Check if pageItem is textFrame

[Barqx]

How do I check, whether a pageItem is a textFrame?

[Kasyan Servetsky]

var thePageItem = app.selection[0];
if (thePageItem.constructor.name == "TextFrame") alert("A text frame is selected");

[tomaxxi]

Yeah, or like this:

if(app.selection[0] instanceof TextFrame)alert("It's a text frame");

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[Jongware]

Gents, then why doesn't this work? (Neither fast nor slow )

alert (app.activeWindow.activePage.pageItems[0].constructor.name);
 

-- it insists it's just a PageItem. This behaves the same as instanceof, so that's not the solution:

if (app.activeWindow.activePage.pageItems[0] instanceof TextFrame)
 alert ("TextFrame");
else
 alert (app.activeWindow.activePage.pageItems[0].constructor.name);
 

also shows "PageItem" -- of course I first made sure the first page item *is*, in fact, a textframe, as this ugly construction

if (app.activeWindow.activePage.pageItems[0] == app.activeWindow.activePage.textFrames[0] )
 alert ("TextFrame");
else
 alert (app.activeWindow.activePage.pageItems[0].constructor.name);
 

*does* work.

[Marc Autret]

You need to use ...pageItems[0].getElements()[0] to resolve a PageItem object. PageItem behaves as an abstract "class", like Swatch, etc.

@+

Marc

[Jongware]

alert (app.activeWindow.activePage.pageItems[0].getElements()[0].constructor.name);
 

Cool! This was something that has been bothering me for quite some time ...

[Kasyan Servetsky]

This was mentioned in InDesign CS2 Scripting Guide:

When you are iterating through a collection, JavaScript insists that the type of the item is the type of the collection. When you iterate through a pageItems collection, for example, the type of each item will be PageItem, rather than Rectangle, Oval, Polygon, GraphicLine, or TextFrame. To get the specific type of an item when you are iterating through a collection of unlike items, use the getElements() method, as shown in the following example:

for(myCounter = 0; myCounter < app.activeDocument.pages.item(0).pageItems.length; myCounter ++){
     var myPageItem = app.activeDocument.pages.item(0).pageItems.item(myCounter);
     var myPageItemType = myPageItem.getElements()[0].constructor.name;
     alert(myPageItemType);
}

However since CS3 this information is missing.

Kasyan

[tomaxxi]

Hey Kasyan!

Thing is that "instanceof" has slightly faster performance than "constructor".

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[Kasyan Servetsky]

app.selection[0] instanceof TextFrame; — 1215 nanoseconds

app.selection[0].constructor.name == "TextFrame"; — 1543 nanoseconds

Your version is about 200 nanoseconds faster.

(One nanosecond is to one second as one second is to 31.7 years.)

Kasyan

[tomaxxi]

Not much faster

Thanks Kasyan!

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[Marc Autret]

Kasyan Servetsky wrote:

app.selection[0] instanceof TextFrame; — 1215 nanoseconds

app.selection[0].constructor.name == "TextFrame"; — 1543 nanoseconds

Your version is about 200 nanoseconds faster.

(One nanosecond is to one second as one second is to 31.7 years.)

Kasyan

So we can conclude that a huge loop which takes about 12 seconds using instanceof will take about 15 seconds (i.e. +3 seconds) using the constructor test. I experienced it today 🙂

@+

Marc

[LeoMari-eL6mBl · Accepted solution]

var arrayPageItems = app.activeDocument.pageItems.everyItem().getElements(); 
app.activeDocument.pageItems.everyItem().getElements();  
    for (var i=0; i<arrayPageItems.length; i++){  
        if (arrayPageItems == "[object TextFrame]"){
            alert("YES - TEXTFRAME");
        } else {
            alert("NO TEXTFRAME");
        }
    }

[Guest]

function isTextFrames()

{

var PageItems = app.activeDocument.pageItems.everyItem().getElements();  

    for (var i=0; i<PageItems.length; i++){   

        if (PageItems.constructor.name == "TextFrame"){ 

            alert("TEXTFRAME"); 

        } else { 

            alert("No TEXTFRAME"); 

        } 

    }

}

isTextFrames();