IDCS3 linking in Javascript

[JADarnell]

Hello all.

I have a very simple JS that I obtained from this forum several years ago. I recently imported it into CS3 and it errs right at the top in this line:

b doc = app.activeDocument;

but I don't find out about it until this line:

b nroflinks = doc.links.length;

where the error message "undefined is not an object" appears at the bottom of the ExtendKit window.

The intervening lines just declare some variables. I have two questions:

1.) Where can I find a well-explained object model since it is no longer documented in the PDF and the object model displayed in the tool kit is next to useless to figure this kind of stuff out? and

2.) How do I get a list of links out of the document?

Thanks for any help you can give...

[JADarnell]

I figured out what my problem was. I did not include the #target directive in the script. When I added it, the problem went away.

I would still like some help on #1, however. I stand by my observation that the object model in ESTK is inadequate for learning JS for InDesign.

R,
John

[Peter Kahrel]

Make sure that in the top left of your edit window it says "Adobe InDesign CS3". You probably see "ExtendScript Toolkit 2" there now. To avoid this in future, make a habit of including this line at the beginning of every script:

#target indesign

As to your two questions, (1) there isn't any; (2) depends on what you want. Press Shift+Cmd/Ctrl+D to display it on screen, or use
>app.activeDocument.links.everyItem().name.join('\r')

to print all link names in ESTK's console.

Peter

[Peter Kahrel]

>I stand by my observation that the object model in ESTK is inadequate for learning JS for InDesign.

Everybody, including Adobe's engineers, would agree with that. They would also say that the object model in the ESTK is a reference, not a learning tool. For learning about the object model you need other resources. There are several scripting guides around -- see Adobe's web site.

Peter

[JADarnell]

Peter:

Thank you for your input. I appreciate it.

R,
John

[_Olav_Kvern_]

Hi John,

re: "I stand by my observation that the object model in ESTK is inadequate for learning JS for InDesign."

I agree, but I have to add: the information in the ESTK is pretty much the same as that in the earlier PDFs. Both are generated from InDesign's object model--the main difference is that we fixed errors in the source, rather than fixing them over and over again in the PDF.

Reference documentation is never a good way to learn about an object model--for that, you need tutorials and examples. As I've said in other posts, that's why we did away with the PDF version of the reference--so I could concentrate on the Scripting Guide.

For an HTML version of the reference information, see other threads about Jongware's XSLT converter (which turns the XML used by the ESTK object model viewer into a hyperlinked HTML document).

Thanks,

Ole