Delete all hidden items script

[Evan vR]

I'm working on a script to clean up a doc after a data merge. Essentially it'll set the visibility of a given item based on a text field value. Example below:

var QEBlue = app.activeDocument.pageItems.itemByName('QE 287');

var QEGreen = app.activeDocument.pageItems.itemByName('QE 347');

etc......

 

if (Panto.contents==('QE BLUE')){

QEBlue.visible = true;

QEGreen.visible = false;

QEBurg.visible = false;

QERed.visible = false;

QEBrown.visible = false;

QES57.visible = false;

QEReflex.visible = false;

QEBuff.visible = false;

}

else if (Panto.contents==('QE GREEN')){

QEBlue.visible = false;

QEGreen.visible = true;

QEBurg.visible = false;

QERed.visible = false;

QEBrown.visible = false;

QES57.visible = false;

QEReflex.visible = false;

QEBuff.visible = false;

Right now this works however I do end up with a lot of extra objects that could frankly get removed.

Option A was changing the script to run like:

if (Panto.contents==('QE BLUE')){

QEBlue.visible = true;

QEGreen.remove();

etc.....

But this doesn't really save a lot of time in writing the script, plus it creates a lot of steps for it to run through.

Option B would be something along the lines of:

if (app.activeDocument.pageItems.everyItem().visible = false){

app.activeDocument.pageItems.everyItem().remove();

}

But instead of removing everything it just hides everything.

In an ideal world, the script would read

if (Panto.contents==('QE BLUE')){

QEBlue.visible = true;

"everything else".remove();

Right now the doc has 3 layers and each layer has corresponding items, so just hiding & deleting layers isn't really a solution.

So in the end I've got a document with only the visible elements. If there's a way to write this efficiently it would be greatly appreciated, otherwise, I can brute force it by telling the script to change every item one by one.

[brian_p_dts · Accepted solution]

A short fuction that removes all invisibile items that you can run after your main block runs. You do have to iterate and check visibility: 

var pis = app.activeDocuments.allPageItems;
var i = pis.length;
while(i--) {
   if (!pis[i].visible) { pis[i].remove(); } 
}

[Evan vR]

Worked like a charm!

Although it should be activeDocument (no s), but after that fix it's fine.

Thanks a ton!