Working with ABAddressBook in Swift

ABAddressBook By definition :
The ABAddressBook opaque type (whose instances are known as address books) provides a programming interface to the Address Book—a centralized database used by multiple applications to store personal information about people.

Main points covered :

• Fetch contacts from AddressBook
• Insert/Edit new contact to AddressBook
• Delete contact from AddressBook
• Register call back to listen changes in AddressBook to our App

Some common steps for all actions:

• Import  AddressBook
  import AddressBook

• Get addressBook reference
  

  let addressBook : ABAddressBookRef? = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(nil, nil).takeRetainedValue()

• Get user permission to access AddressBook
  
  ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(addressBook, { (granted : Bool, error: CFError!) -> Void in           if granted == true
       {
             //do stuff here
       } })
  
  once user grants permission to access addressBook, we can move further.
  
• Fetch contacts from AddressBook
  
  let allContacts : NSArray = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook).takeRetainedValue()
  for contactRef:ABRecordRef in allContacts { // first name if let firstName = ABRecordCopyValue(contactRef, kABPersonFirstNameProperty).takeUnretainedValue() as? NSString { //Use firstName }
  
  // Similarly all properties with same kind of ABPropertyID can be fetched. i.e kABPersonLastNameProperty, kABPersonMiddleNameProperty etc }

• Insert / Edit new contact to AddressBook
  
  - Create new contact reference
  
  contactRef = ABPersonCreate()?.takeUnretainedValue() as ABRecordRef!
  
  
  - Or get contact reference of contact to be edited
  
  contactRef = ABAddressBookGetPersonWithRecordID(addressBookRef!, CONTACT_UNIQUE_ADDRESSBOOK_ID).takeUnretainedValue() as ABRecordRef!
  
  - Set properties
  
  //First Name ABRecordSetValue(contactRef, kABPersonFirstNameProperty, "Test FirstName" nil)
  
  //Last Name ABRecordSetValue(contactRef,  kABPersonLastNameProperty, "Test LastName" nil)
  
  
  so on for all required properties.
  
  - Add contact reference to address book and save it
  
  ABAddressBookAddRecord(addressBookRef!, contactRef, nil); let success = ABAddressBookSave(addressBookRef!, nil);
  
  
  // success will be true for successful addition

Delete contact from AddressBook

- Get contact reference of contact to be deleted

contactRef = ABAddressBookGetPersonWithRecordID(addressBookRef!, CONTACT_UNIQUE_ADDRESSBOOK_ID).takeUnretainedValue() as ABRecordRef!

- Delete contact from addressbook and save it

ABAddressBookRemoveRecord(addressBook!, contactRef!, &errorRef)
ABAddressBookSave(addressBook!, &errorRef)

• Register call back to listen changes in AddressBook to our App

book = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(NULL, NULL); ABAddressBookRegisterExternalChangeCallback(book, addressBookChanged, nil);

and,
void addressBookChanged(ABAddressBookRef reference, CFDictionaryRef dictionary, void *context) {
   // handle call back here..
}