How to keep peoplePickerNavigationController from automatically dismissing

Question

In iOS 8, the following was deprecated:

-(BOOL)peoplePickerNavigationController:(ABPeoplePickerNavigationController *)peoplePicker shouldContinueAfterSelectingPerson:(ABRecordRef)person

and now we are supposed to use:

-(void)peoplePickerNavigationController:didSelectPerson:

but this method automatically dismisses the people picker after the first selection where the old version did not. I have a routine that needs to record each name that the user picks one by one. I can re-display the people picker after each selection but it starts the contact list back at the first name.

I hope I explained this correctly. Anyone know how to keep the peoplepickernavigationcontroller from auto dismissing in iOS 8 like it used to do in ios7?

Lenlena

@NikitaIvaniushchenko check out my answer below – Balfore

Answer 1

In the documentation of ABPeoplePickerNavigationController, check out the comment of predicateForSelectionOfPerson.

// Optionally determines if a selected person should be returned to the app (predicate evaluates to TRUE),
// or if the selected person should be displayed (predicate evaluates to FALSE).
// If not set and -peoplePickerNavigationController:didSelectPerson: is implemented the selected person is returned to the app,
// or if not set and -peoplePickerNavigationController:didSelectPerson:identifier: is implemented the selected person is displayed.
//
@property(nonatomic,copy) NSPredicate *predicateForSelectionOfPerson NS_AVAILABLE_IOS(8_0);

So you need to set a predicate of FALSE, if you want to display the selected person.

    if ([picker respondsToSelector:@selector(setPredicateForSelectionOfPerson:)])
{
    picker.predicateForSelectionOfPerson = [NSPredicate predicateWithValue:NO];
}

Balfore

Anyway, it's not the same. Before that, i had a chance to push another view controller into the same navigation stack, but now ABPeoplePickerNavigationController is automatically dismissed. – Climatology

Answer 2

I've found a solution to re-showing the people picker after selecting a property.

Implement the delegate method that handles when a person chooses a contact property (only called by iOS 8): The trick for me was to dismiss then picker, then immediately call my "show picker" method in the completion delegate (yes, a delegate within a delegate).

// Dismisses the people picker and shows the application when users tap Cancel.
- (void)peoplePickerNavigationController:(ABPeoplePickerNavigationController *)peoplePicker didSelectPerson:(ABRecordRef)person property:(ABPropertyID)property identifier:(ABMultiValueIdentifier)identifier {


    [self.picker dismissViewControllerAnimated:NO completion:^{
        NSLog(@"just dismissed the picker");
        [self showPeoplePickerController];
    }];
}

Make sure to init the people picker once if you want it to show up where it last left off. Hope this helps

here is my showPeoplePickerController method

#pragma mark Show all contacts
// Called when users tap "Display Picker" in the application. Displays a list of contacts and allows users to select a contact from that list.
-(void)showPeoplePickerController

{
        picker.peoplePickerDelegate = self;
        picker.delegate = self;
        picker.visibleViewController.searchDisplayController.searchBar.delegate = self;

        [self presentViewController:picker animated:NO completion:nil];  
}

First initialize the picker. Note that there is an authorization method call required for contacts access in the first place

picker = [[ABPeoplePickerNavigationController alloc] init];
//have self prompt first, then based off answer prompt them with internal address book stuff or now
if(ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus() == kABAuthorizationStatusAuthorized)
{
    // show picker UI if the user has granted access to their Contacts
    [self showPeoplePickerController];
}

NOTES:

• I previously initiated people picker when the view loaded. once.
• setting the "animated" option to NO on presenting and dismissing controller helps make transition smoother.

Granese

not quite working. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. How are you initializing the picker in the view load? – Lenlena

@JackRomano what or where is your code breaking? any more info? – Granese