Programmatically add contact in Swift

Question

I want to add a contact (just the name and phone number) programatically in Swift. I've found some Objective-C examples but I didn't get them to work, not even in Objective-C. I don't want this to involve AddressBookUI, because I want to get the values from my own UI.

Mickens

Answer 1

Here's a quick method to add a contact in Swift. I verified it on my iPhone 5 iOS 7.1 as I've found the simulator doesn't always match the same results as my phone does for AB stuff.

You can add a button and point to this method:

@IBAction func createContact(sender: AnyObject) {
    var newContact:ABRecordRef! = ABPersonCreate().takeRetainedValue()
    var success:Bool = false
    var newFirstName:NSString = "AA"
    var newLastName = "a"

//Updated to work in Xcode 6.1
        var error: Unmanaged<CFErrorRef>? = nil
//Updated to error to &error so the code builds in Xcode 6.1
    success = ABRecordSetValue(newContact, kABPersonFirstNameProperty, newFirstName, &error)
    println("setting first name was successful? \(success)")
    success = ABRecordSetValue(newContact, kABPersonLastNameProperty, newLastName, &error)
    println("setting last name was successful? \(success)")
    success = ABAddressBookAddRecord(adbk, newContact, &error)
    println("Adbk addRecord successful? \(success)")
    success = ABAddressBookSave(adbk, &error)
    println("Adbk Save successful? \(success)")

}//createContact

btw-it assumes you've already got an addressbook var assigned, which you can on opening the view by overriding viewDidAppear. It does the security prompt as well:

override func viewDidAppear(animated: Bool) {
    super.viewDidAppear(animated)
    if !self.authDone {
        self.authDone = true
        let stat = ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus()
        switch stat {
        case .Denied, .Restricted:
            println("no access")
        case .Authorized, .NotDetermined:
            var err : Unmanaged<CFError>? = nil
            var adbk : ABAddressBook? = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(nil, &err).takeRetainedValue()
            if adbk == nil {
                println(err)
                return
            }
            ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(adbk) {
                (granted:Bool, err:CFError!) in
                if granted {
                    self.adbk = adbk
                } else {
                    println(err)
                }//if
            }//ABAddressBookReqeustAccessWithCompletion
        }//case
    }//if
}//viewDidAppear

Chancellorship

Good answer. BTW, where you call ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions, though, your err is unmanaged, so unless you call takeRetainedValue() for the err, this will leak. Likewise, where you're setting the properties of the ABRecordRef, (a) I think you can eliminate that UnsafeMutablePointer and just use var error: Unmanaged<CFErrorRef>?; and (b) if any of these lines generate an error, you'll want to likewise want to takeRetainedValue. – Magnetize

Thanks - I spent an hour learning what Unmanaged was the other day so I finally understand what you wrote here :) developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/ios/documentation/Swift/… – Chancellorship

Figured out how to resolve the Xcode 6.1 error that Rob highlighted months ago. Changing to his suggested syntax, and instead of passing in error as a param, passing in &error, a pointer. – Chancellorship

Answer 2

Swift 4 & 5

import ContactsUI

Inherit this class CNContactViewControllerDelegate

@IBOutlet var contactNameTxt: UITextField!
@IBOutlet var phoneNumberTxt: UITextField!

@IBAction func saveActionBtn(_ sender: UIButton) {

        let store = CNContactStore()
        let contact = CNMutableContact()

        // Name
        contact.givenName = contactNameTxt.text ?? ""

        // Phone
        contact.phoneNumbers.append(CNLabeledValue(
            label: "mobile", value: CNPhoneNumber(stringValue: phoneNumberTxt.text ?? "")))

        // Save
        let saveRequest = CNSaveRequest()
        saveRequest.add(contact, toContainerWithIdentifier: nil)
        try? store.execute(saveRequest)
}

Anabal

Answer 3

Add contact with a button click using swift 3

Add this row in project plist

Privacy - Contacts Usage Description

then

import AddressBook
import Contacts

On button click, you add the following

let newContact = CNMutableContact()
newContact.givenName = "Your Name"
newContact.jobTitle = "CTO xyz Company"

let workEmail = CNLabeledValue(label:CNLabelWork, value:"[email protected]" as NSString)
newContact.emailAddresses = [workEmail]
newContact.phoneNumbers = [CNLabeledValue(
    label:CNLabelPhoneNumberiPhone,
    value:CNPhoneNumber(stringValue:"0123456789"))]
do {
    let saveRequest = CNSaveRequest()
    saveRequest.add(newContact, toContainerWithIdentifier: nil)
    try AppDelegate.getAppDelegate().contactStore.execute(saveRequest)
} catch {
    AppDelegate.getAppDelegate().showMessage("Unable to save the new contact.")
}

On app delegate add some custom class

// MARK: Custom functions        
class func getAppDelegate() -> AppDelegate {
    return UIApplication.shared.delegate as! AppDelegate
}

func showMessage(_ message: String) {
    let alertController = UIAlertController(title: "Birthdays", message: message, preferredStyle: UIAlertControllerStyle.alert)

    let dismissAction = UIAlertAction(title: "OK", style: UIAlertActionStyle.default) { (action) -> Void in
    }

    alertController.addAction(dismissAction)

    let pushedViewControllers = (self.window?.rootViewController as! UINavigationController).viewControllers
    let presentedViewController = pushedViewControllers[pushedViewControllers.count - 1]

    presentedViewController.present(alertController, animated: true, completion: nil)
}

func requestForAccess(_ completionHandler: @escaping (_ accessGranted: Bool) -> Void) {
    let authorizationStatus = CNContactStore.authorizationStatus(for: CNEntityType.contacts)

    switch authorizationStatus {
    case .authorized:
        completionHandler(true)

    case .denied, .notDetermined:
        self.contactStore.requestAccess(for: CNEntityType.contacts, completionHandler: { (access, accessError) -> Void in
            if access {
                completionHandler(access)
            }
            else {
                if authorizationStatus == CNAuthorizationStatus.denied {
                    DispatchQueue.main.async(execute: { () -> Void in
                        let message = "\(accessError!.localizedDescription)\n\nPlease allow the app to access your contacts through the Settings."
                        self.showMessage(message)
                    })
                }
            }
        })

    default:
        completionHandler(false)
    }
}

You are done; test the project and check the contact app.

Chemisorb

You have to add "let contactStore = CNContactStore()" in the button's view – Pragmatic

It's not a question.. you simply forgot to add the line that I wrote in your code example.. :) – Pragmatic

Answer 4

I used the following lines of code

var addressBook : ABAddressBookRef = ABAddressBookCreate()
var contactPerson : ABRecordRef = ABPersonCreate()

ABRecordSetValue(contactPerson, kABPersonFirstNameProperty, txtFirstName.text, nil);
ABRecordSetValue(contactPerson, kABPersonLastNameProperty, txtLastName.text, nil);

But when the record that gets inserted contains "nil"

while reading contacts from address book the following snippet helped

var firstName: NSString! = Unmanaged<CFString>.fromOpaque(ABRecordCopyValue(contactPerson, kABPersonFirstNameProperty).toOpaque()).takeUnretainedValue().__conversion()

Jada

1. ABAddressBookCreate() is deprecated. You really should use ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(). For example, let addressBook:ABAddressBookRef! = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(nil, &error).takeRetainedValue(). 2. In the latest betas, the fromOpaque/toOpaque dance is no longer needed. For example, let first = ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonFirstNameProperty).takeRetainedValue() as String. – Magnetize