I am trying to write a script that generates vCalendar files. I generated the file by writing a script that saved the contents of a variable to a global, and then I exported field contents to a file. I programmed the text manipulations and calculations correctly to generate the content of the file, but when I opened the file with TextWrangler to compare it to a working vCalendar file, I noticed that the FileMaker-exported version was of format UTF8 whereas the working vCalendar file is Western Roman encoded. Does this matter and is there a way I can get FileMaker to generate a Western Roman encoded file?

I don't think your analysis of the situation is correct, on both counts:

1. A vCalendar file can be UTF-8 encoded;

2. When you export using Export Field Contents… the resulting file is always UTF-16 encoded. Whether this matters or not depends on your target application (though I doubt it meets the iCalendar standard).

The best way to do this is via XML - see:

http://fmforums.com/forum/showtopic.php?tid/192649/

http://www.myfmbutler.com/index.lasso?p=369

Thanks Comment.

The reason I thought encoding was the problem was because the two files (western vs. utf8) looked identical when opened in TextWrangler-- they both SEEMED to have carriage returns. The western roman version (exported from iCal) imported into calendar programs whereas the FileMaker-exported version (which showed in TextWrangler as UTF8) did not import, although it looked syntactically identical.

xsl scares me.. : but I will give it a try.

thanks. I'll report back with my results!

thanks to Fenton as well for his post.

Perhaps you should check TextWrangler's preferences. AFAIK, an export from iCal is UTF-8 encoded. Carriage returns have very little to do with the encoding.

XSLT can be a little intimidating at first, but IMHO it's a worthwhile investment. It extends Filemaker's export capabilities to practically any plain text format, and - no less importantly - eliminates any export-related scripts, calculations, etc. from the solution, since the entire logic can reside in the stylesheet.