Your prescription for increased productivity and profitability
In the last two blogs we have started a script to automate the creation of a new document. When complete the script is designed to allow the user to choose a number of options from a custom dialog. The values returned will be used to automatically create a new document. Among the values to be chosen from the user will be the following:
Toward this end the following subroutines (handlers for AppleScript and functions for ExtendScript) were created:
While at it, a good idea might be to expand the style import options to include color swatches.
With the addition of the color import option, we now have four boolean values that need to be passed to the handler. Not only that, but the user dialog will need to get the values for eachof these from the user and pass them back to the calling statement. Rather than passing these four individual values around, we can set up a global variable to hold a list (array in ExtendScript). The items in this list can be initialized to false, then updated when the user submits the custom dialog.
Let’s see how this would work with a simplified custom dialog:
--global list of options: text, object, table, and color initialized to false
property styleOptions : {false, false, false, false}
--list of styleFile names from which user will choose
property stylefileList : {}
set styleFolderStr to "Presets:Styles"
try
--get list of style file names
set appFolderPath to getAppPath()
getStyleFileList(appFolderPath, styleFolderStr)
userDialog("Project Settings", true, "Dialog Loabel")
on error errStr
activate
display alert errStr
end try
userDialog
--=====SUBROUTINES
on userDialog(dlgName, cancelIt, dlgLabel)
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS6"
activate
--make sure script preferences allow a dialog
set origLevel to user interaction level of script preferences
set user interaction level of script preferences to interact with all
--initialize wasCancelled variable used to flag if dialog is cancelled
set wasCancelled to false
--create the dialog
set dlgRef to make dialog with properties {name:dlgName, can cancel:cancelIt, label:dlgLabel}
tell dlgRef
set dialogColumn to make dialog column
tell dialogColumn
--create enabling group only if there are stylesheets from which to choose
if length of stylefileList > 0 then
set enable1 to make enabling group with properties {static label:"Import Styles", checked state:true}
tell enable1
tell (make dialog column)
tell (make dialog row)
make static text with properties {static label:"Choose stylesheet:"}
set styleDrop to make dropdown with properties {min width:180, string list:stylefileList, selected index:0}
end tell --dialog row
set textField to make checkbox control with properties {static label:"Text Styles", checked state:true}
set objectField to make checkbox control with properties {static label:"Object Styles", checked state:true}
set tableField to make checkbox control with properties {static label:"Table and Cell Styles", checked state:false}
set colorField to make checkbox control with properties {static label:"Color Swatches", checked state:false}
end tell --dialog column
end tell --enable1
end if
end tell --dialog column
end tell --dialog reference
--show the dialog and get results if user does not cancel
set userResponse to show dlgRef
if userResponse = true then
if length of stylefileList > 0 then
if checked state of enable1 = true then
set item 1 of styleOptions to checked state of textField
set item 2 of styleOptions to checked state of objectField
set item 3 of styleOptions to checked state of tableField
set item 4 of styleOptions to checked state of colorField
else --user cancelled
set wasCancelled to true
end if
end if
end if
destroy dlgRef
--if user cancelled, throw error; otherwise return values
if wasCancelled = true then error "User cancelled"
--all values to be returned at this point are global
return {}
end tell
end userDialog
--Returns path to application folder as a string value
on getAppPath()
tell application "Adobe InDesign CS6"
set appPath to file path as string
end tell
return appPath
end getAppPath
--Returns list of file names at given folder path
on getStyleFileList(appFolderPath, styleFolderStr)
set stylePath to appFolderPath & styleFolderStr
tell application "Finder"
set itExists to exists folder (stylePath)
end tell
if itExists = true then
set stylefileList to list folder stylePath
end if
end getStyleFileList
//global array of inprt style options: text, object, table, and color; initialized to false
var styleOptions = [false, false, false, false];
//arra of style file names from which user will choose
var stylefileList = [];
//call to main function
var styleFolderStr = "/Presets/Styles/"
main();
styleOptions;
function main(){
try {
//get list of stylefile names
var appFolderPath = getAppPath();
stylefileList = getStyleFileList (appFolderPath, styleFolderStr, ".indd");
//get user's response from custom dialog
userDialog("Project Settings", true, "Dialog Label");
} catch (e) {
app.activate;
alert (e);
}
}
//HELPER FUNCTIONS
function userDialog(dlgName, cancelIt, dlgLabel){
//make sure script prefeences allow a dialog
var origLevel = app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel;
app.scriptPreferences.userInteractionLevel = UserInteractionLevels.INTERACT_WITH_ALL;
//initialize flag to indicate if user cancelled
var wasCancelled = false;
//create the dialog
var dlgRef = app.dialogs.add({name:dlgName, canCancel:cancelIt, label:dlgLabel});
//add a column
var dialogColumn = dlgRef.dialogColumns.add();
//add enabling group //create enabling group only if there are stylesheets from which to choose
if (stylefileList.length > 0) {
var enable1 = dialogColumn.enablingGroups.add({staticLabel:"Import Styles", checkedState:true});
var enableColumn = enable1.dialogColumns.add();
var enableRow = enableColumn.dialogRows.add();
enableRow.staticTexts.add({staticLabel:"Choose stylesheet:"});
var styleDrop = enableRow.dropdowns.add ({minWidth:180, stringList:stylefileList, selectedIndex:0});
var textField = enableColumn.checkboxControls.add({staticLabel:"Text Styles", checkedState:true});
var objectField = enableColumn.checkboxControls.add({staticLabel:"Object Styles", checkedState:true});
var tableField = enableColumn.checkboxControls.add({staticLabel:"Table and Cell Styles", checkedState:false});
var colorField = enableColumn.checkboxControls.add({staticLabel:"Color Swatches", checkedState:false});
}
if (dlgRef.show()== true) {
if (stylefileList.length > 0) {
if (enable1.checkedState == true) {
styleOptions[0] = textField.checkedState;
styleOptions[1] = objectField.checkedState;
styleOptions[2] = tableField.checkedState;
styleOptions[3] = colorField.checkedState;
}
}
} else {
wasCancelled = true;
}
//destroy the dialog
dlgRef.destroy()
if (wasCancelled == true) {
throw ("User cancelled");
}
//all values to be returned at this point are global
return[];
}
//returns path to application as decoded string value
function getAppPath() {
var appPath = app.filePath;
var appFolder = Folder.decode(appPath);
return appFolder
}
//returns larray of files found in style path
function getStyleFileList (appFolderPath, styleFolderStr, fileExt) {
var stylePath = appFolderPath + styleFolderStr;
var folderRef = Folder(stylePath);
//determines system script is running on
if (File.fs == "Windows") {
var fileList = folderRef.getFiles("*"+fileExt);
} else {
checkExt = fileExt.toUpperCase();
var fileList = folderRef.getFiles (listByExt);
}
if (fileList.length == 0) {
throw ("No files found");
} else {
var nameList = new Array;
for (var i = 0; i <filelist.length; objref.name.touppercase().indexof(checkext)!="-1;">As you can see, even a simplified display dialog can end up being not so simple. But once you get this much working, it will be a simple
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