Passing data from ScriptUI to the rest of the script

[Byron Nash - INSP]

I have frequently have issues with getting ScriptUI dialogs to work. I am able to create the dialogs how I want but never seem to handle the onClick and user interaction functions correctly. In this script I used scriptui.joonas.me to generate some code. I'm able to get one of the onClick functions to work but not the other. Can anyone point out what I'm doing wrong?

// DIALOG
// ======
var dialog = new Window("dialog");
    dialog.text = "INSP Snipe Creator";
    dialog.orientation = "column";
    dialog.alignChildren = ["center","top"];
    dialog.spacing = 10;
    dialog.margins = 16;

// GRP_TEXTFILE
// ============
var grp_textFile = dialog.add("group", undefined, {name: "grp_textFile"});
    grp_textFile.orientation = "row";
    grp_textFile.alignChildren = ["left","center"];
    grp_textFile.spacing = 10;
    grp_textFile.margins = 0;

var st_textFile = grp_textFile.add("statictext", undefined, undefined, {name: "st_textFile"});
    st_textFile.text = "Text file";

var et_textFile = grp_textFile.add('edittext {properties: {name: "et_textFile"}}');
    et_textFile.helpTip = "Path to the text file";
    et_textFile.text = "Click button to choose data file";
    et_textFile.preferredSize.width = 350;

var btn_loadFile = grp_textFile.add("button", undefined, undefined, {name: "btn_loadFile"});
    btn_loadFile.helpTip = "click here to pick a text file.\nIt must be a tab delimited text file.";
    btn_loadFile.text = "...";
    btn_loadFile.onClick = function() {var dataFile = File.openDialog("Select a text file to open.", "")
                            et_textFile.text = dataFile.absoluteURI.replace("%20", " ");};

// DIALOG
// ======
var st_pastedText = dialog.add("group");
    st_pastedText.orientation = "column";
    st_pastedText.alignChildren = ["center","center"];
    st_pastedText.spacing = 0;

    st_pastedText.add("statictext", undefined, "-or- ", {name: "st_pastedText"});
    st_pastedText.add("statictext", undefined, "", {name: "st_pastedText"});
    st_pastedText.add("statictext", undefined, "Data from Spreadsheet", {name: "st_pastedText"});

var et_pastedText = dialog.add('edittext {properties: {name: "et_pastedText", multiline: true, scrollable: true}}');
    et_pastedText.helpTip = "Copy and paste rows of data from excel. ";
    et_pastedText.text = "Paste lines from Excel here";
    et_pastedText.preferredSize.width = 800;
    et_pastedText.preferredSize.height = 150;

// GRP_BUTTONS
// ===========
var grp_buttons = dialog.add("group", undefined, {name: "grp_buttons"});
    grp_buttons.orientation = "row";
    grp_buttons.alignChildren = ["center","center"];
    grp_buttons.spacing = 25;
    grp_buttons.margins = 0;

var btn_create = grp_buttons.add("button", undefined, undefined, {name: "btn_create"});
    btn_create.helpTip = "Run the script and make the snipes";
    btn_create.text = "CREATE SNIPES";
    btn_create.preferredSize.width = 130;
    btn_create.preferredSize.height = 30;
    btn_create.alignment = ["center","center"];
    btn_create.onClick = createSnipes;

var btn_help = grp_buttons.add("button", undefined, undefined, {name: "btn_help"});
    btn_help.text = "?";
    btn_help.onClick = clicked;
dialog.show();



function clicked(){ //this function works
    alert("button click");
    alert(dialog.grp_textFile.et_textFile.text);
}

function createSnipes(){ //this function does not work
    var textInput = dialog.grp_textFile.et_pastedText.text;
    alert("creating snipes now\n"+ textInput);
    var pastedText = textInput.split("\t");
    alert(pastedText[2]);
}

[Dan Ebberts · Accepted solution]

It looks like you added et_pastedText directly to dialog, so it can't find dialog.grp_textFile.et_pastedText.text

[Byron Nash - INSP]

Thanks Dan. Often it takes going to all the trouble and having another set of eyes on the dang code to see the glaring error.  <facepalm>