Creating and Sending VCards from iPhone Address Book Contacts using Objective-C or Swift

Creating VCards with iPhone Address Book Contacts

Creating and sending VCards has been a common task for developers when working with address book APIs. While the Mac version of the built-in Address Book app provides an easy way to create and send VCards, the iOS version does not offer this functionality out-of-the-box.

However, with the help of the Contacts framework in Objective-C or Swift, we can easily extract the contact information from the iPhone’s address book and convert it into a VCard-compatible format. In this article, we’ll explore how to achieve this using the Contacts API and then send the generated VCard via email.

Prerequisites

Before diving into the code, make sure you have:

Xcode installed on your Mac
A basic understanding of Objective-C or Swift programming language
The iOS SDK for developing mobile apps

Understanding Contacts Framework

The Contacts framework is part of Apple’s iOS SDK and provides a set of classes that allow developers to access, read, and write contact information.

## Contact Data Structure
To start working with the `Contacts` framework, you need to understand the data structure it uses to represent contact information.

The Contacts framework stores contact data in the following format:

CN (Common Name) - The name of the person.
FN (First Name) - The first name of the person.
O (Organization) - The organization that the person belongs to.
EMAIL - The email address associated with the contact.
TITLE - The job title of the person.

We’ll use these data structures to extract and process the contact information from the iPhone’s address book.

Integrating Contacts Framework

To integrate the Contacts framework into your iOS app, you need to:

Add the Contacts.framework to your project.
Import the necessary classes in your code.

## Contact Import Statement
#import <Contacts/Contacts.h>

Here’s a basic example of how to import and initialize the Contacts framework:

## Initializing Contacts Framework

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    
    // Initialize the contacts framework
    CKContactStore *contactStore = [[CKContactStore alloc] init];
    NSAssert(contactStore, @"Failed to get contact store");
}

Extracting Contact Information

Now that we have initialized the Contacts framework, let’s extract some sample contact information. We’ll use a simple example where we fetch and display all contacts in the address book.

## Fetching Contacts

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    
    // Initialize the contacts framework
    CKContactStore *contactStore = [[CKContactStore alloc] init];
    NSAssert(contactStore, @"Failed to get contact store");
    
    // Fetch all contacts
   NSArray<CKPerson *> *people = [contactStore contactsWithStatus:CKContactStatusAll error:nil];
    for (CKPerson *person in people) {
        NSLog(@"Name: %@, Email: %@", person.givenName, person.email);
    }
}

In this example, we fetch all contacts with the status set to CKContactStatusAll. The result is an array of CKPerson objects that contain contact information.

Generating VCards

To generate a VCard from the extracted contact information, you need to create a new instance of VCARDData and fill it with data from the CKPerson object.

## Creating VCARD Data

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    
    // Initialize the contacts framework
    CKContactStore *contactStore = [[CKContactStore alloc] init];
    NSAssert(contactStore, @"Failed to get contact store");
    
    // Fetch all contacts
    NSArray<CKPerson *> *people = [contactStore contactsWithStatus:CKContactStatusAll error:nil];
    for (CKPerson *person in people) {
        NSLog(@"Name: %@, Email: %@", person.givenName, person.email);
        
        // Create a new instance of VCARDData
        VCARDData *vcardData = [[VCARDData alloc] init];
        
        // Fill the vcard data with contact information
        [vcardData setName:person.givenName];
        [vcardData setEmail:person.email];
        // Add more properties as needed...
    }
}

In this example, we create a new instance of VCARDData and fill it with the contact’s name and email. However, you should add more properties to represent other contact information.

Sending VCards via Email

Once you have generated a VCard from your extracted contact information, you can send it via email using the MFMailComposeViewController.

## Sending VCard via Email

- (void)viewDidLoad {
    [super viewDidLoad];
    
    // Initialize the contacts framework
    CKContactStore *contactStore = [[CKContactStore alloc] init];
    NSAssert(contactStore, @"Failed to get contact store");
    
    // Fetch all contacts
    NSArray<CKPerson *> *people = [contactStore contactsWithStatus:CKContactStatusAll error:nil];
    for (CKPerson *person in people) {
        NSLog(@"Name: %@, Email: %@", person.givenName, person.email);
        
        // Create a new instance of VCARDData
        VCARDData *vcardData = [[VCARDData alloc] init];
        
        // Fill the vcard data with contact information
        [vcardData setName:person.givenName];
        [vcardData setEmail:person.email];
        // Add more properties as needed...
        
        // Create a new instance of MFMailComposeViewController
        MFMailComposeViewController *mailVC = [[MFMailComposeViewController alloc] init];
        mailVC.body = @"This is an email with attached VCard";
        mailVC.mailtonRecipientEmail = person.email;
        
        // Add attachment to the email
        NSData *vcardAttachmentData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:vcardData requiringSecureCoding:NO error:nil];
        MFPayload *attachment = [[MFPayload alloc] init];
        attachment.payloadData = vcardAttachmentData;
        attachment.payloadType = MPMediaItemContentTypeVCard;
        
        [mailVC setSubject:@"Test Email with VCard Attachment"];
        
        [self presentViewController:mailVC animated:YES completion:nil];
    }
}

In this example, we create a new instance of MFMailComposeViewController and fill it with the email content. We also add an attachment to the email that contains our generated VCard.

Conclusion

Creating and sending VCards from iPhone address book contacts is possible using the Contacts framework in Objective-C or Swift. By extracting contact information, generating a VCard, and then sending it via email, you can share this data with others or integrate it into your app’s functionality.

While the process might seem complex at first, understanding how to use these frameworks will make developing iOS apps with address book integration more accessible.

Last modified on 2025-03-25