Document disclaimer update chaos

Hi, Mark! I work with Sarah and I have installed the scripts you shared on my local machine, however I have a question if you  don't mind humoring me. It appears as if the scripts you shared are dependant on the disclaimer text being a linked file, not simple text that livers directly within a document. Am I correct? (Such as an external Word file Placed within InDesign.)

Hi @Sarah33611737dz2d, you've got a lot of excellent correct advice here already but, from what you say, I think you are already handling things very well, and your problem is actually how do I update hundreds of indesign documents without manually opening each one? 

If that is your problem, I've written two scripts that should help anyone in your situation. The idea is that you keep a text file which stores the paths of all the documents which contain a link to the disclaimer and, whenever the disclaimer is edited, you run the second script below and it automatically does the updating. The two scripts are:

1. "Add Open Documents To List File.js" — This is a helper script that adds the paths of every open document to a text file called "documents to open.txt" saved in the same folder as the script file. To use it, open your documents that have the disclaimer link in them and run the script. Note: you don't have to do these all at once—you can add them piecemeal if you prefer. Also note that the script will always add the document paths to the file—even if they are already in it. You can freely edit this text file if it gets messed up. Just keep one path per line.

2. "Open And Update Listed Documents.js" — this is the script you will use whenever your disclaimer is changed. It opens every document in the text file, one-by-one, and updates, saves and closes each, and it will tell you what it completed at the end.

Put these two scripts in the same folder, as they read/write to the same text file. The script listings are below. If you end up trying them, let me know how it goes!

- Mark

Script 1:

/**
 * @file Add Open Documents To List File.js
 * Add all open documents to "documents to open.txt" file,
 * for later use with "Open and Update Listed Documents.js" script.
 * @author m1b
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/document-disclaimer-update-chaos/m-p/14234094
 */
(function () {

    var docs = app.documents,
        fileName = 'documents to open.txt',
        dataFile = File(File($.fileName).parent + '/' + fileName),
        documentList = getLinesFromFile(dataFile, ''),
        counter = 0;

    docLoop:
    for (var d = 0; d < docs.length; d++) {

        documentList.push(String(docs[d].fullName));
        counter++;

    }

    try {
        // write the list back to file
        dataFile.open('w');
        dataFile.write(documentList.join('\n'));
    }
    catch (error) {
        alert('Failed to write to "' + fileName + '". (' + error + ')');
    }
    finally {
        dataFile.close();
    }

    alert('Added ' + counter + ' documents to "' + fileName + '".');

    dataFile.execute();

})();



/**
 * Returns list of every line of a given text file.
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2023-11-15
 * @param {File} f - the file to open/create.
 * @param {String} emptyFileMessage - instructions added to newly created file.
 * @returns {Array<String>}
 */
function getLinesFromFile(f, emptyFileMessage) {

    var data = [];

    try {

        if (f == undefined)
            return;

        if (!f.exists) {
            // create empty data file
            f.open('w');
            f.write(emptyFileMessage);
            f.execute();
            return [];
        }

        // read contents and split into lines
        f.open('r');
        data = f.read().split('\n');

    } catch (error) {
        alert('Failed to open "' + decodeURI(f.name) + '". (' + error + ')');
        return [];
    }

    finally { f.close() }

    return data;

};

Script 2:

/**
 * @file Open And Update Listed Documents.js
 * Open all documents whose path is listed in
 * "documents to open.txt" file, then update links,
 * and save and close document.
 * @author m1b
 * @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/document-disclaimer-update-chaos/m-p/14234094
 */
(function () {

    var uilevel = app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel;
    app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevels.NEVER_INTERACT

    var fileName = 'documents to open.txt',
        dataFile = File(File($.fileName).parent + '/' + fileName),
        documentList = getLinesFromFile(dataFile, 'Remove this line and add document file paths here, one per line.'),
        messages = [],
        docCounter = 0,
        linkCounter = 0;

    docLoop:
    for (var d = 0; d < documentList.length; d++) {

        if (
            documentList[d] == undefined
            || documentList[d] == ''
        )
            continue docLoop;

        var f = File(documentList[d]);

        if (!f.exists)
            messages.push('Document on line ' + d + ' does not exist. (' + decodeURI(f) + ')');

        var doc = app.open(f),
            links = doc.links,
            closeDoc = true;

        // find missing links
        linkLoop:
        for (var l = 0; l < links.length; l++) {

            if (links[l].status === LinkStatus.LINK_OUT_OF_DATE) {
                links[l].update();
                linkCounter++;
            }

            else if (links[l].status === LinkStatus.LINK_MISSING)
                closeDoc = false;

        }

        if (closeDoc) {
            doc.close(SaveOptions.YES);
            docCounter++;
        }

    }


    // messages.push('Added ' + counter + ' documents to "' + fileName + '".');
    messages.push('Updated ' + linkCounter + ' links in ' + docCounter + ' documents.');

    app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel = uilevel;
    alert(messages.join('\n'));

})();


/**
 * Returns list of every line of a given text file.
 * @author m1b
 * @version 2023-11-15
 * @param {File} f - the file to open/create.
 * @param {String} emptyFileMessage - instructions added to newly created file.
 * @returns {Array<String>}
 */
function getLinesFromFile(f, emptyFileMessage) {

    var data = [];

    try {

        if (f == undefined)
            return;

        if (!f.exists) {
            // create empty data file
            f.open('w');
            f.write(emptyFileMessage);
            f.execute();
            return [];
        }

        // read contents and split into lines
        f.open('r');
        data = f.read().split('\n');
    }
    catch (error) {
        alert('Failed to open "' + decodeURI(f.name) + '". (' + error + ')');
        return [];
    }
    finally {
        f.close();
    }

    return data;

};

You can place an indesign file in an indesign file, or a cloud asset, as long as the file is available it will update (or ask to be updated) when you open the file with the link. (You can also place a linked text, xml and/or insert HTML code, but I think CC Library Asset is the simplest if available to you)

Many good answers, but also consider placing a linked PDF, as something that can be easily changed but with a more controlled extra step,  over a placed INDD.

I can think of quite a few ways to do this. My personal favorite is to have a single InDesign document that has the disclaimer in it, which you then place into your other InDesign documents. This is, I suppose, technically still "manual" insofar as you'd need the preference setting to update links on open turned on. That way, if the disclaimer INDD was changed, you'd get this dialog whenever you opened another INDD that had the disclaimer placed within it:

Is this... too manual? It sounds pretty close to what you already have set up, I suspect. I personally don't think it's a good idea to have such template text update silently, but that's a workflow preference of my own that you might not share.  It's possible to have a script run every time a document is opened; I bet that there are a few ways one could set that up to silently update some kind of content. I have some JS (and some Applescript) in my unfinished-script-experiments folder that are clearly experiments towards this kind of silent-update-on-open with content stored in XML.  Seems like a heavyweight solution in comparison to clicking on "Update Modified Links" upon opening a file, but in someone else's workflow it might be an important feature. 

This InDesign Help file on linked content is what InDesign has available for linked content:

https://helpx.adobe.com/indesign/using/linked-content.html