Question

I am using an ABNewPersonViewController to create a person. Everything works fine so far. I do set multivalue properties as well as single values. After tapping “Add” the contact can be found in the adressbook.

But there is a problem when editing this contact. After adding the contact to the adressbook, I save the addressbookID, so that I am able to identfiy if the contact is still saved in the AB.

So If the user wants to export a contact again, I do not create a new ABPersonRecordRef, but using the existing one identified by the id I have saved before:

    ABRecordID recordId = [aContact.addressBookRecordId intValue];

    ABRecordRef personRecord = nil;
    if(recordId != 0) {
        personRecord = ABAddressBookGetPersonWithRecordID(addressBook, recordId);
        if(personRecord) {
            return personRecord;
        } else {
            personRecord = ABPersonCreate();
        }
    } else {
        personRecord = ABPersonCreate();
    }
    //set properties etc.

The problem now is, that this just works the first time. If the user displays the person a second time in the ABNewPersonViewController and taps on Cancel, the record will be deleted in the adress book. Although it was previously saved fine.

I tried using an ABUnknownPersonViewController, but the problem is that it seems that the attributes det on the recordRef are not displayed exactly like in the ABNewPersonViewController.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

This will be of use to you:

Can ABNewPersonViewController be used to edit existing records?

It covers a tutorial with your exact problem.