This specification documents the vCard-XML format currently in use within the Jabber community. A future specification will recommend a standards-track protocol to supersede this informational document.

The basic functionality is for a user to store and retrieve an XML representation of his or her vCard using the data storage capabilities native to all existing Jabber server implementations. This is done by by sending an <iq/> of type "set" (storage) or "get" (retrieval) to one's Jabber server containing a <vCard/> child scoped by the 'vcard-temp' namespace, with the <vCard/> element containing the actual vCard-XML elements as defined by the vCard-XML DTD. Other users may then view one's vCard information.

vCards are an existing and widely-used standard for personal user information storage, somewhat like an electronic business card. The vCard format is defined in &rfc2426;.

In 1998 and 1999, Frank Dawson submitted four revisions of an Internet-Draft proposing to represent the standard vCard format in XML. When the Jabber project was originally looking for a method to store personal user information, the most recent revision was draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01 This document is archived at <http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01.txt>.. He also submitted a -02 revision on November 15, 1998 This document is archived at <http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-02.txt>. and a -03 revision on June 22, 1999 This document is archived at <http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-03.txt>..

Unfortunately, Dawson's proposal did not move forward within the IETF's standards process. For reasons now lost in the mists of time, the Jabber project continued to use the DTD from draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01, making two small modifications to adapt it for use within Jabber (adding the JABBERID and DESC elements) but also specifying element names in all caps rather than lowercase as defined in draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01. In addition, the Jabber community followed the usage (but not DTD) in that draft regarding version information, including it as an attribute of the vCard element rather than as a child element. This format was implemented within Jabber under the 'vcard-temp' namespace.

The vCard information published to one's Jabber server is world-readable; therefore, users should exercise due caution when determining what information to include (e.g., street addresses, personal telephone numbers, or email addresses).

This document requires no interaction with &IANA;.

Note the following:

• The correct capitalization of the wrapper element is <vCard/> (and XML element names are case-sensitive).
• All elements within the <vCard/> element MUST be in ALL CAPS (even though this is at odds with draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01).
• The country abbreviation is contained in a <CTRY/> element, not a <COUNTRY/> element (even though this is at odds with draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01).
• Phone numbers MUST be contained in a <NUMBER> element, not included as CDATA within the <TEL/> element.
• If no telephone number is included in a <TEL/> element, an empty <NUMBER/> child MUST be included.
• Email addresses MUST be contained in a <USERID> element, not included as CDATA within the <EMAIL/> element.
• Some Jabber implementations add a 'version' attribute to the <vCard/> element, with the value set at "2.0" or "3.0". The DTD is incorrect, and the examples in draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01 clearly show that version information is to be included by means of a 'version' attribute, not the <VERSION/> element as defined in the DTD. However, to conform to draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01, the value should be "3.0", not "2.0".

The following DTD is a slightly modified version of that contained in draft-dawson-vcard-xml-dtd-01. The only modifications were to add the JABBERID and DESC elements.