Writing UTF8 text to file

Question

I am using the following function to save text to a file (on IE-8 w/ActiveX).

function saveFile(strFullPath, strContent)
{
    var fso = new ActiveXObject( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" );

    var flOutput = fso.CreateTextFile( strFullPath, true ); //true for overwrite
    flOutput.Write( strContent );
    flOutput.Close();
}

The code works fine if the text is fully Latin-9 but when the text contains even a single UTF-8 encoded character, the write fails.

The ActiveX FileSystemObject does not support UTF-8, it seems. I tried UTF-16 encoding the text first but the result was garbled. What is a workaround?

thanx a lot guys. was able to resolve http://code.google.com/p/memonaut/issues/detail?id=6&can=7 with your help. — sonofdelphi, May 17 '10 at 03:31

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 15 '10 at 13:26

4

Try this:

function saveFile(strFullPath, strContent) {
 var fso = new ActiveXObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject");
 var utf8Enc = new ActiveXObject("Utf8Lib.Utf8Enc");
 var flOutput = fso.CreateTextFile(strFullPath, true); //true for overwrite
 flOutput.BinaryWrite(utf8Enc.UnicodeToUtf8(strContent));
 flOutput.Close();
}

answered May 15 '10 at 13:26

Mathias Bynens

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Utf8Lib out of thin air? Not installed in our company. – Wolfgang Kuehn Jan 27 '14 at 16:09
There is no `BinaryWrite` method in `ITextStream` object returned by the `CreateTextFile` method, and what is `Utf8Lib.Utf8Enc`? – Sen Jacob Jul 14 '15 at 12:30

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 15 '10 at 13:23

The CreateTextFile method has a third parameter which decides whether file be written unicode or not. You can do like:

var flOutput = fso.CreateTextFile(strFullPath,true, true);

Interestingly, way back I had created this little script to save files in unicode format:

Set FSO=CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Value = InputBox ("Enter the path of the file you want to save in Unicode format.")

If Len(Trim(Value)) > 0 Then
    If FSO.FileExists(Value) Then
        Set iFile = FSO.OpenTextFile (Value)
        Data = iFile.ReadAll
        iFile.Close

        Set oFile = FSO.CreateTextFile (FSO.GetParentFolderName(Value) & "\Unicode" & GetExtention(Value),True,True)
        oFile.Write Data
        oFile.Close

        If FSO.FileExists (FSO.GetParentFolderName(Value) & "\Unicode" & GetExtention(Value)) Then
            MsgBox "File successfully saved to:" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf &  FSO.GetParentFolderName(Value) & "\Unicode" & GetExtention(Value),vbInformation
        Else
            MsgBox "Unknown error was encountered!",vbCritical
        End If
    Else
        MsgBox "Make sure that you have entered the correct file path.",vbExclamation
    End If
End If

Set iFile = Nothing
Set oFile= Nothing
Set FSO= Nothing

Function GetExtention (Path)
    GetExtention = Right(Path,4)
End Function

Note: This is VBScript code, you should save that code in a file like unicode.vbs, and once you double click that file, it will run.

No, won't save as UTF-8. – Wolfgang Kuehn Jan 27 '14 at 16:10 — Wolfgang Kuehn, Jan 27 '14 at 16:10

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered May 15 '10 at 14:12

1

Add a third parameter, true, in your call to the CreateTextFile method. See this page.

answered May 15 '10 at 14:12

Salman A

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4

it will save in UTF-16, not UTF8 – nightcoder May 12 '13 at 23:55

score -1 · Answer 4 · edited Nov 21 '14 at 11:47

-1

function saveFile(strFullPath, strContent) {
    var fso = new ActiveXObject( "Scripting.FileSystemObject" );
    var flOutput = fso.CreateTextFile( strFullPath, true, true ); //true for overwrite // true for unicode
    flOutput.Write( strContent );
    flOutput.Close();
}

object.CreateTextFile(filename[, overwrite[, unicode]])

edited Nov 21 '14 at 11:47

belykh

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answered Sep 15 '14 at 14:39

Covii

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1

Writing UTF8 text to file

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