NAME

Text::vCard - a package to edit and create a single vCard (RFC 2426)

WARNING

You probably want to start with Text::vCard::Addressbook, then this module.

This is not backwards compatable with 1.0 or earlier versions!

Version 1.1 was a complete rewrite/restructure, this should not happen again.

SYNOPSIS

  use Text::vCard;
  my $cards = Text::vCard->new({
        'asData_node' => $objects_node_from_asData,
  });

DESCRIPTION

A vCard is an electronic business card.

This package is for a single vCard (person / record / set of address information). It provides an API to editing and creating vCards, or supplied a specific piece of the Text::vFile::asData results it generates a vCard with that content.

You should really use Text::vCard::Addressbook as this handles creating vCards from an existing file for you.

METHODS

new()

  use Text::vCard;

  my $new_vcard = Text::vCard->new();
  
  my $existing_vcard = Text::vCard->new({
        'asData_node' => $objects_node_from_asData,
  });
  

add_node()

my $address = $vcard->add_node({ 'node_type' => 'ADR', });

This creates a new address in the vCard which you can then call the address methods on. See below for what options are available.

The node_type parameter must confirm to the vCard spec format (e.g. ADR not address)

get()

The following method allows you to extract the contents from the vCard.

  # get all elements
  $nodes = $vcard->get('tel');

  # Just get the home address
  my $nodes = $vcard->get({
        'node_type' => 'addresses',
        'types' => 'home',
  });
  
  # get all phone number that matches serveral types
  my @types = qw(work home);
  my $nodes = $vcard->get({
        'node_type' => 'tel',
        'types' => \@types,
  });
 

Either an array or array ref is returned, containing Text::vCard::Node objects. If there are no results of 'node_type' undef is returned.

Supplied with a scalar or an array ref the methods return a list of nodes of a type, where relevant. If any of the elements is the prefered element it will be returned as the first element of the list.

nodes

  my $addresses = $vcard->get({ 'node_type' => 'address' });

  my $first_address = $addresses->[0];
  
  # get the value
  print $first_address->street();

  # set the value
  $first_address->street('Barney Rubble');

  # See if it is part of a group
  if($first_address->group()) {
        print 'Group: ' . $first_address->group();
  }
  

According to the RFC the following 'simple' nodes should only have one element, this is not enforced by this module, so for example you can have multiple URL's if you wish.

simple nodes

For simple nodes, you can also access the first node in the following way:

  my $fn = $vcard->fullname();
  # or setting
  $vcard->fullname('new name');

The node will be automatically created if it does not exist and you supplied a value. undef is returned if the node does not exist. Simple nodes can be called as all upper or all lowercase method names.

  vCard Spec: 'simple'    Alias
  --------------------    --------
  FN                      fullname
  BDAY                    birthday
  MAILER
  TZ                      timezone
  TITLE 
  ROLE 
  NOTE 
  PRODID 
  REV 
  SORT-STRING 
  UID
  URL 
  CLASS
  EMAIL
  NICKNAME
  PHOTO
  version (lowercase only)
  

more complex vCard nodes

  vCard Spec    Alias           Methods on object
  ----------    ----------      -----------------
  N             name            'family','given','middle','prefixes','suffixes'
  ADR           addresses       'po_box','extended','street','city','region','post_code','country'
  GEO                           'lat','long'
  TEL           phones
  LABELS
  ORG                           'name','unit' (unit is a special case and will return an array reference)

  my $addresses = $vcard->get({ 'node_type' => 'addresses' });
  foreach my $address (@{$addresses}) {
        print $address->street();
  }

  # Setting values on an address element
  $addresses->[0]->street('The burrows');
  $addresses->[0]->region('Wimbeldon common');

  # Checking an address is a specific type
  $addresses->[0]->is_type('fax');
  $addresses->[0]->add_types('home');
  $addresses->[0]->remove_types('work');

get_group()

  my $group_name = 'item1';
  my $node_type = 'X-ABLABEL';
  my $of_group = $vcard->get_group($group_name,$node_type);
  foreach my $label (@{$of_group}) {
        print $label->value();
  }

This method takes one or two arguments. The group name (accessable on any node object by using $node->group() - not all nodes will have a group, indeed most vcards do not seem to use it) and optionally the types of node you with to have returned.

Either an array or array reference is returned depending on the calling context, if there are no matches it will be empty.

BINARY METHODS

These methods allow access to what are potentially binary values such as a photo or sound file.

API still to be finalised.

photo()

sound()

key()

logo()

get_lookup

This method is used internally to lookup those nodes which have multiple elements, e.g. GEO has lat and long, N (name) has family, given, middle etc.

If you wish to extend this package (for custom attributes), overload this method in your code

  sub my_lookup {
                return \%my_lookup;
  }
  *Text::vCard::get_lookup = \&my_lookup;

This has not been tested yet.

get_of_type()

  my $list = $vcard->get_of_type($node_type,\@types);

It is probably easier just to use the get() method, which inturn calls this method.

AUTHOR

Leo Lapworth, LLAP@cuckoo.org

BUGS

None that I'm aware of - export does not encode correctly.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2005 Leo Lapworth. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

Text::vCard::Address, Text::vCard::Node

cpanm Text::vCard

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Text::vCard