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Edy Argueta
Participant
January 20, 2021
Question

modify ai file on web

  • January 20, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1047 views

Hello everyone, I am trying to automate a task through a website, but I have no idea how to modify an Ai file, since all I need is to identify a text box and change its content to create the task, since On the desk if possible I don't know if I will be dreaming very loud.

Try to open a file in notepad but only the metadata is understood 😞

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2 replies

H
hhas01
Inspiring
January 21, 2021

For what purpose? Are you wanting to produce business cards over your company intranet, or are you trying to be the next Moonpig? If you want detailed advice you’ll have to tell us more about the work itself. Otherwise, some general pointers:

 

As Vasily says, 1. the AI license does not allow exposing AI as a public web service, and 2. running a desktop app like AI on a headless server is a pig to make reliable. Adobe will advise you to use InDesign Server which is designed for this sort of use, but whether that fits your needs and budget is for you to determine.

 

Alternatively, if your layout needs are very simple and limited to a small number of fixed templates, you might build a custom solution on top of an existing free/paid PDF or SVG generator library. That’s a common (if inflexible) approach for generating standard documents such as PDF invoices. Or, if you require more complex layouts but aren’t tied to AI specifically, you might build a custom solution on top of a Linux-friendly automatable app such as Scribus or Inkscape.

    Mike_Gondek10189183
    Community Expert
    Mike_Gondek10189183Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 21, 2021

    Notepad wont help as that part ofcode is in Hexadeciamal, you need Illustrator.  You may need to explain your workflow andwhy you don't have illustrator installed on where you wish to edit. W amy be abel to come up wth a creative solution for you. Do you have Acrobat DC you can use the pdf format.

    E
    Edy ArguetaAuthor
    Participant
    January 21, 2021

    what I want to do is create a web system, where I upload an ai file and modify its content (explicitly only text boxes) and export it in ai again

    Silly-V
    Silly-V
    Legend
    January 21, 2021

    Technically at this moment, officially, you can only do this legally when it's 'inside' your own company and the people who are using your web service are not every customer in the world.

    That said, you certainly can rig up an autonomous computer and have a PHP or Node or ASP website on it, listening for calls at a url of some kind. With those server-side technologies it is possible to open up an Illustrator and run a JSX script in it, export and download the file back to the user. However, Illustrator is but a desktop application that is not really conducive to reliable cloud processing. Even in a simple case of text boxes, maybe you will one day allow users to provide own templates with a simple text box - but what happens when a font is not found? Illustrator does not have a good way of doing a lot of what we are used to in the UI, differently to accommodate cloud-service type needs.
    In the example of a non-found font, a script which may be meant to process incoming requests 1000 times per hour will be hung up because of this dialog box and you will have to do who-knows-what to deal with such things. The simplest way would be to strictly control your assets and such, but even then unpredictable desktop Illustrator errors may occur. Sometimes my Illustrator gets laggy and needs a good restart, and I choose to shut it down by the time I get really annoyed - maybe it's just my computer. But what you will need to consider is how many pitfalls the typical desktop experience encompasses and then estimate the difference between that and the quality of the kind of web service you desire.
    And, having said all of the above, I will say it's totally possible and could be an enjoyable project as you begin to see magical remote-controlled results happening. It may be slow and prone to issues but if successful you will get all the rich Illustrator features over the web! I'd watch it if your system got really really successful because that's when they start coming after you with the legal stuff.

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