmGLTZy8xYlVSvXbhbk0M2YzrYfJJ0K8m+V9NgxpyC04 UycI/aiuiH9Y8NftDUwWp1Wm5UABnAUKwwRsPFGBt4Oc9PZvGvNLwf8JOZt8Arpe eY23yDovwIDiBX74NAsPVLDJj3Hh4JEExsKcjrlKf9DsCVx3ZfLqAKBuG1s/A90C z2KjYHjjyPOdG1spz6BBUr+BcUxUb1nDCTa/VZD2Uv+YkLPAKJC9dNEh7628WgqI ybzlaA+ufxMa6bxC6ciLUQLcx5UGIAAsAkDA6wQkOxrcY39yo4cQMNWCAPTKV1R4 wPkgaBxzOc8FtMiF1NoGoXBRJjgoPApmPsjCFlbMdzCM4TFy50IXxI2DPcHAv2rY gghsEIeu8CAPW6ABIPYEFkOsAeaMyIz0JfGJUExBBGRIRX0IMYovWCIT1eBELNpA i1vcgta8iANPCIQOghzQABl30J0tXqBla4wjFLFQxZzAUY42CIAd5OYBCuKxB2c4 I0b28EcrQKADgmSKB9RYyDhA4BqCxIBqrtjIMTwoFeCjYSU3KZMQAAA7 BEGIN:VCALENDAR DCREATED:19960523T100522 PRODID:-//Alden Roland/Hand Crafted In North Carolina//NONSGML Made By Hand//EN VERSION:0.3 BEGIN:VEVENT START:19960523T120000 END:19960523T130000 SUBTYPE:PHONE CALL SUMMARY:VERSIT PDI PR Teleconference/Interview DESCRIPTION:VERSIT PDI PR Teleconference/Interview With Tom Streeter and Alden Roland END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT START:19960523T113000 END:19960523T115500 SUBTYPE:LUNCH SUMMARY:Eat in the cafeteria today END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR END:VCARD will conceptually be be represented as vcard VCNameProp VCFamilyNameProp=Alden VCGivenNameProp=Roland VCFullNameProp=Roland H.Alden .... note that EMAIL;WORK;PREF;INTERNET:sf!rincon!ralden@alden.attmail.com will be represented as: VCEmailAddress=sf!rincon!ralden@alden.attmail.com VCWork VCPreferred VCInternet where the lower level properties are properties of the property VCEmailAddress. Groupings are flattened out in the VObject representation such that: a.b:blah a.c:blahblah are represented as: b=blah VCGrouping=a c=blahblah VCGrouping=a i.e. one can read the above as: the property "b" has value "blah" and property "VCGrouping" with the value "a". the property "c" has value "blahblah" and property "VCGrouping" with the value "a". likewise, multi-level groupings are flatten similarly. e.g. a.b.c:blah a.b.e:blahblah --> c=blah VCGrouping=b VCGrouping=a e=blahblah VCGrouping=b VCGrouping=a which read: the property "c" has value "blah" and property "VCGrouping" with the value "b" which has property "VCGrouping" with value "a". the property "e" has value "blahblah" and property "VCGrouping" with the value "b" which has property "VCGrouping" with value "a". 3. Iterating Through VObject's Properties or Values ================================================ The following is a skeletal form of iterating through all properties of a vobject, o: // assume the object of interest, o, is of type VObject VObjectIterator i; initPropIterator(&i,o); while (moreIteration(&i)) { VObject *each = nextVObject(&i); // ... do something with "each" property } Use the API vObjectName() to access a VObject's name. Use the API vObjectValueType() to determine if a VObject has a value. For VCard/VCalendar application, you should not need this function as practically all values are either of type VCVT_USTRINGZ or VCVT_RAW (i.e set by setVObjectUStringZValue and setVObjectAnyValue APIs respectively), and the value returned by calls to vObjectUStringZValue and vObjectAnyValue are 0 if a VObject has no value. (There is a minor exception where VObject with VCDataSizeProp has value that is set by setVObjectLongValue). Use the APIs vObject???Value() to access a VObject's value. where ??? is the expected type. Use the APIs setvObject???Value() to set or modify a VObject's value. where ??? is the expected type. Use the API isAPropertyOf() to query if a name match the name of a property of a VObject. Since isAPropertyOf() return the matching property, we can use that to retrieve a property and subsequently the value of the property. 4. Pretty Printing a VObject Tree ============================== VObject tree can be pretty printed with the printVObject() function. The output of pretty printing a VObject representation of the input test file "vobject.vcf" is shown below. Note that the indentation indicates the tree hirerarchy where the immediate tqchildren nodes of a parent node is all at the same indentation level and the immediate tqchildren nodes are the immediate properties of the associated parent nodes. In the following, {N,FN,ORG,TITLE,...} are immediate properties of VCARD. {F and G} are properties of N with value {"Alden" and "Roland"} respectively; FN has no property but has the value "Roland H. Alden"; EMAIL has value and the properties WORK, PREF, and INTERNET. VCARD N F="Alden" G="Roland" FN="Roland H. Alden" ORG ORGNAME="AT&T" OUN="Versit Project Office" TITLE="Consultant" EMAIL="sf!rincon!ralden@alden.attmail.com" WORK PREF INTERNET EMAIL="ralden@sfgate.com" INTERNET EMAIL="242-2200" MCIMail LABEL="Roland H. Alden Suite 2208 One Pine Street San Francisco, CA 94111" DOM POSTAL PARCEL HOME WORK QP LABEL="Roland H. Alden Suite 2208 One Pine Street San Francisco, CA 94111 U.S.A." POSTAL PARCEL HOME WORK QP TEL="+1 415 296 9106" WORK PREF MSG TEL="+1 415 296 9016" WORK FAX TEL="+1 415 608 5981" MSG CELL ADR EXT ADD="Suite 2208" STREET="One Pine Street" L="San Francisco" R="CA" PC="94111" C="U.S.A." SOUND="ROW-LAND H ALL-DIN" LOGO=[raw data] GIF BASE64 DataSize=1482 VCALENDAR DCREATED="19960523T100522" PRODID="-//Alden Roland/Hand Crafted In North Carolina//NONSGML Made By Hand//EN" VERSION="0.3" VEVENT START="19960523T120000" END="19960523T130000" SUBTYPE="PHONE CALL" SUMMARY="VERSIT PDI PR Teleconference/Interview" DESCRIPTION="VERSIT PDI PR Teleconference/Interview With Tom Streeter and Alden Roland" VEVENT START="19960523T113000" END="19960523T115500" SUBTYPE="LUNCH" SUMMARY="Eat in the cafeteria today" 5. Building A VObject Representation of A VCard/VCalendar ====================================================== The parser in vcc.y converts an input file with one or more VCard/VCalendar that is in their textual representation into their corresponding VObject representation. VObject representation of a VCard/VCalendar can also be built directly with calls to the VObject building APIs. e.g. VObject *prop; VObject *vcard = newVObject(VCCardProp); prop = addProp(vcard,VCNameProp); addPropValue(prop,VCFamilyNameProp,"Alden"); addPropValue(prop,VCGivenNameProp,"Roland"); addPropValue(vcard,VCFullNameProp,"Roland H. Alden"); .... 6. Converting A VObject Representation Into Its Textual Representation =================================================================== The VObject representation can be converted back to its textual representation via the call to writeVObject() or writeMemVObject() API. e.g. a. to write to a file: // assume vcard is of type VObject FILE *fp = fopen("alden.vcf","w"); writeVObject(fp,vcard); a. to write to memory, and let the API allocate the required memory. char* clipboard = writeVObject(0,0,vcard); ... do something to clipboard free(clipboard); b. to write to a user allocated buffer: char clipboard[16384]; int len = 16384; char *buf = writeVObject(clipboard,&len,vcard); ... buf will be equal to clipboard if the write is successful otherwise 0. In the case of writing to memory, the memory buffer can be either allocated by the API or the user. If the user allocate the memory for the buffer, then the length of the buffer needs to be communicated to the API via a variable. The variable passed as the length argument will be overwritten with the actual size of the text output. A 0 return value from writeMemVObject() indicates an error which could be caused by overflowing the size of the buffer or lack of heap memory. 7. Miscellaneous Notes On VObject APIs usages ========================================== a. vcc.h -- contains basic interfaces to the parser: VObject* Parse_MIME(const char *input, unsigned long len); VObject* Parse_MIME_FromFile(FILE *file); -- both of this return a null-terminated list of VObject that is either a VCARD or VCALENDAR. To iterate through this list, do VObject *t, *v; v = Parse_Mime_FromFile(fp); while (v) { // ... do something to v. t = v; v = nextVObjectInList(v); cleanVObject(t); } note that call to cleanVObject will release resource used to represent the VObject. b. vobject.h -- contains basic interfaces to the VObject APIs. see the header for more details. The structure of VObject is purposely (hiddened) not exposed to the user. Every access has to be done via the APIs. This way, if we need to change the structure or implementation, the client need not recompile as long as the interfaces remain the same. c. values of a property is determined by the property definition itself. The vobject APIs does not attempt to enforce any of such definition. It is the consumer responsibility to know what value is expected from a property. e.g most properties have tqunicode string value, so to access the value of these type of properties, you will use the vObjectUStringZValue() to read the value and setVObjectUStringZValue() to set or modify the value. Refer to the VCard and VCalendar specifications for the definition of each property. d. properties name (id) are case incensitive. 8. Brief descriptions of each APIs =============================== * the predefined properties' names (id) are listed under vobject.h each is of the form VC*Prop. e.g. #define VC7bitProp "7BIT" #define VCAAlarmProp "AALARM" .... * consumer of a VObject can only define pointers to VObject. * a variable of type VObjectIterator, say "i", can be used to iterate through a VObject's properties, say "o". The APIs related to VObjectIterator are: void initPropIterator(VObjectIterator *i, VObject *o); -- e.g. usage initPropIterator(&i,o); int moreIteration(VObjectIterator *i); -- e.g. usage while (moreIteration(&i)) { ... } VObject* nextVObject(VObjectIterator *i); -- e.g. usage while (moreIteration(&i)) { VObject *each = nextVObject(&i); } * VObject can be chained together to form a list. e.g. of such use is in the parser where the return value of the parser is a link list of VObject. A link list of VObject can be built by: void addList(VObject **o, VObject *p); and iterated by VObject* nextVObjectInList(VObject *o); -- next VObjectInList return 0 if the list is exhausted. * the following APIs are mainly used to construct a VObject tree: VObject* newVObject(const char *id); -- used extensively internally by VObject APIs but when used externally, its use is mainly limited to the construction of top level object (e.g. an object with VCCardProp or VCCalendarProp id). void deleteVObject(VObject *p); -- to deallocate single VObject, for most user, use cleanVObject(VObject *o) instead for freeing all resources associated with the VObject. char* dupStr(const char *s, unsigned int size); -- duplicate a string s. If size is 0, the string is assume to be a null-terminated. void deleteStr(const char *p); -- used to deallocate a string allocated by dupStr(); void setVObjectName(VObject *o, const char* id); -- set the id of VObject o. This function is not normally used by the user. The setting of id is normally done as part of other APIs (e.g. addProp()). void setVObjectStringZValue(VObject *o, const char *s); -- set a string value of a VObject. void setVObjectUStringZValue(VObject *o, const wchar_t *s); -- set a Unicode string value of a VObject. void setVObjectIntegerValue(VObject *o, unsigned int i); -- set an integer value of a VObject. void setVObjectLongValue(VObject *o, unsigned long l); -- set an long integer value of a VObject. void setVObjectAnyValue(VObject *o, void *t); -- set any value of a VObject. The value type is unspecified. VObject* setValueWithSize(VObject *prop, void *val, unsigned int size); -- set a raw data (stream of bytes) value of a VObject whose size is size. The internal VObject representation is this object = val VCDataSizeProp=size i.e. the value val will be attached to the VObject prop and a property of VCDataSize whose value is size is also added to the object. void setVObjectVObjectValue(VObject *o, VObject *p); -- set a VObject as the value of another VObject. const char* vObjectName(VObject *o); -- retrieve the VObject's Name (i.e. id). const char* vObjectStringZValue(VObject *o); -- retrieve the VObject's value interpreted as null-terminated string. const wchar_t* vObjectUStringZValue(VObject *o); -- retrieve the VObject's value interpreted as null-terminated tqunicode string. unsigned int vObjectIntegerValue(VObject *o); -- retrieve the VObject's value interpreted as integer. unsigned long vObjectLongValue(VObject *o); -- retrieve the VObject's value interpreted as long integer. void* vObjectAnyValue(VObject *o); -- retrieve the VObject's value interpreted as any value. VObject* vObjectVObjectValue(VObject *o); -- retrieve the VObject's value interpreted as a VObject. VObject* addVObjectProp(VObject *o, VObject *p); -- add a VObject p as a property of VObject o. (not normally used externally for building a VObject). VObject* addProp(VObject *o, const char *id); -- add a property whose name is id to VObject o. VObject* addPropValue(VObject *o, const char *id, const char *v); -- add a property whose name is id and whose value is a null-terminated string to VObject o. VObject* addPropSizedValue(VObject *o, const char *id, const char *v, unsigned int size); -- add a property whose name is id and whose value is a stream of bytes of size size, to VObject o. VObject* addGroup(VObject *o, const char *g); -- add a group g to VObject o. e.g. if g is a.b.c, you will have o c VCGroupingProp=b VCGroupingProp=a and the object c is returned. VObject* isAPropertyOf(VObject *o, const char *id); -- query if a property by the name id is in o and return the VObject that represent that property. void printVObject(VObject *o); -- pretty print VObject o to stdout (for debugging use). void writeVObject(FILE *fp, VObject *o); -- convert VObject o to its textual representation and write it to file. char* writeMemVObject(char *s, int *len, VObject *o); -- convert VObject o to its textual representation and write it to memory. If s is 0, then memory required to hold the textual representation will be allocated by this API. If a variable len is passed, len will be overwriten with the byte size of the textual representation. If s is non-zero, then s has to be a user allocated buffer whose size has be passed in len as a variable. Memory allocated by the API has to be freed with call to free. The return value of this API is either the user supplied buffer, the memory allocated by the API, or 0 (in case of failure). void cleanStrTbl(); -- this function has to be called when all VObject has been destroyed. void cleanVObject(VObject *o); -- release all resources used by VObject o. wchar_t* fakeUnicode(const char *ps, int *bytes); -- convert char* to wchar_t*. extern int uStrLen(const wchar_t *u); -- length of tqunicode u. char *fakeCString(const wchar_t *u); -- convert wchar_t to CString (blindly assumes that this could be done). 9. Additional Programming Notes ============================ In the following notes, please refers to the listing of Example.vcf and its VObject Representation (shown at the end of this section). * Handling the Return Value of the VCard/VCalendar Parser The example input text file contains two root VObjects (a VCalendar and a VCard). The output of the VCard/VCalendar parser is a null-terminated list of VObjects. For this particular input file, the list will have two VObjects. The following shows a template for iterating through the output of the Parser: VObject *t, *v; v = Parse_Mime_fromFileName("example.vcf"); while (v) { // currently, v will either be a VCard or a VCalendar // do whatever your application need to do to // v here ... t = v; v = nextVObjectInList(v); cleanVObject(t); } * Iterating Through a VCard/VCalendar VObject From the VObject APIs point of view, a VCard VObject is the same as a VCalendar VObject. However, the application needs to know what are in a VCard or a VCalendar. For example, A VCalendar VObject can have VCDCreatedProp, a VCGEOLocationProp, etc, and one or more VCEventProp and or VCTodoProp. The VCEventProp and VCTodoProp can have many properties of their own, which in turn could have more properties (e.g. VCDAlarmProp can be a VCEventProp VObject's property, and VCRunTimeProp can be a VCDAlarmProp VObject's property. Because a VObject tree can be arbitrarily complex, in general, to process all properties and values of a VObject tree, a recursive walk is desirable. An example recursive VObject tree walk can be found in the vobject.c source lines for printVObject* and writeVObject* APIs. Depending on what the application need to do with a VCard or a VCalendar, a recursive walk of the VObject tree may or may not be desirable. An example template of a non-recursive walk is shown below: void processVCardVCalendar(char *inputFile) { VObject *t, *v; v = Parse_Mime_fromFileName(inputFile); while (v) { char *n = vObjectName(v); if (strcmp(n,VCCardProp) == 0) { do_VCard(v); } else if (strcmp(n,VCCalendarProp) == 0) { do_VCalendar(v); } else { // don't know how to handle anything else! } t = v; v = nextVObjectInList(v); cleanVObject(t); } } void do_VCard(VObject *vcard) { VObjectIterator t; initPropIterator(&t,vcard); while (moreIteration(&t)) { VObject *eachProp = nextVObject(&t); // The primarly purpose of this example is to // show how to iterate through a VCard VObject, // it is not meant to be efficient at all. char *n = vObjectName(eachProp); if (strcmp(n,VCNameProp)==0) { do_name(eachProp); } else if (strcmp(n,VCEmailProp)==0) { do_email(eachProp); } else if (strcmp(n,VCLabelProp)==0) { do_label(eachProp); } else if .... } } void do_VCalendar(VObject *vcal) { VObjectIterator t; initPropIterator(&t,vcard); while (moreIteration(&t)) { VObject *eachProp = nextVObject(&t); // The primarly purpose of this example is to // show how to iterate through a VCalendar VObject, // it is not meant to be efficient at all. char *n = vObjectName(eachProp); if (strcmp(n,VCDCreatedProp)==0) { do_DCreated(eachProp); } else if (strcmp(n,VCVersionProp)==0) { do_Version(eachProp); } else if (strcmp(n,VCTodoProp)==0) { do_Todo(eachProp); } else if (strcmp(n,VCEventProp)==0) { do_Event(eachProp); } else if .... } } void do_Todo(VObject *vtodo) { ... } void do_Event(VObject *vevent) { ... } ... * Property's Values and Properties The VObject APIs do not attempt to check for the correctness of the values of a property. Nor do they will prevent the user from attaching a non-VCard/VCalendar standard property to a VCard/VCalendar property. Take the example of line [11] of the example, "O.K" is not a valid value of VCStatusProp. It is up to the application to accept or reject the value of a property. * Output of printVObject PrintVObject pretty prints a VObject tree in human readable form. See the listing at the end of the file for an example output of printVObject on the example input file "Example.vcf". Note that binary data are not shown in the output of printVObject. Instead, a note is made ([raw data]) to indicate that there exists such a binary data. * Note on Binary Data When the value of a property is a binary data, it is only useful to know the size of the binary data. In the case of the VCard/VCalendar parser, it chooses to represent the size information as a separate property called VCDataSizeProp whose value is the size of the binary data. The APIs sequence to construct the VObject subtree of line [44] of Example.vcf is // VObject *vcard; VObject *p1 = addProp(vcard,VCLogoProp); (void) addProp(p1,VCGIFProp); (void) addProp(p1,VCBASE64Prop); VObject *p2 = addProp(p1,VCDataSizeProp); (void) setVObjectLongValue(p2,1482); setVObjectAnyValue(vcard,...pointer to binary data); Note the presence of VCBase64Prop will cause the writeVObject API to output the binary data as BASE64 text. For VCard/VCalendar application, having the VCBase64Prop property is pratically always necessary for property with binary data as its value. * Note on Quoted-Printable String String value with embedded newline are written out as quoted-prinatable string. It is therefore important to mark a property with a string value that has one or more embedded newlines, with the VCQutedPrintableProp property. e.g. // VObject *root; char *msg="To be\nor\nnot to be"; VObject *p = addPropValue(root,VCDescriptionProp,msg); // the following is how you mark a property with // a property. In this case, the marker is // VCQuotedPrintableProp addProp(p,VCQuotedPrintableProp); * Note on Unicode Although, the current parser takes ASCII text file only, string values are all stored as Unicode in the VObject tree. For now, when using the VObject APIs to construct a VObject tree, one should always convert ASCII string value to a Unicode string value: // VObject *root; VObject *p = addProp(root,VCSomeProp); setVObjectUStringZValue(p,fakeUnicode(someASCIIStringZvalue)); An API is provided to simplify the above process: addPropValue(root,VCSomeProp,someASCIIStringZValue); Note that someASCIISTringZValue is automatically converted to Unicode by addPropValue API, where as, the former code sequence do an explicit call to fakeUnicode. To read back the value, one should use the vObjectUStringZValue API not vObjectStringZValue API. The value returned by the vObjectUStringZValue API is a Unicode string. If the application do not know how to handle Unicode string, it can use the fakeCString API to convert it back to ASCII string (as long as the conversion is meaningful). Note that fakeCString return a heap allocated memory. It is important to call deleteStr on fakeCString return value if it is not longer required (or there will be memory leak). NOTE: Unfortunately, at the point when this document is written, there is still no consensus on how Unicode is to be handled in the textual representation of VCard/VCalendar. So, there is no version of writeVObject and the parser to output and input Unicode textual representation of VCard/VCalendar. Example.vcf ----------- line number Input Text (example.vcf) ------ ---------- 1 BEGIN:VCALENDAR 2 DCREATED:19961102T100522 3 GEO:0,0 4 VERSION:1.0 5 BEGIN:VEVENT 6 DTSTART:19961103T000000 7 DTEND:20000101T000000 8 DESCRIPTION;QUOTED-PRINTABLE:To be =0A= 9 or =0A= 10 not to be 11 STATUS:O.K. 12 X-ACTION:No action required 13 DALARM:19961103T114500;5;3;Enjoy 14 MALARM:19970101T120000;;;johny@nowhere.com;Call Mom. 15 END:VEVENT 16 17 BEGIN:VTODO 18 DUE:19960614T0173000 19 DESCRIPTION:Relex. 20 END:VTODO 21 22 END:VCALENDAR 23 24 BEGIN:VCARD 25 N:Alden;Roland 26 FN:Roland H. Alden 27 ORG:AT&T;Versit Project Office 28 TITLE:Consultant 29 EMAIL;WORK;PREF;INTERNET:ralden@ralden.com 30 LABEL;DOM;POSTAL;PARCEL;HOME;WORK;QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Roland H. Alden=0A= 31 Suite 2208=0A= 32 One Pine Street=0A= 33 San Francisco, CA 94111 34 LABEL;POSTAL;PARCEL;HOME;WORK;QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Roland H. Alden=0A= 35 Suite 2208=0A= 36 One Pine Street=0A= 37 San Francisco, CA 94111=0A= 38 U.S.A. 39 TEL;WORK;PREF;MSG:+1 415 296 9106 40 TEL;WORK;FAX:+1 415 296 9016 41 TEL;MSG;CELL:+1 415 608 5981 42 ADR:;Suite 2208;One Pine Street;San Francisco;CA;94111;U.S.A. 43 SOUND:ROW-LAND H ALL-DIN 44 LOGO;GIF;BASE64: 45 R0lGODdhpgBOAMQAAP///+/v797e3s7Ozr29va2trZycnIyMjHt7e2NjY1JSUkJC ... 30 lines of BASE64 data not shown here. 76 END:VCARD VObject Representation of Example.vcf: ------------------------------------- line in text file VObject Tree as Printed by printVObject API ---- ------------------------------------------- 1 VCALENDAR 2 DCREATED="19961102T100522" 3 GEO="0,0" 4 VERSION="1.0" 5 VEVENT 6 DTSTART="19961103T000000" 7 DTEND="20000101T000000" 8 DESCRIPTION="To be 9 or 10 not to be" 8 QUOTED-PRINTABLE 11 STATUS="O.K." 12 X-ACTION="No action required" 13 DALARM 13 RUNTIME="19961103T114500" 13 SNOOZETIME="5" 13 REPEATCOUNT="3" 13 DISPLAYSTRING="Enjoy" 14 MALARM 14 RUNTIME="19970101T120000" 14 EMAIL="johny@nowhere.com" 14 NOTE="Call Mom" 17 VTODO 18 DUE="19960614T0173000" 19 DESCRIPTION="Relex." 24 VCARD 25 N 25 F="Alden" 25 G="Roland" 26 FN="Roland H. Alden" 27 ORG 27 ORGNAME="AT&T" 27 OUN="Versit Project Office" 28 TITLE="Consultant" 29 EMAIL="ralden@alden.com" 29 WORK 29 PREF 29 INTERNET 30 LABEL="Roland H. Alden 31 Suite 2208 32 One Pine Street 33 San Francisco, CA 94111" 30 DOM 30 POSTAL 30 PARCEL 30 HOME 30 WORK 30 QUOTED-PRINTABLE 34 LABEL="Roland H. Alden 35 Suite 2208 36 One Pine Street 37 San Francisco, CA 94111 38 U.S.A." 34 POSTAL 34 PARCEL 34 HOME 34 WORK 34 QUOTED-PRINTABLE 39 TEL="+1 415 296 9106" 39 WORK 39 PREF 39 MSG 40 TEL="+1 415 296 9016" 40 WORK 40 FAX 41 TEL="+1 415 608 5981" 41 MSG 41 CELL 42 ADR 42 EXT ADD="Suite 2208" 42 STREET="One Pine Street" 42 L="San Francisco" 42 R="CA" 42 PC="94111" 42 C="U.S.A." 43 SOUND="ROW-LAND H ALL-DIN" 44 LOGO=[raw data] 44 GIF 44 BASE64 44 DATASIZE=1482