Which Illustrator version created the document?

[tmmls]

Hi,

Using scripting, I need to know which version of Illustrator created an ai or pdf-file.

In this community I found the code below (I tweaked it a bit)...

var myPath = "/Users/me/Desktop/artwork.pdf";
var myFile = new File(myPath);

var docVersion = getDocumentVersion(myFile);
var appVersion = getApplicationVersion();

function getApplicationVersion(){
    var resultArr = app.version.split(".");
    return (resultArr[0]);
}


function getDocumentVersion(_myFile){
    var vrs = null;
    _myFile.open("r");

    try{
        while(_myFile.tell() < _myFile.length) {
            var line = _myFile.readln();
            var idxOf = line.indexOf("Creator: Adobe Illustrator(R)");
            if(idxOf > 0) { 
                vrs = line.substring(idxOf+30, line.length);
            }
        }
    }

    catch(ex) {}
    finally { _myFile.close(); }

    if(vrs != null){
        var vrsArr = vrs.split(".");
        vrs = vrsArr[0];
    }

    return vrs; 
}

Unfortunately, the version number does not match the application version.

The value returned is 24, but the app version is 27 (CC2023).

How can I fix this?

Thanx

[jduncan]

Here's a way to grab the info using the document's XMP data. I tried it with a handful of different file types and it seems to work pretty well, Take it for a spin and let me know if you have any issues. Cheers!

var ver = getIllustratorVersion();

/**
 * Extract the Adobe Illustrator version from a documents XMP Data.
 */
function getIllustratorVersion() {
  // Set up some variables
  var xmp, xmpString, aiVersion, splitString;

  // Load the XMP library as an ExtendScript ExternalObject via the docs
  // https://extendscript.docsforadobe.dev/scripting-xmp/index.html
  if (ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript == undefined)
    ExternalObject.AdobeXMPScript = new ExternalObject("lib:AdobeXMPScript");

  //Read XMP string - You can see document XMP info in Illustrator @ File > File Info > Raw Data
  var xmp = new XMPMeta(app.activeDocument.XMPString);

  // Grab the CreatorTool property
  try {
    var xmpString = xmp.getProperty(XMPConst.NS_XMP, "xmp:CreatorTool").value;
    // Should give you something like 'Adobe Illustrator 27.2 (Windows)'
    // or `Adobe Illustrator CC 22.0 (Macintosh)`
  } catch (e) {
    alert("Creator Tool Not Found!\n" + e);
    return -1;
  }

  // If file was created by an app other than Illustrator
  if (xmpString.toLowerCase().indexOf("illustrator") < 0) {
    alert("File not created by Adobe Illustrator.");
    return -1;
  }

  // Parse out the actual version number in the string
  // It's more work than it should be because of inconsistent version naming
  splitString = xmpString.split(" ");
  for (var i = 0; i < splitString.length; i++) {
    aiVersion = Number(splitString[i]);
    if (aiVersion) break;
  }

  // Show the results for debugging
  alert("Ai Version Info\nXMP String: " + xmpString + "\nParsed Version: " + aiVersion);

  return aiVersion;
}

[Sergey Osokin]

However, it requires an open document to read XMP. When we process a folder of files, we need to write the opening and closing of each file =(

[jduncan · Accepted solution]

Yes, that is correct. Here's a revision on @tmmls's original `getDocumentVersion()` that just reads the raw file data and extracts the correct version string from the `<xmp:CreatorTool>` tag without opening the file in Ai.

function getDocumentVersion(_myFile) {
  var vrsString = null;
  var vrs = null;
  _myFile.open("r");

  try {
    while (_myFile.tell() < _myFile.length) {
      var line = _myFile.readln();
      if (line.indexOf("<xmp:CreatorTool>") >= 0) {
        vrsString = line;
        break;
      }
    }
  } catch (ex) {
  } finally {
    _myFile.close();
  }

  if (vrsString != null) {
    var splitString = vrsString.split(" ");
    for (var i = 0; i < splitString.length; i++) {
      if (!isNaN(splitString[i])) vrs = splitString[i];
    }
  }

  return vrs;
}

[tmmls]

Thank you very much for the great response...