How do I launch the Mac Address Book from my app and select a specific person?

Question

I have an app and I am reading in the address book information using the ABAddressBook APIs and selecting a person. I would like to provide a link from my app to launch the Mac address book and pre-select a specific user.

I'm sure there are several ways to do it - I came up with one that seems to work but it feels a little clunky. I launch the "Address Book.app", if successful it calls a bit of AppleScript to select the "currentPerson" uniqueId (from the ABRecord object).

- (void) notifyABSelect
{
    NSString *src = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"tell application \"Address Book\"\r\n\tset selection to first person whose id is \"%@\" \r\nend tell", [currentPerson uniqueId]];

    NSMutableDictionary *err = [NSMutableDictionary dictionary];
    NSAppleScript *script = [[NSAppleScript alloc] initWithSource:src];
    [script executeAndReturnError:&err];

    [[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] notificationCenter] removeObserver:self];

    [src release];
    [err release];
    [script release];
}

- (IBAction) launchAddressBook:(id)sender
{
    [[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] notificationCenter] 
     addObserver:self 
     selector:@selector(notifyABSelect) 
     name:NSWorkspaceDidLaunchApplicationNotification 
     object:nil];

    if ([[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] launchApplication:@"Address Book.app"] == YES)
    {
        [self notifyABSelect];
    }
    else 
    {
        NSLog(@"Unable to launch address book");
    }

}

Where this falls down is if the Address Book had previously had a group other than "All Contacts" selected; it may or may not be able to find the person based on whether or not they are in the selected group. However, clicking the link a second time in the app does correctly go to "All Contacts" and find the person.

What are alternatives to accomplishing this behavior?

Answer 1

You can use a URL instead.

[[NSWorkspace sharedWorkspace] openURL:
 [NSURL URLWithString:
  [NSString stringWithFormat:
   @"addressbook://%@", [currentPerson uniqueId]]]];