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ict-opr
AUTHOR
New Here
,
Fair points, basically it complains about a closing curly bracket on line 42 as it seems to be trying to interpret that as data.
Which is weird as heck because although } is indeed not a numeric value, it should not be attempting to read that in the first place
Community Expert
,
Hi @ict-opr I suspect the copy/pasting is adding something strange to the text string, maybe an invisible character, and I would try filtering the string to remove anything that isn't an expected character—let me know if you want to do that.
But, just for learning, I've written a version of your scripts combined into a single palette. It should—hopefully!— remove the error you are seeing because it doesn't do the string copy/pasting that your current workflow uses. I hope it will be useful, at least as a starting point. I apologize for the mess of BridgeTalk nonsense in the script but that is just what we have to do to use a palette, as opposed to a dialog.
Let me know how it goes.
- Mark
/**
* @file Position Items.js
*
* Variation of user @ict-opr's two scripts
* showing use of palette to load positions
* and later use them to position items.
*
* @author m1b
* @version 2025-09-26
* @discussion https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator-discussions/scripting-issue-that-only-occurs-on-windows/m-p/15520320
*/
//@targetengine 'positionItems'
(function () {
// check if the window already exists by using a global variable
if (
"undefined" !== typeof $.global.palette
&& null !== $.global.palette
) {
// NOTE: while debugging, you will want to disable this part
// because it will stop your new palette from instantiating
// (otherwise you'll need to restart Illustrator each time!)
$.global.palette.active = true;
$.global.palette.show();
return;
}
// create a new ScriptUI palette (modeless window)
$.global.palette = new Window("palette", "Position Items", undefined, { resizeable: false });
const FIELD_DELIMITER = ';';
const ITEM_DELIMITER = '$';
var activePositions = '';
var buttons = palette.add('group {orientation: "row", alignment:["fill","top"], alignChildren:["fill","top"] }');
// var loadGroup = buttons.add('group {orientation: "column", alignChildren:["left","top"] }');
var loadButton = buttons.add('button { text:"Load" }');
// var positionGroup = buttons.add('group {orientation: "row", alignChildren:["left","top"] }');
var positionButton = buttons.add('button { text:"Position" }');
var loadedLabel = palette.add('statictext {text:"", alignment:["fill","top"], justify:"center" }');
var resizeCheckbox = buttons.add('checkbox {text:"Resize Items", alignment:["fill","bottom"] }');
/** load button is clicked - send `loadPositions` function to Illustrator */
loadButton.onClick = function () {
// a BridgeTalk message
var bt = new BridgeTalk();
bt.target = "illustrator";
// convert the function to a string IIFE
// this is a way to send code via bridgeTalk
bt.body = "(" + loadPositions.toSource() + ")(#I,#F);"
// include string parameters
.replace('#I', '"' + ITEM_DELIMITER + '"')
.replace('#F', '"' + FIELD_DELIMITER + '"');
// handle the result returned from Illustrator
bt.onResult = function (response) {
activePositions = response.body || '';
updateUI();
};
// send the script to Illustrator
bt.send();
};
/** position button is clicked - send `positionItems` function to Illustrator */
positionButton.onClick = function () {
// a BridgeTalk message
var bt = new BridgeTalk();
bt.target = "illustrator";
// convert the function to a string IIFE
// this is a way to send code via bridgeTalk
bt.body = "(" + positionItems.toSource() + ")(#P,#R,#I,#F);"
// include string parameters
.replace('#P', '"' + activePositions + '"')
.replace('#R', '"' + (resizeCheckbox.value ? '1' : '') + '"')
.replace('#I', '"' + ITEM_DELIMITER + '"')
.replace('#F', '"' + FIELD_DELIMITER + '"');
// send the script to Illustrator
bt.send();
};
// show the palette
updateUI();
palette.center();
palette.show();
/** update the UI - positions count and button enabling */
function updateUI() {
var positionCount = (activePositions.split(ITEM_DELIMITER).length - 1);
loadedLabel.text = positionCount + ' positions ready.';
positionButton.enabled = positionCount > 0;
resizeCheckbox.enabled = positionCount > 0;
};
/**
* Returns a `positions` string from selected objects.
* To be sent to Illustrator via BridgeTalk
* @param {String} itemDelimiter - string to add between item position strings.
* @param {String} fieldDelimiter - string to add between fields of an item position string.
* @returns {String} - the position(s).
*/
function loadPositions(itemDelimiter, fieldDelimiter) {
/*
IMPORTANT: you must use block comments in any function
that you will be sending via BridgeTalk, because it seems
to evaluate the whole body as a single line, therefore
an inline comment will nullify everything after it.
*/
if (0 === app.documents.length)
return alert("Please open a document and try again.");
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var items = doc.selection;
if (0 === items.length)
return alert("Please select some page items and try again.");
var positions = '';
/* build the positions string */
for (var i = 0, item; i < items.length; i++) {
item = items[i];
positions += [item.left, item.top, item.width, item.height].join(fieldDelimiter) + itemDelimiter;
}
return positions;
};
/**
* Positions selected items according
* to `activePositions` string.
* To be sent to Illustrator via BridgeTalk
* @param {String} positions - the positions to use.
* @param {String} [resize] - whether to resize the item (default: do not resize).
* @param {String} itemDelimiter - string to add between item position strings.
* @param {String} fieldDelimiter - string to add between fields of an item position string.
*/
function positionItems(positions, resize, itemDelimiter, fieldDelimiter) {
/*
IMPORTANT: you must use block comments in any function
that you will be sending via BridgeTalk, because it seems
to evaluate the whole body as a single line, therefore
an inline comment will nullify everything after it.
*/
var scaleMultiplier = 1;
if (0 === app.documents.length)
return alert("Please open a document and try again.");
var doc = app.activeDocument;
var items = doc.selection;
if (0 === items.length)
return alert("Please select some page items and try again.");
positions = positions.split(itemDelimiter);
var len = Math.min(positions.length, items.length);
/* position the items */
for (var i = 0, item, position; i <= len; i++) {
item = items[i];
position = positions[i].split(fieldDelimiter);
var leftPos = Number(position[0]);
var topPos = Number(position[1]);
var objWidth = Number(position[2]);
var objHeight = Number(position[3]);
item.left = leftPos * scaleMultiplier;
item.top = topPos * scaleMultiplier;
if (resize) {
item.width = (objWidth * scaleMultiplier);
item.height = (objHeight * scaleMultiplier);
}
}
};
})();
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