Need a way to test how a property should be set.

[Ichabodcole]

When I set the enabled property of a layer the format is "myLayer.enabled = false;"

However, when I set a property like "acceptsShadows", the format is "myLayer.acceptsShadows.setValue(false);"

I'm A. wondering why these properties cannot be set in the same way and B. would like to know if there is a way I can test whether a property should be set in one way or the other? Is there some sort of way to tell which properties are set which way?

The context for this is that I have a general function that takes a property and a value and then sets those for a give layer or set of layers. So if I send this function the property "enabled" and "false", it would set the layers enabled property to false, and if I send "acceptsShadows" and "false" it should set the layers acceptShadows property to false, but this become problematic if the properties have to be set in different ways unless I start adding if statements for which properties should be set which way.

thanks for any help!

[Dan Ebberts · Accepted solution]

The distinction is that an object's attributes can be set with the "=" operator. Properties are set with setValue(), setValueAtTime, and setValueAtKey(). Basically, if it will accept keyframes, you need to use setValue(), etc.

I haven't tested this, but you could try something like this:

function setProp(theProp, theVal){

  if (theProp instanceof Property && theProp.canVaryOverTime){

    theProp.setValue(theVal);

  }else{

    theProp = theVal;

  }

}

var myProp = myLayer.property("Opacity");

var myVal = 50;

setProp(myProp,myVal);

Dan

[Ichabodcole]

Thanks Dan, that worked! Only change I made was to not include the "canVaryOverTime" as it was for boolean values that aren't keyframable, but are instances of the property object ("acceptsLights", "castsShadows", etc).