Gather Assigned Frames

The Text Frames associated with Adobe InCopy Assignments

On to more things with Adobe InCopy Assignments in Adobe InDesign.

The generic function below will generate a return object with two properties. One contains references to every text frame in the passed document reference that has assigned content. The second segregates the assigned frames by assignment.

Either property will allow you to locate the frames that are used in an assignment.

//

function gatherAssignedFrames ( docRef ) {

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- G A T H E R A S S I G N E D F R A M E S

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Generic: Yes.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Purpose: To return an associative array of all the text frames in the

//-- passed coument that have associated Adobe InCopy Assignments

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Arguments:

//-- docRef: An [object Document] to investigate

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Calls: Nothing.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Returns: a custom object with two properties

//-- .assignmentFrames: An Associatve Array of Assignment IDs using

//-- the $ prefix as described below.

//-- Each element will contain a property for every text frame

//-- with the text frame ID with the $ prefix.

//-- The contents of these properties will be a reference

//-- to the text frame itself.

//-- .assignedTextFrames: An Associative Array of Text Frame IDs

//-- with each Text Frame ID have a $ prefix. The contents

//-- of each property is a reference to the text frame itself.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- $ Prefix on IDs

//-- IDs are prefixed with a $. Thus Text Frame 188 will be returned as

//-- $188. This is done because objects cannot be named with numbers.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Sample Use:

//-- gatherAssignedFrames ( docRef )

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Notes: Decide how you want to handled the Unassigned InCopy Content

//-- There will be references to that assignment as well. It is valid.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Written: 2009.11.12 by Jon S. Winters of electronic publishing support

//-- eps@electronicpublishingsupport.com

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Note, we are using a $ prefix on the object names in the associative

//-- array because pure numbers are not allowed.

//-- Create the return object.

var returnObject = new Object () ;

returnObject.assignmentFrames = new Object () ;

returnObject.assignedTextFrames = new Object () ;

//-- Gather all assignments.

var allAssignments = app.documents[0].assignments ;

//-- Loop through each of the assignments -- backwards for efficiency.

for ( var ai = allAssignments.length - 1 ; ai >= 0 ; ai-- ) {

//-- Get a reference to the current assignment in the loop and its ID.

var activeAssignment = allAssignments[ai] ;

var activeAssignmentID = '$' + activeAssignment.id ;

//-- Add the property to the return object for the current assignment.

returnObject.assignmentFrames[ activeAssignmentID ] = new Object () ;

//-- Get a reference to every assigned story for the assignment.

//-- There can be one or many. Most CMS's use many.

var allAssignedStories = activeAssignment.assignedStories ;

//-- Loop backwards through each story of the active assignment.

for ( var asi = allAssignedStories.length - 1 ; asi >= 0 ; asi-- ) {

//-- Get a reference to the story indicated by the loop index.

var activeStory = allAssignedStories[asi].storyReference ;

//-- Get all the text containers for the active story.

//-- There could be more than one if the text frame is

//-- manually threaded to additonal frames.

var allTextContainers = activeStory.textContainers ;

//-- Finally...

//-- Loop through all the text containers (text frames in most

//-- cases) and add the container ID with a $ prefix to both

//-- main properties of the return object.

for ( var tci = allTextContainers.length - 1 ; tci >= 0 ; tci-- ) {

//-- Get a reference to the container indicated by the loop.

var activeTextContainer = allTextContainers[tci] ;

var activeTextContainerID = '$' + activeTextContainer.id ;

//-- Add the IDs to the two objects

returnObject.assignedTextFrames[ activeTextContainerID ] = activeTextContainer ;

returnObject.assignmentFrames[ activeAssignmentID ][ activeTextContainerID ] = activeTextContainer ;

}

}

}

return returnObject ;

}

//

Delete Empty Assignments

Part of a Document Cleanup Routine

I've been working with Adobe InCopy Assignments again.

When users delete frames that used to have assigned stories, the assignment remains with the Adobe InDesign document. If the assignment manages to get updated (it can happen easily) then the assignment file will contain no Adobe InCopy stories. What will happen if the user opens the Adobe InCopy story is they will get an ugly message when opening the story and they will see the page where the assigned stories used to be, but they can't edit it.

To put things back, the story needs to get reassigned and re-saved.

But if the original Adobe InDesign document still has the assignment is saved _last_ then the user sees the original page.

This function does nothing other than delete the empty assignments. To fix all ills, you could also delete the assignment file from the file server -- but the better solution is to save the page where the assignment currently exists.

//

function deleteEmptyAssignments ( docRef ) {

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- D E L E T E E M P T Y A S S I G N M E N T S

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Generic: Yes

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Purpose: To delete all assignments with no assignedStories

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Arguments: docRef: a reference to the document to be processed

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Calls: Nothing.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Returns: Boolean true if successful. Boolean false if an error occured

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Sample Use: deleteEmptyAssignments ( app.documents[0] )

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Notes: Part of a larger function.

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

//-- Written: 2009.11.12 by Jon S. Winters of electronic publishing support

//-- at the Hilton Universal City, Los Angeles, CA

//-- eps@electronicpublishingsupport.com

//-------------------------------------------------------------------------

try {

//-- Loop through every assignment.

var allAssignments = docRef.assignments ;

for ( var aai = allAssignments.length - 1 ; aai >= 0 ; aai-- ) {

//-- if the assignment isn't the special 'Unassigned' assignmetn and if

//-- the assignment has no assigned stories, then remove it.

if ( ( allAssignments[aai].assignedStories.length == 0 ) && ( allAssignments[aai].name != 'Unassigned InCopy Content' ) ) {

allAssignments[aai].remove() ;

}

}

return true ;

}

catch ( failSilently ) {

var errorObject = failSilently ;

return false ;

}

}