iOS: How To Get The Record Of Your Contacts

ios_contacts.m

Add first all required framework to gain access of your device Address Book.

AddressBook.framework and AddressBookUI.framework

Then import these framworks to your controller.

#import <AddressBook/AddressBook.h>
#import <AddressBookUI/AddressBookUI.h>

There are two ways to get your contacts. First is use the ABPeoplePickerNavigationController, the other is to use the ABAddressBookRef.

1. Contacts Picker Controller (ABPeoplePickerNavigationController):

Add to your @interface this delegate <ABPeoplePickerNavigationControllerDelegate> then go and implement the code below to have a contacts picker controller.

 ABPeoplePickerNavigationController *picker = [[ABPeoplePickerNavigationController alloc] init];
 picker.peoplePickerDelegate = self;
 [self presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES];
 [picker release];

Now, the use of that Delegate we added to our @interface is when users press cancel, and add events when selecting any of your contacts. Sample of Delegate method to implement is the one below to dismiss the popup contacts view.

- (void)peoplePickerNavigationControllerDidCancel:(ABPeoplePickerNavigationController *)peoplePicker {
    [peoplePicker dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}

2. Get a list of contacts (ABAddressBookRef):

Implement this method first to your controller (Returns an array of contacts).

Note that this is not a standard objective-c method definition so it should be defined and implemented outside the @interface and @implementation.

NSMutableArray* getArrayOfContactsFromAddressBook(ABAddressBookRef m_addressbook) {
    
    // init array
    NSMutableArray *mArray = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] init] autorelease];
    
    // can be cast to NSArray, toll-free
    CFArrayRef allPeople    = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(m_addressbook);
    CFIndex nPeople         = ABAddressBookGetPersonCount(m_addressbook);
    
    // CFStrings can be cast to NSString!
    for (int i=0;i < nPeople;i++) { 
        // Record Reference
        ABRecordRef ref         = CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(allPeople,i);
        
        CFStringRef firstName       = ABRecordCopyValue(ref, kABPersonFirstNameProperty);
        CFStringRef lastName        = ABRecordCopyValue(ref, kABPersonLastNameProperty);
        
        NSString *contactFirstLast  = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@ %@", firstName, lastName];
        
        CFRelease(firstName);
        CFRelease(lastName);
        CFRelease(ref);
        
        [mArray addObject:contactFirstLast];
        NSLog(@"Contact: %@", contactFirstLast);
    }
    
    CFRelease(allPeople);
    return mArray;
}

To use that method above, we need to have a reference of our Address Book first and pass that reference to the parameter of the method we defined and implemented above.

    ABAddressBookRef m_addressbook = ABAddressBookCreate();
    // check if ur address book ref is initialized
    if (!m_addressbook) {
        NSLog(@"opening address book");
    }

   self.contactsArray = [[[NSMutableArray alloc] initWithArray:getArrayOfContactsFromAddressBook(m_addressbook)] autorelease];