Question

Some users have multiple address books in their iPhone Contacts, as a result of different synchronization connections they have made with e.g. Exchange Servers.

How is it possible to get all of these different address books? I would be interested in getting the names under which these different address books are saved and accessing their contact information.

Thank you!

Answer 1

ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreate();
CFArrayRef sourcesArray = ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllSources(addressBook);
for (CFIndex i = 0; i < CFArrayGetCount(sourcesArray); i++) {
    ABRecordRef source = (ABRecordRef)CFArrayGetValueAtIndex(sourcesArray, i);
    ABRecordID sourceID = ABRecordGetRecordID(source);
    CFNumberRef sourceType = (CFNumberRef)ABRecordCopyValue(source, kABSourceTypeProperty);
    CFStringRef sourceName = (CFStringRef)ABRecordCopyValue(source, kABSourceNameProperty);
    NSLog(@"source id=%d type=%d name=%@", sourceID, [(NSNumber *)sourceType intValue], sourceName);
    CFRelease(sourceType);
    if (sourceName != NULL) CFRelease(sourceName); // some source names are NULL
}
CFRelease(sourcesArray);
CFRelease(addressBook);

Note that, as of iOS 4, not all sources return a name. You may provide your own names based on type.

Use ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeopleInSource(addressBook, source) to get entries in a source.