How to export Address Book content as Unicode with applescript?

Question

Hello,
I have a problem for exporting address book content. I'd like to export "My Card" to a vcf file and use another application to read it. So I have the following applescript:
*+tell application "Finder"+*
*+set theFolder to folder "TemporaryItems" of folder "Caches" of folder "Library" of home+*
*+end tell+*
*+tell application "Address Book"+*
*+set theVcard to (vcard of my card) as Unicode text+*
*+set theFile to (theFolder as text) & "myCard.vcf"+*
*+set theFileHandle to open for access theFile with write permission+*
*+-- write (ASCII character of 254) to theFileHandle+*
*+-- write (ASCII character of 255) to theFileHandle+*
*+write theVcard to theFileHandle+*
*+close access theFileHandle+*
*+end tell+*
OK, now the problem is that if "My Card" has any double-byte characters like Chinese or Arabic, the output file will just hold some question marks ("??"). The code works in Tiger but not Leopard. (Add char 254 and 255 just to make it a UTF16-BE file. So it doesn't really change the result of this script.)
I started digging and guess here is the reason: in the following statement the "vcard of my card" will always return plain text:
+*set theVcard to (vcard of my card) as Unicode text*+
I got this clue from the help of ScriptEditor:
+*vcard (text, r/o) : Person information in vCard format, this always returns a card in version 3.0 format.*+
But in Tiger, you can see:
+*vcard (Unicode text, r/o) : Person information in vCard format, this always returns a card in version 3.0 format.*+
Any workaround to solve this problem?
(And if this is not the right place to ask such question, please just let me know.)
Thanks a lot!
Calvin

Answer 1

Hello Calvin,
Since your code works under OSX10.4 and fails under OSX10.5, the cause would be the change made in AppleScript 2.0.
Try -
write theVcard as Unicode text to theFileHandle
instead of -
write theVcard to theFileHandle
The read/write commands in AS 2.0 have been change so that they will always interpret the text in system's primary encoding if 'as Unicode text' is not specified in commands' parameter.
cf.
http://developer.apple.com/releasenotes/AppleScript/RN-AppleScript/index.html
Unicode Support
http://developer.apple.com/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptLangG uide/
pp. 151-153, 168-169 (of pdf version)
Commands Reference > read, write
Hope this may help,
H