Exporting your Mac addressbook to JSON using Python

README.md

You should pip install pyobjc first.

abook.py

#!/usr/bin/env python

import AddressBook
import json
from Foundation import NSDictionary
from PyObjCTools import Conversion

FIELDS = {'first-name': AddressBook.kABFirstNameProperty,
          'last-name':  AddressBook.kABLastNameProperty,
          'email':      AddressBook.kABEmailProperty,
          'address':    AddressBook.kABAddressProperty,
          'note':       AddressBook.kABNoteProperty}

def generate_values(value):
    for i in range(value.count()):
        val = value.valueAtIndex_(i)
        # C.f. https://clburlison.com/pyobjc-type-conversion/ :
        yield Conversion.pythonCollectionFromPropertyList(val)

def lookup_and_convert(person, fieldname):
    objcval = person.valueForProperty_(fieldname)
    if isinstance(objcval, AddressBook.ABMultiValue):
        return list(generate_values(objcval))
    elif objcval is None:
        return None
    else:
        return objcval.encode('utf-8')

def main():
    book = AddressBook.ABAddressBook.sharedAddressBook()
    people = [person for person in book.people()]
    peopledicts = [dict((k, lookup_and_convert(p, v))
                        for k, v in FIELDS.iteritems())
                   for p in people]
    print json.dumps(peopledicts, indent=4)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()