End Element of a ElementRange

Russ mentioned that the script might get wrong results when the structure is invalid. It is pretty easy to determine the validity of an element and incorporate that into the script. If you want I can dig out a piece of code that does this. Also, I am not sure whethet even an invalid structure would break the code.

The LocY of the last element in the selection is still not the exact location of the end of your custom change bar, though. You would have to add the height of that last element, which may be a tricky thing to do again. If you find the next element beyond your selection and pick up the LocY from there, you then only need to determine whether that paragraph is on a new page and, if not, take its LocY minus the offset above that paragraph. I would expect that to give a better result than working your way down from a LocY that points to the top of an element. Makes sense ?

Here is some back story on what I am trying to do. I need to draw pseudo change bars in the margin next to elements with a particular attribute, or alternatively, next to an element selection. So I need to find the "top" and "bottom" elements in the range. Then I calculate their LocY values so I can determine the height of the change bars. In experimenting, I have found some strange issues when a single element with children is selected. In this case, the most accurate results come when I use the first child and the last element in the selection to get my values. Thus, in the screenshot, if it was the entire ul element that was selected, I would want the first li and the very last p in the branch to get the correct values. So I have come up with this somewhat convoluted code, which seems to satisfy any combination of element ranges. Of course, I still have to deal with selections that cross text columns or pages, but that is the next task to tackle.

#target framemaker
var doc = app.ActiveDoc;
var elementRange = doc.ElementSelection; 
var elements = getTopAndBottomElements (elementRange);
alert (elements.top.ElementDef.Name);
alert (elements.bottom.ElementDef.Name);
function getTopAndBottomElements (elementRange) {
   
    var elements = {}, topElement, bottomElement, lastElement;
   
    topElement = elementRange.beg.child;
    bottomElement = getLastSiblingElement (elementRange);
   
    if (topElement.id === bottomElement.id) { // Single element selected.
        if (topElement.FirstChildElement.ObjectValid () === 1) {
            elements.top = topElement.FirstChildElement;
            elements.bottom = getLastElementInBranch (topElement);
            return elements;
        }
        else { // No first child, just a single element.
            elements.top = elements.bottom = topElement;
            return elements;
        }
    }
    else { // Consecutive siblings selected.
        elements.top = topElement;
        lastElement = getLastSiblingElement (elementRange);
        if (lastElement.ObjectValid () === 1) {
            elements.bottom = getLastElementInBranch (lastElement);
        }
        return elements;
    }   
}
function getLastSiblingElement (elementRange)  { 
   
    var lastElement, element;
    element = elementRange.beg.child; 
    while (element.ObjectValid () && element.id !== elementRange.end.child.id)  { 
        lastElement = element; 
        element = element.NextSiblingElement; 
    } 
    return lastElement; 
} 
function getLastElementInBranch (element) {
   
    var elements, lastElem = 0;
   
    elements = getAllElements (element, []);
    if (elements.length) {
        lastElem = elements[elements.length - 1];
    }
    return lastElem;
}
function getAllElements (element, elements) {
    var elements2;
   
    if (element.ElementDef.ObjectValid ()) {
        elements.push(element);
    }
    element2 = element.FirstChildElement;
    while (element2.ObjectValid ()) {
        elements = getAllElements (element2, elements);
        element2 = element2.NextSiblingElement;
    }
    return elements;
}

Hi Rick,

If you look at the structured document with element boundaries switched on, you will see that the textrange of the last <li> does include all of the child elements inside that <li>. This means that the text location of the end boundary of that <li> is in the same paragraph object as that of the last <p> (or anything else) inside that <li>.

There is no need to make things more complicated than they already are. Unless there is something else you are trying to do here.

Ciao

Jang

Hi Rick,

If I understand correctly, you are looking for physical (i.e. screen) locations rather than logical or stuctural locations.

Use the TextRange of the last element in your range to find the last paragraph in that last element. Then select the next paragraph in the same flow and you have the lower LocY boundary of your selection. Of course that next paragraph might be on a new page.