Windows Contacts - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Windows Contacts is a contact manager

Contact manager

A contact manager enables users to easily store and find contact information, such as names, addresses and telephone numbers. They are contact-centric databases that provide a fully integrated approach to tracking of all information and communication activities linked to contacts...

which is included in Windows Vista

Windows Vista

Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...

and Windows 7 which replaced and retained most of the functionality of Windows Address Book

Windows Address Book

Windows Address Book is a component of Microsoft Windows that lets users keep a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple programs. It is most commonly used by Outlook Express. It was introduced with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996 and improved in subsequent versions. The Windows Address...

. Windows Mail

Windows Mail

Windows Mail is an email and newsgroup client included in Windows Vista, that was superseded by Windows Live Mail. It is the successor to Outlook Express. Microsoft previewed Windows Mail on Channel 9 on October 10, 2005....

integrates with it. Windows Contacts uses a new XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-based schema format where each contact appears as an individual.contact file, and can store custom information related to contacts, including pictures. It features extensibility

Extensibility

In software engineering, extensibility is a system design principle where the implementation takes into consideration future growth. It is a systemic measure of the ability to extend a system and the level of effort required to implement the extension...

APIs for integration with other applications and storing custom information. The legacy *.wab format and the open standards, *.vcf (vCard

VCard

vCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...

) and *.csv (CSV

Comma-separated values

A comma-separated values file stores tabular data in plain-text form. As a result, such a file is easily human-readable ....

) are also supported.

Features

Windows Contacts is implemented as a special folder in Windows Vista and Windows 7. It is in the Start Menu
Start menu
The Start Menu and Start Button are user interface elements used in the later versions of the Microsoft Windows operating systems and in some X window managers...

of Windows Vista and can be run in Windows 7 by searching for wab.exe in the Start Menu. Contacts can be stored in folders and groups.
It can import vCard
VCard
vCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...

, CSV
Comma-separated values
A comma-separated values file stores tabular data in plain-text form. As a result, such a file is easily human-readable ....

, WAB
Windows Address Book
Windows Address Book is a component of Microsoft Windows that lets users keep a single list of contacts that can be shared by multiple programs. It is most commonly used by Outlook Express. It was introduced with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996 and improved in subsequent versions. The Windows Address...

and LDIF
LDAP Data Interchange Format
The LDAP Data Interchange Format is a standard plain text data interchange format for representing LDAP directory content and update requests. LDIF conveys directory content as a set of records, one record for each object...

formats.
It can export in vCard 2.1 and CSV formats. Users can right-click a contact to quickly convert it to vCard format and send it to anyone.
It can print contacts in Memo, Business Card, Phone List formats.
Because contacts are stored in the Contacts folder simply as individual.contact files, they’re just another data type in the operating system that can be indexed and searched by Windows Search
Windows Search
Windows Search is an indexed desktop search platform released by Microsoft for the Windows operating system....

. Individual contacts can be quickly accessed from the Start menu search text box.
Windows Live People, the contact manager for Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...

and Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail
Windows Live Mail is a free of charge email client from Microsoft's Windows Live set of products. It is intended to be a successor for Outlook Express on Windows XP and Windows Mail on Windows Vista...

can store its information in the Windows Contacts folder if the option to encrypt it is unchecked in Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger
Windows Live Messenger is an instant messaging client created by Microsoft that is currently designed to work with Windows XP , Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Mobile, Windows CE, Xbox 360, Blackberry OS, iOS, Java ME, S60 on Symbian OS 9.x and Zune HD...

. Whenever contacts in Messenger are updated, they'll be updated in Windows Contacts as well. This feature however only works up to Windows Live Messenger 8.5. Windows Contacts synchronization is not supported in Windows Live Messenger 9.0.
Windows Contacts exposes APIs for creating new contacts, reading and writing in an existing contact, adding a "Label" in the form of a URI
Uniform Resource Identifier
In computing, a uniform resource identifier is a string of characters used to identify a name or a resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network using specific protocols...

to a "Property" or a "Property" to a "Contact", API for synchronizing devices with Windows Contacts.

Example Windows Contact file

The following is an example of a Windows Contact file containing information for one person:

Windows Contact 1.0:






	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

	xmlns:MSP2P="http://schemas.microsoft.com/Contact/Extended/MSP2P" c:Version="1">

	Neuter

	2009-04-01T14:20:31Z

	

	

		

			5e26d97a-572b-4aea-8ee2-d225070acba0

		

	

	

		

			SMTP

			forrestgump@forrestgump.com

			

				Preferred

			

		

		
			xsi:nil="true" />

	

	

		

			Gump, Forrest

			Gump

			Forrest

		

	

	

		

			United States of America

			30314

			LA

			Baytown

			100 Waters Edge

			

				Business

			

		

		

			United States of America

			30314

			LA

			Baytown

			102 Waters Edge

			

				Personal

			

		

	

	

		

			(111) 555-1212

			

				Voice

				Business

			

		

		

			(111) 555-1215

			

				Voice

				Personal

			

		

	

	

		

			http://www.bubbagumpshrimp.com

			

				Business

			

		

		

			http://www.forrestgump.com

			

				Personal

			

		

	

	

		

			Shrimp Department

			Shrimp Man

			Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

			

				Business

			

		

	

	

		

			

				UserTile

The XML code could be simplified in case of data duplication.

For example if the business address and the home address are the same, it could be simplified by adding a Label Business and a Label Personal to a PhysicalAddress:





	

		United States of America

		30314

		LA

		Baytown

		100 Waters Edge

		

			Business

			Personal

Outlook Express Export Bug

There is a known problem when exporting the Windows Address Book (WAB files) to another PC. If you have contacts organized into folders, this folder structure will not be preserved when the WAB file is imported. All contacts will be preserved, however, leaving some with a considerable task of manually reconstructing the folders and moving addresses back into their rightful places. See: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/249670

A solution for Windows versions still using WAB files as their address book is to copy, not export/import, the WAB files to their correct location. This often preserves the folder structure. Most unfortunately, in Windows Live Mail this does not work as WLM doesn't use WAB.

External links

About Windows Contacts and the XML Format

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.