Get Colour out of a multidimenisonal Array

[cmoke73]

Hello community!

Before I start a complex task I need to define some colors. To be able to use and get them individually, I pack them into an array:

var myDoc = app.documents[0]; 
var myPage = myDoc.pages[0];
var myColour = [];
var myColourName = [];
var selectedColour  = new Array();
    selectedColour [0] = new Object(); 
    selectedColour [0] ["colourName"] = "SF_Rot";
    selectedColour [0] ["colorValue"] = "15,100,100,0";
    selectedColour [1] = new Object(); 
    selectedColour [1] ["colourName"] = "SF_Grau";
    selectedColour [1] ["colorValue"] = "10,0,30,50";
    selectedColour [2] = new Object(); 
    selectedColour [2] ["colourName"] = "SF_Service";
    selectedColour [2] ["colorValue"] = "80,0,35,0";
var numColours = selectedColour.length;

Unfortunately, I can not get these values (simply with "alert") when required.

[Marc Autret · Accepted solution]

Hi cmoke73,

First above all, your array declaration can be shortened as follows:

var selectedColours = [
    { colourName: "SF_Rot",     colourValue: "15,100,100,0" },
    { colourName: "SF_Grau",    colourValue: "10,0,30,50" },
    { colourName: "SF_Service", colourValue: "80,0,35,0" }
];

I added an 's' to the identifier (selectedColours) to highlight the fact it is an array of objects, each element being a {colourName:string, colourValue:string} data structure. You can see the entire thing using alert( selectedColours.toSource() );

• Maybe it's not a good idea to use the String type for defining the colourValue property. An array of four numbers could be a better choice for dealing with InDesign DOM methods. Instead of

   colourValue: "a,b,c,d"

the syntax

   colourValue: [ a,b,c,d ]

would do the job.

• Considering that every selected colour (of your array) has the same object structure—that is, the {colourName, colourValue} scheme—it might be relevant to create a dedicated constructor in case some common features have to be invoked in a recurring way, say toString(), toRGB(), and so on.

Then you can fully customize the way you handle your data. For example,

function MyColour(/*str*/name,/*uint4[]*/value)
{
    this.colourName = name;
    this.colourValue = value.concat();
}
MyColour.prototype.toString = function()
{
    return this.colourName + ': '+ this.colourValue.join(',');
};
MyColour.prototype.toRGB = function()
{
    // todo
};
var selectedColours = [
    new MyColour("SF_Rot",     [15,100,100,0]),
    new MyColour("SF_Grau",    [10,0,30,5]),
    new MyColour("SF_Service", [80,0,35,0])
];
alert( selectedColours.join('\r') );
alert( selectedColours[1] );

Hope that helps.

@+

Marc

[Laubender]

Hi Marc,

depending what our OP cmoke likes to do with the colors array, it might be a good idea to define some other properties for an individual color as well. Properties that InDesign can directly use for constructing a new color in a document. Using a different array structure—an associative array—like I am showing below.

var colorArray = [];
var x;
// Within the scope of the array the name of the color should be unique:
colorArray["SF_Rot"] =
{
    name : "SF_Rot" ,
    colorValue : [15,100,100,0] ,
    model : ColorModel.PROCESS ,
    space : ColorSpace.CMYK
};
// Add more colors to the array
// …
// Change values like that:
colorArray["SF_Rot"].colorValue = [0,100,100,10];
// Add new document (or use a document that already exists):
var doc = app.documents.add();
// Add all colors in the array or change existing colors according to the array :
for(x in colorArray)
{
    var color = doc.colors.itemByName(x);
    // Color does not exist, add color:
    if( !color.isValid )
    {
          doc.colors.add
          (
              colorArray
          )
    }
    // Color exists, make sure that all properties of the color
    // will be the same according to your array:
    else
    {
        color.properties = colorArray;
    }
};

This approach is more tight to the DOM.

Regards,
Uwe

[cmoke73]

Hey Uwe!

Thanx for your answer.

Finally, I want to start a query, where the user can enter a colour (by means of a number). The individual values of the selected colour are used later for tables (lines, areas and font). This first part of the script will be a small database with the colour values.

That is what I made of your script:

var myDoc = app.documents[0]; 
var colourArray = [];  
var x;  
colourArray[0] =  {name : "SF_Rot", colorValue: [15,100,100,0], model: ColorModel.PROCESS, space: ColorSpace.CMYK};  
colourArray[1] =  {name : "SF_Grau", colorValue: [0,0,30,50], model: ColorModel.PROCESS, space: ColorSpace.CMYK};  
colourArray[2] =  {name : "SF_Service", colorValue: [80,0,35,0], model: ColorModel.PROCESS, space : ColorSpace.CMYK};       
function createColour() {
    var i = 0;
    start: while(true) {
      colourSwatch = prompt("Which color do you want to use? \r" + "1 = SF_Rot\r2 = SF_Grau\r3 = SF_Service", "" );
      i++;
      if(colourSwatch>colourArray.length || colourSwatch<1) continue start;
      break;
    }
return colourSwatch;
}
createColour();
alert ([colourArray[colourSwatch-1].colorValue]);

I changed the name of each array-content to an index-number bacause I later need that as a number (selection/input)

regards

Andreas

[cmoke73]

Hi Marc.

Thank you for your reply. That sound very good (professional). Unfortunally much too professional for me as an beginner-amateur-javascripter. "this" is something I´ve never used. Just as little did I use "prototype.toString". But I will try to understand it.

[cmoke73]

First step is done.

But: how can I use via entered number (colourSwatch) a value out from the array (colourArray) to color the edges of the tables/cells?

myTable.cells.everyItem().bottomEdgeStrokeColor = ?????????