Script to show panels

[Mike Witherell]

Hi gang,

I cannot find a script that shows specific panels in the dock. Does anyone have an example of script that shows/calls forth a named panel into the dock? Or even a script line that calls forth into view a panel in the middle of the screen floating free?

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Maybe through invoke()? 

[Mike Witherell]

I tried this but it did not work:

// Check if InDesign is running
if (app && app.name === "Adobe InDesign") {
  // Invoke the Info panel
  app.scriptMenuActions.item("$ID/Info Panel").invoke();
} else {
  alert("Adobe InDesign is not running.");
}

[Mike Witherell]

Similarly, this did not work:

// Check if InDesign is running
if (app && app.name === "Adobe InDesign") {
  // Invoke the Info panel
  app.menuActions.itemByID(208).invoke(); // ID 208 corresponds to the Info panel
} else {
  alert("Adobe InDesign is not running.");
}

[Nick Passmore]

If it helps, this works in AppleScript.

tell application id "com.adobe.InDesign"

   activate

   set visible of panel "Info" to true

end tell

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

@Mike Witherell 

As @Nick Passmore suggested - you need to refer to Panels collection - not menu:

var myPanel = app.panels.item("$ID/Info Panel");

myPanel.visible = true;

[rob day]

Hi Mike, this works for me

var ip =  app.menuActions.itemByName("Info")
//or var ip =  app.menuActions.itemByID("89089")
if(!ip.checked){  
    ip.invoke();  
};  

[Mike Witherell]

Hi Robert and Rob,

Thanks for the assist. Rob, your script works for showing one panel, but when I duplicated it by 14 panels I wanted to show, it didn't work. I'm trying to show 14 of my favorite every-day panels, make them show up in a dock, and have it save the workspace as "IDclass".

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

This doesn't work?

[rob day]

I don’t think there is a way of positioning or docking a panel once it’s open. I can create an array of panel ID numbers, close all the panels, loop through and open them, but the position is random:

//["Info", "Transform", "Layers", "Links"];
var pa = [89089, 132609, 30220, 18433];

var mn;
for (var i = 0; i < pa.length; i++){
    mn =  app.menuActions.itemByID(pa[i])
    if(!mn.checked){  
        mn.invoke();  
    }; 
};   

[Robert at ID-Tasker]

Once it's open - no - but before opening InDesign - yes:

But it's rather overkill...