How can I get the logged-in user's profile picture? - objective-c

Question

macOS allows users to set a profile picture for their local accounts. This picture can be modified in the Accounts system preference pane and is notably displayed at login. Is there a way to access it using Cocoa or some other system framework?

Answer 1

The information is accessible from Open Directory, as is suggested by dscl . -read /Users/my_user_name_here having both a JPEGPhoto and a Picture attribute. The Open Directory framework is rather ancient: documentation is sparse and examples are almost inexistant, but while digging I found a Python test in an Apple repository that shows just enough how to use the API to get started. I finally came up with this:
NSData *getODImage(NSString *userName) {
ODNode *local = [ODNode nodeWithSession:ODSession.defaultSession name:#"/Local/Default" error:nil];
if (!local) {
return nil;
}
ODRecord *record = [local recordWithRecordType:kODRecordTypeUsers name:userName attributes:nil error:nil];
if (!record) {
return nil;
}
NSArray *photoAttributes = #[kODAttributeTypePicture, kODAttributeTypeJPEGPhoto];
NSDictionary *details = [record recordDetailsForAttributes:photoAttributes error:nil];
if (!details) {
return nil;
}
NSData *jpegData = [details[kODAttributeTypeJPEGPhoto] objectAtIndex:0];
if (jpegData) {
return jpegData;
}
for (NSString *picturePath in details[kODAttributeTypePicture]) {
NSData *pictureContents = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:picturePath];
if (pictureContents) {
return pictureContents;
}
}
return nil;
}
where userName is the result of NSUserName(). This seems to execute fast locally, but I still have it run from a concurrent queue to avoid blocking the main thread.
The picture path returned through kODAttributeTypePicture is in the global /Library directory, which is accessible for reading from the default sandbox. This is the case for all default user pictures. It might not always be true, however, so prepare for not having a picture.
Correctness-speaking, YMMV when the user is a network user; I think that you'd have to change the node from /Local/Default to something else.