Contacts Db Format

wiki

Plua code to dump records for examination:

-- contacts.lua                                                                                    

-- number of header bytes before the first field
skip = 17

f,n = io.open("db:/ContactsDB-PAdd", "r")

-- just look at one specific record, to make things simpler for investigation
for i = 1,1 do
  print("start")

  -- open the record and get the record length
  l = f:openrec(i)
  if not(l == nil) then
    -- read header
    s = f:read(skip)
    print(string.byte(s, 1))
    print(string.byte(s, 2))
    print(string.byte(s, 3))
    print(string.byte(s, 4))
    print(string.byte(s, 5))
    print(string.byte(s, 6))
    print(string.byte(s, 7))
    print(string.byte(s, 8))
    print(string.byte(s, 9))
    print(string.byte(s, 10))
    print(string.byte(s, 11))
    print(string.byte(s, 12))
    print(string.byte(s, 13))
    print(string.byte(s, 14))
    print(string.byte(s, 15))
    print(string.byte(s, 16))
    print(string.byte(s, 17))    
    print("fields")
    -- read fields in remaining record after header
    s = f:read(l-skip)
    -- fields are all nul-terminated ASCII.  Get them.
    -- This fixed string should be replaced with one that contains 1 S for each field in the header
    t = bin.unpack( "SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS", s)
    -- There seems to be some other byte information after the fields, at least in some cases.
    -- No idea currently what that contains.
    table.foreach(t, print)
  end
  f:closerec()
end
f:close()

Header bytes (Lau-compatible 1-based offset)

1 - labels
- phone7 label: 4
- unknown: 4
2 - labels
- phone5 label: 4
- phone6 label: 4
3 - labels
- phone3 label: 4
- phone4 label: 4
4 - labels
- phone1 label: 4
- phone2 label: 4
5 - labels
- address3 label: 4
- unknown: 4
6 - labels
- address1 label: 4
- address2 label: 4
7 - unknown
8 - labels
- im1 label: 4
- im2 label: 4
9 - bitfield - the appropriate bit is set if the corresponding field is present
- city: 1
- state: 1
- zipcode: 1
- country: 1
- unknown: 4
10 - bitfield - the appropriate bit is set if the corresponding field is present
- custom3: 1
- custom4: 1
- custom5: 1
- custom6: 1
- custom7: 1
- custom8: 1
- custom9: 1
- address1: 1
11 - bitfield - the appropriate bit is set if the corresponding field is present
- phone5: 1
- phone6: 1
- phone7: 1
- im1: 1
- im2: 1
- url: 1
- custom1: 1
- custom2: 1
12 - bitfield - the appropriate bit is set if the corresponding field is present
- lastname: 1
- firstname: 1
- company: 1
- title: 1
- phone1: 1
- phone2: 1
- phone3: 1
- phone4: 1
13 - unknown
14 - unknown
15 - bitfield - the appropriate bit is set if the corresponding field is present
- zipcode3: 1
- country3: 1
- note: 1
- birthday: 2 - both bits set if there's a birthday set, don't know why
- birthday_reminder: 1 - birthday reminder has a number associated with it, don't know where it is
- unknown: 2
16 - bitfield - the appropriate bit is set if the corresponding field is present
- address2: 1
- city2: 1
- state2: 1
- zipcode2: 1
- country2: 1
- address3: 1
- city3: 1
- state3: 1
17 - unknown

Phone labels

Each label has 4 bits, containing a number that tells which label to use: 0 for work, 1 for home, 2 for fax, 3 for other, 4 for email, 5 for main, 6 for pager, 7 for mobile. To read the labels, get the label in the upper bits with "floor(byte / 16)" and the label in the lower bits with "byte - (byte / 16)". To write the labels, "byte = lower + upper * 16".

Address labels

Each label has 4 bits, containing a number that tells which label to use: 0 for work, 1 for home, 2 for other. Read and write the labels as with phone labels.

IM labels

Each label has 4 bits, containing a number that tells which label to use: 0 for IM, 1 for AIM, 2 for MSN, 3 for Yahoo, 4 for AOL ICQ. Read and write the labels as with phone labels.

Confirmation of the above in [HB++ Community forums]

RecentChanges · preferences
edit · history
Last edited October 23, 2007 9:58 pm GMT (diff)