Own parent

[_Dave_Saunders_]

We all know that the InDesign application object is its own parent, but can anyone identify another object that can be its own parent?

I stumbled on this by accident the other day.

Just to be clear, I'm not talking about an object of a similar kind being the parent, for example, a rectangle can contain some other rectangle, I'm talking about an object which is its own parent.

Hint: even though what I've said is true, if you happen to pass one of these objects to the findPage/findWhere functions we've been playing with lately, you'll not be dumped into an endless loop. [Huh! How is that possible?]

Dave

[Harbs.]

Hmm.

That's a really good riddle!

The only object I could think of that fits the clue is Character. Sure
enough Character is listed in the OMV under the possible parents of a
Character. Under what situation that can happen? I've no idea... =-O

--
Harbs
http://www.in-tools.com

[_Dave_Saunders_]

You're on the right track, but it's not character (nor any text object). The parent of a character is always the story (or XMLStory).

Dave

[Harbs.]

Okay. So when is a Cell its own parent?

--
Harbs
http://www.in-tools.com

[_Dave_Saunders_]

What do you know, I've just found two other related objects that have the same characteristic. They can be their own parent -- by which I mean, if you ask for:

myObj.parent

the object you get is myObj. Even to the extent that:

myObj.parent == myObj

returns true.

Dave

[_Dave_Saunders_]

That's it.

myCell = myTable.cells[0];
myOtherCellRef = myCell.cells[0];
myOtherCellRef == myCell; returns true

but

myOtherCellRef.parent == myCell; also returns true

same thing happens with rows (and I assume columns).

I suspect that it has something to do with the fact that you can reference sets of cells or it could just be an accidental thing.

myCell = myTable.cells[0].cells[0].cells[0].cells[0];

also works and gives you the same cell and if you work your way up the parental chain it takes you four steps to get to the table.

Dave

[Harbs.]

Very interesting!

The same basic concept applies to text objects. A
Character.characters[0].characters[0], etc. will always be the same
object. It only works down the parent chain. If you work up the chain,
the immediate parent will be the story.

I think the fact that it works down the chain is probably a feature
(i.e. if you do a search you can refer to characters[0] no matter what
the search returns -- even a Character). The fact that cells work up the
chain is probably a bug...

--
Harbs
http://www.in-tools.com