Re: [VCARDDAV] Confusion regarding the correct use of FN, N and NICKNAME in RFC6350 with regards to nicknames and honorifics

[Thomas Tanghus <[e-mail]>]

On Tuesday 28 January 2014 16:54:40 Cyrus Daboo wrote:
> Hi Gesh,
> 
> --On January 29, 2014 at 2:18:16 AM +0200 Gesh hseG <[e-mail]>
> 
> wrote:
> > In brief, assuming I refer to a person by a name that is not their full
> > name, how do I
> > 
> > A) correctly note this in their vCard,
> 
> I think that is done simply by having NICKNAME present.

I think the FN property in both rfc2426 and rfc6350 is very ambiguous.
Some interpret it as a concatenation of the N values, others as mostly a 
duplicate of NICKNAME.

I see it as neither

Both specs call it (briefly said) "formatted name", which I see as the way you 
would want the name formatted if you for example wanted to send an email to 
said person.

Say you have a vCard with:

N:Public;John;Quinlan;Sir;Esquire

The FN *could* be:

FN:John Q. Public

And the NICKNAME maybe:

NICKNAME:Joey
 
> > B) write a standards-conforming program that displays and sorts the person
> > the same way I refer to them?

You can't unless you can read minds or let the user specify FN as free form 
text and don't alter it without the user approving the change.

If I'm wrong in my interpretation please correct me, as that is how I have 
implemented it in ownCloud Contacts, and I have had several disputes about it 
already :)

> It seems that what you need is a client sort option that uses as the sort
> key the NICKNAME value if present, else the FN value (using any SORT-AS
> parameter specified for the selected property). If you do that, there is no
> need to add the N value as a SORT-AS on the FN value as you did in your
> examples.

-- 
Best regards / Med venlig hilsen

Thomas Tanghus