However, these solutions do not preserve the intent of the originating application. When a CSV and TDF format is used by a PIM, the meta-data or semantics of the originating object are only apparent to a similar version of the originating application. The reliability and complexity of the exchange of data between PIM and contact card applications is greatly improved by the adoption of an industry-standard specification for an electronic business card interchange format, such as the vCard specification. The Internet Mail Consortium is encouraging the leading PIM vendors that have already indicated their intent to support the vCard specification. When integrating vCard support into an application, an implementor must consider a number of user interface implications.
Most applications provide some levels of support for interacting with other applications.
This is usually accomplished in three ways. The full potential of the vCard technology can be better utilized by an application that supports the vCard specification in each of these user interface forms. Applications integrating support for the vCard specification will provide support for importing and exporting vCard objects from the operating system's file system. In operating systems that support file types, this means that a standard file type can be used to distinguish the vCard objects. Applications will use the file system capabilities to support the FileOpen and FileSaveAs, or their equivalent function, of a vCard object in much the same way that graphics application today use a metafile format to import and export computer graphics objects.