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Participating Frequently
July 14, 2021
Question

AFX Script Problem Visual Studio Code

  • July 14, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1979 views

Hi, 

i recently started scripting and wrote a script in VS Studio for After Effects, which works fine when i run it from Visual Studio. But when i save it and run the script from After Effect it gives me an error message: "unable to execute at line 20..."  

which is a function in my script. everything before gets executed. 

I have Variables (a,b)  in my function because i am looking for several Objects meaning CompItem, FootageItem, Folderitem where I'm looking for specific names as a string. 

The Function looks like that: 

 

function graballItems(a, b) {
  var proj, curItem, itemTotal, ItemAry;

  proj = app.project;

  itemTotal = proj.numItems;

  ItemAry = new Array();

  for (var i = 1; i <= itemTotal; i++) {
    curItem = proj.item(i);

    if (curItem instanceof b && curItem.name.indexOf(a) !== -1) {
      ItemAry = curItem;
    }
  }
  return ItemAry;
}

// And i use it like that:

var myCompBeauty = graballItems("CAN_ENDTAG_PRE", CompItem);

 

 

But strange though, that it is working from VS Studio. 

Does anybody know why the error message appears? 

 

Cheers 

Martin 

This topic has been closed for replies.

2 replies

Mathias Moehl
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 15, 2021

The line "ItemAry = new Array()" suggests that you want to return an array of the found items. But in the line

ItemAry = curItem;

you replace your array with a single item.

If you want to grab all items, you most likely want to do

ItemAry.push(curItem)

instead.

 

 

 

 

Mathias Möhl - Developer of tools like BeatEdit and Automation Blocks for Premiere Pro and After Effects
mmueller2Author
Participating Frequently
July 15, 2021

First of all, thank you both for your quick reply. 

I tried to implement the try and catch statement but without any sucess. 

I implemented the push item command but recognized that i only need one item not an array so i changed it to just get the curitem. But still the same error. 

Last thing i wanted to try to set an alert line by line to check where the code breaks exactly. 

Strange enough the script works like that: 

 

function graballItems (a,b){
    alert("OK");
    var proj,curItem,itemTotal,MyItem;
    proj = app.project;
    itemTotal = proj.numItems
    for (var i =1i<= itemTotali++){
        curItem = proj.item(i);
        if (curItem instanceof b && curItem.name.indexOf(a) !== -1  ){
            MyItem = curItem;
            
        }
       
        }
    return MyItem;
    
}
 
But of course i don't want to have an alert 10 times while the script is running. 
 
mmueller2Author
Participating Frequently
July 16, 2021

For setting break points, see the section "Debugging" here

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Adobe.extendscript-debug

The break points are the red dots left of the line numbers in the editor.

 

At a break point, the code execution will pause and then you can go thought the code line by line and see where the error shows up.

 

And yes, it is very strange if it works inside VS Code but but inside Ae.


Hi, 

i did the debugging but didn't find an error and the same behaviour occurs.

Launching it via the debugger works but launching the script via afx gives me an error, when i comment out the alert.

With the alert active it works. 

Justin Taylor-Hyper Brew
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 14, 2021

Just tested and it works for me after commenting out that line. Try putting it in a try catch and see if you can get any more info on the error.