ScriptUI palette can't access document

[Dirk Becker]

Hi,

I've recently started Illustrator scripting for my own purposes, but it is sometimes difficult to transfer InDesign knowledge.

Could anybody please tell me what's wrong with the following trivial script?

#target illustrator
#targetengine "main"


function helloDocument() {
  try {
    alert(app.activeDocument.name);
  } catch( ex ) {
    alert(ex);
  }
}

var w = new Window("palette","Test",undefined,{ resizeable: true });
var b = w.add("button",undefined,"Here!");
b.onClick = helloDocument;
w.show();

In InDesign the targetengine "main" would be a no-go, because it is the only transient engine - variables are gone after run. Even though the "JavaScript Tools Guide CC" still describes the targetengine directive as supported by Illustrator CS5(!), I did not find a way to create an own targetengine. The "main" engine appears to work persistent in Illustrator - as mentioned in another thread. Even though I'd prefer an own playing ground, I can live with that failure for now.

Anyway, my actual problem is that the active document is not accessible from the button click handler. The palette window shows up and a click invokes the handler, but all I get is an exception "there is no document". When I change the "palette" to "dialog", the otherwise unmodified script works.

Thanks for any clues,

Dirk

[ThinkingThings]

It seems to work by adding a pair or parentheses for a function:

b.onClick = helloDocument();

[Dirk Becker]

Assigning the function itself is intended here.

Your suggestion would invoke it once and assign the result.

[Dirk Becker]

In the meantime I found that if I launch my script via File/Scripts menu the #targetengine directive will do its duties.

I only had tried via startup script, assuming I would need some more unknown code to set up a menu entry, matching InDesign's scriptable menus.

[CarlosCanto]

Hi Dirk, you need to use BridgeTalk to have your palette talk to Illustrator, see this recent post

Is it possible to use AI "selection sets" in script and scriptUI?