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          


        

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.