Assigning a picture to a new Outlook contact via Applescript - outlook

Question

How would I go about assigning a picture to a new Outlook contact in Applescript? The Outlook dictionary tells me that Outlook does have an image class, but I have no clue how to populate one. It doesn't seem to like just being given what the finder thinks is a Jpeg file:
tell application "Finder"
set theImageFile to a reference to file "Macintosh HD:Users:maximiliantyrtania:Pictures:image-151718-galleryV9-zhek.jpg"
--set theImageFilePosixPath to POSIX file "/Users/maximiliantyrtania/Pictures/image-151718-galleryV9-zhek.jpg"
set filekind to (kind of theImageFile) as string
display dialog "its a" & filekind--displays "its a jpeg"
end tell
tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
make new contact with properties {first name:"some", last name:"one", image:theImageFile, email addresses:{{address:"work#mywork.com", type:work}, {address:"home#myhome.com", type:home}}}
end tell
Result: error "„«class docf» \"image-151718-galleryV9-zhek.jpg\" of «class cfol» \"Pictures\" of «class cfol» \"maximiliantyrtania\" of «class cfol» \"Users\" of «class sdsk» of application \"Finder\"“ kann nicht in den erwarteten Typ umgewandelt werden." number -1700 from «class docf» "image-151718-galleryV9-zhek.jpg" of «class cfol» "Pictures" of «class cfol» "maximiliantyrtania" of «class cfol» "Users" of «class sdsk»
I guess I have to say something along the lines of:
set theImageToAssign to make new image () , but what might the syntax be? Can't find anything about that on the net.

Answer 1

You can load the image bytes directly, and then pass them in after the contact is created.
set theImageFile to a reference to POSIX file "/Users/maximiliantyrtania/Pictures/image-151718-galleryV9-zhek.jpg"
set img_file to open for access theImageFile
set img_data to read img_file as "JPEG"
tell application "Microsoft Outlook"
set new_contact to make new contact with properties {first name:"Joan", last name:"Smith", email addresses:{{address:"work#mywork.com", type:work}, {address:"home#myhome.com", type:home}}}
set the image of new_contact to img_data
end tell
Would be good practice trap the above image reading stuff for errors too.