Using QR Codes in On-Premise Solutions

Relevant Products: Signature Manager Exchange Edition | Signature Manager Outlook Edition | Signature Manager Office 365 Edition

Scenario

You would like a QR code in your signature template that when scanned, displays your contact information.

Resolution

This can be achieved in one of two ways. The first method uses a MECARD and the second uses a VCARD.

Method 1 – Setting up a MECARD

1. In the template editor, select the QR Code from Fields > Dynamic Content

2. This will display the QR Code designer window.

3. In Code Types, there is a list of options that you can use within the QR Code set up. There are many options, but for this example we are going to use the Contact option.

4. Click on Contact to display the Contact Details window. This will show a list of automatically added fields, these can be changed using the drop down arrows. Once you have made your changes, click OK to close the window.

5. This will generate the QR code, along with the code next to it.

This can be read by mobile devices providing they have a QR code reader installed. The user's contact information will be pulled through using the fields that are populated.

You can change the cell size, the colours and the sharpness. For this example, the colours and settings have been left as the default.

6. In order to test the MECARD, go to design preview in the template editor and choose a user to test. You will need to use a QR reader and or the Phone Camera to check the user's information populates correctly.

When testing, the order of the contact information can vary between each device, and the application used. This depends on how the device itself has been programmed to input data for each contact added. As an example, an Android device may have a different contact information layout to an iOS device.

However it should allow you to save the contact with the contact information from the Message Sender.

QR Code scanned in from the Camera Application

QR Code scanned with a QR Code Reader Application

You may notice, that the Job Title and a few other fields may not work with the MECARD, this is where the VCARD (Virtual Contact File) differs. Typically, VCARDS are created by typing lines of code, tags and property types that accompany your information.

Compared to the MECARD format of:

The VCARD requires a little more code in order to function, such as being separated by line breaks and stating BEGIN, VERSION and END when structuring as seen below:

Method 2 – Setting up a VCARD

Select the QR Code from Fields -> Dynamic Content

Once the QR Code designer window opens, you can start setting up the QR code required.

In the empty box, we are going to start structuring the VCARD using fields from the Active Directory and the correct Version.

Here you can see the code and fields have been added with return lines, following the above format. The fields have been chosen from the Active Directory, with the correct labels to allow the QR Code to work.

In order to test the VCARD – go to design preview in the editor, and choose a user to populate the information – in this case, our test user is Peter Jones. You will need to use a QR reader and or the Phone Camera to check the information populates correctly.

The test now appears as the below. You can see that compared to the MECARD, the VCARD contains far more information due to the ability to specify numbers, addresses, emails, job titles etc. 

The information here is the same read by the Camera Application and the QR code reader

A list of compatible attributes and properties can be found via this article - VCARD 3.0 format specification

Resources:
https://www.evenx.com/vcard-3-0-format-specification

http://beqrioustracker.com/make-way-for-a-qr-code-vcard/