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Question

How to loop through all texframes of a selected artboard?

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
February 5, 2021
5 replies
1065 views

Hi, this seems pretty straight forward but just couldn't get it to work. I just want to loop through all textFrames in a selected artboard but my javascript code is returning all textFrames in the whole activeDocument. Would someone be able to shed some light?

var doc = app.activeDocument;

for (i=0; i<app.activeDocument.artboards.length; i++) {

     doc.artboards.setActiveArtboardIndex(i); //selected an artboard
     doc.selection = null; //clear selection
     doc.selectObjectsOnActiveArtboard();

//loop thru' all textFrames in a selected artboard

for(var j = 0; j < doc.textFrames.length; j++){

text = doc.textFrames[j].contents; // <== but this line is returning all textFrames in the whole doc

alert(text);

}

This topic has been closed for replies.

M

Manan Joshi

Community Expert

The issue is that the missing frames are a part of a group. We can add the functionality to traverse the groups and pick the textframes from it. Try the following code

var doc = app.activeDocument;
for (i=0; i<app.activeDocument.artboards.length; i++) {
	doc.artboards.setActiveArtboardIndex(i);  //selected an artboard
	doc.selection = null; //clear selection
	doc.selectObjectsOnActiveArtboard();
	for(var j = 0; j < app.selection.length; j++){
		if(app.selection[j].typename == "TextFrame")
			alert(app.selection[j].contents)
		if(app.selection[j].typename == "GroupItem")
			getTextInGroup(app.selection[j])
	}
}

function getTextInGroup(inGrp)
{
	for(var i = 0; i < inGrp.textFrames.length; i++)
		alert(inGrp.textFrames[i].contents)
		
	for(var j = 0; j < inGrp.groupItems.length; j++)
		getTextInGroup(inGrp.groupItems[j])
}

-Manan

J

jeffa85323848Author

Participating Frequently

Hi, I'm trying to return the value from the function but it's returning undefined values as well. How to tell the function not to return undefined values? Tried this but didn't work - OMG, I'm getting deeper than I anticipated. Pls advise, thanks,

function getTextInGroup(inGrp){
  for(var i = 0; i < inGrp.textFrames.length; i++)
      //alert(inGrp.textFrames[i].contents);  // alert skips the undefined values - good

      if (typeof(inGrp.textFrames[i].contents) != undefined){
         return(inGrp.textFrames[i].contents);  // this line is returning all undefined values
      }

  for(var j = 0; j < inGrp.groupItems.length; j++)
     getTextInGroup(inGrp.groupItems[j]);
}

J

jeffa85323848Author

Participating Frequently

Hi, I think I got it to work - checking the value after it returned from the function like that: -

var doc = app.activeDocument;
for (i=0; i<app.activeDocument.artboards.length; i++) {
	doc.artboards.setActiveArtboardIndex(i);  //selected an artboard
	doc.selection = null; //clear selection
	doc.selectObjectsOnActiveArtboard();
	for(var j = 0; j < app.selection.length; j++){
		if(app.selection[j].typename == "TextFrame"){
			alert(app.selection[j].contents);
		}
		if(app.selection[j].typename == "GroupItem"){
			contxts = getTextInGroup(app.selection[j])
			if (contxts !== undefined){  // test for undefined here
			   //put my code here
			}
		}
	}
}

function getTextInGroup(inGrp){
	for(var i = 0; i < inGrp.textFrames.length; i++){
            return(inGrp.textFrames[i].contents);
         }
		
	for(var j = 0; j < inGrp.groupItems.length; j++){
		getTextInGroup(inGrp.groupItems[j]);
         }
}

Thank you Manan for all your help.

M

Manan Joshi

Community Expert

I don't think you attached the file. If you are having an issue with attaching the file, you can upload it to a cloud service like Dropbox and then share the public access link here.

-Manan

J

jeffa85323848Author

Participating Frequently

Strange, not sure why it won't allow me to attach the file (test.ai) even though the size is only about 1.2MB,

Here's the link to dropbox: test.ai

Thanks,

M

Manan Joshi

Community Expert

Try the following

var doc = app.activeDocument;
for (i=0; i<app.activeDocument.artboards.length; i++) {
	doc.artboards.setActiveArtboardIndex(i);  //selected an artboard
	doc.selection = null; //clear selection
	doc.selectObjectsOnActiveArtboard();
	for(var j = 0; j < app.selection.length; j++){
		if(app.selection[j].typename == "TextFrame")
		text = app.selection[j].contents;   // <== but this line is returning all textFrames in the whole doc
		alert(text);
	}
}

The issue is that you need to iterate the selection and not the document textframes.

-Manan

J

jeffa85323848Author

Participating Frequently

Awesome @Manan Joshi - your code works but the results are missing 2 items.

My document has a total of 7 artboards - for debugging, I deleted all artboards except the 2nd artboard, then when I ran the code below on the 2nd artboard I got two extra textFrames items. Was it because the extra 2 items wasn't of typename == "TextFrame"? If that's the case, how do I figure out what typenames are they? Thanks @Manan Joshi

//loop thru' all textFrames in activeDocument

for(var j = 0; j < doc.textFrames.length; j++){

text = doc.textFrames[j].contents;

alert(text);

}

M

Manan Joshi

Community Expert

To identify the typename just alert it to. Something like the following should help

var doc = app.activeDocument;
for (i=0; i<app.activeDocument.artboards.length; i++) {
	doc.artboards.setActiveArtboardIndex(i);  //selected an artboard
	doc.selection = null; //clear selection
	doc.selectObjectsOnActiveArtboard();
	for(var j = 0; j < app.selection.length; j++){
		alert(app.selection[j].typename);
	}
}

If you still are not sure what is happening then you can share your sample document and we can have a look at it.

-Manan