How to select item by name using JavaScript

[magikct]

I need to select item "width" of layer "dimensions" (like on the attached pic) by js script. Anyone can help me?

[Manan Joshi]

Try the following

app.documents[0].layers.itemByName("dimensions").pageItems.itemByName("width")

In case the layer contains more than one element named width you will get just a single element

-Manan

[magikct]

No, but I modified your code a little bit, and it's working. Thank you very much.

app.select(NothingEnum.NOTHING);
app.documents[0].layers.itemByName("dimensions").pageItems.itemByName("width").select(SelectionOptions.ADD_TO);

[Manan Joshi]

Ahh sorry it thought by select you meant getting a reference to the object to do an operation over it. Anyhow i see you have added the needed parts to make it work, just add in error checks as well to handle condtions like the layer or the object does not exist and then you should have a pretty robust code snippet

-Manan

[magikct]

I don't think I'm good enough at extendscript to do that yet 🙂

[magikct]

I would like InDesign to look for an the item only on the active page. Do you have an idea how to do it?

[Laubender]

Hi,

you could access the active page like that:

app.documents[0].layoutWindows[0].activePage

Also possible, the active spread:

app.documents[0].layoutWindows[0].activeSpread

But since Layer is an object of Document and not of Spread or Page you can only look directly into a named page item on the page or spread without restricting it to a specific layer.

If there are different objects on the page with the same name you could access all page items on the page and loop until you find the one in your desired layer by checking the itemLayer property plus the name property of an object. If the named object is part of a nested structure like a group you could loop the allPageItems array of a page or a spread until your named object is found.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[Laubender]

Another annotation:

app.documents[0].layers.itemByName("NameOfLayer").pageItems

If called by layer you can gather page items on document spreads only!

It will not refer to page items on master spreads.

An old discussion: Some consider this a bug, some think this is by design.

But everyone will agree, I think, that this is very unfortunate.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender
( ACP )

[Ken Webster]

Of course the problem being that layers.itemByName("layerName") doesn't work. It always returns with a layer object even if one with that name doesn't exist. Does anyone know of a valid way to check to see if a layer already exists?

[leo.r]

Of course the problem being that layers.itemByName("layerName") doesn't work. It always returns with a layer object even if one with that name doesn't exist. 

By Ken Webster

I can't reproduce it - it returns an error if a layer with that name doesn't exist.

EDIT: Correct info below.

[Manan Joshi]

What error do you get @leo.r ? I rechecked and I do get a layer object which is invalid.

-Manan

[leo.r]

What error do you get leo.r ? I rechecked and I do get a layer object which is invalid.

-Manan

By Manan Joshi

Well, admittedly I called JS from AppleScript (it's just easier for me under my setup) so I assumed the result would be the same in pure JS:

do script "app.documents[0].layers.itemByName(\"fakeName\")" language javascript

I should have mentioned it - sorry!

I'm getting an "Object is invalid" error when using a fake name.

But I guess the issue of returning a layer with non-existing name is purely a JavaScript thing.

AppleScript always returns an error on attempt to get a layer (or another element) when using a non-existing name, for example:

tell document 1 to get layer "fakeName"

Error: Can’t get layer "fakeName" of document 1.

[Manan Joshi]

Ok, never tried my hands much on Applescript and my explanation was entirely directed towards JS so yeah we both might be reporting correct behavior albeit the language is different.

-Manan

[TᴀW]

Sure, you can check whether the returned layer is valid like so:

document.layers.itemByName("fdafdsf").isValid;

... which returns true if it is, and false if it isn't.

[Ken Webster]

Sure, you can check whether the returned layer is valid like so:

document.layers.itemByName("fdafdsf").isValid;

... which returns true if it is, and false if it isn't.

By TᴀW

Thanks!

[Manan Joshi]

When you interact with collections like layers, paragraphs, pageItems etc to get a particular element they almost always return an object even if that object is not valid. It is because the code like layers.itemByName("layerName") does not hit the actual object unless you try and access a property of the object, that is when it is resolved and you get an exception if the object is invalid. So always check the isValid property before using the object as suggested by @TᴀW 

-Manan