Make selection visible for table/frame

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Dear all,

In my script FMGraph I collect tables and anchored frames in arrays of objects (aoObjects). An arry element contains

aoObjects[iObject].Name     // User string from the object
aoObjects[iObject].Obj      // the object (Tbl, AFrame)
aoObjects[iObject].TL       // text loction of object (anchor paragraph)

When I then navigate to a particular object i want to see that it is selected (there may be multiple tables/frames on a page).

  oTL = aoObjects[iObject].TL;
  oTR = new TextRange(oTL, oTL);
  oDoc.TextSelection = oTR;
  oDoc.ScrollToText(oTR);

selects the anchor point - not the object itself. How to select the object to make the selection visible?

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Hi Klaus,

here's the way to select a table:

    var oDoc = app.ActiveDoc;
    var aTabs = [];
    var flow = oDoc.MainFlowInDoc;
    GetTblInFlow(oDoc,aTabs);
    var SelTbl = aTabs[0];
    oDoc.SelectedTbl = SelTbl.obj;
    var oPgf = SelTbl.obj.TextLoc.obj
    var oTblAnchors = oPgf.GetText(Constants.FTI_TblAnchor);
       
    var oAnchorOffset = oTblAnchors[0].offset;
   
    var oTlocStart = new TextLoc (oPgf, oAnchorOffset);
    var oTlocEnd = new TextLoc (oPgf, oAnchorOffset +1);
    oDoc.TextSelection = new TextRange(oTlocStart,oTlocEnd);
function GetTblInFlow(foDoc,faTabs)
{
    var textItems = flow.GetText(Constants.FTI_TblAnchor);
    for (var i = 0; i < textItems.length; i++)
        {
        faTabs.push(textItems)
        }
}

Report · Feb 21, 2019

What Rick is indicating in a general way comes down to one small change in your existing script. Instead of creating a text range from two identical TLoc elements, you need to create a second TLoc element with an offset + 1. What your code is doing is pointing to a text location. Making the range extend one character position to the right will make the entire object fall within the selection.

You could try to add this line after you create your TR:

TR.end.offset++;

Report · Feb 21, 2019

To test the code below, put your cursor in any table in the active document.

#target framemaker
var doc, tbl, textLoc, textRange;
doc = app.ActiveDoc;
tbl = doc.SelectedTbl;
// Text location of the table
textLoc = tbl.TextLoc;
// Make a text range so that it includes the table anchor.
textRange = new TextRange (textLoc, new TextLoc (textLoc.obj, textLoc.offset + 1));
// Select the table.
doc.TextSelection = textRange;

Of course, best practice is to generalize this into a function so you can use it on any table:

selectTable (tbl, doc);
function selectTable (tbl, doc) {
    
    var textLoc, textRange;
    
    textLoc = tbl.TextLoc;
    textRange = new TextRange (textLoc, 
        new TextLoc (textLoc.obj, textLoc.offset + 1));
    doc.TextSelection = textRange;
}

You are dealing with tables and anchored frames so you can generalize it further (it would also work with markers):

selectAnchoredObject (tbl, doc);
function selectAnchoredObject (anchoredObj, doc) {
    
    var textLoc, textRange;
    
    textLoc = anchoredObj.TextLoc;
    textRange = new TextRange (textLoc, 
        new TextLoc (textLoc.obj, textLoc.offset + 1));
    doc.TextSelection = textRange;
}

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Wow, such a host of good ideas!

I will need to check out which one would fit best...

Klaus: thanks for this method to collect the tables/frames. I will check whether the order is as they appear (OK) or as they are created (less OK).

Jang: Thanks for the tip - it seems that Rick already deals with that +1 in 2nd and 3rd snippet.

Rick: Great input

So, let me work with Your contributions!

Klaus

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Combining Klaus' and Rick's input I got this working prototype:

/* CollectTables.jsx ====== UTF-8 =================================================================
             Collect tables in main flow and select them one be the other.
             Display the User String of the object
Reference    Klaus Göbel, Rick Quatro; https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2597350
History      2019-02-21
*/ ; // ===========================================================================================
#target framemaker 
main ();
function main () {
var oDoc, aoTables = [], oFlow, nTables, j, sName;
  oDoc = app.ActiveDoc; 
  oFlow = oDoc.MainFlowInDoc; 
  GetTblInFlow (oFlow,aoTables); 
  nTables = aoTables.length;
  for (j = 0; j < nTables; j++) {
    SelectAnchoredObject (aoTables, oDoc)
    sName = aoTables.obj.UserString;
    alert (sName, "Usert String", false);        // stop to see the selection
  }
  alert (nTables + " tables displayed", "Collect Tables in Flow", false);
} //--- end main
function GetTblInFlow(oFlow,aoTables)  { 
var j, aTextItems = []; 
  aTextItems = oFlow.GetText(Constants.FTI_TblAnchor); 
  for (var j = 0; j < aTextItems.length; j++)  { 
    aoTables.push(aTextItems) 
  } 
} //--- end GetTblInFlow
function SelectAnchoredObject (anchoredObj, oDoc) { 
var oTL, oTR, oTL1; 
  oTL = anchoredObj.obj.TextLoc;
  oTL1 =  new TextLoc (oTL.obj, oTL.offset + 1);
  oTR = new TextRange (oTL, oTL1);
  oDoc.TextSelection = oTR; 
  oDoc.ScrollToText(oTR);                        // Selection is viewed
} //--- end SelectAnchoredObject

Thank You all - to whom I now should give the credit?

... and of course it was easy to create the variant of this for anchored frames!

Report · Feb 21, 2019

Hi Klaus,

A few suggestions for minor improvements:

1) I would rename GetTblInFlow to GetTblsInFlow since you are getting all of the tables in the flow, not just one.

2) On line 32, you are pushing the TextItem into your array, but why not just push the object itself into the array?

aoTables.push (aTextItems.obj);

That means you only use .obj once here and don't need it throughout the rest of the script.

3) When you have a "Get" function, I like to set the return variable inside of the function itself instead of outside. So, line 17 would become

aoTables = GetTblInFlow (oFlow);

line 28 would become

var j, aTextItems = [], tbls = [];

line 32 would become

tbls.push (aTextItems.obj);

and you would have this between lines 32 and 33

return tbls;

Report · Feb 22, 2019

Thank You Rick for Your suggestions.

I already renamed the function to CollectTablesInFlow.

Pushing already the object, not the text item makes things further on much clearer - because I will need this quite often during the full script.

My habit is to return just true for success or false for failure of a function - whenever reasonable (obviously not for math functions).

I decided to give the points to Klaus, because he has the lower level than Rick...

Report · May 28, 2019

It turns out that the collectiing method described above does not find anchored frames in table cells. Hence I developed this alternative:

// CollectFramesInBody.jsx --- 2019-05-28
#target framemaker
var aoDocFrames = [];
CollectFramesInBody (app.ActiveDoc, aoDocFrames);
function CollectFramesInBody (oDoc, aoDocFrames) { // === Collect anchored frames in document =====
// Arguments  oDoc        current document
//            aoDocFrames array holding the frame objects and some properties
// Returns    aoDocFrames
// Called by  Fgr_BtnRefreshI, Fgr_BtnRefreshP
// Calling    GetPage, oFrmEtc
// Comment    Only body pages are searched. Frames may be in table cells!
var aTextItems = [], j, jPage, oGraphic, oObject, oPage, sName, oTL;
    oGraphic = oDoc.FirstGraphicInDoc;
    while (oGraphic.ObjectValid( ) ) {            // find frame on correcty linked list
      if (oGraphic.constructor.name == "AFrame" ) {
        oPage = GetPage (oGraphic, oDoc);         // GetPage by Rick Quatro 
        if (oPage.type == Constants.FO_BodyPage) {
          oObject = oGraphic;
          sName = oObject.UserString;
          oPage = Fgr_GetPage (oObject, oDoc);
          jPage = oPage.PageNum;                  // starts with 0!
          oTL   = oObject.TextLoc;                // text location of the frame
          id    = oObject.id;
          aoDocFrames.push (new oFrmEtc (sName, oObject, jPage, oTL, id));
          $.writeln(aoDocFrames.length-1 +"\tid= " + id);  // debugging only
        }
      }
      oGraphic = oGraphic.NextGraphicInDoc;
    }
} //--- end CollectFramesInBody

function oFrmEtc (sName, oObject, jPage, oTL, id) { // used by CollectFramesInBody, CollectTablesInFlow
  this.Name  =  sName;                            // User string from the object
  this.Obj   =  oObject;                          // The object for further investigation
  this.Page  =  jPage;                            // Pagenum (0…) on which the object occurs
  this.TL    =  oTL;                              // Text location of this object in the doc
  this.ID    =  id;                               // Unique ID - to compare with current obj etc.
} //--- end oFrmEtc

Report · Jun 18, 2019

Based on my CollectMarkers which is in my 'library' since two years I figured out the ultimate solution - which collects the objects in the order of appearance in the document. I just had to find the relevant Constant.xxx:

Object	line 78 in script below	line 35 in script below
Tables	FV_FindAnyTable	FTI_TblAnchor
AFrames	FV_FindAnchoredFrame	FTI_FrameAnchor
Markers	FV_FindAnyMarker	FTI_MarkerAnchor
Footnotes (not tested)	FV_FindFootnote	FTI_FnAnchor
Variable	FV_FindAnyVariable	FTI_VarBegin

Of course the following script is not a genric one, but serves a particular purpose. Hence the collected items are not just the (for example) Table objects. But It may serve as a template.

function Fgr_CollectTablesInBody (oDoc, aoTables) { //=== Gather table-objects, store in array ====
// Arguments  oDoc      current document
//            aoTables  array holding the table objects
// Returns    number of tables collected
// Called by  ReadDataFromTable, Fgr_BtnRefreshI, xxx
// Calling    Fgr_SaveCurrentLocation, Fgr_GetPage, Fgr_RestoreLocation, Fgr_GetPage
// Comment    Only body pages are searched. 
//            The order in aoTables is by appearance in doc.
// Reference KLaus Gobel, https://forums.adobe.com/message/8704549
var aTableList = [], docStart, foundTextRange, j, k, locTextRange, mListLen, nTables,
    oDoc, oFindParams, oLocation, oTableTI, oTextItem, tloc;
  oDoc = app.ActiveDoc
//Fgr_SetDisplay (false);                         // avoid flicker
//oLocation = Fgr_SaveCurrentLocation(goFMc.oCurrentDoc); // Save cursor location/TR
  docStart = oDoc.MainFlowInDoc.FirstTextFrameInFlow.FirstPgf;
  tloc = new TextLoc (docStart, 0);
  locTextRange = new TextRange (tloc, tloc);  
  oDoc.TextSelection = locTextRange;  
  oFindParams= GetFindParameters ();     // parameters to find Tables
  foundTextRange = oDoc.Find(tloc, oFindParams);  
  while (foundTextRange.beg.obj.ObjectValid()) {  
    aTableList.push(foundTextRange);  
    tloc = foundTextRange.end;  
    foundTextRange = oDoc.Find(tloc, oFindParams);  
  } 
  mListLen = aTableList.length; 
  if (mListLen < 1) {
//  Fgr_RestoreLocation (oDoc, oLocation);        // Restore  cursor location/TR 
//  Fgr_SetDisplay (true); 
    return null;                                  // common situation for new document
  }
  aoTables.length = 0;                            // clear before filling again.
  for (j = 0; j < mListLen; j++) {  
    oTableTI = oDoc.GetTextForRange (aTableList, Constants.FTI_TblAnchor);  // FTI_FrameAnchor
    for (k = 0; k < oTableTI.length; k++) {  
      oTextItem = oTableTI;  
      oPage = Fgr_GetPage (oTextItem.obj, oDoc);  // GetPage by Rick Quatro 
      if (oPage.type == Constants.FO_BodyPage) {
        oObject = oTextItem.obj;                  // specials for my script
        sName = oObject.UserString;               // "
        oPage = Fgr_GetPage (oObject, oDoc);      // Rick's famous script
        jPage = oPage.PageNum;                    // starts with 0!
        oTL   = oObject.TextLoc;                  // text location of the frame anchor
        id    = oObject.id;                       // special for my script
        aoTables.push (new oFrmEtc (sName, oObject, jPage, oTL, id));
//      $.writeln(aoTables.length-1 +"\tid= " + id +"\tpage= " + jPage);
      }
    }  
  }
//Fgr_RestoreLocation (oDoc, oLocation);          // Restore  cursor location/TR 
//Fgr_SetDisplay (true);
  return aoTables.length;
} //--- end Fgr_CollectTablesInBody  
function oFrmEtc (sName, oObject, jPage, oTL, id) { // used by Fgr_CollectFramesInBody, Fgr_CollectTablesInBody
  this.Name  =  sName;                            // User string from the object
  this.Obj   =  oObject;                          // The object for further investigation
  this.Page  =  jPage;                            // Pagenum (0…) on which the object occurs
  this.TL    =  oTL;                              // Text location of this object in the doc (anchor)
  this.ID    =  id;                               // Unique ID - to compare with current obj etc.
} //--- end oFrmEtc
function GetFindParameters () { //=== set up parameters for various find actions ====
// Returns   Parameters for the find method
// Reference FDK Function Reference, F_ApiFind(), https://forums.adobe.com/thread/961616
var findParams, propVal;
  findParams = new PropVals() ;
  propVal = new PropVal() ;  
  propVal.propIdent.num = Constants.FS_FindWrap ;  
  propVal.propVal.valType = Constants.FT_Integer;  
  propVal.propVal.ival = 0 ;                  // don't wrap
  findParams.push(propVal);  
  propVal = new PropVal() ;  
  propVal.propIdent.num = Constants.FS_FindObject;  
  propVal.propVal.valType = Constants.FT_Integer;  
  propVal.propVal.ival = Constants.FV_FindAnyTable ;  
  findParams.push(propVal);  
  return findParams;
} //---  end GetFindParameters

Now I cansleep better and eventually close this thread.

Make selection visible for table/frame

1 Correct answer