How to detect when a project file is closes, or opens?

[Arie Stavchansky]

Hi There,

Is there an event that AE broadcasts that allows a callback to be executed when a user closes or opens a project file from the main File menu. There are some variables in my script that I need to re-initialize when this occurs, but am unsure how can do this.  I've taken a look at the app and project objects in the documentation, but did not find anything that pertains to this.  Are there any techniques out there for initializing variables when a project file closes or opens?

Thanks,

Arie

[tardigrade01]

Hi Arie,

Did you ever find a way to listen for the open/close event? I have a setTimeout function that checks if a file is open every second, and then stops once it is, but am still trying to find a way to detect when a file is closed.

[Arie Stavchansky]

No, there are no events that get broadcast in these cases.  But, if you're using a setTimeout function, why not just keep it running indefinitely instead of turning it off once it cannot find app.project any longer?  I guess you can think of it like a beacon that is always on and when it returns something different whether or not it finds app.project.

—Arie

[tardigrade01]

Ah, I see; thanks. As for keeping the setTimeout running, I ran into performance issues by having a script running continuously like that, and it would also throw an error whenever an AE modal window opened.

[Arie Stavchansky]

Yes, the modals will kill it.  Before your code runs you could add app.beginSupressDialogs() that effectively shuts down that behavior.  Then when the time is shut off you can do app.endSupressDialogs(). 

— Arie

[tardigrade01]

Right-- that's the rub. If I were to run it continuously, I'd have to suppress dialogs continuously.

[tardigrade01 · Accepted solution]

for what it's worth, I ended up using a separate angular $interval function that invokes extendscript to check whether a file name exists every second, and triggers an event if no file name is detected. So far have had no issues with modal collision or anything else