Membership vCards with Photos

mkmurray · Post by **mkmurray** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:14 pm

boomerbubba wrote:When this application is released, will users have access to your final vCard file (including embedded photos), or will they have to use Outlook? I might want to load the portable .vcf file into some other platform, but I have no plans to upgrade my personal PC to Outlook 2007.

The idea was to make it a two step process with two separate executables, in order to deal with the fact that not everyone will be putting the contacts into Outlook in order to sync with the iPhone. So yes, what you suggest would be possible.

I actually have not worked on this code base in a while. I was starting to think that the iWard and iStake iPhone apps would make mine unnecessary. The only benefit from my code that I can think of was the proposed feature of being able to take MLS vCards and embedding the photos, instead of using the LUWS ones.

I have been paying $5 per month to host a server to distribute the code and provide live updates through the ClickOnce technology. It has been hard to set aside time given the circumstances.

However, I will say it is encouraging that someone even remembered I was working on the project.

RossEvans · Post by **RossEvans** » Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:24 pm

mkmurray wrote:I actually have not worked on this code base in a while. I was starting to think that the iWard and iStake iPhone apps would make mine unnecessary.

Only for users who own an iPhone and license a copy of iWard or iStake.

I was thinking about generalized use of the standard vCard file format enhanced with the pictures.

brianpratt · Post by **brianpratt** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:43 am

I am also very interested in this. I am an iPhone user and developer and would love to have the photos from the membership directory on my device. I looked into buying the iWard, etc. apps, but without the photos they aren't much more interesting than just downloading the vcard file from lds.org and syncing it to my phone (to the standard contacts app).

I imagine the iWard folks haven't added this feature due to the same issues you have run into. I would love to have access to your application to create the .vcf with photos for my own use, if you're ready to release it.

I might also be interested in using your source code for a simple iPhone application. Just downloading the .vcf file, doing the matching, and letting the user browse through the contacts by name or photo would be just what I need. If nothing else, it would encourage the other iPhone app developers to add the feature and even more people could have access to it!

RossEvans · Post by **RossEvans** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 9:47 am

brianpratt wrote:I imagine the iWard folks haven't added this feature due to the same issues you have run into. I would love to have access to your application to create the .vcf with photos for my own use, if you're ready to release it.

I'm not an iPhone user, but my impression was that iWard does include the photos. Doesn't it populate them by scraping the LUWS pages?

brianpratt · Post by **brianpratt** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:36 am

boomerbubba wrote:I'm not an iPhone user, but my impression was that iWard does include the photos. Doesn't it populate them by scraping the LUWS pages?

No, unfortunately, the iWard and iStake apps do not include the member photos.

RossEvans · Post by **RossEvans** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 10:51 am

brianpratt wrote:No, unfortunately, the iWard and iStake apps do not include the member photos.

I see. The iWard web site does not seem to show any photos in its demo or marketing pages, so that seems right.

As a non-iHead, I was confused by mkmurray's remark above:

I was starting to think that the iWard and iStake iPhone apps would make mine unnecessary. The only benefit from my code that I can think of was the proposed feature of being able to take MLS vCards and embedding the photos, instead of using the LUWS ones.

I guess such an application would be more generally useful after all. I understand that there are some other factors beyond mkmurray's control that complicate the matter, so I won't nag him.

mkmurray · Post by **mkmurray** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:01 am

I'm seeing enough evidence and community encouragement to pick this up again. I'll see if I can finish the project off in the next week or two and get it published and distributed. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks.

RossEvans · Post by **RossEvans** » Thu Aug 13, 2009 12:05 pm

mkmurray wrote:I'm seeing enough evidence and community encouragement to pick this up again. I'll see if I can finish the project off in the next week or two and get it published and distributed. I'll keep you all posted. Thanks.

Good. For my own purposes, I still need to solve the problems on the Android to keep me within the four corners of church policy, but I haven't given up on that. (I also would have to persuade our bishopric to call a ward photographer to make even the LUWS photo directory useful to anyone at all in our ward.)

The vCard-with-pictures file seems to be the best generalized solution for export, and your application also would solve the vCard problem for Outlook users.