ios - 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

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:@"
"];
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