How to create a Cross-reference to a paragraph from script

[mihail-cosminm61564092]

Hello,

I am trying to create some cross-references to some paragraphs.
With what I wrote so far, a cross-reference appears to be added to the text Frame, but not text is shown and the Source Type is selected as "Cross-Reference Markers". Here I would like to have "Paragraphs".
Also, the cross-reference doesn't seem to be formated with the format I specify (it is not blue).

This is what I wrote so far:

// I wrote this function to get the UID from a table I have.

function getUID(paragraphFormat, text) {

    table = doc.FirstTblInDoc;

    try {

        row = table.FirstRowInTbl;

    }

    catch (e) {

        $.writeln("There was an error. No table found: " + e);

    }

    rowNr = 1;

    while (rowNr < table.TblNumRows) {

        cell = row.FirstCellInRow;

        paragraph = cell.FirstPgf;

        if (paragraph.Name == paragraphFormat && paragraph.PgfNumber == text) {

            paragraphFound = true;

            return paragraph.Unique;

        }

        row = row.NextRowInTbl;

        rowNr++;

    }

}

var graphic = null;

var doc = app.ActiveDoc;

graphic = doc.FirstSelectedGraphicInDoc;

var frameParent = graphic.FrameParent;

var textFrameObj = doc.NewTextFrame(frameParent);

textFrameObj.LocX = 20 * MM;

textFrameObj.LocY = 50 * MM;

var paragraph = textFrameObj.FirstPgf;

startLoc = new TextLoc(paragraph, 0);

endLoc = new TextLoc(paragraph, Constants.FV_OBJ_END_OFFSET);

crossreference = doc.NewAnchoredFormattedXRef("Paragraphs",  startLoc);

crossreference.XRefSrcIsElem = false;

textRange = new TextRange(

     startLoc,

     endLoc

);

crossreference.TextRange = textRange;

xRefSrcText = getUID("Body", "10") + ":Body:10";

crossreference.XRefSrcText = xRefSrcText;

doc.UpdateXRefs(doc, crossreference);

[frameexpert]

There are a lot of things going on with this task.

1. Insert a Cross-Ref marker in the target paragraph.

In order for a Cross-Reference to this marker to display as a "Paragraph" Cross-Reference in the Cross-Reference dialog box, it has to have a specific pattern. You can see this by inserting a cross-reference manually.

The interesting this is it's not the content of the marker that allows it to show in the Paragraph pane of the dialog box, it is the pattern:

The main thing FrameMaker is doing with this pattern is ensuring that the Cross-Ref marker text is unique within the document (and likely the entire book).

2. Insert a Cross-Reference to the marker, where the XRefSrcText property of the Cross-Reference matches the Cross-Ref MarkerText property.

If I have time, I will post some code later.

[frameexpert]

Here is a YouTube playlist of 7 short videos that will give you the basics of inserting FrameMaker Cross-Referencs:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRPNZaAC4LoTpF9yjBWUQNGX2EyZ_3U8b

[Winfried Reng]

Hi,

I had an issue with an aspect of your problem. I used Pgf.Unique for the XRef marker, and then the cross-reference was not listed in the cross-reference dialog in the list of paragraphs, but in the list of markers. I had to use only the last 5 digits of Pgf.Unique. Then everything worked.

I did no check your code, and I do not know, if this is your issue, but this helped for me.

Best regards, Winfried

[frameexpert]

A few comments on your code:

table = doc.FirstTblInDoc;

The FirstTblInDoc is not necessarily the first table on the document's body page. It might end up being a table on the reference pages.

 rowNr = 1;
    while (rowNr < table.TblNumRows) {
...
        row = row.NextRowInTbl;
        rowNr++;
    }

You don't need a counter here. You can simply use this:

    row = table.FirstRowInTbl;
    while (row.ObjectValid () === 1) {
...
        row = row.NextRowInTbl;
    }

[mihail-cosminm61564092]

Hi, some updated context.
I have only 4 rows in my table, and I have manually added 4 references to the first cells of each row.
I created another function that reads the Xrefs in order to see how they are built in code:

function getAllXrefs(doc) {
    xRef = doc.FirstXRefInDoc;
    $.writeln("XRefSrcText: " + xRef.XRefSrcText);
    links = 1
    while (links < 5) {
        xRef = xRef.NextXRefInDoc;
        $.writeln("XRefSrcText: " + xRef.XRefSrcText);
        links++;
    }

}

This outputs:
XRefSrcText: 24071: Body: 10
XRefSrcText: 24330: Body: 20
XRefSrcText: 64087: Body: 30
XRefSrcText: 52292: Body: 40

Then with the other function of getting the Unique IDs from the paragraphs, I get:
Unique: 49608: Body: 10
Unique: 49619: Body,: 20
Unique: 58109: Body: 30
Unique: 49629: Body: 40

I do not understand the difference in the IDs I get from the paragraphs themselves and the ones I can see in the XRefSrcText from the links added manually.
2. If I hardcode the IDs from the Xrefs added manually it almost works, at least the xrefs added are with the Paragaph Source, but the text still doesn't show.

[frameexpert]

Where you get the numbers doesn't really matter, as long as they are 5-digits and are unique. You are going to insert the markers first, so you can use 5 digits from the target paragraph's Unique property. Or you could use Math.random () to generate your own 5-digit number:

alert (getRandomInt (100000));

function getRandomInt (max) {
    return Math.floor (Math.random() * max);
}

Once you make the pattern and insert the Cross-Ref marker, then you have the text for the corresponding Cross-Reference's XRefSrcText property.