如何在核心数据堆栈中的客户端上使用ABPeoplePickerNavigationController

Question

I have a core data stack which contains an entity called 'Client'. Each client has a 'addressBookID' property which refers to the uniqueID of the person record in the AddressBook. I am currently using a fetchedResultsController to populate the tableViewController to display these clients. However, the viewController is very basic.

Ideally, I want to use the ABPeoplePickerNavigationController UI so that my Clients are separated by sections of Last Initial and also have the drag bar on the right side which can quickly flick to the desired point in the alphabet. The added search functionality would also be useful.

Is is possible to use a ABPeoplePickerNavigationController but populate it with your own data (by using a delegate for example)?

Alernatively, are these bits of functionality easily added to a fetchedResultsController style table? The only other issue I have is being able to fetch results from the Core Data stack but sort them by their names as stored in the ABAddressBook. I am not sure a sortDescriptor can sort by reference to field stored outside the stack.

Appreciate any advice/comments?

Answer 1

You need to create an ABAddressBookRef and populate it with the contacts that you want to appear in the navigation controller. Then create the ABPeoplePickerNavigationController and assign your ABAddressBookRef to the addressBook property.

ABPeoplePickerNavigationController documentation

Optional. The address book from which to obtain the list of contacts.

@property(nonatomic, readwrite) ABAddressBookRef addressBook

To create an ABAddressBookRef, start with ABAddressBookCreate() and ABAddressBookAddRecord(). These functions are documented in Apple's ABAddressBook Reference for iOS .

If you want the changes to the ABAddressBookRef to not be saved (in other words, you want to set it up with temporary contacts), simply don't call ABAddressBookSave(). The documentation states

Changes made to the returned address book are reflected in the Address Book database only after saving the address book with ABAddressBookSave.