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Titanium SDK
Version12.6.4

You are reading 12.6.4. See this page in 13.4.1.

Titanium.Contacts

moduleAndroidiPhoneiPadmacOSsince iPhone 0.8, iPad 0.8, Android 0.8, macOS 9.2.0

Extends Titanium.ModuleTitanium.Proxy

The top-level Contacts module, used for accessing and modifying the system contacts address book.

See examples for more information.

iOS Platform Notes

On iOS, the contacts database may be modified by an external application, causing any Person or Group objects you've retrieved to be out of sync with the database. The IDs of these objects are not guaranteed to remain the same, so updating an object when it is out of sync may have unpredictable results.

To avoid this, listen for the reload event. When you receive a reload event, you should assume that any existing Person or Group objects are invalid and reload them from the Contacts module before modifying them.

See the examples for a sample use of the reload event.

If 'ABAddressBookErrorDomain error 0' occurs, it implies that you are not allowed to add or edit certain fields. Check your default account in the iOS settings under contacts. If it's not 'iCloud', most likely it will not support fields such as alternateBirthday or socialProfile.

These APIs are unavailable on macOS if the app is built on a version of Xcode < 12.

Examples

Request access to the address book

var performAddressBookFunction = function(){...};
var addressBookDisallowed = function(){...};
if (Ti.Contacts.hasContactsPermissions()) {
    performAddressBookFunction();
} else {
    Ti.Contacts.requestContactsPermissions(function(e) {
        if (e.success) {
            performAddressBookFunction();
        } else {
            addressBookDisallowed();
        }
    });
}

Query Existing System Address Book Records

Output to the console all properties of all people.

var singleValue = [
  'recordId', 'firstName', 'middleName', 'lastName', 'fullName', 'prefix', 'suffix',
  'nickname', 'firstPhonetic', 'middlePhonetic', 'lastPhonetic', 'organization',
  'jobTitle', 'department', 'note', 'birthday', 'created', 'modified', 'kind'
];
var multiValue = [
  'email', 'address', 'phone', 'instantMessage', 'relatedNames', 'date', 'url'
];
var people = Ti.Contacts.getAllPeople();
Ti.API.info('Total contacts: ' + people.length);
for (var i=0, ilen=people.length; i<ilen; i++){
  Ti.API.info('---------------------');
  var person = people[i];
  for (var j=0, jlen=singleValue.length; j<jlen; j++){
    Ti.API.info(singleValue[j] + ': ' + person[singleValue[j]]);
  }
  for (var j=0, jlen=multiValue.length; j<jlen; j++){
    Ti.API.info(multiValue[j] + ': ' + JSON.stringify(person[multiValue[j]]));
  }
}

Add New System Address Book Records

Create two new records in the system address book. Note that the <Titanium.Contacts.Person> object is queried in the same way that it is created (as shown in the previous example.)

Ti.API.info('Saving contact...');
Ti.Contacts.createPerson({
  firstName: 'Paul',
  lastName: 'Dowsett',
  address:{
    work:[
      {
        CountryCode: 'gb', // determines how the address is displayed
        Street: '200 Brook Drive\nGreen Park',
        City: 'Reading',
        County: 'Berkshire',
        Country: 'England',
        ZIP: 'RG2 6UB'
      },
      {
        CountryCode: 'gb', // determines how the address is displayed
        Street: '1 St Pauls Road\nClerkenwell',
        City: 'City of London',
        State: 'London',
        Country: 'England',
        ZIP: 'EC1 1AA'
      }
    ],
    home:[
      {
        CountryCode: 'gb', // determines how the address is displayed
        Street: '2 Boleyn Court',
        City: 'London',
        State: 'Greenwich',
        Country: 'England',
        ZIP: 'SE10'
      }
    ]
  },
  birthday: '2012-01-01T12:00:00.000+0000',
  instantMessage:{
    home:[
      {
        service: 'AIM',
        username: 'leisureAIM'
      },
      {
        service: 'MSN',
        username: 'no_paul_here@msn.com'
      }
    ],
    work:[
      {
        service: 'AIM',
        username: 'seriousAIM'
      }
    ]
  },
  organization: 'Appcelerator',
  phone:{
    mobile: ['07900 000001', '07900 000002'],
    work: ['+44 (0)118 925 6128', '+44 (0)118 000 0000']
  },
  url:{
    homepage: ['www.google.com'],
    work: ['www.titaniumsdk.com', 'www.example.com']
  }
});
Ti.API.info('Contact saved');

Ti.API.info('Saving contact...');
var workAddress1 = {
  'CountryCode': 'us',
  'Street':  '440 N. Bernardo Avenue',
  'City': 'Mountain View',
  'State': 'California',
  'Country': 'United States',
  'ZIP': '94043'
};

Ti.Contacts.createPerson({
  firstName:'Arthur',
  lastName:'Evans',
  address:{
    'work':[workAddress1]
  }
});
Ti.API.info('Contact saved');

Repopulate contact data if it was modified externally

Listen for the reload event to repopulate the contact data if it was modified externally, for example, in the iOS Contacts app.

var win = Ti.UI.createWindow();
var table = Ti.UI.createTableView();

// Repopulate contact data
function reloadContacts() {
    var contacts = Ti.Contacts.getAllPeople();
    var data = [];
    for (var i = 0; i < contacts.length; i++) {
        var title = contacts[i].fullName;
        if (!title || title.length === 0) {
            title = "(no name)";
        }
        var row = Ti.UI.createTableViewRow({
            title: title
        });
        data.push(row);
    }
    table.data = data;
}

Ti.Contacts.addEventListener('reload', function(e){
    alert('Reloading contacts. Your contacts were changed externally!');
    reloadContacts();
});

// initial call to populate contact data
reloadContacts();

win.add(table);
win.open();

Properties 12

apiName

Stringsince Android 3.2.0, iPhone 3.2.0, iPad 3.2.0, macOS 9.2.0read-only

Inherited from Titanium.Proxy

The name of the API that this proxy corresponds to.

AUTHORIZATION_AUTHORIZED

Numbersince Android 2.1.3, iPhone 2.1.3, iPad 2.1.3, macOS 9.2.0read-only

A contactsAuthorization value indicating that the application is authorized to use the address book.

This value is always returned on Android devices, as well as on iOS versions earlier than 6.0.

bubbleParent

Booleansince Android 3.0.0, iPhone 3.0.0, iPad 3.0.0, macOS 9.2.0

Inherited from Titanium.Proxy

Indicates if the proxy will bubble an event to its parent.

Default: true

contactsAuthorization

Numbersince Android 2.1.3, iPhone 2.1.3, iPad 2.1.3, macOS 9.2.0read-only

Returns an authorization constant indicating if the application has access to the address book.

Always returns AUTHORIZATION_AUTHORIZED on iOS pre-6.0 and Android devices.

If contactsAuthorization is AUTHORIZATION_RESTRICTED, you should not attempt to re-authorize: this will lead to issues.

includeNote

BooleaniPhoneiPadmacOSsince iPhone 8.2.1, iPad 8.2.1, macOS 9.2.0

A boolean value that indicates whether to fetch the notes stored in contacts or not.

This property need to be set before calling contacts APIs. From iOS 13 or later if your app fetch note field from contact, the app must have to set key 'com.apple.developer.contacts.notes' to 'true' in entitelements section of tiapp.xml.

<key>com.apple.developer.contacts.notes</key>
<true/>

See more details at https://developer.apple.com/documentation/bundleresources/entitlements/com_apple_developer_contacts_notes and https://developer.apple.com/contact/request/contact-note-field.

Default: true

Methods 17

Inherited from Titanium.Proxy

Adds the specified callback as an event listener for the named event.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
nameString

Name of the event.

callbackCallback<Titanium.Event>

Callback function to invoke when the event is fired.

4 fields
bubbles Boolean

True if the event will try to bubble up if possible.

cancelBubble Boolean

Set to true to stop the event from bubbling.

source Object

Source object that fired the event.

type String

Name of the event fired.

Inherited from Titanium.Proxy

Fires a synthesized event to any registered listeners.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
nameString

Name of the event.

event?Dictionary

A dictionary of keys and values to add to the Titanium.Event object sent to the listeners.

Gets all people, unless a limit is specified.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
limitNumber

Maximum number of people. Android only.

getGroupByIdentifier

iPhoneiPadmacOSsince iPhone 5.0.0, iPad 5.0.0, macOS 9.2.0

Gets the group with the specified identifier.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
idString

Group identifier.

Gets people with a firstName, middleName or lastName field, or a combination of these fields, that match the specified name.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
nameString

Name to match.

hasContactsPermissions

since Android 5.1.0, iPhone 5.1.0, iPad 5.1.0, macOS 9.2.0

Returns true if the app has contacts access.

Returns Boolean

Inherited from Titanium.Proxy

Removes the specified callback as an event listener for the named event.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
nameString

Name of the event.

callbackCallback<Titanium.Event>

Callback function to remove. Must be the same function passed to addEventListener.

4 fields
bubbles Boolean

True if the event will try to bubble up if possible.

cancelBubble Boolean

Set to true to stop the event from bubbling.

source Object

Source object that fired the event.

type String

Name of the event fired.

removePerson

since 2.1.0

Removes a contact from the address book.

On iOS:

This method must be followed by a save action to commit the data to the underlying database, which can be done explicitly using Titanium.Contacts.save or implicitly using Titanium.Contacts.createPerson. Although the Titanium.Contacts.Person object will still exist once committed, it will no longer be valid. Continuing to use it will result in unpredictable behavior, including crashes.

On Android:

This method will remove the person from the Contacts book automatically.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
personTitanium.Contacts.Person

Contact.

requestContactsPermissions

since Android 5.1.0, iPhone 5.1.0, iPad 5.1.0, macOS 9.2.0

Requests for contacts access.

On Android, the request view will show if the permission is not accepted by the user, and the user did not check the box "Never ask again" when denying the request. If the user checks the box "Never ask again," the user has to manually enable the permission in device settings.

This method requests Manifest.permission.READ_CONTACTS and Manifest.permission.WRITE_CONTACTS on Android. If you require other permissions, you can also use Titanium.Android.requestPermissions.

In iOS 6, Apple introduced the Info.plist key NSContactsUsageDescription that is used to display an own description while authorizing contacts permissions. In iOS 10, this key is mandatory and the application will crash if your app does not include the key. Check the Apple docs for more information.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
callback?Callback<ContactsAuthorizationResponse>

Function to call upon user decision to grant contacts access. Optional on SDK 10, as this method will return a Promise, which may be used to handle the result.

Returns Promise<ContactsAuthorizationResponse>

On SDK 10+, this method will return a Promise whose resolved value is equivalent to that passed to the optional callback argument.

save

since 3.0.0

Commits all pending changes to the underlying contacts database.

On Android:

Takes an array of Titanium.Contacts.Person objects and saves changes for the specified contacts only.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
contactsArray<Titanium.Contacts.Person>

List of contacts to save. Used on Android only.

Displays a picker that allows a person to be selected.

Parameters
ParametersTypeDescription
paramsshowContactsParams

Argument containing parameters for this method. Optional on Android.

5 fields
animated? Boolean

Determines whether to animate the show/hide of the contacts picker (iPhone, iPad only.)

cancel? Callback<Object>

Function to call when selection is canceled.

fields Array<String>

Field names to show when selecting properties. By default, shows all available.

selectedPerson? Callback<Object>

Function to call when a person is selected. Must not be used with selectedProperty property.

selectedProperty? Callback<Object>

Function to call when a property is selected. Must not be used with selectedPerson property. Note: If ringtone or texttone is selected, null values are returned, since these are unsupported by Apple. Since iOS 9.0, there is a native apple issue whereby it may return null if the birthday property is selected on certain device models. The callback contains the selected property and a 'person' object of type Titanium.Contacts.Person. Since iOS 9.0, apple only returns the person object with partial information. Currently it is known to at least contain the selected property and fullName.

Events 1

reload

iPhoneiPadmacOSsince iPhone 3.1.0, iPad 3.1.0, macOS 9.2.0

Fired when the database backing the contacts module is modified externally.

If you have an existing reference to a Person or Group object, you should obtain a new reference from the Contacts module. Using the existing object may result in unpredictable behavior, such as updating the wrong contact.