New at scripting in JS

[_pescoxuto_]

Hello, I want to do a script that help me to make repetitive tasks.

I have to open several INDP documents in the same folder of my INDD document; and I want to copy all the contents of everydocument, and paste it in my InDesign file.

Any idea?

TIA.

[liedzeit]

Hi pescoxuto
welcome to the world of InDesign scripting. The question is do you need a script or do you want to "do" the script? If the latter you should try working through the tutorials and some of the threads here. You will soon get the idea how to accomplish your task.
And if there are some concrete problems you can come back and there will be some people here ready to help you.
Give it a try. It is well worth it. And good luck.

Ralf

[_pescoxuto_]

Hello... I need help to do the script.

I would like to see some examples (open a document, select all...). I have read some tutorials, but I think that some script would be very helpful.

Thank you.

[_Robert_Tkaczyk_]

you have many example scripts installed with InDesign

robin

--
www.adobescripts.com

[Jongware]

The InDesign Scripting guide http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/scripting/pdfs/InDesignCS3_ScriptingGuide_JS.pdf contains examples of all basic functionality.

A hint to start with: in scripts, don't bother with 'selected text' (well, unless you're writing an interactive thingy). You can copy and move just about anything to anything -- most objects have copy and move methods.

[_pescoxuto_]

I have been looking in the tutorials, and some sample scripts (mainly at http://jsid.blogspot.com/) but I just want to know how to work with assignments.

Is it possible to Update or Remove all the assignments in a document with a JS script?

Thank you.

[Jongware]

The ESTK 2 Help is your friend. In the Help menu, there is an item called "InDesign CS3 Object Model". Without looking very hard, under 'Assignment' I find these:

Assignment remove ()
Deletes the assignment and its file.

void update ([versionComments: string][, forceSave: bool=false])
Updates the assignment file.

[_pescoxuto_]

Hello,

I almost finished my script, but I am having problems with the update script.

I want to know how to fix this code:

if (app.documents.assignment.userName() == "johnny") {
app.documents.assignment.update();
}

Thank you

[Jongware]

>app.documents.assignment.userName()

userName is not a function, it's a property. Perhaps that'll help.

[Peter Kahrel]

If userName is a property you wouldn't expect the parentheses.

[_pescoxuto_]

But I am still having problems with the line:

if (app.documents.assignment.userName == "johnny")

it doesn't work.

[Peter Kahrel]

For the current document you need
>if (app.activeDocument.assignment.userName == "johnny")

[_pescoxuto_]

I am afraid it doesn't work.

JavaScript Error!
Error Number: 55
Error String: Object does not support the property or method "assignment"
Line: 13
Source: if (app.activeDocument.assignment.userName == "johnny") {

any idea¿?

Thanks.

[Jongware]

Check the ESTK help -- it shows that the Document class (of which app.activeDocument is an instance) indeed does not have a property (or method) "assignment". What it
i does
have, is a property "assignments" ("A collection of assignments." -- note the 's' at the end). Which makes perfect sense, because there can be more than a single assigment (singular) per document.

[_Dave_Saunders_]

Just like a page or a spread (and lots of other objects), an assignment is one of a collection. A document can have any number of assignments.

If you look at the Document property names, you'll see that the property is named:

assignments

Plural.

To refer to one of them, you need to indicate which one. If you know there is but one, then you can write:

if (app.activeDocument.assignments[0].userName == "johnny") {

But if there are more than just the one, you'll need to pick out the one you want. I see that Assignment objects have names, so, if you know the name, you could write:

if (app.activeDocument.assignments.item("TheName").userName == "johnny") {

Dave

[Peter Kahrel]

To tell you the truth, I haven't a clue what an assignment is. But anyway, if you check the scripting reference -- which you will do if you're new at scripting InDesign -- you'll see that there is a collection called "assignments". The first assignment in that collection is addressed as "assignments[0]", the second as "assignment[1]", etc. So what you actually need is
>if (app.activeDocument.assignments[0].userName == "johnny")

to check the username of the first assignment.

Peter

[_pescoxuto_]

I am using ESTK 2, but it's quite complicated for me to achieve something.

Now I created the if sentence, and it is working, but I don't know how to force this assignmet to be updated.

I tried with assignment.update(); but it doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for all your help.

[_Gerald_Singelmann_]

>To tell you the truth, I haven't a clue what an assignment is.

An assignment is a collection of things you exported to be worked on in InCopy. Usually a bunch of text files in XML syntax, similar to tagged text files.

[Peter Kahrel]

Thanks Gerald.

Peter

[_pescoxuto_]

Any idea about running the assingment.update(); script?

Now I have:

if (app.activeDocument.assignments.item("np3n1f-Text") ) {
Assignment.update ();
}

But it does't work.

thank you

[Kasyan Servetsky]

Hi pescoxuto,

if (app.activeDocument.assignments.item("np3n1f-Text") != null ) {
app.activeDocument.assignments.item("np3n1f-Text").update();
}

Kasyan

[_pescoxuto_]

Hi everybody,

the last version of my code still doesn't work:

if (app.activeDocument.assignments.length()) {
app.activeDocument.assignments.everyItem().update();
app.activeDocument.assignments.everyItem().remove();
}

any idea?

TIA

[Jongware]

It would really REALLY help if you state the error and possibly the line number of that error.

app.activeDocument.assignments.length is not a function.

[_Dave_Saunders_]

The degrees of "not working" are vast any many.

When checking the size of a collection (of any object) use either:

Collection.length

or

Collection.count()

They return the same result. But:

Collection.length()

returns an error because length is a property, not a method.

Dave

[_pescoxuto_]

Hello,

All I want to get is while exists any assignment, update the content of the stories and then remove the assignment, to keep only the text of the story and unlink from the assignment.

The error is:

JavaScript Error!
Error Number: 24
Error String: app.activeDocument.assignments.length is not a function
Line 13
Source: if (app.activeDocument.assignments.length()) {

Thank you very much.