Programmatically changing the User's account image in OSX - objective-c

Question

Is there some way I can programmatically change the users account image on OSX?I know I can retrieve it, but can it be changed like apple does on the account page in the settings app?

Answer 1

You can use the Address Book framework. You need to use the me method to get the record for the current user, and then the setImageData: method to set the user's image:
#import <AddressBook/AddressBook.h>
#implementation YourClass
- (void)setUserImage:(NSImage*)anImage
{
ABPerson* me = [[ABAddressBook addressBook] me];
[me setImageData:[anImage TIFFRepresentation]];
}
#end
There's more detail here in the docs.

Answer 2

You can path out to a file and merge it with the current record using the /usr/bin/dsimport command, which could be run from a NSTask. Here is an example of how to do so with BASH as root, this could be done with passed credentials as well
export OsVersion=`sw_vers -productVersion | awk -F"." '{print $2;exit}'`
declare -x UserPicture="/path/to/$UserName.jpg"
# Add the LDAP picture to the user record if dsimport is avaiable 10.6+
if [ -f "$UserPicture" ] ; then
# On 10.6 and higher this works
if [ "$OsVersion" -ge "6" ] ; then
declare -x Mappings='0x0A 0x5C 0x3A 0x2C'
declare -x Attributes='dsRecTypeStandard:Users 2 dsAttrTypeStandard:RecordName externalbinary:dsAttrTypeStandard:JPEGPhoto'
declare -x PictureImport="/Library/Caches/$UserName.picture.dsimport"
printf "%s %s \n%s:%s" "$Mappings" "$Attributes" "$UserName" "$UserPicture" >"$PictureImport"
# Check to see if the username is correct and import picture
if id "$UserName" &>/dev/null ; then
# No credentials passed as we are running as root
dsimport -g "$PictureImport" /Local/Default M &&
echo "Successfully imported users picture."
fi
fi
fi
Gist of this code

Answer 3

I am almost certain that you can do this through the OpenDirectory interface. See this guide:
https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/Networking/Conceptual/Open_Directory/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40000917
Basically you have to open a Open Directory Node (say the /Search node), and then find the ODRecord for your user, then use:
setValue:forAttribute:error
on the ODRecord to set the JPEGPhoto attribute.
If you query using dscl from the command line for this attribute you will see the attribute's value:
dscl /Search read /Users/luser JPEGPhoto
I believe the dscl tool uses the Open Directory framework (or the older/harder to use/deprecated directory service framework) to read and write attributes to user records. You can read and write any other attribute using this tool and the associated framework. I don't see any reason the JPEGPhoto would be any different.
The /Search node MIGHT be read only (since it is kind of a meta node). Not really sure. You might have to explicitly open the appropriate node (for example the /Local/Default node) before you can write to the record:
dscl /Local/Default read /Users/luser JPEGPhoto