Android Question QR Code Vcard

[james_sgp]

Hi, has anyone got any insight in how to make a Vcard QR Code; i.e. so someone can scan the QR Code and it inserts your details into their contacts list? Plenty of websites offer such a function, but I`d like to make a small app for creating it on the phone?


James

 

[JohnC]

Well, a QR code is just text encoded into an QR Code image. You can use this lib to generate a QR Code image from a string of text:

[B4X] QRGenerator - Cross platform QR code generator

QRGenerator is a class that generates QR codes. It is written in B4X and it is compatible with B4A, B4i and B4J. iPhone default camera app recognizing the QR code displayed in a B4A app: Can create codes made of up to 2953 bytes. It depends on XUI library and B4XCollections v1.50+. It uses...

www.b4x.com

Now, the hard part is to create the proper string of text to generate the QR code from. A quick search for the Vcard format found this:

vCard 3.0 format specification – www.evenx.com

I noticed a note on that page saying "They have to be separated through line breaks".

So, maybe if you create a string that is formatted like this (using line breaks between lines):

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
N:Lastname;Surname
FN: Displayname
ORG:EVenX
URL:http://www.evenx.com/
EMAIL:[email protected]
TEL;TYPE=voice,work,pref:+49 1234 56788
ADR;TYPE=intl,work,postal,parcel:;;Wallstr. 1;Berlin;;12345;Germany
END:VCARD

Then generate a QRCode from that string, it might work!

 

[james_sgp]

Great thanks, now giving it a try. Your research was faster than mine, I was looking at how they do it in PHP, to learn...haha

 

[james_sgp]

Ok, gave it a try... it makes a pretty huge QR code and when I scan it with my phone it does open Contacts but the information is not transfered?

I`m building the string mentioned above with stringbuilder.

    Dim sb As StringBuilder
    sb.Initialize
    sb.Append("BEGIN:VCARD")
    sb.Append("VERSION:3.0")
    sb.Append("N:Costello;James")
    sb.Append("FN:James Costello")
    sb.Append("ORG:xxx")
    sb.Append("URL:http://xxxxxxxx/")
    sb.Append("EMAIL:xxxxxxxxx")
    sb.Append("TEL;TYPE=voice,work,pref:xxxx")
    sb.Append("ADR;TYPE=intl,work,postal,parcel:;;xxxx;;;xxxx;xxxxx")
    sb.Append("End:VCARD")   
    
    Dim qr As QRGenerator
    qr.Initialize(my_qr.Width)
    my_qr.SetBitmap(qr.Create(sb.tostring))

 

[JohnC]

It doesn't look like you have line breaks between each line. You might try adding a Chr(10) character at the end of each line.

sb.Append("BEGIN:VCARD" & Chr(10))

 

[JohnC]

And just for kicks and giggles, try creating the string using the old fashioned way:

"Line1" & Chr(10) & "Line2" & ....ect

...instead of using SB - just to see if the code is smaller.

Or maybe add this to see what the resulting string looks like:

Log (SB.Tostring)

 

[james_sgp]

Ok, seems like there is something wrong in the Address line as it works with that line removed.

    sb.Append("BEGIN:VCARD" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("VERSION:3.0" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("N:Costello;James" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("FN:James Costello" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("ORG:xxx" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("URL:xxx/" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("EMAIL:[email protected]" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("TEL;TYPE=work:xxxx" & Chr(10))
'    sb.Append("ADR;TYPE=postal:xxxx;xxxx;;xxxxxx;xxxxxx" & Chr(10))
    sb.Append("End:VCARD")

 

[DonManfred]

Maybe check the Specifications.
One Link (google may reveal more):

vCard - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[james_sgp]

Worked it out...thanks

    sb.Append("ADR;TYPE=postal: ;;Street;Town;State;Zip;Country" & Chr(10))

 

[JohnC]

Also, I'm pretty sure that if you stuff less info into the Vcard string (like only your name, email and phone), the resulting QR Code will be much smaller.

 

[james_sgp]

Yes, agreed I removed the address so the QR code is smaller and faster to read.