calling actions from a script and vice versa (CS)

[spike_grobstein@adobeforums.com]

Hey

I just realized that I can automate a lot of my workflow in illustrator with applescript (I never realized it was scriptable) and I'm running into a couple of problems.

I have a text object in illustrator with a note "filename" that I can use an action to select ("select object with note" feature), and a script which changes the text of that object to "Filename: myfile.ai"

originally, I had an action select the object and then call the scripts menuitem, but when I quit illustrator and relaunch, I lose the script calling step in my action. that's fine, right? why don't I just call the action from the script with the "do script "Filenamer" from "Automation"" command?

Well, it works fine when I call it by itself, from the applescript application, but when I select the item from the scripts menu, the action never gets called and the script never completes.

And is there any way I can give a script a keyboard shortcut? Whenever I quit illustrator, it resets my keyboard shortcuts for my scripts. blargh.

any ideas?

here's the script:



tell application "Illustrator CS"
set boldFont to text font "Arial-BoldMT"
set regFont to text font "ArialMT"

do script "Filenamer" from "Automation"
--do script "Filenamer" as Unicode text from "Automation" as Unicode text

if the class of item 1 of selection is text frame then
set t to item 1 of the selection

set the contents of t to ("Filename: " & name of front document)
set the properties of (every word of t) to {text font:regFont}
set the properties of (the first word of t) to {text font:boldFont}
end if
end tell



Thanks in advance.

[Jason_Howard@adobeforums.com]

Spike,
You have just mentioned 2 of the more annoying things that I have found in scripting Illustrator-
1- You can't call an action from within a script, and have said script reside in your FILE, SCRIPTS menu.
2- Illustrator does not save the keyboard shortcuts for scripts.

You might want to try iKey, this is a application that allows you to program keboard shortcuts, I use it for just the reason that you need to and it works great. If you do a google search it should pop up, I think it is shareware.

-Jason

[spike_grobstein@adobeforums.com]

do you have any experience with Unsanity's MenuMaster? Do you know if that would work?



Has adobe admitted to there being a problem with calling actions from scripts when the script is being called from the File::Scripts menu?

Have you figured out a workaround for calling actions when executing a script from the menu? Or, at least, do you know a way of selecting items with a note (a la the Attributes palette)?

Unfortunately, my scripts rely heavily on some actions that I recorded. The only workaround I can think of would be to have my script call a separate external script to tell illustrator to execute an action.

Adobe needs an illustrator scripting forum. =) <http://www.unsanity.com/haxies/menumaster>

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

I think Drop Draws will work as well and perhaps Launch Bar.

[spike_grobstein@adobeforums.com]

Well, I'm trying to stay away from running too much extra stuff. Having extra launch bars and drawers and utilities installed kinda makes me distrust my system (hurt feelings still left over from the OS9 extension conflicts and such).

I installed scriptmenu (in the applescript folder) and tried to set up a keyboard shortcut in the keyboard controlpanel, but that didn't like me...

So, since I like unsanity, I'm using Menumaster and calling my script in the from the system-wide scriptmenu. It's a little slow to execute (kinda jumps to the finder first), but it's working pretty well. Now I just gotta pay 10$ to register this thing.

Thanks for the help. At least I know it's a real issue and not something I was doing wrong.

[Jason_Howard@adobeforums.com]

Spike-
Nope, I am not familiar with MenuMaster. iKey works great for me, I program my script to an F key, the script runs from outside Illustrator and calls the necessary action just fine. There is no noticable slowdown in using it, although the script tells Illustrator to 'activate' so it remains the frontmost application.

The Illustrator CS scripting guide from Adobe, page 61 says-
"It is not possible to execute scripts that contain the do script command from the Scripts menu. Attempting to do so will result in an error."

From a script you can identify and select an object with a note by using something like-
set VariableX to the first path item of document 1 whose note is "variable"
set selection to VariableX

Agreed about the Illustrator specific scripting forum.

-Jason

[spike_grobstein@adobeforums.com]

In that case, I'll check out iKey. =)

Ahh, I actually just perused the CS scripting documentation, since I had ordered a book on scripting illustrator a couple days before. Even though the book was on scripting for 10, I figured I could figure out how to do the examples in CS, which I have been. But, the book says that a script can call an action, but an action can't call a script. The book doesn't have any examples of calling an action from a script, so I looked it up in the dictionary. Blargh.

I wonder why adobe doesn't have that functionality available... recursive action calling from a script would be very handy. Especially for some things that I need to do.

The example you showed me isn't working for me. It's selecting what I want, but throwing an error:

Illustrator CS got an error: Can't get every text path of document 1 whose note = "filename".



set filenameItem to (first text frame whose note is "filename")
set selection to filenameItem



=(

Yeah, there doesn't seem to be any online forums or even resources for illustrator scripts. I found a couple japanese sites, but I have no idea what they're talking about. ;)

[Wade_Zimmerman@adobeforums.com]

I agree with you guys if there was a scripting forum for Illustrator I think more of us would jump into the mix.

[Jason_Howard@adobeforums.com]

Spike,
Just to be clear, you can call an action from a script, you just can not then have that script reside within the FILE, SCRIPTS menu within Illustrator. If you run the script from the menu bar scripts folder or set a key to run it (using iKey, or something similar) it should work just fine.

Hmmm, your right, that doesn't work when trying to identify a text frame (vrs a path item). I'll mess around with this later, if I figure out someting I'll post it.

-jason

[spike_grobstein@adobeforums.com]

I can actually live without that functionality since I can just say

set the name of someObject to "someName"

and when I save the file, it remembers that. I just need to be able to select certain objects to update variable content (ie- swatches in use, filenames, modification date, etc).

Thanks for all the help. =)