XDevMag: VCard QR Code

Meet someone via QR code or file

Let us point you to an article in the Xojo Developer Magazine in the 22.6 issue:

In this article, Stefanie Juchmes discusses how to embed vCard contact information into a QR code, offering a way to easily transfer contact details between smartphones. The concept is inspired by a conference experience where a QR code on a name badge allowed participants to quickly access a person's contact details. Rather than simply linking to a website, the article focuses on embedding a vCard (an electronic business card) directly into a QR code, allowing users to add the contact information directly to their address book.

The article provides a deep dive into the structure of a vCard, explaining its key components and how to format them properly for inclusion in a QR code. Key pieces of data in a vCard include the person’s name, email, phone numbers, address, URL, birthday, and notes, with examples of how each should be written. The process also involves handling optional fields and ensuring proper formatting with line breaks. The article illustrates this with sample code for creating a vCard and discusses how to store it within a QR code for easy sharing.

Finally, Stefanie shows how to implement this QR code generation using the MBS Xojo Barcode Plugin in Xojo, walking through the steps to create a QR code and save it either as a file or for display. The user interface (UI) allows for the entry of contact details, which are then used to generate the vCard data. She also explains how to handle file-saving options, allowing users to save their contact information as a .vcf file or generate a scannable QR code. The article concludes with an invitation to experiment with this tool for sharing contact information at future events.