ABPeoplePickerNavigationController customisation

I want to use ABPeoplePickerNavigationController but I want to customise the view. I want to have an accessory image by some of the contacts, and I want to sort them in a different way than the default one. Is there a way to do it? Or do I have to create my own UITableViewController?

You'll have to create your own table view if you want to customize the appearance of the contacts in this manner. For example, you can extract the contacts using:

- (void)loadContacts
{
    ABAuthorizationStatus status = ABAddressBookGetAuthorizationStatus();

    if (status == kABAuthorizationStatusDenied) {
        // if you got here, user had previously denied/revoked permission for your
        // app to access the contacts, and all you can do is handle this gracefully,
        // perhaps telling the user that they have to go to settings to grant access
        // to contacts

        [[[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:nil message:@"This app requires access to your contacts to function properly. Please visit to the \"Privacy\" section in the iPhone Settings app." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil] show];
        return;
    }

    CFErrorRef error = NULL;
    ABAddressBookRef addressBook = ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions(NULL, &error);

    if (error) {
        NSLog(@"ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions error: %@", CFBridgingRelease(error));
        if (addressBook) CFRelease(addressBook);
        return;
    }

    ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion(addressBook, ^(bool granted, CFErrorRef error) {
        if (error) {
            NSLog(@"ABAddressBookRequestAccessWithCompletion error: %@", CFBridgingRelease(error));
        }

        dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{
            if (granted) {
                // if they gave you permission, then get copy of contacts and reload table

                self.allContacts = CFBridgingRelease(ABAddressBookCopyArrayOfAllPeopleInSourceWithSortOrdering(addressBook, NULL, kABPersonSortByLastName));

                [self.tableView reloadData];
            } else {
                // however, if they didn't give you permission, handle it gracefully, for example...

                [[[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:nil message:@"This app requires access to your contacts to function properly. Please visit to the \"Privacy\" section in the iPhone Settings app." delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OK" otherButtonTitles:nil] show];
            }

            if (addressBook) CFRelease(addressBook);
        });
    });
}

And you can then use this array in your cellForRowAtIndexPath:

- (UITableViewCell *)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView cellForRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
{
    static NSString *cellIdentifier = @"Cell";
    UITableViewCell *cell = [tableView dequeueReusableCellWithIdentifier:cellIdentifier];

    ABRecordRef person = (__bridge ABRecordRef)self.allContacts[indexPath.row];

    NSMutableArray *nameArray = [NSMutableArray array];

    NSString *prefix    = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonPrefixProperty));
    if (prefix) [nameArray addObject:prefix];

    NSString *firstName = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonFirstNameProperty));
    if (firstName) [nameArray addObject:firstName];

    NSString *middleName = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonMiddleNameProperty));
    if (middleName) [nameArray addObject:middleName];

    NSString *lastName  = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonLastNameProperty));
    if (lastName) [nameArray addObject:lastName];

    NSString *fullname = [nameArray componentsJoinedByString:@" "];

    NSString *suffix    = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonSuffixProperty));
    if (suffix) {
        fullname = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%@, %@", fullname, suffix];
    }

    cell.textLabel.text = fullname;

    NSString *company   = CFBridgingRelease(ABRecordCopyValue(person, kABPersonOrganizationProperty));
    if ([fullname length] == 0) {
        cell.textLabel.text = company;
        cell.detailTextLabel.text = nil;
    } else {
        cell.detailTextLabel.text = company;
    }

    if ([nameArray count] == 0 && [company length] == 0)
        NSLog(@"nothing to show!!!");

    return cell;
}

Obviously, given the entire idea was that you wanted to customize the cell, modify the cellForRowAtIndexPath accordingly, but hopefully this illustrates the idea.