creating a menu

[pasithee]

HI all

How is it possible to implement in javascript a menu you can see in the picture? on the right you have a input box and right of the input box a little button. when you click on this button you become a list. clicking on a item it adds a text to the input box.

Thanks a lot for your help

[Peter Kahrel]

You can do that using ScriptUI, but if you've not used that before then you'll not find that easy.

Peter

[pasithee]

Hi Peter

And how can I do that? Do you have an example or do you know where can I find more information?

Thanks a lot

[Peter Kahrel]

The only documentation available (so far) is the PDF file you access via the ESTK's Help menu. The file is called "JavaScript Tools Guide CSx.pdf".

Peter

[Harbs.]

pkahrel wrote:

The only documentation available (so far)...

Peter,

Is that a hint?

Harbs

[Peter Kahrel]

> Is that a hint?

It is!

[Harbs.]

Cool! Looking forward to seeing the results!

(I'll be happy to read through it if you'd like...)

Harbs

[tomaxxi]

Yeah, that sounds great!

Adobe's documentation about ScriptUI is sometimes not enough.

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[pasithee]

that's right. couldn't find anything in the documentation which are mentioned above.

Do I need to create a edittext and beside the textbox a imageiconbutton or does adobe provide a class which provide a edittext with button on list?

maybe does someone has an example?

thanks

[tomaxxi]

Hey!

I wrote something (not longer than 15 minutes), maybe it will help you.

var myList = Array("  ----Select Item----  ","Item 1","Item 2","Item 3","sep","Item 4","Item 5","Item 6","sep","Item 7","Item 8","Item 9","Item 10","Item 11");
var myItems = Array("","\\i1","\\i2","\\i3","","\\i4","\\i5","\\i6","","/i7","/i8","\\i9","//es{0,","/\\mix");

var win = new Window('dialog','Custom Insert Menu');
win.orientation = 'row';
win.spacing = 0;
with(win){
     editText = add('edittext');
     editText.preferredSize = [250,25];
};
var myDrop = win.add('dropdownlist');
for(var i = 0; i < myList.length; i++){
    if(myList == "sep")
    myDrop.add('separator');
    else
    myDrop.add('item',myList);
}
myDrop.selection = 0;
myDrop.preferredSize = [5,25];

myDrop.onChange = function(){editText.text += myItems[myDrop.selection.index];myDrop.selection = 0;}

win.center();
win.show();

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[pasithee]

Hi tomaxxi

It's not exactly the same but it helps me a lot. Now I have a last questions.

When I create a Dialog

    var dialog = app.dialogs.add({name:"Reformat Index"});

and add a dropdown

    with(dialog.dialogColumns.add()) {
        var spacesDrop = dropdowns.add({stringList:spaces, selectedIndex:0});
    };

I cannot use the onChange event on the dropdown like you did

//not possible
spacesDrop.onChange = function() { delimiterField.text += codes[spacesDrop.selection.index]; spacesDrop.selection = 0; };

Instead of using a dialog, a window works like in your example.

Is that normal that events doesn't work on dialogs?

thanks a lot

pasithee

[tomaxxi · Accepted solution]

You must use ScriptUI for creating dialog to achieve this. Standard InDesign dialog components that you are using doesn't allow 'onChange' events.

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[pasithee]

now everything is clear.

thanks a lot

pasithee

[tomaxxi]

I was wondering could you maybe post screenshot of function that I maid if you are using MacOSX. I'm curious how it looks like.

Thanks.

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[Shonkyin-CF145T]

Hi tomaxxi,

Here are screenshot of your script from MAC.

Shonky

[tomaxxi]

Thanks Shonkyin!

It looks just fine... Maybe just to adjust dropdown width to 15:

myDrop.preferredSize = [15,25];

On Windows dropdown is little bit wider. It looks like this:

I like this feature, maybe just add icons to drop down, and you have nice little helper menu

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[tomaxxi]

Hey!

If you are interested, I made some changes to the script with some explanations. You can find it here: http://bit.ly/czEaHA

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/

[tomaxxi]

You can also find great samples in '\Adobe\Adobe Utilities - CS5\ExtendScript Toolkit CS5\SDK\Samples\javascript\'

--

tomaxxi

http://indisnip.wordpress.com/