iOS get user contacts excluding businesses

Question

I have an app that is loading all of a users contacts. I would like to exclude any business, but I can't seem to find a way to determine if a contact is a business.

I initially considered check if the "company" field contains a value when the first and last name do not, but I can't find this property from the ABRecord.

Here is how I am grabbing the first and last name:

NSString *firstName = (__bridge_transfer NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(contactPerson, kABPersonFirstNameProperty);
NSString *lastName = (__bridge_transfer NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(contactPerson, kABPersonLastNameProperty);

Any ideas? Thanks!

Answer 1

You can get the firm name via:

NSString *company = (__bridge_transfer NSString *)ABRecordCopyValue(contactPerson, kABPersonOrganizationProperty);

You could filter your array on the basis of whether there is an organization name, but no first name or last name.

---

But, if you want to exclude businesses, you don't really care about the company name (because people may have company name, but businesses generally don't have first/last names). Just filter your records to include only those with first and/or last name:

CFErrorRef error = NULL;
ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(NULL, &error);

if (error) {
    NSLog(@"Address book creation failure: %@", CFBridgingRelease(error));
    return;
}

ABAuthorizationStatus status = ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus();

if (status == kABAuthorizationStatusDenied) {
    // authorization previously denied ... tell user to go to settings and authorize access
    NSLog(@"kABAuthorizationStatusDenied");
    return;
}

ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(addressBook, ^(bool granted, CFErrorRef error) {
    if (granted) {
        NSArray *allPeople = CFBridgingRelease(ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeopleInSourceWithSortOrdering(addressBook, NULL, kABPersonSortByLastName));

        // if you didn't want to sort, just use
        //
        // NSArray *allPeople = CFBridgingRelease(ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeople(addressBook));

        NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithBlock:^BOOL(id person, NSDictionary *bindings) {
            NSString *firstName = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue((__bridge ABRecordRef)person, kABPersonFirstNameProperty));
            NSString *lastName  = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue((__bridge ABRecordRef)person, kABPersonLastNameProperty));

            return (firstName || lastName);
        }];

        NSArray *peopleNotCompanies = [allPeople filteredArrayUsingPredicate:predicate];

        // You now have an array of `ABRecordRef` associated with
        // those contacts with first or last name
    } else {
        // authorization only just now denied ... tell user to go to settings and authorize access
        NSLog(@"Access not granted: %@", CFBridgingRelease(error));
    }
});

Alternatively, you could look at the kABPersonKindProperty:

NSPredicate *predicate = [NSPredicate predicateWithBlock:^BOOL(id person, NSDictionary *bindings) {
    CFNumberRef recordType = ABRecordCopyValue((__bridge ABRecordRef)person, kABPersonKindProperty);
    BOOL isCompany = (recordType == kABPersonKindOrganization);
    CFRelease(recordType);

    return !isCompany;
}];

Whether you're comfortable relying on this kABPersonKindProperty Is up to you. I'm unsure if it's properly populated with sources like Microsft Exchange, much less whether all end-users will have always clicked the appropriate checkbox.