Get app.documents[???] for the activeDocument

[Pedro Cortez Marques]

An example:

I have 10 opened images in photoshop.

I start working on the last one, then the one before, and so on until the 8th image.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 are opened

7, 8, 9 are finished and must be saved.

I want an action that will save the activeDocument and all the ones after that: in the example will save the 7th 8th and 10th image.

Is this possible?

I have everything but I don't know how to get the number for the activeDocument >>> app.documents[???]

[Michael_L_Hale · Accepted solution]

Here is a quick way to get the index of the activeDocument.

function getActiveDocumentIndex(){
     var ref = new ActionReference();
     ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID("Dcmn"), charIDToTypeID("Ordn"), charIDToTypeID("Trgt") ); 
     return desc = executeActionGet(ref).getInteger(stringIDToTypeID('itemIndex'))-1;
};
alert('The activeDocument is app.documents['+getActiveDocumentIndex()+']');

[xbytor2]

The quick way doesn't always work.

For instance:

1) File > New...

2) 3D > New Shape From Layer > Cube Wrap

3) Image > Duplicate...

Then run your code (slightly modified):

function getActiveDocumentIndex(){
     var ref = new ActionReference();
     ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID("Dcmn"), charIDToTypeID("Ordn"), charIDToTypeID("Trgt") ); 
     return desc = executeActionGet(ref).getInteger(stringIDToTypeID('itemIndex'))-1;
};
var index = getActiveDocumentIndex();
alert('The activeDocument is app.documents['+getActiveDocumentIndex()+']');
alert(app.documents[index].name);

It thinks the duplicated doc is [2] instead of [1] then fails when you try to get the name. This is apparently an artifact of the 3D system introducing new pseudo-documents internally when you have 3D layers.

You end up have to use something like this to get the actual DOM index:

function getDocumentIndex(doc) {
  var docs = app.documents;
  for (var i = 0; i < docs.length; i++) {
    if (docs == doc) {
      return i+1;
    }
  }
  return -1;
};

This is a CS5/Extended problem but the problem may present itself in other ways.

[Michael_L_Hale]

I have never run into that before. But then again I don't do much with 3D.

I still like getting the index directly instead of looping so I think I will try to come up with an Action Manger fix.

[xbytor2]

But then again I don't do much with 3D.

Nor do I, but I have very thorough beta testers. There may also be other cases that cause this problem that I don't recall. I just changed my code to compensate for the problem.

[Pedro Cortez Marques]

Thanks Michael

That's what I needed.

I only need to apply it to opened photos (never new documents) and I do not need 3D

Tks

[xbytor2]

I only need to apply it to opened photos (never new documents) and I do not need 3D

The problem I noted happens with new or existing documents that contain 3D shape layers. It can apparently happen with docs containing certain Smart Object or Smart Filter layers but I haven't been able to replicate those cases.

The important point here is that there are (undocumented) situations where the index in a document's descriptor may not correspond to the document's DOM index.

-X