link text to a windows file property

[Jeff5FF9]

I would like to know if there is a way to link text in the illustrator file to a windows file property.  If I can add a windows file property called REVISION, I would like to link text in the document to this REVISION property so that I don't have to manually edit the text.  I can just change the windows property and the text in the document auto updates.  This might not be possible but it would be really nice for a lot of reasons.

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

This is an extended file system property that would require a specific bit of OS native code to access and then somehow fetch it to AI. I can't see any way of making this work without major hocuspocus deep in the Windows file APIs. It's most definitely not part of any file handling in Adobe scripts I've ever seen, though I'm of course not the ultimate authority on that. Either way, the simple answer likely is no. If at all, I would imagine it requires an actual plug-in containing the code, which is a whole different level compared to whipping up a script.

Mylenium

[Jeff5FF9]

That is kind of what I was thinking but it never hurts to ask.  🙂

[Silly-V · Accepted solution]

You can probably make a process that will update the text frame in the document when you open it next after you do your revision change. Likewise you may be able to create a process that could also set this property while setting the text frame in the document. To do all this is would be necessary to use something like VBS (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52572335/all-details-of-file-properties-metadata-in-vbscript) to try and manipulate the windows file properties. And on top of that, it would be necessary to add event listeners to your Illustrator files in the Windows file system so that when you click on them, a VBS script gets the custom file property and sets it to the text frame. To to the reverse is potentially simpler because you can run a VBS script that takes an input prompt for user text and sets the text frame and the windows file property at the same time.
I am not sure how to add such event listeners in Windows, but I've seen a blog on PowerShell where they add new context menu items to windows file explorer context menus to do various things, so I think it may be possible.