contact list xml?

[noel.whelan]

I've got a vague question - just polling for info I guess, while
looking for info elsewhere, too..:

I'm wondering if there's a commonly used DTD for contact lists in XML.
I've got a contacts database, which I'd like to export to XML. I could
just design this; but if there's an existing one that's commonly used
I'd prefer to do that (depending on what it is and if it'll be dynamic
enough to let me include everything I need to).

Thanks for any input!

 

[Peter Flynn]

I've got a vague question - just polling for info I guess, while
looking for info elsewhere, too..:

I'm wondering if there's a commonly used DTD for contact lists in XML.
I've got a contacts database, which I'd like to export to XML. I could
just design this; but if there's an existing one that's commonly used
I'd prefer to do that (depending on what it is and if it'll be dynamic
enough to let me include everything I need to).

The only format I have used is the one in the Sharp Zaurus PDA for
their Contacts PIM app. No DTD available, AFAIK, but the data looks
like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE Addressbook ><AddressBook>
<Groups>
</Groups>
<Contacts>
<Contact FirstName="" LastName="" FileAs="" JobTitle="" Company=""
BusinessPhone="" BusinessFax="" BusinessMobile="" DefaultEmail=""
Emails="" BusinessStreet="" BusinessCity="" BusinessZip=""
BusinessCountry="" Gender="" rid="" rinfo="" Categories="" Uid="" />
....

Fields not filled in don't get represented (so no attribute is ever
empty), and by the look of it, it's just fieldnames normalised to
attribute names. Built for speed, not for anything else.

///Peter

 

[Joe Kesselman]

I'm wondering if there's a commonly used DTD for contact lists in XML.

If you recast the question as address list, this sounds like it could be
generally useful business data, which suggests that it could be one of
the things that the OASIS efforts in that direction might be discussing.
Check their website?

Part of the question here is what other XML-compatable applications you
plan to exchange the data with. If the answer is "none", you can do
whatever makes sense; otherwise look at whether they've standardized on
something...

Remember that, if nexessary, it's often possible to adapt one XML format
to another similar one with a relatively simple XSLT stylesheet.

 

[Andy Dingley]

I'm wondering if there's a commonly used DTD for contact lists in XML.

FOAF (not an insult, it's a search term!)
vCard
RSS (for any generalised handling of "lists of stuff")
RDF - for handling he list structure and arbitrary groups of property
sets

 

[noel.whelan]

I've found nothing yet on oasis-open.org; but that'd be exactly the
type of thing I'd be interested in, certainly. I've yet to identify
exactly what this needs to be compatible with; in part because ideally
I'd not want to confine it that way if I've not got to, which is why
I'd be interested in a common DTD. If I've found nothing within a brief
period of time, I'll just proceed with designing it in a way that can
include everything I need it to, which could then be translated if it
needs to be, as you indicate..

Thank you for the input!

 

[noel.whelan]

I look further into both FOAF and vCard, thanks!

FOAF (not an insult, it's a search term!)
vCard
RSS (for any generalised handling of "lists of stuff")
RDF - for handling he list structure and arbitrary groups of property
sets