ios 6.0 new addressbook ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion

Question

I want to ask that how I can detect whether my AddressBook was first accessed by an app on ios6.0. I have learnt that no matter an app was reinstalled or not , the system only thinks that the first installation an first launch is the first time an app launched. the question is that I want to remind an user to allow the app access AddressBook with an UIAlertView,but this alertview will appear shortly after the system's alertview .How can I avoid this condition. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You should basically ignore ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion. It is useless. If you want to know whether you have access to the database, call ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus().

Further Discussion

ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion is said by the docs to request address book access from the user. But it doesn't. I will now demonstrate that ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion is useless. There are two situations:

(1) If this is a completely unknown new app, ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion is otiose: access will be requested from the user automatically when the app tries to access the address book, so there is no need for ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion.

(2) If the user has either denied or granted access, ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion is a no-op! Calling it does nothing; it does not put up the access request alert!

So ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion is just a bug and should be ignored.

A Major Correction

EDIT In iOS 6.1, this behavior appears to have changed. (I am assuming that my tests on iOS 6.0 were valid, but I have every reason to believe they were.) Now, however, in iOS 6.1, ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions never causes the authorization alert to appear. The only way to make it appear is with ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion! Thus this function is now essential; if ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus that access is undetermined, you must call ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion or you won't get access.

Answer 2

I have solved it by this way.

__block BOOL accessGranted;
- (IBAction)accessAddressBook:(id)sender {
    CFErrorRef  error;
    ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(NULL,&error);

    ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(addressBook, ^(bool granted, CFErrorRef error) {
//        accessGranted = granted;
        if (!accessGranted && !granted) {
            UIAlertView * alertView = [[UIAlertView alloc]initWithTitle:@"Deny Access" message:@"Deny" delegate:self cancelButtonTitle:nil otherButtonTitles:@"cancel", nil];
            [alertView show];
            [alertView release];
        }
    });
}


- (void)alertView:(UIAlertView *)alertView clickedButtonAtIndex:(NSInteger)buttonIndex
{
    if ([alertView.message isEqualToString:@"use contact"] || alertView.message == @"use contact") {
        accessGranted = YES;
    }
}

Answer 3

The system already shows an alert when you call ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion() just augment the system app with your own string.

You should have in your InfoPlist.strings:

 "NSContactsUsageDescription" = "Tap 'OK' or this app is useless.";