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New Contacts functions for FileMaker

As you may know Apple has two APIs for the address book. The older Addressbook API was introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 long ago. With MacOS 10.11 Apple introduced a second API called Contacts. Applications can use both. Sadly the don't both do the same features! This is similar to the calendar and reminder APIs where we have Calendar and Events functions.

Here is a comparison between Addressbook and Contacts APIs:


Addressbook

Contacts

Minimum MacOS

10.4

10.11

Mac 32-bit

Yes

No

Mac 64-bit

Yes

Yes

iOS

Yes

Yes

Code Signature required

No

Yes, with entitlements

Multiple Accounts

No

Yes

Modification Dates

Yes

No

Trigger

Yes

Yes

Trigger Details

Yes

No

Search by Modification Date

Yes

No

vCard Import/Export

Single

Multiple

Set Me

Yes

No

Linked People

Yes

No

Set Primary Items

Yes

No

Format Address

Yes

Yes

JSON API

No, but could be added

Yes

Query Authorization Status

No

Yes

As you see, we need to code sign the FileMaker application to add the required entitlements for the new Contacts API. But once Contacts API works, we can use it to work with multiple accounts. Like if you use iCloud and Exchange, you can create a contact explicit in the one account you need.

For the foreseeable future, we will offer both APIs and you can choose. For synchronization we will want to use Addressbook as it provides modification dates for records.

New Contacts function will appear soon in next 8.4 prerelease.

08 08 18 - 18:08