New Windows Contacts Format

[SIMIN]

Hi everyone:)

As you know, from Windows Vista, user contacts are not stored in .wab files anymore...

However, they are stored here:

 

X:\Users\Your User Name\Contacts

 

I want to CREATE / GENERATE contacts programatically and save them here in the same format.

This format is very simple and is user readable.

 

For example, this sample:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<c:contact c:Version="1" xmlns:c="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Contact" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:MSP2P="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Contact/Extended/MSP2P">
<c:CreationDate>2009-01-19T20:16:08Z</c:CreationDate><c:Extended xsi:nil="true"/>
<c:ContactIDCollection><c:ContactID c:ElementID="7a122ea4-c7c5-4eb3-855e-39c97dc46a54"><c:Value>a18452d7-bc26-467d-8a5c-527d2c70ba8b</c:Value></c:ContactID></c:ContactIDCollection><c:EmailAddressCollection><c:EmailAddress c:ElementID="0e59a008-481c-4c99-b3cc-c85c89d616ff"><c:Type>SMTP</c:Type><c:Address>user@domain.com</c:Address><c:LabelCollection><c:Label>Preferred</c:Label></c:LabelCollection></c:EmailAddress><c:EmailAddress c:ElementID="280c131c-a5ad-41ca-acc2-aff9030c76a2" xsi:nil="true"/></c:EmailAddressCollection><c:NameCollection><c:Name c:ElementID="e8afd09a-9406-4e42-bad1-b4148ade040e"><c:FormattedName>user@domain.com</c:FormattedName></c:Name></c:NameCollection><c:PhotoCollection><c:Photo c:ElementID="834fd30a-de94-4558-b650-d3d8c3e1fcd9"><c:LabelCollection><c:Label>UserTile</c:Label></c:LabelCollection></c:Photo></c:PhotoCollection></c:contact>

So, when I want to generate and save a contact here, I simply just change the email address and re-generate random IDs and save it as a .contact file in this location:

Dim OutputString As String = Nothing
OutputString = "<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""UTF-8""?>" + vbNewLine
OutputString = OutputString + "<c:contact c:Version=""1"" xmlns:c=""http://schemas.microsoft.com/Contact"" xmlns:xsi=""http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"" xmlns:MSP2P=""http://schemas.microsoft.com/Contact/Extended/MSP2P"">" + vbNewLine
OutputString = OutputString + vbTab + "<c:CreationDate>" + Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") + "T" + Now.ToString("HH:mm:ss") + "Z</c:CreationDate><c:Extended xsi:nil=""true""/>" + vbNewLine
OutputString = OutputString + vbTab + "<c:ContactIDCollection><c:ContactID c:ElementID=""" + GenerateContactID() + """><c:Value>" + GenerateContactID() + "</c:Value></c:ContactID></c:ContactIDCollection><c:EmailAddressCollection><c:EmailAddress c:ElementID=""" + GenerateContactID() + """><c:Type>SMTP</c:Type><c:Address>" + MyReaders("Email").ToString + "</c:Address><c:LabelCollection><c:Label>Preferred</c:Label></c:LabelCollection></c:EmailAddress><c:EmailAddress c:ElementID=""" + GenerateContactID() + """ xsi:nil=""true""/></c:EmailAddressCollection><c:NameCollection><c:Name c:ElementID=""" + GenerateContactID() + """><c:FormattedName>" + MyReaders("Email").ToString + "</c:FormattedName></c:Name></c:NameCollection><c:PhotoCollection><c:Photo c:ElementID=""" + GenerateContactID() + """><c:LabelCollection><c:Label>UserTile</c:Label></c:LabelCollection></c:Photo></c:PhotoCollection></c:contact>" + vbNewLine
My.Computer.FileSystem.WriteAllText(WABPath + "\" + MyReaders("Email").ToString + ".contact", OutputString, False)

However, although the final file contents will be exactly in the same format, but Windows will not recognize my created files as contacts!!!

This is strange, I am sure they are in the same format!!!

Anyone knows why this happens?! :confused:

Thank you...

[PlausiblyDamp]

Not entirely sure why your existing code isn't working, have you tried doing a file comparison of an existing contact file and one you are creating (http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/TortoiseIDiff.html is a nice tool for doing this)?

 

http://www.codeplex.com/Contacts might be worth a look as it seems to havea lot of the grunt work already done.

[SIMIN]

Hi,

I was sure I am writing the output file in the correct format, and I was right.

However, I found the only problem is with my random generated IDs.

It seems that I really cannot generate random alphanumeric IDs on the fly and use it in the .contact files.

But how can I find how they generate these random IDs? :confused:

[PlausiblyDamp]

What are you doing in GenerateContactID to generate these values? It looks like they are guids which .Net will generate for you anyway.

[Nate Bross]

System.Guid.NewGuid.ToString() might help you generate the value.

 

The .ToString() method has overloads to help you format correctly to match the format.

[SIMIN]

What are you doing in GenerateContactID to generate these values? It looks like they are guids which .Net will generate for you anyway.

 

Hi,

Here is what I do to generate this ID:

http://www.xtremedotnettalk.com/showthread.php?t=101780

 

Do you think I can use System.Guid.NewGuid.ToString() to generate these IDs?

I never heard of System.Guid.NewGuid.ToString() until now.

[Nate Bross]

If the ContactID is a Guid; then that should work.

[SIMIN]

Thanks all,

Yes, ContactID is a GUID, and it worked perfectly :)