[JS] Check if character is an inline frame

[Fred Goldman]

How would if check if a character is an inline frame?

if (myFindsB[0].parent.characters[myIndex +1].contents == inlineFrame)

[Fred Goldman]

Ok, so then shouldn't this return the same thing?

myFindsB[0].parent.characters[myIndex]

[Peter Kahrel]

No, but
>myFindsB[0].parent.characters[myIndex].index

should.

[Fred Goldman]

Ah, that's there my mistake was. I forgot to add index at the end.

[Fred Goldman]

Nope it's still not working.

This is never returning true:
if(myFindsB[0].parent.characters[myIndex+1].parentTextFrames[0].parent instanceof Character){

Even when

myFindsB[0].parent.characters[myIndex+1]

Is an inline frame.

[Fred Goldman]

Is it possible there is a difference between inline frames that are part of the text and inline anchored markers?

Because when I select an inline frame and run this script I get object page.

alert(app.selection[0].parentTextFrames[0].parent)

[Harbs.]

Fred,

I'm a little confused. Shouldn't this be what you want?

if(myFindsB[0].parentTextFrames[0].parent instanceof Character)

[Peter Kahrel]

Maybe. But could you remind us what exactly you're trying to accomplish?

[Fred Goldman]

Ok, I am finding tags. These tags represent horizontal rules. Here is an
example of a tag: |hrule5|

Now if right after this tag there is an inline frame I only want the
rule to go until the anchored frame. And if there is not an inline frame
I want the rule to be the width of the text frame.

So I would like to test the character right after myFinds (which is an
array of these tags) to see if there is an inline frame, and if it is
get its geometric bounds so I can subtract that from the
parentTextFrame's geometric bounds to get the width of the rule.

[Fred Goldman]

BTW, when I say select an inline frame, I mean with the type tool, as
opposed to the selection tool.

[Peter Kahrel]

Thanks, X and Harbs, for the explanation.

[Peter Kahrel]

Fred,

When you've got a handle on something inside an inline it's not so hard to figure out whether or not you're in an inline; that was covered earlier in this thread.

Figuring out whether an object that declares itself to be a character is really that (i.e. its contents is a single letter) or an inline takes some less elegant methods. I know of two. (1) Check the character's unicode value: if it's an inline, unicode value FFFC is returned. Any other unicode values mean it's a real character (or likely, anyway; it could also be a special character I guess). (2) A character with geometricBounds must be an inline; a real character has no geometricBounds, so testing for that will produce an error. The latter test would be something like this:

try
{
app.selection[0].textFrames[0].geometricBounds
alert ("It's an inline.")
}
catch(_)
{
alert ("It's a character")
}

with a character (either a plain one or an inline) selected.

Peter

[Fred Goldman]

Ah, checking for Unicode is a good idea.

Harbs,

Peter hit the problem right on the head in this post. When you've got
the object selected there's no problem, but when you want to check the
character it's treated like any other character.

[Harbs.]

Fred,

I obviously have no clue what you're trying to accomplish, because I
didn't understand a word of what you just wrote! ;)

Of course it's a character. If the frame's parent is a character, the
frame is either inline or anchored. Why are you checking what kind of
character it is? If you want to determine if it's inline or anchored,
you can find that out with the anchoredObjectSettings.

What am I missing? Either way... I'm glad you worked it out...

Harbs

[_Dave_Saunders_]

Can't you just check the length of the character's page items collection?

Dave

[Fred Goldman]

Hey Dave, you're right!

A regular character has 0 pageItems and an anchored frame character has 1. Very good!

[Fred Goldman]

Harbs,

The problem is that if you select the frame as a character (with the text tool) it's parent is a story just like any other character. There is no way to differentiate between them. But Dave's answer is the best, you can just check the length of the pageItems.

[Harbs.]

Hi Fred.

Of course. I've used Dave's method to find inlines/anchored page items
in text many times before. I just didn't/don't understand why you would
select an inline and then check that you selected it...

Whatever... :)

Harbs

[_Dave_Saunders_]

Here's a script I've been using lately because the catalog I'm working on has anchored objects that are otherwise unselectable:

//DESCRIPTION: Select associated anchored object



if (app.documents.length > 0 &&

      app.selection.length == 1 &&

          app.selection[0].hasOwnProperty("baseline")) {

  selectAnchor(app.selection[0]);

}



function selectAnchor(sel) {

  try {

    app.select(sel.pageItems[0]);

  } catch(e) {}

}

The objects in question consisted of a text frame that itself contained as inline objects one or more groups each made up of text frames. There was no way to click on the top-level anchored object without getting one of the contained objects. This was true whether I tried the pointer or text tools.

So, I banged out the above script, which is nearly relevant to this topic!

Dave