Deploy vCards
A
vCard is a general file format for distributing contact information as electronic business cards. It works with both Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes. The vCard (also referred to as the
vcf file) is stored as a file with
.vcf extension on an FTP server.
If you have licensed the full
Enterprise Edition of
eMailSignature or separately the Active Directory module, vCards will be generated when
sign.exe is run.
The general vCard deployment process runs as follows:
- The vCards deployment tool creates a
vcf file for each of the users in your Active Directory. These files are placed on an FTP server of your choice. - Edit the signatures to contain a link to the generated vCards. The new signatures with a vCard link will take effect the next time users run
sign.exe. - When email recipient clicks on the attached vCard, the card opens and he can save the contact information instantly in Outlook/Lotus Notes by saving the card.
Deploying vCards to FTP server
To deploy vCards through eMailSignature, proceed as follows:
- Open the 'Modules' tab and click 'Deploy vCards' in the 'Active Directory' toolbar.
- The vCard window opens.
Specify the following FTP information:
| FTP Information | Description |
| FTP address | The full FTP address of the site where you want to place the vcf files. If you have a certain location on the Web server for your end user files, such as http://www.yourcompanydomain.com/vcf/myCard.vcf
make sure that you have ftp access to this portion of your site. |
| FTP User Name | User name for logging on to the FTP site. |
| FTP Password | Password for the above user name. |
| FTP Port | Leave this field blank if you do not use port 21 for FTP. This option rarely needs to be changed. |
Note: Please ask your webmaster for a place on your company FTP site, where you can upload the vCard files. FTP information is different for each company. Only the webmaster will be able to tell you the values for the above fields.
- Once you have entered the FTP address, username, and password, click 'Test FTP Connection' to verify the connectivity of the FTP site. If the FTP site is successfully connected to, you will see a message in the VCF Card Deployment Monitor that a connection has been successfully established.
Connection status is also displayed in the status bar.
Note: The FTP information entered is not stored in the settings database, but is stored locally in the registry.
- You can now click the 'Deploy' button to deploy the vCards to the server. In the VCF Card Deployment Monitor you will see a complete log showing which file is currently being deployed.
During this process, the following fields are taken from the Active Directory and populated into vCards:
- First name
- Last name
- Display name
- Company
- Title
- Telephone number
- Mobile number
- Email
- Address
- City
- Zip
- State
To verify the vCards, please enter the FTP site from a browser by entering the URL of the
vcf file location. This URL can be different from the FTP site name. The webmaster can provide the correct HTTP URL for this directory. An example of a
vcf file location:
http://www.yourcompanydomain.com/vcf/myCard.vcf where
myCard is replaced with the account initials.
Linking to the vCard from the signature
A
vCard that is deployed on an FTP server is then linked to from within the email
signature. To proceed, you will need to know the HTTP link to the deployed vCards. Please ask your webmaster for this link information.
To link the vCards to email signatures, proceed as in the next example. In this example we will create a signature that says 'Get my vCard' and, when this phrase is clicked, the vCard is opened.
- Open the Cockpit. In the Signatures tab click 'Design Signature' and select a signature to edit.
- In the signature editor click 'Code View' and in the place where you wish the 'Get my vCard' link to appear insert this line of code:
<A href="http://www.mycompanyweb.com/vcards/((AccountName)).vcf">Get my vCard</A>
This creates a link to the vCard location on the FTP site. Instead of the ((AccountName)) the account initials of each user will be merged in to create a link to that user's personal vCard. You will find the AccountName field in the list of available merge fields.
- Click 'Save' to keep the changes. The changes will take effect the next time user runs
sign.exe.
In this example we have merged a personal link to the vcf file (the vCard) into an email signature. When a recipient clicks this link, the Outlook contact information window will appear, showing the contact data.
The recipient should now save the contact information to his address book.
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