FWIW,
I'm no expert but I always find applications can foul up the most carefully
thought out rationale anyway. So...
Using a common tool like Outlook and looking at the vcf it generates results
in the following convention;
A person working for WH Smith spits out
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Bloggs;Fred
FN:Fred Bloggs
ORG:WH Smith
TITLE:Computer officer
NOTE;ENCODING=QUOTED-PRINTABLE:Fred works for wh smith=0D=0A
URL;WORK:http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/
REV:20040716T081139Z
END:VCARD
WH Smith as the *only* field completed
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Smith;WH
FN:WH Smith
ORG:WH Smith
REV:20040716T081600Z
END:VCARD
So the nulls are wiped and completed with the content of the ORG by default.
If Vcards are used independently to LOM records and parsed by MS tools like
Outlook then it is likely that on the subsequent export from such tools the
nulls are nuked anyway. This may not be the right thing to do but we should
be aware that this will happen.
Therefore, if all N FN and ORG match, the interpretation should be to treat
it as an ORG only. More code!
Terry
http://bio.ltsn.ac.uk/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andy Powell [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 16 July 2004 09:03
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: UK LOM Core: vCard
>
> On Thu, 15 Jul 2004, Phil Barker wrote:
>
> > What is the consequence of a vCard processor knowing it
> doesn't have
> > valid entries N and FN? If the consequence is LOM records
> not getting
> > processed then it seems a high price to pay. But perhaps I'm being
> > overly pessimistic.
>
> Well, FWIW, MS-Office tools are happy to parse both of the following
>
> http://homes.ukoln.ac.uk/~lisap/test1.vcf
> http://homes.ukoln.ac.uk/~lisap/test2.vcf
>
> (empty N and FN and missing N and FN) which (I'll happily
> admit) is not exactly an exhaustive test, but does indicate
> that tools might be more relaxed about these things than you think.
>
> > My proposal breaks if you believe there is someone called "none"
>
> Hmmm, well I'll admit that I don't actually know anyone with
> this name :-) But, for all I know, there may be somewhere in
> the world where 'None' is a perfectly valid name...
>
> ...OK, OK, I accept that it's an unlikely scenario! :-)
>
> > > - You can tell it represents an org because ORG equals FN.
> >
> > How about:
> > <![CDATA[BEGIN:VCARD
> > FN:WH Smith
> > N:none
> > ORG:WH Smith
> > VERSION:3.0
> > END:VCARD]]>
> >
> > or
> > <![CDATA[BEGIN:VCARD
> > FN:WH Smith
> > ORG:WH Smith
> > VERSION:3.0
> > END:VCARD]]>
>
> I still cannot tell if these (particularly the second one)
> mean "the person called WH Smith who is affiliated to the
> organisation called WH Smith" or "the organisation called WH Smith"??
>
> On the other hand
>
> <![CDATA[BEGIN:VCARD
> FN:WH Smith
> ORG:WH Smith
> VERSION:3.0
> NOTE:objectClass\: organization
> END:VCARD]]>
>
> is unambiguous and as compliant with vCard as your second
> one. But I'm repeating myself so I'll try to shutup now! :-)
>
> Andy
> --
> Distributed Systems, UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, UK
> http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ukoln/staff/a.powell +44 1225 383933
> Resource Discovery Network http://www.rdn.ac.uk/
>
>
|