How to get VCF data with contact images using CNContactVCardSerialization dataWithContacts: method?

Question

I'm using CNContacts and CNContactUI framework and picking a contact via this

CNContactPickerViewController *contactPicker = [CNContactPickerViewController new];
              contactPicker.delegate = self;
 [self presentViewController:contactPicker animated:YES completion:nil];

and

-(void)contactPicker:(CNContactPickerViewController *)picker didSelectContact:(CNContact *)contact
{
    NSArray *array = [[NSArray alloc] initWithObjects:contact, nil];
    NSError *error;
    NSData *data = [CNContactVCardSerialization dataWithContacts:array error:&error];
    NSLog(@"ERROR_IF_ANY :: %@",error.description);
}

This contact object have contact.imageData and coming in logs. But when I tried to cross check this data by

NSArray *contactList = [NSArray arrayWithArray:[CNContactVCardSerialization contactsWithData:data error:nil]];
CNContact *contactObject = [contactList objectAtIndex:0];

This is getting null:

//contactObject.imageData  

Why am I getting this null and this contact has image when check in contacts?

Answer 1

I'd like to improve upon and modernise for Swift 3 the excellent answer by kudinovdenis.

Just put the following extension into your project

import Foundation
import Contacts

extension CNContactVCardSerialization {
    internal class func vcardDataAppendingPhoto(vcard: Data, photoAsBase64String photo: String) -> Data? {
        let vcardAsString = String(data: vcard, encoding: .utf8)
        let vcardPhoto = "PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;ENCODING=BASE64:".appending(photo)
        let vcardPhotoThenEnd = vcardPhoto.appending("\nEND:VCARD")
        if let vcardPhotoAppended = vcardAsString?.replacingOccurrences(of: "END:VCARD", with: vcardPhotoThenEnd) {
            return vcardPhotoAppended.data(using: .utf8)
        }
        return nil

    }
    class func data(jpegPhotoContacts: [CNContact]) throws -> Data {
        var overallData = Data()
        for contact in jpegPhotoContacts {
            let data = try CNContactVCardSerialization.data(with: [contact])
            if contact.imageDataAvailable {
                if let base64imageString = contact.imageData?.base64EncodedString(),
                    let updatedData = vcardDataAppendingPhoto(vcard: data, photoAsBase64String: base64imageString) {
                    overallData.append(updatedData)
                }
            } else {
                overallData.append(data)
            }
        }
        return overallData
    }
}

and then you can use it similarly to the existing serialisation method:

CNContactVCardSerialization.data(jpegPhotoContacts: [contact1, contact2])

Note that this takes care of serialisation, you'll need to write a similar method for deserialisation if you are also importing.

Answer 2

As a workaround you can create PHOTO field inside of VCard.

NSError* error = nil;
NSData* vCardData = [CNContactVCardSerialization dataWithContacts:@[contact] error:&error];
NSString* vcString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:vCardData encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSString* base64Image = contact.imageData.base64Encoding;
NSString* vcardImageString = [[@"PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;ENCODING=BASE64:" stringByAppendingString:base64Image] stringByAppendingString:@"\n"];
vcString = [vcString stringByReplacingOccurrencesOfString:@"END:VCARD" withString:[vcardImageString stringByAppendingString:@"END:VCARD"]];
vCardData = [vcString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

For some reasons CNContactVCardSerialization does not use any photo of contact. VCard after serialization is looks like:

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iPhone OS 9.3.2//EN
N:Contact;Test;;;
FN: Test  Contact 
END:VCARD

After insertion the PHOTO field inside VCard you will get

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iPhone OS 9.3.2//EN
N:Contact;Test;;;
FN: Test  Contact 
PHOTO;TYPE=JPEG;ENCODING=BASE64:<photo base64 string>
END:VCARD

After this insertion contact will looks fine in CNContactViewController