Trouble understanding looping through an array

[davidn5918184]

I'm trying to understand how to loop through an arrays. I have tried a few variations with no luck, I think it may be specific to extendscripts version of javascript but I'm not totally sure. Anyhow, I have a twenty page document and I want to put a red rectangle on each page in the array and both these attempts do not work. How do I do this?

var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
var myArr = [1,5,7,14];

//Attempt 1
for (name of myArr){
    myDoc.pages[name].rectangles.add().properties = {
    geometricBounds:[0,0,200,200], 
    fillColor: "Red"}; */
}

//Attempt 2
for ( i=0; i < myArr.length; i++){
    myDoc.pages[myArr[i]].rectangles.add().properties = {
    geometricBounds:[0,0,200,200], 
    fillColor: "Red"};
}

[brianp311 · Accepted solution]

Attempt 2 is closer to correct. I would eschew 'properties' in general; you can see that rectangles.add() returns a rectangle object. So, you can set a variable to your returned rectangle object and set individual properties after you have that object reference. 

var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
var myArr = [1,5,7,14];
var rect;

//Attempt 2
for ( i=0; i < myArr.length; i++){
    rect = myDoc.pages[myArr[i]].rectangles.add();
    rect.geometricBounds =[0,0,200,200];
    rect.fillColor = "Red";
}

[davidn5918184]

So it was the properties that was messing it up? This works thank you, one question, the boxes are off as the array starts with 0, is there anyway to use the actual numbers in the array? Something like [myArr[i-1] or something?

[davidn5918184]

It strange I'm getting a box on page 2, 6, 8, 14. That makes no sense.

[Laubender]

Hi David,

2, 6, 8 make perfect sense.

I'd expect 15 and not 14 as last value for the page position in your document.

Counting in ExtendScript starts with 0.

So: pages[1] is the second page in your document.

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

[davidn5918184]

Ok I see now, the reason was because I had the pages as spreads and whenever I used a even number  it would allways place it at [0,0,200,200]. But I still don't understand how you adjust the array to use the actual numbers. It seems like it would be i-1 but I can't get that to work. 

[brianp311]

It would be myArr[i]-1. The way you have it would lead to an out of bounds error when i = 0

[SychevKA]

hi, you should check ViewPreference, because "ruler per spread" and "ruler per spread" are different things

function test(){
    var rules_align = Number(app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.rulerOrigin)
    app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.rulerOrigin = 1380143215
    var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
    var myArr = [1,5,7,14];
    var rect;
    //Attempt 2
    for ( var i=0; i < myArr.length; i++){
        rect = myDoc.pages[myArr[i]-1].rectangles.add();
        rect.properties = {
            geometricBounds:[0,0,200,200], 
            fillColor: "Red"};
    }
    app.activeDocument.viewPreferences.rulerOrigin = rules_align
}

app.doScript('test()', ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, undefined, UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, 'test')

[SychevKA]

"ruler per spread" and "ruler per page" of course ))

[Peter Kahrel]

The rectangle's properties can be set as a parameter of the add() function:

myDoc.pages[myArr[i]-1].rectangles.add({
   geometricBounds:[0,0,200,200], 
   fillColor: "Red",
});

 which is more efficient.