Photoshop CS ®

bc JavaScript
Reference Guide

Adobe Developer Support

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October 2003
ii

Adobe® Photoshop® CS JavaScript Reference Guide

© Copyright 2000 – 2003 Adobe Systems Incorporated.
All Rights Reserved.
Adobe, ImageReady, Photoshop, Adobe Type Manager, ATM and PostScript are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated
that may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Microsoft, Visual Basic, Windows, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows
NT are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. All other products or name brands are trademarks of their respective
holders.
The information in this document is furnished for informational use only, is subject to change without notice, and should not
be construed as a commitment by Adobe Systems Incorporated. Adobe Systems Incorporated assumes no responsibility or
liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this document. The software described in this document is furnished
under license and may only be used or copied in accordance with the terms of such license.
 Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................. 1

Chapter 2: Creating User Interface Elements ............................................ 9

Types of Interface Elements ........................................................ 9
JavaScript UI Interface ............................................................... 10
JavaScript UI Example ............................................................... 24
JavaScript UI Reference.............................................................. 30

Chapter 3: Platform Interface ..................................................................... 43

File and Folder Objects............................................................... 43
Scriptable properties and methods .......................................... 50
Error messages ............................................................................ 64
Supported encoding names....................................................... 65

Chapter 4: JavaScript Debugging .............................................................. 69

The Debugger Window.............................................................. 70
The Debugger Object ($) ............................................................ 77

Chapter 5: Utilities ........................................................................................ 81

Chapter 6: JavaScript Interface ................................................................... 87

ActionDescriptor......................................................................... 88
ActionList..................................................................................... 90
ActionReference .......................................................................... 92
Application .................................................................................. 94
ArtLayer ..................................................................................... 100
ArtLayers ................................................................................... 113
BitmapConversionOptions...................................................... 114
BMPSaveOptions ...................................................................... 115
iv JavaScript Reference Guide

Channel.......................................................................................116
Channels .....................................................................................117
CMYKColor ...............................................................................123
DCS1_SaveOptions ...................................................................124
DCS2_SaveOptions ...................................................................125
Document ...................................................................................126
DocumentInfo............................................................................134
Documents .................................................................................138
EPSOpenOptions.......................................................................139
EPSSaveOptions ........................................................................140
ExportOptionsIllustrator..........................................................141
GalleryBannerOptions..............................................................142
GalleryCustomColorOptions ..................................................143
GalleryImagesOptions..............................................................144
GalleryOptions ..........................................................................145
GallerySecurityOptions............................................................146
GalleryThumbnailOptions.......................................................147
GIFSaveOptions ........................................................................148
GrayColor...................................................................................149
HistoryState ...............................................................................150
HistoryStates..............................................................................151
HSBColor....................................................................................152
IndexedConversionOptions ....................................................153
JPEGSaveOptions......................................................................154
LabColor .....................................................................................155
LayerComp ................................................................................156
LayerComps...............................................................................157
Layers..........................................................................................158
LayerSet ......................................................................................159
LayerSets ....................................................................................162
PathItem .....................................................................................164
PathItems....................................................................................177
PathPoint ....................................................................................178
PathPointInfo .............................................................................179
PathPoints ..................................................................................180
PDFOpenOptions......................................................................181
PDFSaveOptions .......................................................................182
PhotoCDOpenOptions .............................................................183
PhotoshopSaveOptions ............................................................184
JavaScript Reference Guide v

PICTFileSaveOptions................................................................185
PICTResourceSaveOptions......................................................186
PixarSaveOptions......................................................................187
PNGSaveOptions ......................................................................188
Preferences .................................................................................189
PresentationOptions .................................................................193
RawFormatOpenOptions.........................................................194
RawSaveOptions .......................................................................195
RGBColor ...................................................................................196
Selection......................................................................................197
SGIRGBSaveOptions ................................................................205
SolidColor...................................................................................206
SubPathInfo................................................................................207
SubPathItem...............................................................................208
SubPathItems .............................................................................209
TargaSaveOptions.....................................................................210
TextFont......................................................................................211
TextFonts ....................................................................................212
TextItem......................................................................................213
TiffSaveOptions.........................................................................217
xmpMetadata.............................................................................218

Chapter 7: JavaScript Syntax .....................................................................219

Core JavaScript Language Features........................................220
Data Types .................................................................................222
Functions ....................................................................................232
Predefined variables and functions........................................234
Predefined Core Objects...........................................................235
Conditionals and Loops ...........................................................236
Making code readable: the with statement ............................241
Dealing With Exceptions..........................................................242
Coding conventions ..................................................................244

Index ..............................................................................................................245
vi JavaScript Reference Guide
 1
Introduction

This reference guide describes the objects and commands in the Adobe® Photoshop® CS
JavaScript type library. In addition to this Introduction, it includes the following sections:

• Chapter 2 -- Describes how to create user interface elements using JavaScript

• Chapter 3 -- Describes how to use File and Folder objects to abstract platform interfaces
• Chapter 4 -- Describes Debugging tools and techniques
• Chapter 5 -- Describes how to use Action Manager within JavaScripts
• Chapter 6 -- Describes the classes, properties and methods of the JavaScript interface
• Chapter 7 -- Describes the fundamental syntax of JavaScript

JavaScript Sample Code

Whenever possible, JavaScript code samples are used to give real-world context to the topics
under discussion. Many of these examples do not necessarily show the most efficient way to
construct a JavaScript statement, but they are written to be easy to read and understand. Error
checking code, for example, is brief in most of the examples—the point is to show you how to
address and work with the Photoshop objects. Many of the examples may be combined to make
scripts with greater functionality.

Photoshop’s object model

As an aid to understanding how many of the most important classes available in Photoshop relate
to each other, a brief description of the Object Model is given. A good understanding of
Photoshop’s object model will improve your scripting abilities.

In the object model illustrated below, the Photoshop Application object sits at the top of the
containment hierarchy. The Document object, directly below the Photoshop application, is the
active object you are working with and the gateway to the main components of the Photoshop
object model.

1
2 JavaScript Reference Guide

The Document class is used to make modifications to the document image. By using the Document
object you can crop, rotate or flip the canvas, resize the image or canvas, and trim the image. You
could also use the Document object to get the active layer, for example, save the current document,
then copy and paste within the active document or between different documents.

Application
Object Model Classes

Document

Channel Art Layer Document History

Selection Layer Set State
Info

Histogram Text Item

Array

Art Layer Layer Set

Selection Class
The Selection class is used to specify an area of pixels in the active document (or in a selected layer
of the active document) that you want to work with.

Channel Class
The Channel class is used to store pixel information about an image’s color. Image color
determines the number of channels available. An RGB image, for example, has four default
channels: one for each primary color and one for editing the image. You could have the red
channel active in order to manipulate just the red pixels in the image, or you could choose to
manipulate all the channels at once.

These kinds of channels are related to the document mode and are called “component channels. In
addition to the component channels, Photoshop lets you to create additional channels. You can
create a “spot color channel”, a “masked area channel” and a “selected area channel.”

Using the methods of a Channel object, you can create, delete and duplicate channels or retrieve a
channel's histogram and change its kind or change the current channel selection.
JavaScript Reference Guide 3

Layer Classes
Photoshop has 2 types of layers: an art layer that can contain image contents and a layer set
that can contain zero or more art layers.

An Art Layer is a layer class within a document that allows you to work on one element of an
image without disturbing the others. Images are typically composed of multiple layers (see Layer
Set, below). You can change the composition of an image by changing the order and attributes of
the layers that comprise it.

A Text Item is a particular type of art layer that allows you to add type to an image. In Photoshop,
a text item is implemented as a property of the art layer.

A Layer Set is a class that comprises multiple layers. Think of it as a folder on your desktop. Since
folders can contain other folders, a layer set is recursive. That is, one layer set may call another
layer set in the Object Model hierarchy.

History Class
The History class is a palette object that keeps track of changes made to a document. Each time
you apply a change to an image, the new state of that image is added to the palette. These states
are accessible from document object and can be used to reset the document to a previous state. A
history state can also be used to fill a selection.

In AppleScript, if you create a document and then immediately try to get history state, Photoshop
returns an error. You must first activate Photoshop -- make it the front-most application -- before
you can access history states.

Document Info Class

The Document Info class stores metadata about a document. Metadata is any data that helps to
describe the content or characteristics of a file.

Not shown in the Object Model are collections. A collection is a convenient way of grouping
classes. Not all classes are associated with a collection.
4 JavaScript Reference Guide

Additional Containment Classes

In addition to the classes described in the Object Model, other classes allow you to open and save
objects in various formats and to specify color options.

Open
Open Classes Options

Photo CD Raw Generic Generic

PDF EPS

Save Classes Save

Options

Photoshop BMP GIF EPS JPEG PDF Pict Pict

File Resource

Pixar PNG SGI

TIFF Raw DSC1 DSC2 RGB Targa

Solid Color Classes

In Visual Basic and JavaScript, the SolidColor object handles all colors. The solid color classes
available in Photoshop are illustrated below.

Color Classes Solid

Color

RGB CMYK Grey HSB Lab No

Color Color Color Color Color Color
JavaScript Reference Guide 5

New in Photoshop CS
This section gives a brief overview of some important new JavaScript additions to the
Photoshop application.

User Interface Elements

A JavaScript framework for creating User Interface (UI) elements is now included in
Photoshop CS.

This framework allows developers to use JavaScript to create UI components such as windows,
panels, buttons, checkboxes and so on. The framework -- called the scripting user interface -- is
built as an abstraction layer on top of the windowing framework provided by the host platform on
which Photoshop CS is running. Both Windows and MAC OS X native windowing systems are
supported. For more information, see Chapter 2, Creating User Interface Elements.

File and Folder Methods

The following three new File and Folder methods allow users to interact with files using dialogs.

selectDialog (prompt, preset);

openDialog (prompt, select);
saveDialog (prompt, select);

For more information, see Chapter 3, Platform Interface.

User HOME directory (folder) shorthand character: “~”

You can now reference a file in a script that is stored in your home directory folder regardless of
which platform the script is running on. For example:

var fileRef = new File("~/custdata.cfg");

Depending on the platform, fileRef’s system-local path (.fsName) would look something like:

(Mac) "Mac OS 10.2:Users:username: custdata.cfg"

(Win) "C:\Documents and Settings\username\custdata.cfg"
(Unix) "/home/username/custdata.cfg"

For more information, see Chapter 3, Platform Interface.

New Preprocessing Statements

Several new commands have been added to the functionality available for JavaScript in a
Photoshop context. These statements, specific to Adobe products, are not part of standard
6 JavaScript Reference Guide

JavaScript but will enhance your ability to take advantage of Photoshop features. These directives
are embedded in JavaScript comments and are as follows:

//@includepath <pathSpecification>

The path or paths which the JavaScript interpreter will “walk” looking for a script specified in a /
/@include statement. If using //@includepath, the name of the script provided in the //@include
statement should either be the name only without path qualifier or with a relative path. Multiple
paths can be provided, separated by semi-colons. Given this:

//@includepath "~;../../FolderTwoLevelsUp"
//@include "jsLibrary.js"
//@include "libraries/otherLibrary.js"

The interpreter will search for jsLibrary.js in:

• The current working directory;

• The user’s HOME directory ( ‘~’ );
• The directory/folder ‘FolderTwoLevelsUp’ two levels up from the current working
directory;

‘otherLibrary.js’ will be searched for in the same way, except that the directory/folder ‘libraries’
must be found in one of the search locations. The first match encountered will be loaded, so care
must be taken when specifying the search order to ensure that the intended version of the file is
found first.

//@include fileSpecification

The relative or fully qualified path/scriptname to include. The script is included inline into the
active script, so care must be taken to ensure that variable names and function definitions in the
included script do not collide with the active script. Inclusion occurs before the active script is
evaluated. Note that lines numbers displayed in the debugger relate to the entire composite script,
not the original line numbers of the active and included script – again, because the included file is
not treated as a separate module but is rather included directly inline.

//@show include

If a script has been included in the active script, its code is not shown by default in the debugger.
This statement
JavaScript Reference Guide 7

alert(), prompt(), confirm()

Although not strictly-speaking new, the following standard JavaScript built-in methods often slip
by unnoticed by users. To compensate for this inadvertent oversight, they are presented here as a
group. Please feel free to incorporate these methods into your scripts.

// Display information in a dialog to the user

alert( "Show me the money." );

// Prompt the user for input, providing a default value.

// Returns a string, or null if cancelled
var answer = prompt( "Enter an amount:", 100 );

// Ask the user a true/false question.

// OK=true, Cancel=false
var yesOrNo = confirm( "Proceed?" );
8 JavaScript Reference Guide
 2
Creating User Interface Elements

A JavaScript framework for creating User Interface (UI) elements is included in Photoshop CS.

This framework allows developers to use JavaScript to create UI components such as windows,
panels, buttons, checkboxes and so on. The framework -- called the scripting user interface -- is
built as an abstraction layer on top of the windowing framework provided by the host platform on
which Photoshop CS is running. Both Windows and MAC OS X native windowing systems are
supported.

The motivation behind the creation of this scripting user interface was twofold:

• To enable JavaScripts to create dialogs and interact with controls. This satisfies a
fundamental need on the part of developers to create parameterized scripts, whose actions
can be controlled more directly by the end user.
• To extend the JavaScript environment to allow scripts to create UI elements dynamically. In
this way, developers can create specialized interactive access to an application’s
functionality.

Types of Interface Elements

The following type of window is supported:

• dialog -- a modal dialog box. Photoshop CS supports modal dialogs only. Modeless
dialogs, such as palettes, are not supported.

The following controls and UI elements are supported:

• Panels (frames) -- (classname Panel) a container to group and organize other control types
• Push buttons -- (classname Button) a button containing a text string
• Radio buttons-- (classname RadioButton) a dual-state control, usually grouped with other
radio buttons, only one of which is set
• Checkbox buttons -- (classname Checkbox) a dual-state control showing a checked box (if
true) or an empty box (if false)

9
10 JavaScript UI Interface Introduction

• Edit text -- (classname EditText) an text field that the user can change.
• Static text -- (classname StaticText) a text field that the user cannot change
• Scrollbars -- (classname Scrollbar) a standard scrollbar with a moveable element and
stepper buttons to incrementally move the element.
• Sliders -- (classname Slider) a standard slider with a moveable position indicator

In addition, the given classnames described above can used in window resource specifications to
define controls within a window or panel. See “Creating a window using window resource
specifications” on page 18 for more information.

JavaScript UI Interface
This section provides a description of the scripting user interface programming model.

UI Objects
The scripting user interface defines Window objects that wrap native windows and various control
elements (Buttons, StaticText, etc.), which wrap simple native controls. These objects share
common methods such as “query the element type”, “move the elements around”, and “set the
title, caption or content”. For a complete list of properties and methods, see “JavaScript UI
Reference” on page 30

Creating a window
To create a new window, use the Window constructor function. The constructor takes the desired
type of the window (dialog) as a parameter. You can supply optional arguments to specify an
initial window title and bounds.

The code examples provided in the JavaScript Interface section consist of short segments from a
complete script that is included later in this document. The examples presented build upon
each other.

The following example creates an empty dialog with the variable name dlg. This dialog is carried
though to subsequent examples:

// Create an empty dialog window near the upper left of the screen var
var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder', [100,100,480,245]);
dlg.show();
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Interface 11

Note: Newly created windows are initially invisible; the show() method makes them visible.

Roughly speaking, the numeric parameters to the constructor correspond to the top left and
bottom right coordinates of the window. The bounds supplied when creating the dialog specify the
requested size of the client area, which is the area of the dialog on which you can create controls. It
does not include the title bar and borders around the client area. The size and position of the
dialog as a whole are automatically adjusted to maintain the requested client area size.

For a more detailed description of window bounds, see “Element size and location” on page 11.

Container elements
All windows are containers, which is to say they contain other elements such as panels, buttons
and checkboxes within their boundaries.

Within a window, you can create other types of container elements and add interface components
to them, just like you add elements to a window (see “Adding elements” on page 12). Elements
added to a container are considered children of that container and certain operations performed
on a container element also apply to its children. For instance, calling the container’s hide() method
makes the container invisible and makes all of its visible children invisible as well.

Along the same lines, calling the container’s show() method makes the container visible as well as
any child elements that were visible before the container was hidden. The following properties
and methods of containers also apply to all children of that container: visible, enabled, hide(), show().

Element size and location

To set the size and location of windows and controls, use the bounds property. As is typical when
working with window systems, the location of a window is defined as the point (pair of
coordinates) where the top left corner of the window is specified in the screen coordinate system.

The location of an element within a window or other container element is defined as the point
where the top left corner of an element is specified in the window coordinate system, relative to
the container the element lies within. Size is specified by width and height in pixels. A complete
bounds specification therefore consists of 4 integer values which define the position of the upper
left corner of the object and its dimensions.
12 JavaScript UI Interface Introduction

The value of the bounds property can take several forms: a string with special contents, an inline
JavaScript “Bounds” object, or a four-element array. The following examples show equivalent
ways of placing a 380 by 390 pixel window near the upper left corner of the screen:

var dlg = new Window(‘dialog’, ‘Alert Box Builder’, [100,100,480,490]);

dlg.bounds = [100,100,480,490];
dlg.bounds = {left:100, top:100, right:480, bottom:490};
dlg.bounds = “left:100, top:100, right:480, bottom:490”;

Note that the window dimensions define the size of the “client area” of the window, which is the
portion of the window that an application can directly control. The actual window size will
typically be larger, because the host platform’s window system can add title bars and borders to
windows.

When read, the bounds property returns a Bounds object -- an array of four values representing the
coordinates of the upper left and lower right corners of the element: [left, top, right, bottom].

Adding elements
To add elements to a window or other container, use the container’s add() method. This method
accepts the type of the element to be created and some optional parameters, depending on the
element type. The return value is the UI object created or null on errors. The value of the element’s
visible property defaults to “true”.

element is initially visible, but it will remain invisible as long as its parent object is invisible.

A second (optional) parameter may be used to specify the initial bounds. The bounds is relative to
the working area of its parent container. For elements which display text, the text may be specified
as the third (optional) parameter -- other types of elements have different semantics for a third
argument.

For more information on the way in which each type of element interprets optional parameters,
“JavaScript UI Reference” on page 30. These optional parameters are positional, meaning that if
you want to specify some text for an element, but don’t care about its bounds, you must still
provide an argument for the second parameter in order to supply a value for the third (text)
parameter. You can ‘skip over’ a positional parameter by specifying the ‘undefined’ value as its
argument value. In the example below, a Button element is created with an initial text value, but
no bounds value.

dlg.btnPnl = dlg.add(‘panel’, [15,330,365,375], ‘Build it’);

dlg.btnPnl.testBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add(‘button’, undefined, ‘Test’);

Dynamically creating a property such as btnPnl to reference the control object returned by add()
is not required, but can make it easier to later refer to the control. See “Accessing child elements”
on page 13 for more information.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Interface 13

Creation properties
Some element types have attributes that may only -- in fact -- can only be specified when the
element is created. These are not normal properties of the element, in that they cannot be changed
during the element’s lifetime, and they are only needed once. For these element types, an optional
creation properties argument may be supplied to the add() method -- this argument is an object with
one or more properties that controls things like the element’s appearance, or special functions like
‘read-only’ for an edit text element.

All UI elements have a creation property called name, which can be used to assign a name for
identifying that element. In the following example, the new Button element is assigned the
name ‘ok’:

dlg.btnPnl.buildBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add(‘button’, [125,15,225,35], ‘Build’,

{name:’ok’});

Accessing child elements

A reference to each element added to a window is appended to the window’s children property.

The children collection is an array containing every defined element, indexed from 0 to the
number of elements minus 1. For controls or other elements that do not have children, the children
collection is empty.

The number of child elements in a window is equal to the value of the length property of the
children collection. In the example below, since the ‘msgPnl’ panel was the first element created in
dlg, the text for the panel’s title can be set as follows:

var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder',[100,100,480,245]);

dlg.msgPnl = dlg.add('panel', [25,15,355,130]);
dlg.children[0].text = 'Messages';
dlg.show();

Using creation properties, a name can be assigned to a newly created element. If this is done, a
child can be referred to by its name. For instance, the Button in the example in the previous section
was named ‘ok’, so the Button could now be referred to like this:

dlg.btnPnl.children[‘ok’].text = “Build”;
14 JavaScript UI Interface Introduction

An even simpler way to refer to a named child element is to use its name as a property of its parent
element. We can also refer to the Button from the previous example like this:

dlg.btnPnl.ok.text = “Build”;

The value of an element’s internal name property is used by the scripting user interface when a
script accesses a property of the element’s parent object that does not match any of the predefined
properties.

In this case, the framework searches the names of the parent element’s children to see if a match
exists, and if so, returns a reference to the matching child object.

Types of UI Elements
This section introduces the types of user interface elements you can create within a Window or
other type of container element.

The Panel element

The Panel element is the only type of non-window container that is currently defined. Panels are
typically used to visually organize related controls.

You can also use panels as separators: panels with width = 0 appear as vertical lines and panels
with height = 0 appear as horizontal lines. When you create a Panel, you can specify an optional
borderStyle property (used only at creation time) to control the appearance of the border drawn
around the panel.

var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder',[100,100,480,245]);

dlg.msgPnl = dlg.add('panel', [25,15,355,130], 'Messages');
dlg.show();

The StaticText element

StaticText elements are typically used to display text strings that are not intended for direct
manipulation by a user, like informative messages or identifying information for other elements.
In the following example, a Panel is created, and several StaticText elements are added to it:

// sample code for section 2.6.2

var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder',[100,100,480,245]);
dlg.msgPnl = dlg.add('panel', [25,15,355,130], 'Messages');
dlg.msgPnl.titleSt = dlg.msgPnl.add('statictext', [15,15,105,35],
'Alert box title:');
dlg.msgPnl.msgSt = dlg.msgPnl.add('statictext', [15,65,105,85],
'Alert message:');
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Interface 15

dlg.show();

The EditText element

EditText elements are typically used to provide a means for users to enter text to be supplied to the
script when the dialog is dismissed. Text in EditText elements can be selected by a user and copied
from or pasted into. The text property can be assigned to in order to display text in the element,
and it can be read from to obtain the current text value.

The textselection property can be assigned to in order to replace the current selection with new text,
or to insert text at the cursor (insertion point). It can be read from to obtain the current selection,
if any.

Using the same panel pictured above, the example now adds some EditText elements, with initial
values that a user can accept or replace:

var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder',[100,100,480,245]);

dlg.msgPnl = dlg.add('panel', [25,15,355,130], 'Messages');
dlg.msgPnl.titleSt = dlg.msgPnl.add('statictext', [15,15,105,35],
'Alert box title:');
dlg.msgPnl.titleEt = dlg.msgPnl.add('edittext', [115,15,315,35], 'Sample Alert');
dlg.msgPnl.msgSt = dlg.msgPnl.add('statictext', [15,65,105,85], 'Alert message:');
dlg.msgPnl.msgEt = dlg.msgPnl.add('edittext', [115,45,315,105],
'<your message here>', {multiline:true});
dlg.show();

Note the creation property on the second EditText field, where multiline:true is specified.
multiline:true indicates that the text in the item should wrap to the next page. In other words, it
specifies a field in which a long text string may be entered, and the text will wrap to appear as
multiple lines.
16 JavaScript UI Interface Introduction

The Button element

Button elements are typically used to initiate some action from a Window when a user clicks the
mouse pointer over the button; for example: accepting a dialog’s current settings, canceling a
dialog, bringing up a new dialog, etc. The text property provides a label to identify a Button’s
function:

var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder',[100,100,480,245]);

dlg.btnPnl = dlg.add('panel', [15,50,365,95], 'Build it');
dlg.btnPnl.testBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add('button', [15,15,115,35], 'Test');
dlg.btnPnl.buildBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add('button', [125,15,225,35],
'Build', {name:'ok'});
dlg.btnPnl.cancelBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add('button', [235,15,335,35],
'Cancel', {name:'cancel'});
dlg.show();

The Checkbox element

Checkbox elements are typically used to set the state of a Boolean variable in a script. A Checkbox is
similar to a Button; it can be clicked by a user, and it has a text property to specify an identifying
text string that appears next to the box.

When it is clicked, it changes its appearance, either showing a checkmark in the box area, or
showing an empty box. When the checkmark appears, the state of the value property is true, and
when the box is empty, the state of the value property is false. When you create a Checkbox, you can
set its value property to specify its initial state and appearance.

//Add a checkbox to control the presence of buttons to dismiss the alert

//box
dlg.hasBtnsCb = dlg.add(‘checkbox’, [125,145,255,165], ‘Has
alert buttons?’);
dlg.hasBtnsCb.value = true;

The RadioButton element

RadioButton elements are typically used to select one choice from 2 or more choices.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Interface 17

A RadioButton is similar to a Button; it can be clicked by a user, and it has a text property to specify
an identifying text string that appears next to the button. Like a Checkbox, it has a value property
that has a Boolean value, representing the state of that button.

You group a related set of RadioButtons by creating all the related elements one after another. The
elements in a group interact with one another. Only one button’s value can be true, and its
appearance differs from others in the same group. Setting a different button’s value property true
changes the state of the button whose state was previously true to false. When you create a group
of RadioButtons, you should set the state of one of them true:

var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder',[100,100,480,245]);

dlg.alertBtnsPnl = dlg.add('panel', [45,50,335,95], 'Button alignment');
dlg.alertBtnsPnl.alignLeftRb = dlg.alertBtnsPnl.add('radiobutton',
[15,15,95,35], 'Left');
dlg.alertBtnsPnl.alignCenterRb = dlg.alertBtnsPnl.add('radiobutton',
[105,15,185,35], 'Center');
dlg.alertBtnsPnl.alignRightRb = dlg.alertBtnsPnl.add('radiobutton',
[195,15,275,35], 'Right');
dlg.alertBtnsPnl.alignCenterRb.value = true;
dlg.show();

The Slider element

Slider elements are typically used to select within a range of values, allowing the user to hold the
mouse pointer down over a moveable position indicator on the slider and drag this indicator
within the range of the slider. If you click the mouse pointer on a point on the slider bar, the
position indicator will jump to that location.

A Slider has a value property that reflects the position of the moveable indicator, and minvalue and
maxvalue properties to define the endpoints of the slider’s range of values.

To make a slider control appear like those used in Photoshop, adjust the height of the control until
the slider bar appears as a single line.

The Scrollbar element

Scrollbar elements are similar to Slider elements, in that they are often used to select within a range
of values, and have a moveable position indicator. They have all the properties of sliders, and in
18 JavaScript UI Interface Introduction

addition, they have ‘stepper buttons’ at each end of the scrollbar for moving the position indicator
in fixed-size steps.

You can control the size of each ‘step’ by setting the stepdelta property. Clicking the mouse pointer
ahead of or behind the position indicator makes the position indicator jump a fixed number of
values toward the point where you clicked. You can control the size of this ‘jump’ by setting the
jumpdelta property.

You can create scrollbars with horizontal or vertical orientation; if width is > height, the
orientation is horizontal, otherwise it is vertical. The following example creates a Scrollbar element
with associated StaticText and EditText elements within a panel:

dlg.sizePnl = dlg.add(‘panel’, [60,240,320,315], ‘Dimensions’);

dlg.sizePnl.widthSt = dlg.sizePnl.add(‘statictext’, [15,15,65,35],
‘Width:’;
dlg.sizePnl.widthScrl = dlg.sizePnl.add(‘scrollbar’,
[75,15,195,35],300, 300, 800);
dlg.sizePnl.widthEt = dlg.sizePnl.add(‘edittext’, [205,15,245,35]);

Note that the last 3 arguments to the add() method that creates the scrollbar define the values for
the value, minvalue and maxvalue properties. Scrollbars are often created with an associated EditText
field to display the current value of the scrollbar, and to allow setting the scrollbar’s position to a
specific value.

Creating a window using window resource specifications

A specially formatted string provides a simple and compact means of creating a window and its
component elements as a resource specification. A resource specification allows you to define and
configure multiple window components in one easy-to-reference script.

The special string is passed as the type parameter to the Window constructor function, as follows:

// create a new dialog from a resource specification

var alertBuilderResource =
“dialog { text: ‘Alert Box Builder’, bounds:[100,100,480,490], \
msgPnl: Panel { text: ‘Messages’, bounds:[25,15,355,130], \
titleSt:StaticText { text:’Alert box title:’, \
bounds:[15,15,105,35] }, \
titleEt:EditText { text:’Sample Alert’, bounds:[115,15,315,35] }, \
msgSt: StaticText { text:’Alert message:’, \
bounds:[15,65,105,85] }, \
msgEt: EditText { text:’<your message here>’, \
bounds:[115,45,315,105], properties:{multiline:true} } \
}, \
hasBtnsCb: Checkbox { text:’Has alert buttons?’, alignment:’center’, \
bounds:[125,145,255,165] }, \
alertBtnsPnl: Panel { text:‘Button alignment’, bounds:[45,180,335,225], \
alignLeftRb:RadioButton { text:’Left’, bounds:[15,15,95,35] }, \
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Interface 19

alignCenterRb:RadioButton { text:’Center’, \
bounds:[105,15,185,35] }, \
alignRightRb:RadioButton { text:’Right’, bounds:[195,15,275,35] } \
}, \
sizePnl: Panel { text: ‘Dimensions’, bounds:[60,240,320,315], \
widthSt:StaticText { text:’Width:’, bounds:[15,15,65,35] }, \
widthScrl:Scrollbar { minvalue:300, maxvalue:800, \
bounds:[75,15,195,35] }, \
widthEt:EditText { bounds:[205,15,245,35] }, \
heightSt:StaticText { text:’Height:’, bounds:[15,45,65,65] }, \
heightScrl:Scrollbar { minvalue:200, maxvalue:600, \
bounds:[75,45,195,65] }, \
heightEt:EditText { bounds:[205,45,245,65] } \
}, \
btnPnl: Panel { text: ‘Build it’, bounds:[15,330,365,375], \
testBtn:Button { text:’Test’, bounds:[15,15,115,35] }, \
buildBtn:Button { text:’Build’, bounds:[125,15,225,35], \
properties:{name:’ok’} }, \
cancelBtn:Button { text:’Cancel’, bounds:[235,15,335,35], \
properties:{name:’cancel’} } \
} \
}”;
dlg = new Window (alertBuilderResource);

Note: This example creates the same dialog as the complete example script described in
“JavaScript UI Example” on page 24, using a resource specification instead of explicit calls to the
add() method of a container element.

The general structure of a window resource specification is a Window type specification (i.e.,
“dialog”), followed by a set of braces enclosing one or more property definitions. Controls are
defined as properties within windows and other containers by specifying the classname of the
control in a property definition, with properties of the control enclosed in braces {}, for example:
testBtn: Button { text: ‘Test’ }.

Creation properties are specified in a properties property as named properties of an inline object (see
example above). The syntax of window resource specification strings is completely described
below.

Window resource specification syntax

The window resource specification syntax is given in BNF (Backus-Naur Form) below:

resourceSpec = ‘”’ windowTypeName inlineObject ‘”’

windowTypeName = [a modal dialog]
inlineObject = “{“ propertiesList “}”
propertiesList = propertyDefn { “,” propertyDefn }
propertyDefn = propertyName “:” propertyValue
propertyName = [a JavaScript property name]
20 JavaScript UI Interface Introduction

propertyValue = “null” | “true” | “false” | string | number

| inlineArray |objectDefn
string = [a JavaScript string literal]
number = [any JavaScript integer or real number literal]
inlineArray = “[“ propertyValue { “,” propertyValue } “]”
objectDefn = ( namedObject | inlineObject )
namedObject = [any object classname] inlineObject

Note: To create a UI element, the classname in the namedObject definition above can be any
element classname referred to in “Types of Interface Elements” on page 9. For example:

“dialog { \
text: ‘From Resource’, bounds: [10, 10, 210, 110], \
box: Panel { \
bounds: [10, 10, 190, 90], \
ok: Button { \
text: ‘OK’, bounds:[40, 30, 140, 50], \
} \
} \
}”;

Interacting with controls: events and event callbacks

When a script creates a window, it typically adds control elements to the window that a user
can manipulate, for instance, by clicking a button, entering text in an edittext field, moving a
scrollbar, etc.

These user actions or manipulations generate events within the user interface system. The script
that creates a window needs a way to be notified of events from that window or from controls
within the window. The scripting user interface provides a number of event callback methods that a
script can define as properties of any UI element that the script needs to interact with.

Each class of UI element has a set of callback methods defined for it. For windows, there are
callbacks like onClose(), onMove(), and onResize(). For controls, callbacks vary from type to type. A
typical callback is onClick() for button, radiobutton, and checkbox elements, and onChange() for
edittext fields, scrollbars, and sliders.

To handle a given event for some UI element, simply define a property of the same name as the
event callback in the element and assign a JavaScript function you have defined to it. The example
below uses "in line" functions, which employ a unique syntax and do not require a name.
However, you can also define the function elsewhere in the script. In that case, simply assign the
name of the function to the event handler property. The scripting user interface calls these
functions on event notifications if defined.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Interface 21

Examples:

/*‘has buttons’ checkbox enables or disables the panel that

determines the justification of the ‘alert’ button group */
dlg.hasBtnsCb.onClick =
function () { this.parent.alertBtnsPnl.enabled = this.value; };

//The Build and Cancel buttons close this dialog

with (dlg.btnPnl) {
buildBtn.onClick =
function () { this.parent.parent.close(1); };
cancelBtn.onClick =
function () { this.parent.parent.close(2); };
};

Because event callback functions work as methods of the object in which they are defined, the
functions have access to the object via the “this” JavaScript keyword. In the examples above,
“this” refers to the UI object a given callback is defined in, so properties of the UI object can be
accessed relative to the “this”. For example, because each UI object has a parent property which is
a reference to its container object, this.parent gets you a reference to the object’s parent object.

To elaborate further on this point, a button( ) is contained within a panel, which is contained within
a window, all of which are ultimately closed. The progression is from smaller to larger UI moving
from left to right.
buildBtn.onClick = function () {this.parent.parent.close(1);};

button

panel

dialog

Also be aware that you can simulate user actions by sending an event notification directly to a UI
element, via the element’s notify() method. In this manner, a script can generate events in the
controls of a window, as if a user was clicking buttons, entering text, moving a window, etc.

radiobutton and checkbox elements have a boolean value property; using notify() to simulate a click
on these elements also changes the value of this property, just like clicking the element would do.
For instance, if the value of a checkbox ‘hasBtnsCb’ in our example above is true, the following
example changes the value to false:

if (dlg.hasBtnsCb.value == true)
dlg.hasBtnsCb.notify();
// dlg.hasBtnsCb.value is now false

A complete description of the different event callback methods and notify() can be found in
the“Common Methods and Event Handlers” on page 35.
22 JavaScript UI Interface Introduction

Modal dialogs
A modal dialog is initially invisible. When calling its show() method, the dialog is displayed and
starts executing. The call to show() does not return until the dialog has been dismissed, typically by
the user clicking an OK or Cancel button.

When calling the hide() or close() methods during the execution of a modal dialog, the dialog is
dismissed. The close() method accepts an optional argument that the call to show() returns.

Warning: You cannot use the JavaScript debugger to debug event callback functions for modal dialogs,
because once the dialog starts executing, it captures all mouse events. Setting a breakpoint in an event
callback function for a modal dialog will result in an apparent application hang if the breakpoint is ever
reached.

To work around this restriction, an effective debugging technique is to create your dialog, but not call its
show() method to make it visible. Then use the debugger to call the notify() method on controls whose event
callback functions you wish to debug. It’s considered good design practice to keep the code in the event
callback functions simple, while deferring the primary script logic execution until after the dialog has been
dismissed.

Default and Cancel Elements

Modal dialogs can usually be dismissed by typing certain keyboard shortcuts. In addition to
clicking the ‘OK’ or ‘Cancel’ buttons, typing the ‘Enter’ key normally produces the same results as
clicking the ‘OK’ (or default) button, and typing the ‘Esc’ key is equivalent to clicking the ‘Cancel’
button. In each case, the keyboard shortcut is the same as if your script had called the notify()
method for the associated Button. The dialog designer has explicit control over which Button
elements are notified by these keyboard shortcuts: a newly-created dialog has defaultElement and
cancelElement properties that are initially undefined. The dialog designer can set these properties
to the objects representing the buttons that should be notified when the respective keyboard
shortcut is typed.

The scripting user interface provides reasonable defaults if the defaultElement and cancelElement
properties are still undefined when the dialog is about to be shown for the first time.

Default values for the defaultElement property are determined by the following algorithm:

• The scripting user interface searches the dialog’s buttons for a button whose name property
has the string value ‘ok’ (case is not important). If one is found, defaultElement is set to that
object.
• If no matching named object is found, The scripting user interface searches the dialog’s
buttons for a button whose text property has the string value ‘ok’ (case is not important). If
one is found, defaultElement is set to that object.

Default value for the cancelElement property are determined by the following algorithm:
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Interface 23

• The scripting user interface searches the dialog’s buttons for a button whose name property
has the string value ‘cancel’ (case is not important). If one is found, cancelElement is set to that
object.
• If no matching named object is found, the scripting user interface searches the dialog’s
buttons for a button whose text property has the string value ‘cancel’ (case is not important).
If one is found, cancelElement is set to that object.

These algorithms handle most dialog boxes without the designer having to explicitly set these
properties. When you add buttons to a dialog that will be used to dismiss the dialog, use creation
properties to set the name property of such buttons to ‘ok’ or ‘cancel’, depending on the desired
semantics; this precaution makes the above algorithm work properly even when the text of such
buttons is localized. If the scripting user interface cannot find a matching button for either case,
the respective property is set to null, which means that keyboard shortcuts for default or cancel
will not notify any elements.

Guidelines for creating and using modal dialogs

When your script creates a dialog, you typically create controls that the user must interact with in
order to enter values that your script will use. In general, you can minimize the number of event
callback functions you attach to various controls in your dialogs, unless interaction with those
controls changes the operation of the dialog itself. In most cases where you simply want to read
the states of various controls when the dialog is dismissed, you do not need to handle events for
them. For instance, you often don’t need onClick() functions for every checkbox and radiobutton in
your dialog: when the dialog is dismissed, read their states using their value properties.

Some exceptions to this guideline:

• onChange() functions are needed for edittext elements, if users enter values which must be
validated (like a number within a range). The event callback must perform any necessary
validation, and interact with the user on errors.
• Define onClick() for OK and Cancel buttons which close the dialog with a given value.
Note: Perform this function only if you have not defined the defaultElement and/or
cancelElement properties or named these buttons in such a way that they will automatically be
identified as the "OK" and "Cancel" buttons.

Prompts and Alerts

Some JavaScript environments provide functions on the global window object to display message
boxes or alert boxes and a prompt box that displays one or two lines of text and then allows the
user to enter one line of text.

The scripting user interface defines functions alert(), confirm() and prompt() on the Window class
that provides this standard functionality. The host application controls the appearance of these
simple dialog boxes, so they are consistent with other alert and message boxes displayed by the
application. See the “JavaScript UI Reference” on page 30 for details.
24 JavaScript UI Example Introduction

JavaScript UI Example
Having explored the individual scripting components that make up the user interface, you are
now ready to see the parts assembled into real-world JavaScript code that produces a fully
functional user interface.

The JavaScript UI code sample described below includes the following functions, which creates a
simple user interface builder window populated with various panels, checkboxes, buttons and
controls. When you run the builder, you can then cause it to create an Alert Box.

• createBuilderDialog() -- Creates an empty dialog window near the upper left of the screen and
adds a title panel, a checkbox, a control panel and a panel with buttons to test parameters
and create the Alert Box specification.
• initializeBuilder() --Sets up initial control states and attaches event callback functions to
controls.
• runBuilder() -- Runs the builder dialog and returns the resulting Alert Box UI
• createResource() -- Creates and returns a string containing a dialog resource specification that
creates the Alert Box UI using the parameters entered
• stringProperty() -- Returns a formatted string
• arrayProperty() -- Returns a formatted array
• createTestDialog() -- Creates a new Test dialog

These functions are bundled together into a Main script, which assembles the final Alert Box
dialog.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Example 25

createBuilderDialog
Most of the heavy-lifting for visual components of the JavaScript UI code sample occurs in the
createBuilderDialog() function, where the main components of the dialog are configured, as
displayed below.
function createBuilderDialog()
{
//Create an empty dialog window near the upper left of the screen
var dlg = new Window('dialog', 'Alert Box Builder', [100,100,480,490]);
1
//Add a panel to hold title and 'message text' strings
dlg.msgPnl = dlg.add('panel', [25,15,355,130], 'Messages');
dlg.msgPnl.titleSt = dlg.msgPnl.add('statictext', [15,15,105,35], 'Alert box title:');
dlg.msgPnl.titleEt = dlg.msgPnl.add('edittext', [115,15,315,35], 'Sample Alert');
dlg.msgPnl.msgSt = dlg.msgPnl.add('statictext', [15,65,105,85], 'Alert message:');
dlg.msgPnl.msgEt = dlg.msgPnl.add('edittext', [115,45,315,105], '<your message here>',
{multiline:true});

//Add a checkbox to control the presence of buttons to dismiss the alert box
dlg.hasBtnsCb = dlg.add('checkbox', [125,145,255,165], 'Has alert buttons?'); 2
//Add panel to determine alignment of buttons on the alert box
dlg.alertBtnsPnl = dlg.add('panel', [45,180,335,225], 'Button alignment');
dlg.alertBtnsPnl.alignLeftRb = dlg.alertBtnsPnl.add('radiobutton', [15,15,95,35], 'Left');
dlg.alertBtnsPnl.alignCenterRb = dlg.alertBtnsPnl.add('radiobutton', [105,15,185,35],
'Center');
dlg.alertBtnsPnl.alignRightRb = dlg.alertBtnsPnl.add('radiobutton', [195,15,275,35], 'Right');

//Add a panel with controls for the dimensions of the alert box
dlg.sizePnl = dlg.add('panel', [60,240,320,315], 'Dimensions');
dlg.sizePnl.widthSt = dlg.sizePnl.add('statictext', [15,15,65,35], 'Width:');
dlg.sizePnl.widthScrl = dlg.sizePnl.add('scrollbar', [75,15,195,35], 300, 300, 800);
dlg.sizePnl.widthEt = dlg.sizePnl.add('edittext', [205,15,245,35]);
3
dlg.sizePnl.heightSt = dlg.sizePnl.add('statictext', [15,45,65,65], 'Height:');
dlg.sizePnl.heightScrl = dlg.sizePnl.add('scrollbar', [75,45,195,65], 200, 200, 600);
dlg.sizePnl.heightEt = dlg.sizePnl.add('edittext', [205,45,245,65]);

//Add a panel with buttons to test parameters and create the alert box specification
dlg.btnPnl = dlg.add('panel', [15,330,365,375], 'Build it');
dlg.btnPnl.testBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add('button', [15,15,115,35], 'Test');
4
dlg.btnPnl.buildBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add('button', [125,15,225,35], 'Build', {name:'ok'});
dlg.btnPnl.cancelBtn = dlg.btnPnl.add('button', [235,15,335,35], 'Cancel', {name:'cancel'});

return dlg;

} // createBuilderDialog
26 JavaScript UI Example Introduction

This code snippet, when broken down into smaller segments -- and run in the context of the
entire UI sample code that follows -- produces the following succession of dialogs, which
coalesce into one final Alert Box window.

Final Dialog
Created
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Example 27

For the final dialog to actually display, supporting code to initialize and run the Alert Box Builder
must be included, as illustrated below.

function initializeBuilder(builder)
{
//Set up initial control states
with (builder) {
hasBtnsCb.value = true;
alertBtnsPnl.alignCenterRb.value = true;
with (sizePnl) {
widthEt.text = widthScrl.value;
heightEt.text = heightScrl.value;
}
}

//Attach event callback functions to controls

/*'has buttons' checkbox enables or disables the panel that

determines the justification of the 'alert' button group */

builder.hasBtnsCb.onClick =
function () { this.parent.alertBtnsPnl.enabled = this.value; };

/*The edittext fields and scrollbars in sizePnl are connected */

with (builder.sizePnl) {
widthEt.onChange =
function () { this.parent.widthScrl.value = this.text; };
widthScrl.onChange =
function () { this.parent.widthEt.text = this.value; };
heightEt.onChange =
function () { this.parent.heightScrl.value = this.text; };
heightScrl.onChange =
function () { this.parent.heightEt.text = this.value; };
}

with (builder.btnPnl) {
//The Test button creates a trial Alert box from the current specifications
testBtn.onClick =
function () {
Window.alert('Type Enter or Esc to dismiss the test Alert box');
createTestDialog(createResource(this.parent.parent));
};

//The Build and Cancel buttons close this dialog

buildBtn.onClick =
function () { this.parent.parent.close(1); };
cancelBtn.onClick =
function () { this.parent.parent.close(2); };
};
} // initializeBuilder

function runBuilder(builder)
{
//Run the builder dialog, return its result
return builder.show();
}

/*This function creates and returns a string containing a dialog

resource specification that will create an Alert dialog using
the parameters the user entered. */

function createResource(builder)
{
//Define the initial part of the resource spec with dialog parameters
var dlgWidth = Number(builder.sizePnl.widthEt.text);
var dlgHeight = Number(builder.sizePnl.heightEt.text);
var res = "dialog { " +
28 JavaScript UI Example Introduction

stringProperty("text", builder.msgPnl.titleEt.text) +
arrayProperty("bounds", 0, 0, dlgWidth, dlgHeight) +
"\n";

//Define the alert message statictext element, sizing it to the alert box
var margin = 15; var l, t;
var msgWidth, msgHeight;
var hasButtons = builder.hasBtnsCb.value;
var btnsHeightUsed = hasButtons ? 20 + margin : 0;
msgHeight = 60;
msgWidth = dlgWidth - (margin * 2);

l = margin;
t = (dlgHeight - msgHeight - btnsHeightUsed) / 2;
res += " msg: StaticText { " +
stringProperty("text", builder.msgPnl.msgEt.text) +
arrayProperty("bounds", l, t, l + msgWidth, t + msgHeight) +
"justify:'center', properties:{multiline:true} }";

//Define buttons if desired

if (hasButtons) {
var btnWidth = 90;
//Align buttons as specified
with (builder.alertBtnsPnl) {
if (alignLeftRb.value)
l = margin;
else if (alignCenterRb.value)
l = (dlgWidth - (btnWidth * 2 + 10)) / 2;
else
l = dlgWidth - ((btnWidth * 2 + 10) + margin);
}
t = dlgHeight - btnsHeightUsed;
res += ",\n" +
" okBtn: Button { " +
stringProperty("text", "OK") +
arrayProperty("bounds", l, t, l + btnWidth, t + 20) +
"},\n";
l += btnWidth + 10;
res += " cancelBtn: Button { " +
stringProperty("text", "Cancel") +
arrayProperty("bounds", l, t, l + btnWidth, t + 20) +
"}";
}

//All done!
res += "\n}";
return res;
}

function stringProperty(pname, pval)

{
return pname + ":'" + pval + "', ";
}

function arrayProperty(pname, l, t, r, b)
{
return pname + ":[" + l + "," + t + "," + r + "," + b + "], ";
}

function createTestDialog(resource)
{
var target = new Window (resource);
return target.show();
}

//------------- Main script -------------//

var builder = createBuilderDialog();
initializeBuilder(builder);
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Example 29

if (runBuilder(builder) == 1) {
//Create the Alert dialog resource specification string
var resSpec = createResource(builder);
//Write the resource specification string to a file, using the standard file open dialog
var fname = File.openDialog('Save resource specification');
var f = File(fname);
if (f.open('w')) {
var ok = f.write(resSpec);
if (ok)
ok = f.close();
if (! ok)
Window.alert("Error creating " + fname + ": " + f.error);
}
}

Sample Code Summary

This sample code is used to demonstrate some practical applications of the scripting interface..
Here a few of the major intentions of the script:

• To provide a simple real-world example of creating a user interface with multiple

components and controls
• To show how certain controls such as sliders and edit text boxes can interact
• To show how radio buttons work and how to set radio buttons to true and initialize them
• To show a multi-line text edit box as displayed in the messages panel of the dialog box
• To show how you can associate static text fields with edit text fields and static text with other
types of controls
• To show how simple event callback functions work and how you can attach event handler
functions to any controls that can generate events
• To show how to enable and disable sets of controls. For example, in the alert checkbox,
if you unclick the checkbox then everything in the button alignment field suddenly gets
greyed out.
• To demonstrate how you typically dismiss a modal dialog by providing an OK and Cancel
button
• To show you can still read property values out of the dialog and its controls after the dialog
has been dismissed

Resource Specification Sample Code

To run this JavaScript UI code using a resource specification, change the lines indicated below and
include the resource specification sample code. For more information on resource specifications,
refer to “Creating a window using window resource specifications” on page 18.

Note: This is a complete example of a resource specification string. The alertBuilderResource() code
displayed below is a way to create the same main dialog box created by the createBuilderDialog()
function.
30 JavaScript UI Reference Introduction

//------------- Alternate dialog creation using resource specification -------------//

/*
To use this code, replace the line above that says
var builder = createBuilderDialog();
with
var builder = createBuilderDialogFromResource();
*/

var alertBuilderResource =
"dialog { text: 'Alert Box Builder', bounds:[100,100,480,490], \
msgPnl: Panel { text: 'Messages', bounds:[25,15,355,130], \
titleSt:StaticText { text:'Alert box title:', bounds:[15,15,105,35] }, \
titleEt:EditText { text:'Sample Alert', bounds:[115,15,315,35] }, \
msgSt: StaticText { text:'Alert message:', bounds:[15,65,105,85] }, \
msgEt: EditText { text:'<your message here>', bounds:[115,45,315,105],
properties:{multiline:true} } \
}, \
hasBtnsCb: Checkbox { text:'Has alert buttons?', alignment:'center',
bounds:[125,145,255,165] }, \
alertBtnsPnl: Panel { text:'Button alignment', bounds:[45,180,335,225], \
alignLeftRb:RadioButton { text:'Left', bounds:[15,15,95,35] }, \
alignCenterRb:RadioButton { text:'Center', bounds:[105,15,185,35] }, \
alignRightRb:RadioButton { text:'Right', bounds:[195,15,275,35] } \
}, \
sizePnl: Panel { text: 'Dimensions', bounds:[60,240,320,315], \
widthSt:StaticText { text:'Width:', bounds:[15,15,65,35] }, \
widthScrl:Scrollbar { minvalue:300, maxvalue:800, bounds:[75,15,195,35] }, \
widthEt:EditText { bounds:[205,15,245,35] }, \
heightSt:StaticText { text:'Height:', bounds:[15,45,65,65] }, \
heightScrl:Scrollbar { minvalue:200, maxvalue:600, bounds:[75,45,195,65] }, \
heightEt:EditText { bounds:[205,45,245,65] } \
}, \
btnPnl: Panel { text: 'Build it', bounds:[15,330,365,375], \
testBtn:Button { text:'Test', bounds:[15,15,115,35] }, \
buildBtn:Button { text:'Build', bounds:[125,15,225,35], properties:{name:'ok'} }, \
cancelBtn:Button { text:'Cancel', bounds:[235,15,335,35], properties:{name:'cancel'} } \
} \
}";

function createBuilderDialogFromResource()
{
//Create from resource
return new Window(alertBuilderResource);
} // createBuilderDialogFromResource

JavaScript UI Reference
The JavaScript user interface defines the global elements of the Window object and properties and
methods of all the UI classes.

Global elements of the Window object

The following functions are class methods of the global Window class only; windows created via
new Window() do not have these functions defined.

To call class methods, use the following example syntax: Window.alert("Class method!");
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Reference 31

alert (text)
Displays the specified string in a user alert box that provides an OK button. The alert dialog is
not intended for lengthy messages. When the string argument to the alert method is too long,
the alert dialog truncates it.
confirm (text)
Displays the specified string in a self-sizing modal dialog box that provides Yes (default) and
No buttons. When this user clicks one of these buttons, this method hides the dialog and
returns a value indicating the button the user clicked to dismiss the dialog. A return value of
true indicates that the user clicked the Yes button to dismiss the confirm box. The confirmation
dialog displays lengthier messages than the alert and prompt dialogs do, but if this string is
too long, the dialog truncates it.
find (type, title)
return value: Object
Finds an existing window already created by a script. title is the title of the window and type is
modal dialog. This value is a hint in case more than one window has the same title; if the type
is unimportant, null or an empty string can be passed. If the window was found, the
corresponding JavaScript Window object is generated and returned; if the window cannot be
determined, the return value is null.
prompt (prompt [, default])
Displays a modal dialog that returns the user’s text input. When the dialog opens, it displays
the given prompt text and its text edit field is initialized with any specified default text. When
the user clicks OK to dismiss the dialog, it returns the text the user entered. If the user clicks
the Cancel button in this dialog, this method’s result is the value null.

Common object properties

The following table shows the common properties defined for each element type.
RadioButton
StaticText

Checkbox

Scrollbar
EditText
Window

Button

Slider
Panel

active x x x x x x x

bounds x x x x x x x x x

children x x x x x x x x x

enabled x x x x x x x x x

jumpdelta x

justify x x x x x x x
32 JavaScript UI Reference Introduction

RadioButton
StaticText

Checkbox

Scrollbar
EditText
Window

Button

Slider
Panel
maxvalue x x

minvalue x x

parent x x x x x x x x x

stepdelta x

text x x x x x x x

textselection x

type x x x x x x x x x

value x x x x

visible x x x x x x x x x

Properties
Following are the properties defined for each element types listed above.

Property Type Description

active Boolean Contains true if the object is active, false otherwise. An active floating
dialog is the front-most dialog. A modal dialog that is visible is by
definition the active dialog. An active control is the one which will
accept keystrokes, or in the case of a Button, be activated (clicked)
when the user types a return. Set this true to make a given control or
dialog active.
bounds Bounds Contains a Bounds object describing the location and size of the
element as array values representing the coordinates of the upper
left and lower right corners of the element: [left, top, right, bottom].
These are screen coordinates for window elements, and window-
relative coordinates for other elements. See “Element Size and
Location “
for a definition of the Bounds object.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Reference 33

Property Type Description

children Object The collection of UI elements that the UI object contains. This is an
array indexed by number or by a string containing an element’s
name. The length property of this array is the number of child
elements for container elements and is zero for controls; future
implementations may return additional elements for composite
controls. Read only.
enabled Boolean Contains true if the object is enabled, false otherwise. If set to true,
control elements will accept input. If set to false, control elements will
not accept input, and all types of elements may change to a ‘grayed-
out’ appearance.
jumpdelta Number Contains the value to increment or decrement a Scrollbar element’s
position by, when the user clicks ahead or behind the moveable
element of the Scrollbar to make the scroll position ‘jump’.
justify String Controls justification of text in static text and edit text controls. The
value is either “left”, “center”, or “right” and the default value is left-
justified. Some implementations may not fully support this property,
and it may be ignored for some types of controls.
maxvalue Number Contains the maximum value that the value property can have. If
maxvalue is reset less than value, value will be reset to maxvalue. If
maxvalue is reset less than minvalue, minvalue will be reset to
maxvalue.
minvalue Number Contains the minimum value that the value property can have. If
minvalue is reset greater than value, value will be reset to minvalue. If
minvalue is reset greater than maxvalue, maxvalue will be reset to
minvalue.
parent Object The parent object of a UI object. This property returns null for window
objects. Read only.
placement Bounds An alternate name for the bounds property; bounds is the preferred
name, and use of placement is deprecated.
stepdelta Number Contains the value to increment or decrement a Scrollbar element’s
position by, when a stepper button at either end of the scrollbar is
clicked.
text String The title, label or text. May be ignored for certain window types. For
controls, its usage depends on the control type. Many controls like
buttons use the text as a label, while other controls, such as edit
fields, use the text to access its content.
textselection String Replace the current text selection with the specified text string,
modifying the value of the text property. If there is no selection, the
specified text is inserted into the text property string at the current
insertion point. Reading the textselection property returns any
selected text, or an empty string if there is no selection.
34 JavaScript UI Reference Introduction

Property Type Description

type String Contains the type name of the element. For Window objects, this is
the value of the first argument to the Window constructor function.
For controls, this is the value of the first argument to the add()
method. Read only.
value Boolean (for Checkbox and RadioButton) true if the control has been set (i.e., a
checkbox shows a check mark), false if not set.
value Number (for Scrollbar and Slider) the value of the control, for instance, the
position of the moveable part of a Scrollbar or Slider. If value is reset
outside the bounded range minvalue, maxvalue, value is set to the
closest boundary.
visible Boolean Contains true if the object is physically visible, false otherwise. If set to
false, the UI object is hidden, and if set to true, the object is made
visible.

Properties found only in Window elements

Window elements contain the following properties, in addition to those described in the previous
section.

defaultElement -- Object
The element to notify when a user types the Enter key, with the intent to dismiss the dialog as
if the “OK” button had been clicked.
cancelElement -- Object
The element to notify when a user types the Esc key (or the <Cmd .> combination on a Mac),
with the intent to dismiss the dialog as if the “Cancel” button had been clicked.

Objects used as property values

The values of certain properties are represented by objects that the scripting interface defines. This
section describes those objects. It includes a description of their semantics, ways to create them,
and descriptions of their properties.

The Bounds Object

A Bounds object is used to define the boundaries of a Window or UI element within its coordinate
space. You cannot directly create a Bounds object; one is created when you set an element’s bounds
property. Reading the bounds property always yields a Bounds object. Bounds contains an array
describing the position and size of a UI element. The array values represent the coordinates of the
upper left and lower right corners of the element: [left, top, right, bottom]. These are screen
coordinates for window elements, and are relative to the coordinate space of the parent (container)
element for other element types.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Reference 35

You can set an element’s bounds property and indirectly create a Bounds object in any of
these ways:

e.bounds = Object
The object must contain properties named left, top, right, bottom, or x, y, width, height, where
each property has an integer coordinate value.
e.bounds = Array
The array must have integer coordinate values in the order [left, top, right, bottom].
e.bounds = String
The string must be an executable JavaScript inline object declaration, containing the same
property names as in the object case just described.

See “Element size and location” on page 11 for examples.

A Bounds object may be accessed as an array. In addition, it supports the following properties

Property Type Description

left Number The ‘x’ coordinate value of the left edge of the element.
top Number The ‘y’ coordinate value of the top edge of the element.
right Number The ‘x’ coordinate value of the right edge of the element.
bottom Number The ‘y coordinate value of the bottom edge of the element.
x Number Same as left.
y Number Same as top.
width Number right - left.
height Number bottom - top.

Common Methods and Event Handlers

Following are the common methods and event handlers defined for each element type.
RadioButton
StaticText

Checkbox

Scrollbar
EditText
Window

Button

Slider
Panel

add() x x
center() x
close() x
hide() x x x x x x x x x
notify() x x x x x x
36 JavaScript UI Reference Introduction

RadioButton
StaticText

Checkbox

Scrollbar
EditText
Window

Button

Slider
Panel
show() x x x x x x x x x
onChange() x x x
onClick() x x x
onClose() x
onMove() x
onResize() x

Methods
Descriptions of the common methods and event handlers listed above follow:

Method Returns Description

add (type [, bounds, text, { Object Creates a new UI element and add it to the
<creation children array of its parent Window or Panel
properties> } ]); element. The optional parameter bounds is
a Bounds object describing its position and
size. This may also be a four-element array.
The optional parameter text is assigned to
the UI element as the initial text or title. The
UI element itself decides how to use this
string; it may be ignored.

In general, a Button uses the text as its

label, while a edit field uses it as its initial
content. Internally, the text is assigned to
the text property of the element. The
optional parameter <creation properties> is
an object with properties that specify
attributes of the UI element that are used
only when the element is created. <creation
properties> are specific to the type of UI
element, and are described below in the
sections for each element type. The return
value is the newly created UI element or
null on errors.
center([window]) no return Centers a Window on screen, or optionally,
value within the specified window object.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Reference 37

Method Returns Description

close ([value]) no return Closes a Window. For modal dialogs, the
value optional value is returned as the result of
the show() call that caused the dialog to
display and execute.

hide() no return Hides the element. If hide() is called on a

value modal dialog, dismiss the dialog and set
the dialog result to 0. The application may
choose to ignore this call for certain UI
object types.

notify([event]) no return Sends a notification message to whatever

value listens to the UI object. notify() effectively
lets you control a dialog programmatically.
Calling this method with no argument on a
control simulates the activation of the
control; a Button signals that it has been
clicked via its onClick() method, an EditText
element tells its listener that it contents
have changed via its onChange() method,
and so on. You can supply an optional
argument to notify(), which is the name of
the event handler to call. For instance, to
simulate a dialog dlg being moved by a
user, you can send a notification message
as follows: dlg.notify(“onMove”).

show() Number Displays the UI object. A Window may

choose to ignore the setting of the visibility
state if it is not applicable, like for
inspectors whose visibility is controlled by
the application only. If show() is called for a
modal dialog, the dialog is displayed and
executed. The call to show() will not return
until the dialog has been dismissed. The
result of show() is the dialog result as
supplied to close(). For all other elements,
the result is 0.

onClick() no return This method is called when a control has

value been activated by clicking it. Not all types
of controls implement this callback. If you
are interested in processing this event,
define a function of this name in the control
element.
38 JavaScript UI Reference Introduction

Method Returns Description

onChange() no return This method is called when the content of a
value control has been changed. Not all types of
controls implement this callback. If you are
interested in processing this event, define a
function of this name in the control
element.

onClose() no return This method is called when a Window is

value closed. If you are interested in processing
this event, define a function of this name in
the Window object.

onMove() no return This method is called when a Window has

value been moved. If you are interested in
processing this event, define a function of
this name in the Window object.

onResize() no return
value This method is called when a Window has
been resized. If you are interested in
processing this event, define a function of
this name in the Window object.

UI Object descriptions
This section describes UI objects such as windows, panels, buttons, checkboxes and so on.
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Reference 39

Window object
To create a new Window object:

Method Returns Description

new Window (“dialog” [, title, Object Creates a new Window. The required type
bounds]); argument contains the requested element
type for a modal dialog. The optional title
argument is used to set the window title, if
specified. Optionally, a Bounds object or
array may be supplied that describes the
bounds of the window. If no bounds are
given, a default bounds is chosen. The
return value is the newly created window or
null on errors.

The panel element

To add a Panel element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“panel” [, bounds, text, Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
{<creation properties>} ]); element’s position and size. The optional
parameter text is the text displayed in the
border of the panel. The optional
parameter <creation properties> is an
object that can contain any of the following
properties:

To add a border style around a panel.

Method Returns Description

borderStyle String Specifies the appearance of the border
drawn around the panel. It can be one of:
none, etched, raised, sunken, black. The
default borderStyle is etched.

If you specify a Panel whose width is 0, it will appear as a vertical line; a panel whose height is 0
will appear as a horizontal line. Making a panel invisible will also hide all its children; making it
visible again will also make visible those children that were visible when the panel was made
invisible.
40 JavaScript UI Reference Introduction

The statictext control

To add a StaticText element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“statictext” [, bounds, Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
text, {<creation properties>}]); element’s position and size. The optional
parameter text is the text displayed by the
control. The optional parameter <creation
properties> is an object containing any of
the following properties:
multiline Boolean If false (default) the control accepts a single
line of text. If true, the control accepts
multiple lines, in which case the text wraps
within the width of the control.
scrolling Boolean If false (default), the text displayed cannot
be scrolled. If true, scrolling buttons appear
and the text displayed can be vertically
scrolled; this case implies multiline.

The edittext control

To add an EditText element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“edittext” [, bounds, text, Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
{<creation properties>}]); element’s position and size. The optional
parameter text is the initial text displayed
by the control. The optional parameter
<creation properties> is an object
containing any of the following properties:

multiline Boolean If false (default) the control accepts a single

line of text. If true, the control accepts
multiple lines, in which case the text wraps
within the width of the control.
readonly Boolean If false (default), the control accepts text
input. If true, the control will not accept
input text, but simply displays the contents
of its text property.
noecho Boolean If false (default), the control displays text
that is typed as input. If true, the control will
not display input text (useful for password
fields).
JavaScript Reference Guide JavaScript UI Reference 41

The EditText control calls the onChange() event method if the editable text is changed or if its
notify() method is called. It also has a textselection property to access any text selection within the
edit field.

The button control

To add a Button element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“button” [, bounds, text]); Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
element’s position and size. The optional
parameter text is the text displayed inside
the button control.

The Button control calls the onClick() event method if the control is clicked or if its notify() method
is called.

The checkbox control

To add a Checkbox element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“checkbox” [, bounds, Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
text]); element’s position and size. The optional
parameter text is the text displayed next to
the checkbox control.

The Checkbox control calls the onClick() event method if the control is clicked or if its notify()
method is called. It also has a value property which indicates whether the control is set or not.

The radiobutton control

To add a RadioButton element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“radiobutton” [, bounds, Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
text]); element’s position and size. The optional
parameter text is the text displayed next to
the radiobutton control.

All RadioButtons in a group must be created sequentially, with no intervening creation of other
element types. Only one RadioButton in a group can be set at a time; setting a different RadioButton
42 JavaScript UI Reference Introduction

unsets the original one. The RadioButton control calls the onClick() event method if the control is
clicked or if its notify() method is called. It also has a value property which indicates whether the
control is set or not.

The scrollbar control

To add a Scrollbar element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“scrollbar” [, bounds, value, Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
minvalue, maxvalue]); element’s position and size. The optional
parameter value is the initial position of the
moveable element. The optional
parameters minvalue and maxvalue define
the range of values that can be returned by
changing the position of the moveable
element.

The Scrollbar control will have a horizontal orientation if the specified width is greater than its
height at creation time; its orientation will be vertical if its height is greater than its width. It calls
the onChange() event method if the position of the moveable element is changed by the user, or if
its notify() method is called. The value property contains the current position of the scrollbar’s
moveable position indicator within the scrolling area, within the range of minvalue and maxvalue.

The slider control

To add a Slider element to a window w:

Method Returns Description

w.add (“slider” [, bounds, value, Object The optional parameter bounds defines the
minvalue, maxvalue]); element’s position and size. The optional
parameter value is the initial position of the
moveable element. The optional
parameters minvalue and maxvalue define
the range of values that can be returned by
changing the position of the moveable
element.

All Slider controls have a horizontal orientation. The Slider control calls the onChange() event
method if the position of the slider is changed by the user, or if its notify() method is called. The
value property contains the current position of the slider’s moveable position indicator, within the
range of minvalue and maxvalue.
 3
Platform Interface

Different platforms implement different types of file systems. As a result, notations for specifying
files and folders differ dramatically from one file system to the next. File system drives are
organized into folders (or directories) and folders typically contain files or other folders.

File systems are organized hierarchically and each file or folder hasd a position relative to the
“top” of the file system. The complete description of a file’s location in the file system is called
a path.

File and Folder Objects

The File and Folder objects wrap the underlying file system. A File object corresponds to a disk
file, while a Folder object matches a directory or folder.

To create a File or Folder object, use the corresponding File() and Folder() functions. You can also
create them with the new operator if you like; both ways of calling File() or Folder() return a new
object. The constructor accepts full or partial path names. In either case, the path stored internally
is an absolute, full path name, so a File or Folder object, once created, always points to a fixed
location of the disk. If you do not supply a file or folder name, a temporary name is generated.
Path names are in a portable format (see below).

The Folder object supports file system functionality such as walking directories, creating,
renaming or removing files, or resolving file aliases. The File class supports I/O functions to read
or write files. Note that a File or Folder instance does not actually create a File or Folder in the file
system, although each class has a method to accomplish this, if desired.

File and Folder objects can be used at any place where a path name is required; its conversion to a
string (the toString() method) returns the name of the file or folder as an absolute path name in
URI notation (see the absoluteURI property below). If you need the operating system specific file
name, use the fsName property.

43
44 File and Folder Objects JavaScript Reference Guide

When you create two File objects that refer to the same disk file, they are treated as distinct objects.
If you open one of the File objects for I/O, the operating system may inhibit access to the opened
File object from the other File object because the disk file already is open.

There are several methods to distinguish between a File and a Folder object. Here are some
examples:

if (f instanceof File) ...

if (typeof f.open == "undefined") ...//Folders have an open method

Path names
There are significant differences among Windows, Macintosh and Unix file systems. The File and
Folder objects provide functionality that allows you to interact with these systems in both
platform-specific and platform-neutral ways.

Absolute and relative path names

To maximize portability of path names, File and Folder objects accept platform-neutral as well as
operating-system-specific path names. Both objects support an URI-like form of path names that is
very close to Unix conventions. The format loosely follows the RFC 2396 specification. This
chapter describes how these path names work.

You can use absolute path names and relative path names. Absolute path names start with one or
two slash characters. These path names describe the full path from a root directory down to a file
or folder. Relative path names start off a known location, the current directory. A relative path
name starts either with a directory name or with one of the special names "." and "..". The name "."
refercs to the current directory, and the name ".." refers to the parent directory. The slash character
is used to separate path elements.

Path Description
/dir1/dir2/file An absolute path name, describing the file file in the directory
dir2, which is in the directory dir1, which again is in the root
directory.
./file The file file in the current directory; you could also simple use
file without the beginning "./" sequence.
../file The file file in the parent of the current directory.
../../file The file file in the grandparent of the current directory.
../dir1/file The file file in the directory dir1, which is parallel to the current
directory.
JavaScript Reference Guide File and Folder Objects 45

When using portable path names, it is always a good idea to use relative path names. Setting the
current directory is as easy as assigning a new path name to the property Folder.current. Relative
path names make you independent of different volume names on different machines and
operating systems.

Internally, the File and Folder objects always operate on the operating system specific path names.
You can always retrieve the "real" path name by looking at the fsName property.

Special characters -- characters that are not alphanumeric and not one of the characters / - - . ! ~ * '
( ) -- are encoded in UTF-8 notation. The file "Däumling" therefore has the portable name
"D%C3%A4umling". Along the same lines, "Macintosh HD" would become "Macintosh%20HD".
This encoding scheme is compatible to RFC 2396 as well as to the global JavaScript functions
encodeURI() and decodeURI().

Volume names
There is no common location in the various file systems where the names of mounted volumes are
stored. On Mac OS X, all mounted volumes are entries in the /Volumes directory. On Unix systems,
there is no convention at all, and Windows does not mount remote volumes at all; there are only
drive letters.

For this reasons, the File and Folder objects support a common convention. A volume name may
be the first part of an absolute path. The objects know where to look for the volume names on the
Macintosh and Windows and they translate the volume names accordingly. On Unix, no
translation takes place.

On some occasions, there may actually be a directory in the root folder that has the same name as
the volume name. Imagine a folder "C:\C" on Windows. Since the File and Folder objects do not
know whether "/c" would address the drive C: or the directory "C:\C", a path name where the
first element designates both a volume name and a directory name always describes the directory
name. If you really need to access the volume by name, you will have to use an operating system
specific path specifier.

The home directory

A path name can also start with the tilde "~" character. This character stands for the user's home
directory -- the syntax has been borrowed from Unix systems. The home directory is the user
directory that the operating system assigns to you when you log in.

All three platforms (Windows, Unix and Mac OS X) provide a definition for a home directory
based on the username of the current user, as illustrated below.
46 File and Folder Objects JavaScript Reference Guide

Note: Windows systems look for the environment variable HOME and use whatever directory is
found there as the home directory. If the HOME environment variable is undefined, the system
uses the user's home directory, typically located in the "Documents and Settings" folder, as the
home directory. In a Windows system, therefore, the following path would equate to the HOME
directory: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>. Also note that on Windows (as well as on
Unix) you can override the default home directory assignment by creating a HOME environment
variable. The path name stored in the HOME environment variable must be a Windows path
name or a UNC path name, not a portable path name.

The following examples assume jdoe as the username, and "~/file" as the file.

Platform Path Description

Windows C:\home\file HOME set to C:\home
D:\file HOME set to D:\
C:\Documents and Settings\jdoe\file HOME not set
Mac OS X /Users/jdoe/file
Unix /home/jdoe/file This assumes that the HOME
/users/jdoe/file environment variable is set to /
home/jdoe

Note: Path names may vary depending on the operating system version and language.

The following code is used to reference a file in a script that is stored in the user’s home directory,
regardless of the platform the script is running on.

var fileRef = new File( “~/custdata.cfg” );

Depending on the platform, the local path for the file reference (.fsName) would look something
like this:

Mac
/Users/jdoe/custdata.cfg

Windows
C:\Documents and Settings\jdoe\custdata.cfg

Unix
/user/jdoe/custdata.cfg
JavaScript Reference Guide File and Folder Objects 47

Operating system specifics

There are a few operating system specific items that are discussed in this chapter. The last
examples in each section show the usage of the home directory, assuming that the user logged in
as jdoe.

Aliases on Windows and the Macintosh work much the same. All accesses to the alias file are
transparently forwarded to the real file behind the alias file. Only the rename() and remove() calls
affect an alias directly.

Windows

On Windows, volume names correspond to drive letters. The path /c/temp/filetranslates,

therefore, to C:\temp\file. If the current drive would contain a root directory with the same name
as a drive letter, the directory would take precedence over the drive letter. Assume there is a
directory D:\C, and the current drive was D. In that case, the path /c/temp/file would translate to
D:\c\temp\file. In order to access drive C, you would have to use the Windows path name
conventions.

Both the slash and the backslash character are valid path element separators. The file system is not
case sensitive.

To access remote volumes, use UNC path names of the form //servername/sharename. These path
names are portable, because both Max OS X and Unix ignore multiple slash characters. Despite the
name (the U in UNC stands for Universal), UNC names do not work for local volumes.

The following examples assume D is the current drive:

Portable Path Name Windows Path Name

/c/dir/file c:\dir\file
/remote/dir/file D:\remote\dir\file
/root/dir/file D:\root\dir\file
~/dir/file C:\Documents and Settings\jdoe\dir\file

On Windows, all file system aliases (here called shortcuts) are actual files whose name end with
the extension ".lnk". You should never use this extension directly, however. The File and Folder
objects work fine without these extensions. Imagine a shortcut to the file some.txt. The Windows
file name would actually be some.txt.lnk. Use some.txt to create a File object matching this link. The
alias property of this object would return true, and the resolve() method of the object would return
the File object of the actual file. This behavior is the same as on the Macintosh. The ".lnk" extension
for Windows aliases is used transparently; that is, renaming a Windows shortcut file renames the
file name portion and leaves the ".lnk" extension intact.

These behaviors are portable, but please keep in mind that Windows permits a file and its alias to
reside in the same folder. If you have a file "test.txt" and its alias (which is "test.txt.lnk"), and you
48 File and Folder Objects JavaScript Reference Guide

create a File object with "test.txt" you will access the original file and not the alias file. There is no
way for you to access the alias file on a Windows system in this case.

Macintosh

When Mac OS X boots, the boot volume is the root directory of the file system. All other volumes,
including remote volumes, are part of the /Volumes directory. When looking at the first element of
a path name, the File and Folder objects do the following:

• If the name is the name of the boot volume, discard it.

• If the name is a volume name, prepend the path with /Volumes.
• Otherwise, leave the path as is.

Mac OS X path names are not case sensitive, as opposed to all other Unix dialects.

The following examples assume the boot volume to be MacOSX, and a mounted volume Remote.

Portable Path Name Mac OS X Path Name

/macosx/dir/file /dir/file
/remote/dir/file /Volumes/remote/dir/file
/root/dir/file /root/dir/file
~/dir/file /Users/jdoe/dir/file

Mac OS 9 is not longer supported as an operating system. The old notation of path names using
the colon as a path separator, however, is still supported and translates as follows:

Mac OS 9 Path Name Portable Path Name

MacOSX:dir:file /macosx/dir/file
Remote:dir:file /remote/dir/file
Root:dir:file /root/dir/file

Unix

Since the path name conventions are closely modeled after the Unix model, no translation takes
place. For the home directory, the HOME environment variable is used, which is part of any shell
environment. Symbolic links are treated as file system aliases.

Unix path names are case sensitive.

Portable Path Name Unix Path Name

/macosx/dir/file /macosx/dir/file
/remote/dir/file /remote/dir/file
JavaScript Reference Guide File and Folder Objects 49

Portable Path Name Unix Path Name

/root/dir/file /root/dir/file
~/dir/file /home/jdoe/dir/file

Portability issues
If you have to use multiple different machines and operating systems, try to use relative path
names, or try to originate your path names from the home directory. If impossible, work with Mac
OS X and Unix aliases and UNC names on Windows, and store your files on a machine that is
remote to your Windows machine so you can use UNC names.

For example, use the Unix machine gonzo as the data storage. If you set up an alias share in the root
directory of gonzo and if you set up a Samba share at share pointing to the same data location, the
path name //gonzo/share/file would work well for Windows, Macintosh and Unix machines.

Unicode I/O
Usually, the contents of a file are in some 8-bit encoding; most often, the current system encoding
is used, like code page 1252 on Windows or Mac Roman on the Macintosh. When doing file I/O,
the encoding used to convert between 8-bit character sets and Unicode is by default assumed to be
the system encoding. You can, however, set a large number of encodings by setting the encoding
property of a file to the name of the desired encoding. This name is one of the standard Internet
names that are used to describe the encoding of HTML files. Typical examples are ASCII, X-SJIS, or
ISO-8859-1. The File object attempts to find the corresponding encoder in the operating system. If
present, this encoder will be used for subsequent I/O. Reading the encoding property returns the
current encoding.

A special encoder, BINARY, is present for binary I/O. This encoder simply extends every 8-bit
character it finds to a Unicode character between 0 and 255. When using this encoder to write
binary files, the encoder writes the lower 8 bits of the Unicode character. If, for example, the
Unicode character 1000 is written, the encoder actually writes the character 232 (1000 is 0x3E8, and
0xE8 gets written, which is 232).

The data of some of the common file formats (UCS-2, UCS-4, UTF-8, UTF-16) starts with a special
Byte Order Mark (BOM) character ("\uFEFF"). The File method open() reads a few bytes of a file
and tries to detect this character. If successful, the corresponding encoding is set automatically and
the character is skipped. If there is no BOM character at the beginning of the file, open() reads the
first 2 Kbytes of the file and checks whether the data might be valid UTF-8 encoded data, and sets
the encoding to UTF-8 if so.
50 Scriptable properties and methods JavaScript Reference Guide

To write 16-bit Unicode files in UTF-16 format, use the encoding UCS-2. This encoding uses
whatever endian format the host system supports. Make sure to write the Byte Order Mark
character "\uFEFF" as the first character of the file. Do this also when using the UTF-8 encoding.

Error handling
Each object has an error property. If accessing a property or calling a method caused an error, this
property contains a message describing the type of the error. On success, the property contains the
empty string. The property can be set, but setting it only causes the error message to be cleared. If
a file is open, assigning an arbitrary value to the property also resets its error flag.

Scriptable properties and methods

This section distinguishes among three different sets of methods.

• Constructors
A constructor is a global function that is used to create the actual objects of a class. It has the
same name as the class of the object that it creates (like File or Folder). When called, it returns
a new instance of the desired object.
• Class methods
These methods are attached to the constructor. They are used for working with objects that the
constructor returns, but they do not require an actual object of that class to work upon. These
methods are also often refereed to as static methods. A typical example is File.openDialog(),
which returns a new File object if the user specifies a file in the Open dialog.
• Object methods
These methods are attached to an instance of an object, because they need a specific object to
act upon. The open() method of a File object is a typical example; in order to work correctly, it
needs the path name of the disk file that the File object actually wraps.
You may also see class properties and object properties referenced in a similar manner. Class
properties provide access to general data related to a class, while object properties provide
access to data specific to an object, like the creation date of a specific file.

To give you some idea of how these distinctions play out in practice, here are some real-world
examples:

// File and Folder constructors are in fact class methods which return
// objects, as illustrated below:
var fRef = new File( "~/myDoc" );

//The Folder class method selectDialog() is called directly

var selectedFolder = Folder.selectDialog( "Pick a folder", "~/Documents" );
JavaScript Reference Guide Scriptable properties and methods 51

// This code illustrates a Property that returns the name of the current
// operating system
File.fs;

// To access one of the File class object properties, you need to

// use an object instance
fRef.exists;

A key point to remember is that class members do not require an instance of the class to be created
in order to access them.
52 Scriptable properties and methods JavaScript Reference Guide

Common elements
Both the File and the Folder objects share a common set of properties and methods. All properties
and methods resolve file system aliases automatically unless indicated otherwise.

Class properties

Property Type Description

fs String The name of the file system. Read-only. Possible values are "Windows",
"Macintosh" or "Unix".

Class methods

Method Returns Description

isEncodingAvailable (String name); Boolean This method checks whether your system
supports a specific encoding. You supply
the name of the desired encoding; the
method returns true if that encoding is
available, false otherwise.
decode (String what); String The method File.decode() or
Folder.decode() decodes its input string as
required by RFC 2396. All characters with a
numeric value greater than 127 are
encoded in UTF-8; they are stored as
escaped characters starting with the
percent sign followed by two hex digits.
Also the characters / - _ . ! ~ * ' ( ) are
encoded the same way. The String "
D%C3%A4umling" would be decoded as
"Däumling".
encode (String what); String The method File.encode() or
Folder.encode() encodes its input string as
required by RFC 2396. All characters with a
numeric value greater than 127 are
encoded in UTF-8; they are returned as
escaped characters starting with the
percent sign followed by two hex digits.
Also the characters / - _ . ! ~ * ' ( ) are
encoded the same way. The string
"Däumling" would be encoded as "
D%C3%A4umling".
JavaScript Reference Guide Scriptable properties and methods 53

Object properties

Property Type Description

absoluteURI String The full path name for the object in URI notation. Read-only.
alias Boolean Returns true if the object refers to a file system alias. Read-only.

created Date The creation date of the object. If the object does not refer to a folder or
file on disk, the value is null. Read-only.

error String Contains a message describing the last file system error. Setting this
value clears any error message and resets the error bit for opened files.

exists Boolean Returns true if the path name of this object refers to an actually existing
file or folder. Read only.

fsName String The file-system specific name of the object as a full path name. Read-
only.

modified Date The date of the object's last modification. If the object does not refer to a
folder or file on disk, the value is null. Read-only.

name String The name of the object without the path specification. Read-only.

parent Folder The folder object containing this object. If this object already is the root
folder of a volume, the property value is null. Read-only.

path String The path portion of the absolute URI. If the name does not have a path,
this property contains the empty string. Read-only.

relativeURI String The path name for the object in URI notation, relative to the current
folder. Read-only.
54 Scriptable properties and methods JavaScript Reference Guide

Object methods

Method Returns Description

execute(); Boolean Attempt to find the application associated
with this file or folder. If found, load the
application and cause it to load the file.
This method may be used to execute a file
much as it had been double-clicked in the
Finder or Explorer. It can be used to run
scripts, to launch other applications and
much more. Folders pop open as if
double-clicked.

Since this method opens a severe security

hole, it is disabled by default.

The method returns immediately after

launching the application. It does not wait
for the application to terminate. It returns
true if the launch was successful.
getRelativeURI (String basePath); String Calculate and return the relative URI,
given a base path, in URI notation. If the
base path is omitted, the path of the
current folder is assumed.
remove(); Boolean Delete the file or folder that this object
represents. Folders must be empty before
they can be deleted. The return value is
true if the file or folder has been deleted.

IMPORTANT: The remove() method deletes

the referenced file or folder immediately.
It does not move the referenced the file or
folder to the system trash. The effects of
the remove method cannot be undone. It
is recommended that you prompt the user
for permission to delete a file or folder
before deleting it. The method does not
resolve aliases; it rather deletes the file
alias itself.
JavaScript Reference Guide Scriptable properties and methods 55

Method Returns Description

rename (String newName); Boolean Rename the object to the new name. The
new name must not have a path. Returns
true if the object was renamed. The
method does not resolve aliases, but
rather renames the alias file.
resolve(); File, Folder Attempt to resolve the file system alias
or null. that this object points to. If successful, a
new File or Folder object is returned that
points to the resolved file system element.
If the object is not an alias, or if the alias
could not be resolved, the return value is
null.

The Folder object

A Folder object wraps the underlying file system and corresponds to a directory or folder.

Class properties

Property Type Description

current Folder The current folder is returned as a Folder object. Assigning either a
Folder object or a string containing the new path name sets the current
folder.
startup Folder The folder containing the executable image of the running application.
Read-only.
system Folder The folder containing the operating system files. Read-only
temp Folder The default folder for temporary files. Read-only.
trash Folder The folder containing deleted items. Read-only
56 Scriptable properties and methods JavaScript Reference Guide

Constructor

Folder (path);
new Folder (path);
This function constructs a new Folder object. If the given path name refers to an already
existing disk file, a File object is returned instead.

Parameter Type Description Returns

path String The full or partial path name of the folder. Folder or File
The folder that the path name refers to does
not need to exist. If he argument is omitted, a
temporary name is generated.

Class Methods

selectDialog (prompt, preset);

Open a dialog box that permits you to select a folder using the OS specific folder select dialog.
Both arguments are optional.

Parameter Type Description Returns

prompt String The first argument displays a prompt text if If the user selected a
the dialog allows the display of such a folder and clicked the
message. OK button, the return
preset Folder The second argument is a folder that is pre- value is a Folder
selected when the dialog opens. object pointing to the
selected folder. If the
user clicked the
Cancel button instead,
the return value is null.

For example: Class method select.Dialog()

The following code presents a dialog with which to interactively select a directory/folder. In this
example, the dialog defaults to the local user HOME directory/folder as a starting location for
browsing. The method returns a Folder object reference on success; null on failure.

var selectedFolder = Folder.selectDialog( “Select the inputfolder”, Folder( “~” ) );

JavaScript Reference Guide Scriptable properties and methods 57

Object methods

Method Returns Description

create(); Boolean Attempt to create a folder at the location the path name
points to. Returns true if the folder was created.

getFiles (String mask); Array Get a list of File and Folder objects contained in the folder
object. The mask is the search mask for the file names. It
may contain question marks and asterisks and is preset to *
to find all files. Alternatively, a function may be supplied.
This function is called with a File or Folder object for every
file or folder in the directory search. If the function returns
true, the object is added to the array.

On Windows, all aliases end with the extension ".lnk". This

extension is stripped from the file name when found to
preserve compatibility with other operating systems. You
can, however, search for all aliases by supplying the search
mask "*.lnk". This is NOT recommended, however, because
it is not portable.

The return value is an array of File and/or Folder objects

that correspond to the files found. The return value is null if
the folder does not exist.

The File object

A File object wraps the underlying file system and corresponds to a disk file.

Constructor

File (path);
new File (path);
This function constructs a new File object. If the given path name refers to an already existing
folder, a Folder object is returned instead. The CRLF sequence is preset to the system default,
and the encoding is preset to the default system encoding.

Parameter Type Description Returns

path String The full or partial path name of the folder. Folder or File
The folder that the path name refers to does
not need to exist. If he argument is omitted, a
temporary name is generated.
58 Scriptable properties and methods JavaScript Reference Guide

Class Methods

openDialog (prompt, select);

saveDialog (prompt, select);
Opens the built-in OS dialog to either select an existing file to open, or to select a file name to
save a file into.

Parameter Type Description Returns

prompt String An optional prompt that is displayed as part Nothing
of the dialog if the dialog permits the display
of an additional message.

select See Win This argument allows the pre-selection of the

and Mac files that the dialog displays. Unfortunately,
versions this argument is different on the Macintosh
below and on Windows, as described below.
select (Win) String The Windows selection string is actually a list File Object
of file types with explanative text. This list is
displayed in the bottom of the dialog as a
drop-down list box so the user can select
which types of files to display. The elements
of this list are separated by commas. Each
element starts with the descriptive text,
followed by a colon and the file search masks
for this text. Again, each search mask is
separated by a semicolon. A Selection list
that allowed the selection of all text files
(*.TXT and *.DOC) or all files would look like
this:
Text Files:*.TXT;*.DOC,All
files:*
A single asterisk character is a placeholder for
all files.
select (Mac) Function On the Macintosh, the optional second File Handler
argument is a callback function. This function
takes one argument, which is a File object.
When the dialog is set up, it calls this callback
function for each file that is about to be
displayed. If the function returns anything
else than true, the file is not displayed. This is
only true fo the openDialog() method, the
saveDialog() method ignores this callback
method.
JavaScript Reference Guide Scriptable properties and methods 59

For example: Class method openDialog()

The following code presents the user with a dialog with which to interactively select a file. The
optional second argument, the form of which differs between Windows and Macintosh, provides a
means to filter the list of files shown in the dialog display list. The point of the example is to show
how to obtain a reference to an existing JavaScript script file. The method returns a Folder object
reference on success; null on failure.

// Windows
if ( Folder.fs == “Windows” ) {
var openFile = File.openDialog( “Select a JavaScriptfile”,
“JavaScript files:*.js” );
} else if ( Folder.fs == “Macintosh” ) {
var openFile = File.openDialog( “Select a JavaScriptfile”, fileFilter );}

// Mac only -- Accept entries which:

// have a ".js" extension (regardless of case);
// have a .type of 'TEXT';
// are Folders (which will allow browsing the Folder heirarchy)
function fileFilter( f )
{
var jsExtension = “.js”;
var lCaseName = f.name;
lCaseName.toLowerCase();
if ( lCaseName.indexOf(jsExtension ) == f.name.length
– jsExtension.length )
return true;
else if ( f.type == “TEXT” )
return true;
else if ( f instanceof Folder )
return true;
else

return false;
}

For example: Class method saveDialog()

The following code sample is similar to the one presented above for openDialog(). However, it is
intended for use in specifying a file save target. Note that a name to a not-already-existing
document can be entered by the user (including extension if desired), but that the dialog does not
create to file, nor does it actually save a file if an existing file is selected. Rather, the reference
60 Scriptable properties and methods JavaScript Reference Guide

returned is used to perform that operation. When used in support of document operations in
Photoshop, for example, that means that using the File object reference with the client’s saveAs()
method, would look something like this:

var saveRef = File.saveDialog( “Save As” );

if ( saveRef ) {
app.activeDocument.saveAs( saveRef );}
else {
alert( “Save cancelled” );
}

Object properties

Property Type Description

creator String The Macintosh file creator as a four-character string. On Windows, the
return value is always "????". Read-only.
encoding String Gets or sets the encoding for subsequent read/write operations. The
encoding is one of several predefined constants that follow the
common Internet encoding names. Valid names are UCS-2, X-SJIS, ISO-
8851-9, ASCII or the like. A special encoder, BINARY, is used to read
binary files. This encoder stores each byte of the file as one Unicode
character regardless of any encoding. When writing, the lower byte of
each Unicode character is treated as a single byte to write. See appendix
A for a list of encodings. If an unrecognized encoding is used, the
encoding reverts to the system default encoding.
eof Boolean This property has the value true if a read attempt caused the current
position to be behind the end of the file. Read only. If the file is not open,
the value is true.
hidden Boolean Returns true if the file is invisible. Assigning a Boolean value sets or
clears this attribute.
length Number The size of the file in bytes. When setting the file size, the file must not
be open.
lineFeed String The way line feed characters are written. This can be one of the three
values macintosh, unix or windows (actually, only the first character is
interpreted).
readonly Boolean This attribute, when set, prevents the file from being altered or deleted.
type String The Macintosh file type as a four-character string. On the Macintosh, the
file type is returned. On Windows, "appl" is returned for .EXE files, "shlb"
for .DLLs and "TEXT" for any other file. If the file does not exist, the file
type is "????". Read-only.
JavaScript Reference Guide Scriptable properties and methods 61

Object methods

close();
Closes the open file. The return value is true if the file was closed, false on I/O errors.

Parameter Type Description Returns

none Boolean

copy (target);
Copies the file to the given location. You can supply an URI path name as well as another File
object. If there is a file at the target location, it is overwritten. The method returns true if the
copy was successful, false otherwise. The method resolves any aliases to find the source file.

Parameter Type Description Returns

target String/File The target location. Boolean

open (mode, type, creator);

Open the file for subsequent read/write operations. The type and creator arguments optional
arguments that are Macintosh specific; they specify the file type and creator as two four-
character strings. They are used if the file is newly created. On other platforms, they are
ignored.
When open() is used to open a file for read access, the method attempts to detect the encoding
of the open file. It reads a few bytes at the current location and tries to detect the Byte Order
Mark character 0xFFFE. If found, the current position is advanced behind the detected
character and the encoding property is set to one of the strings UCS-2BE, UCS-2LE, UCS4-BE,
UCS-4LE or UTF-8. If the marker character cannot be found, it checks for zero bytes at the
current location and makes an assumption about one of the above formats (except for UTF-8).
If everything fails, the encoding property is set to the system encoding. The method resolves
any aliases to find the file.
You should be careful if you try to open a file more than once. The operating system usually
permits you to do so, but if you start writing to the file using two different File objects, you
may destroy your data!
62 Scriptable properties and methods JavaScript Reference Guide

The return value is true if the file has been opened successfully, false otherwise.

Parameter Type Description Returns

mode String r (read) Opens for reading. If the file does not Boolean
exist or cannot be found the call fails.
w (write) Opens an empty file for writing. If
the file exists, its contents are destroyed.
e (edit) Opens an existing file for reading and
writing.
type String The Macintosh file type; a four-byte character
string; ignored on non-Macintosh operating
systems.

creator String The Macintosh file creator; a four-byte

character string; ignored on non-Macintosh
operating systems.

read (chars);
Read the contents of the file from the current position on. Returns a string that contains up to
the number of characters that were supposed to be read.

Parameter Type Description Returns

chars Number The number of characters to read. If the String
number of characters to read is not supplied,
the entire file is read in one big chunk,
starting at the current position. If the file is
encoded, multiple bytes may be read to
create single Unicode characters.

readch();
Read one single text character. Line feeds are recognized as CR, LF, CRLF or LFCR pairs. If the
file is encoded, multiple bytes may be read to create single Unicode characters.

Parameter Type Description Returns

none String
JavaScript Reference Guide Scriptable properties and methods 63

readln();
Read one line of text. Line feeds are recognized as CR, LF, CRLF or LFCR pairs. If the file is
encoded, multiple bytes may be read to create single Unicode characters.

Parameter Type Description Returns

none String

seek (pos, mode);

Seek to a certain position in the file. Returns true if the position was changed. This method
does not permit seeking to positions less than 0 or greater than the current file size.

Parameter Type Description Returns

pos Number The new current position inside the file as an Boolean
offset in bytes, dependent on the seek mode.
mode Number The seek mode (0 = seek to absolute
position, 1 = seek relative to the current
position, 2 = seek backwards from the end of
the file).

tell();
Returns the current position in the file as a an offset in bytes.

Parameter Type Description Returns

none Number

write (text, …);

Write the given string to the file. The parameters of this function are concatenated to a single
string. Returns true on success. For encoded files, writing a single Unicode character may
result in multiple bytes being written. You should take care not to write to a file that is open in
another application or object. This may cause loss of data, since a second write issued from
another File object may overwrite your data!

Parameter Type Description Returns

text String All arguments are concatenated to form the Boolean
string to be written.
64 Error messages JavaScript Reference Guide

writeln (text, …);

Write the given string to the file. The parameters of this function are concatenated to a single
string, and a Line Feed sequence is appended. Returns true on success. If the file is encoded,
multiple bytes may be read to create single Unicode characters.

Parameter Type Description Returns

text String All arguments are concatenated to form the Boolean
string to be written.

Error messages
The following messages may be returned in the error property.

Error Message Description

File does not exist The file or folder does not exist, but the parent folder
exists.
File exists The file or folder already exists.
File is not open An I/O operation was attempted on a file that was
closed.
EOF Attempt to read behind the end of a file.
Bad encoding Unable to read encoded characters from a file.
Permission denied The OS did not allow the attempted operation.
Cannot change directory Cannot change the current folder.
Cannot create Cannot create a folder.
Cannot rename Cannot rename a file or folder.
Cannot delete Cannot delete a file or folder.
I/O error Unspecified I/O error.
Cannot set size Setting the file size failed.
Cannot open Opening of a file failed.
Cannot close Closing a file failed.
Read error Reading from a file failed.
Write error Writing to a file failed.
Cannot seek Seek failure.
Cannot execute Unable to execute the specified file.
JavaScript Reference Guide Supported encoding names 65

Supported encoding names

The following list of names is a basic set of encoding names supported by the File object. Some of
the character encoders are built in, while the operating system is queried for most of the other
encoders. Depending on the language packs installed, some of the encodings may not be
available. Names that refer to the same encoding are listed in one line. Underlines are replaced
with dashes before matching an encoding name.

Note, however, that the File object cannot process extended Unicode characters with values
greater than 65535. These characters are left encoded as specified in the UTF-16 standard in as two
characters in the range from 0xD700-0xDFFF.

Built-in encodings are:

US-ASCII, ASCII,ISO646-US,I SO-646.IRV:1991, ISO-IR-6,

ANSI-X3.4-1968,CP367,IBM367,US,ISO646.1991-IRV
UCS-2,UCS2, ISO-10646-UCS-2
UCS2LE,UCS-2LE,ISO-10646-UCS-2LE
UCS2BE,UCS-2BE,ISO-10646-UCS-2BE
UCS-4,UCS4, ISO-10646-UCS-4
UCS4LE,UCS-4LE,ISO-10646-UCS-4LE
UCS4BE,UCS-4BE,ISO-10646-UCS-4BE
UTF-8,UTF8,UNICODE-1-1-UTF-8,UNICODE-2-0-UTF-8,X-UNICODE-2-0-UTF-8
UTF16,UTF-16,ISO-10646-UTF-16
UTF16LE,UTF-16LE,ISO-10646-UTF-16LE
UTF16BE,UTF-16BE,ISO-10646-UTF-16BE
CP1252,WINDOWS-1252,MS-ANSI
ISO-8859-1,ISO-8859-1,ISO-8859-1:1987,ISO-IR-100,LATIN1
MACINTOSH,X-MAC-ROMAN
BINARY

The ASCII encoder raises errors for characters greater than 127, and the BINARY encoder simply
converts between bytes and Unicode characters by using the lower 8 bits. The latter encoder is
convenient for reading and writing binary data.

Additional encodings
In Windows, all encodings use so-called code pages. These code pages are assigned numeric
values. The usual Western character set that Windows uses is e.g. the code page 1252. Windows
code pages may be selected by prepending the number of the code page with "CP" or
"WINDOWS- like "CP1252" for the code page 1252. The File object has a lot of other encoding
names built-in that match predefined code page numbers. If a code page is not present, the
encoding cannot be selected.
66 Supported encoding names JavaScript Reference Guide

On the Macintosh, encoders may be selected by name rather than by code page number. The File
object queries the Macintosh OS directly for an encoder. As far as Macintosh character sets are
identical with Windows code pages, the Macintosh also knows the Windows code page numbers.

On Unix systems, the number of available encoders depends on the installation of the iconv library.

Common encoding names

The following encoding names are implemented both on Windows and Macintosh systems:

UTF-7,UTF7,UNICODE-1-1-UTF-7,X-UNICODE-2-0-UTF-7
ISO-8859-2,ISO-8859-2,ISO-8859-2:1987,ISO-IR-101,LATIN2
ISO-8859-3,ISO-8859-3,ISO-8859-3:1988,ISO-IR-109,LATIN3
ISO-8859-4,ISO-8859-4,ISO-8859-4:1988,ISO-IR-110,LATIN4,BALTIC
ISO-8859-5,ISO-8859-5,ISO-8859-5:1988,ISO-IR-144,CYRILLIC
ISO-8859-6,ISO-8859-6,ISO-8859-6:1987,ISO-IR-127,ECMA-114,ASMO-708,ARABIC
ISO-8859-7,ISO-8859-7,ISO-8859-7:1987,ISO-IR-126,ECMA-118,ELOT-928,GREEK8,GREEK
ISO-8859-8,ISO-8859-8,ISO-8859-8:1988,ISO-IR-138,HEBREW
ISO-8859-9,ISO-8859-9,ISO-8859-9:1989,ISO-IR-148,LATIN5,TURKISH
ISO-8859-10,ISO-8859-10,ISO-8859-10:1992,ISO-IR-157,LATIN6
ISO-8859-13,ISO-8859-13,ISO-IR-179,LATIN7
ISO-8859-14,ISO-8859-14,ISO-8859-14,ISO-8859-14:1998,ISO-IR-199,LATIN8
ISO-8859-15,ISO-8859-15,ISO-8859-15:1998,ISO-IR-203
ISO-8859-16,ISO-885,ISO-885,MS-EE
CP850,WINDOWS-850,IBM850
CP866,WINDOWS-866,IBM866
CP932,WINDOWS-932,SJIS,SHIFT-JIS,X-SJIS,X-MS-SJIS,MS-SJIS,MS-KANJI
CP936,WINDOWS-936,GBK,WINDOWS-936,GB2312,GB-2312-80,ISO-IR-58,CHINESE
CP949,WINDOWS-949,UHC,KSC-5601,KS-C-5601-1987,KS-C-5601-1989,ISO-IR-149,KOREAN
CP950,WINDOWS-950,BIG5,BIG-5,BIG-FIVE,BIGFIVE,CN-BIG5,X-X-BIG5
CP1251,WINDOWS-1251,MS-CYRL
CP1252,WINDOWS-1252,MS-ANSI
CP1253,WINDOWS-1253,MS-GREEK
CP1254,WINDOWS-1254,MS-TURK
CP1255,WINDOWS-1255,MS-HEBR
CP1256,WINDOWS-1256,MS-ARAB
CP1257,WINDOWS-1257,WINBALTRIM
CP1258,WINDOWS-1258
CP1361,WINDOWS-1361,JOHAB
EUC-JP,EUCJP,X-EUC-JP
EUC-KR,EUCKR,X-EUC-KR
HZ,HZ-GB-2312
X-MAC-JAPANESE
X-MAC-GREEK
X-MAC-CYRILLIC
X-MAC-LATIN
X-MAC-ICELANDIC
X-MAC-TURKISH
JavaScript Reference Guide Supported encoding names 67

Additional Windows encoding names

CP437,IBM850,WINDOWS-437
CP709,WINDOWS-709,ASMO-449,BCONV4
EBCDIC
KOI-8R
KOI-8U
ISO-2022-JP
ISO-2022-KR

Additional Macintosh encoding names

These names are alias names for encodings that the Macintosh operating system might know.

TIS-620,TIS620,TIS620-0,TIS620.2529-1,TIS620.2533-0,TIS620.2533-1,ISO-IR-166
CP874,WINDOWS-874
JP,JIS-C6220-1969-RO,ISO646-JP,ISO-IR-14
JIS-X0201,JISX0201-1976,X0201
JIS-X0208,JIS-X0208-1983,JIS-X0208-1990,JIS0208,X0208,ISO-IR-87
JIS-X0212,JIS-X0212.1990-0,JIS-X0212-1990,X0212,ISO-IR-159
CN,GB-1988-80,ISO646-CN,ISO-IR-57
ISO-IR-16,CN-GB-ISOIR165
KSC-5601,KS-C-5601-1987,KS-C-5601-1989,ISO-IR-149
EUC-CN,EUCCN,GB2312,CN-GB
EUC-TW,EUCTW,X-EUC-TW

Unix encodings

On Unix systems, the File object looks for the presence of the iconv library, and it uses whatever
encoding it finds there. If you, therefore, need a special encoding on a Unix system, make sure that
there is an iconv encoding module installed that converts between UTF-16 (the internal format that
the File object uses) and the desired encoding.
68 Supported encoding names JavaScript Reference Guide
 4
JavaScript Debugging

This section describes the information and controls of the JavaScript Debugger window, as
illustrated below.

stack trace command line

view

debug output
view

JavaScript
source view

pause step into

breakpoints display

resume stop step over step out

69
70 The Debugger Window JavaScript Reference Guide

The Debugger Window

The current stack trace appears in the upper-left pane of the JavaScript Debugger window. This
stack trace view displays the calling hierarchy at the time of the breakpoint. Double-clicking a line
in this view changes the current scope, enabling you to inspect and modify scope specific data.

All debugging output appears in the upper-right pane of the JavaScript Debugger window.
Specifically, output from the print method of the “$” object appears in this debug output view.

The currently executing JavaScript source appears in the lower pane of the JavaScript Debugger
window. Double-clicking a line in this JavaScript source view sets or clears an unconditional
breakpoint on that line. That is, if a breakpoint is in effect for that line, double-clicking it clears the
breakpoint, and vice-versa. The line number column to the left of the source view displays a red
dot for all lines with a breakpoint.

Controlling Code Execution in the JavaScript Debugger Window

This section describes the buttons that control the execution of code when the JavaScript Debugger
window is active. Most of these buttons also provide a keyboard shortcut available as a Ctrl-key
combination on Windows platforms or a Cmd-key combination on Mac OS platforms.

Resume

Cmd-R (Mac OS)

Ctrl-R (Windows)

Resumes execution of the script with the JavaScript Debugger window open. When the script
terminates, the application closes the JavaScript Debugger window automatically. Closing the
debugger window manually also causes script execution to resume. This button is enabled when
script execution is paused or stopped.

Pause

Cmd-P (Mac OS)

Ctrl-P (Windows)

Halts the currently executing script temporarily and reactivate the JavaScript Debugger window.
This button is enabled when a script is running.
JavaScript Reference Guide The Debugger Window 71

Stop

Cmd-K (Mac OS)

Ctrl-K (Windows)

Stops execution of the script and generate a runtime error. This button is enabled when a script is
running.

Step Over

Cmd-S (Mac OS)

Ctrl-S (Windows)

Halts after executing a single JavaScript statement in the script; if the statement calls a JavaScript
function, execute the function in its entirety before stopping.

Step Into

Cmd-T (Mac OS)

Ctrl-T (Windows)

Halts after executing a single JavaScript statement in the script or after executing a single
statement in any JavaScript function that the script calls.

Step Out

Cmd-U (Mac OS)

Ctrl-U (Windows)

When the debugger is paused within the body of a JavaScript function, clicking this button
resumes script execution until the function returns. When paused outside the body of a function,
clicking this button resumes script execution until the script terminates.

Script Breakpoints Display

(no keyboard shortcuts)

Clicking this button displays the Script Breakpoints Window. Type in a line number that
corresponds to a desired breakpoint and a condition about whether to stop or not. For more
information on breakpoints, see “JavaScript Breakpoints Window” on page 75.
72 The Debugger Window JavaScript Reference Guide

Using the JavaScript Command Line Entry Field

You can use the JavaScript Debugger window’s command line entry field to enter and execute
JavaScript code interactively within a specified stack scope. Commands entered in this field
execute with a time-out of one second. If a command takes longer than one second to execute, the
script terminates and generates a time-out error.

Command line entry field.

object.toSource

Enter in this field a JavaScript statement to execute within the stack scope of the line highlighted in
the Stack Trace view. When you’ve finished entering the JavaScript expression, you can execute it
by clicking the command line entry button or pressing the Enter key. Click the button next to the
field or press Enter to execute the JavaScript code in the command line entry field. The application
executes the contents of the command line entry field within the stack scope of the line
highlighted in the Stack Trace view.

The command line entry field accepts any JavaScript code, making it very convenient to use for
inspecting or changing the contents of variables.

Note: To list the contents of an object as if it were JavaScript source code, enter the
object.toSource() command, replacing object with the object that you want to display.

Setting Breakpoints
You can set breakpoints in the debugger itself, by calling methods of the $ object, or by defining
them in your JavaScript code.

Setting Breakpoints in the JavaScript Debugger Window

When the JavaScript Debugger window is active, you can double-click a line in the source view to
set or clear a breakpoint at that line. Alternatively, you can click the button to display the Script
Breakpoints window and set or clear breakpoints in this window as described in “Setting
Breakpoints in the JavaScript Breakpoints Window”.

Setting Breakpoints in JavaScript Code

Adding the debugger statement to a script sets an unconditional breakpoint. For example, the
following code causes the script to halt and display the script debug window as soon as it enters
the setupBox function. Note that debugging must be enabled; if not, the debugger statement is
ignored.
JavaScript Reference Guide The Debugger Window 73

function setupBox(box) {
// break unconditionally at the next line
debugger;
box.width = 48;
box.height = 48;
box.url = "none";
}

To execute a breakpoint in runtime code, call the $.bp() method, as shown in the following
example:

function setupBox(box) {
box.width = (box.width == undefined) ? $.bp() : 48;
box.height = (box.height == undefined) ? $.bp() : 48;
box.url = (box.url == undefined) ? $.bp() : "none";
}

This example breaks if any of the width, height, or url attributes of the custom element are
undefined. Of course, you wouldn’t put bp method calls into commercial code—it’s more
appropriate for shipping code to set default values for undefined properties, as the previous
example does. Again, debugging must be enabled; if not, the system ignores the $.bp() method.

You can also use $.bp() with a conditional JavaScript statement:

function setupBox(box) {
box.width = 48; $.bp (box.width == undefined);
box.height = 48; $.bp (box.height == undefined);
box.url = "none"; $.bp (box.url == undefined);
}

Embedding Debugger Instructions into a Script

The JavaScript engine implements a global object, ‘$’, which has a .level property useful when
embedding instructions on debugger behavior directly into a script. The following values are
supported:

• 0 -- Display of the debugger is suppressed (default)

• 1 -- Break on run-time errors, or when a ‘debugger’ statement is encountered
• 2 -- Display the debugger at the beginning of script execution
For example:
$.level = 1; // Show the debugger if run-time errors are thrown

Provided that $.level is set to a value greater than zero, the debugger will become activated and
stop on a line containing this statement. This property effectively functions as a breakpoint
statement. See “The Debugger Object ($)” on page 77 for more information.
74 The Debugger Window JavaScript Reference Guide

Script Prompt
When a run-time error is encountered while debugging a script, the following dialog is typically
displayed.

The following conditions apply:

• If Yes is selected, the error is ignored and script processing attempts to continue on the next
executable line
• If No is selected, the error is handled as it would be during normal (non-debug) execution
• If the error was encountered in a script-defined try block, execution jumps to the first line of
the try’s associated catch block
• If the error was not encountered in a script-defined try block, script execution is terminated
immediately
Note: To debug through the normal flow of execution in such try block circumstances, users
typically select No. However, if the error is determined not to be of a nature that would
compromise continued in-line execution (such as during script development), you are given
the option of not having to terminate, fix or restart.
JavaScript Reference Guide The Debugger Window 75

JavaScript Breakpoints Window

This section describes the information and controls that the JavaScript Breakpoints window
provides. Display of the Script Breakpoints window is controlled by the JavaScript Breakpoints
button in the main JavaScript Debugger Window.

This dialog displays all defined breakpoints. This dialog does not display:

• Breakpoints defined by the debugger statement in JavaScript code.

• Temporary breakpoints.

The JavaScript Breakpoints window provides the following controls:

• The Line field contains the line number of the breakpoint.

• The Condition field may contain a JavaScript expression to evaluate when the breakpoint is
reached. If the expression evaluates to false, the breakpoint is not executed.

Breakpoints set in this window persist across multiple executions of a script. When the application
quits, or a script is reloaded, it removes all breakpoints.

Setting Breakpoints in the JavaScript Breakpoints Window

Take the following steps to set a breakpoint in the JavaScript Breakpoints Window:

• Click the breakpoint that you wish to edit if applicable.

• Enter a line number in the Line Number field, or change the existing line number.
• Optionally, enter a condition such as "j == 1000" in the Condition field. This can be any valid
JavaScript expression. If the result of evaluating the expression is true, the breakpoint
76 The Debugger Window JavaScript Reference Guide

activates. The breakpoint also activates if there is a syntax or runtime error during the
execution of the condition.
• Click “New” to change the line number of the breakpoint, to add or remove a breakpoint
condition, or to create a new breakpoint.
JavaScript Reference Guide The Debugger Object ($) 77

The Debugger Object ($)

The $ Object (Debugger Object) provides properties and methods you can use to debug your
JavaScript code. For example, you can call Debugger methods to set or clear breakpoints
programmatically, or to change the language flavor of the script currently executing. It also
provides properties that hold information about the version of the host platform’s operating
system.

Note: The $ object is not a standard JavaScript object.

Properties
Property Type Description
error Error Retrieves the last runtime error. Reading this property returns an Error object
containing information about the last runtime error.
level Number Sets the debugging level. This may be one of three values:
0 – disable debugging.
1 – break on runtime errors.
2 – break at the beginning of the script.
Note that the debugger statement is disabled as well if the debugging level is
0. Also, your scripting environment needs to support level 2 explicitly. If level
2 does not work, use the statement "$.level = 1; debugger;" at the beginning
of your script.
version String Returns the version number of the engine as a three-part number like "3.1.11".
Read only.
os String Outputs the current operating system version. Read only.

Debug output
write (text, …);
writeln (text, …);
Writes the given string to the Debug Output window. The writeln method appends a New
Line character to its arguments.

Parameter Type Description Returns

text String All parameters are concatenated to a single Undefined
string.
78 The Debugger Object ($) JavaScript Reference Guide

Breakpoints
setbp (scriptletName, line, [condition]);
Sets a breakpoint. The breakpoint is defined by the name of the scriptlet or function and the
line number. If the name is the empty string or missing, the name of the currently executing
scriptlet is used. If the line number is zero or not supplied, the current line number is used.
Thus, the call $.setbp() without parameters sets a breakpoint at the current position.
Optionally, a condition may be supplied. This is a JavaScript expression string that is
evaluated before the breakpoint is executed. The breakpoint is only executed if the expression
returns true.
The special string "NEXTCALL", as the scriptlet name suggests, causes the engine to execute a
breakpoint the next time a function call is executed.

Parameter Type Description Returns

scriptletName String The name of the scriptlet or function where Undefined
the breakpoint is to be set.
line Number The line number where the breakpoint is to
be set.
condition String An optional JavaScript expression that is
evaluated before the breakpoint is executed.
The expression needs to evaluate to the
equivalent of true in order to activate the
breakpoint.

clearbp (scriptletName, line);

Clears a breakpoint. The breakpoint is defined by the name of the scriptlet or function and the
line number. If the scriptlet name is the empty string or missing, the name of the currently
executing scriptlet is used. If the line number is zero or not supplied, the current line number
is used. Thus, the call $.clearbp() without parameters clears a breakpoint at the current
position.
The special string "NEXTCALL," as the scriptlet name suggests, causes the engine to clear a
breakpoint at the next function call.

Parameter Type Description Returns

scriptletName String The name of the scriptlet or function where Undefined
the breakpoint is to be cleared.
line Number The line number where the breakpoint is to
be cleared.
JavaScript Reference Guide The Debugger Object ($) 79

bp([condition]);
Executes a breakpoint at the current position. Optionally, a condition may be supplied. This is
a JavaScript expression string that is evaluated before the breakpoint is executed. The
breakpoint is only executed if the expression returns true. If no condition is given, the use of
the debugger statement is recommended.

Parameter Type Description Returns

condition String An optional JavaScript expression string that Undefined
is evaluated before the breakpoint is
executed. The expression needs to evaluate
to the equivalent of true in order to activate
the breakpoint.

Other methods
gc()
Initiates garbage collection. Garbage collection is a convenience function that automatically
collects all varibles declared as var. This method allow you to manually invoke garbage
collection.
Returns: Undefined
80 The Debugger Object ($) JavaScript Reference Guide
 5
Utilities

Photoshop actions are different from scripts. A Photoshop action is a series of tasks you have
recorded while using the application—menu choices, tool choices, selection, and other commands.
When you “play” an action, Photoshop performs all of the recorded commands.

Actions and scripts are two ways of automating repetitive tasks, but they work very differently.

• You cannot add conditional logic to an action. Unlike a script, actions cannot make decisions
based on the current situation.
• A single script can target multiple hosts. Actions can’t. For example, you could target both
Photoshop and Illustrator in the same script.

The Actions palette, invoked under the Window menu, supports actions with a great deal of
sophistication (including the ability to display dialogs) and allows users to work with selected
objects, as illustrated below.

The action manager is a Photoshop CS utility that helps you manage and manipulate actions when
writing JavaScripts.

81
82 JavaScript Reference Guide

Action Manager scripting

In addition to accessing Action Manager from the palette, you can incorporate Action Manager
functionality into your scripts. Moreover, the Action Manager allows you to write scripts that
target Photoshop functionality that is not otherwise accessible. You are able to script third party
plug-ins, filters, and other tasks that are not otherwise included in the scripting interface. The only
requirement is that the task that you want to access from the Action Manager is recordable.

The classes “ActionDescriptor”, “ActionReference” and “ActionList” are all part of the Action
Manager functionality.

When you write scripts that use the Action Manager, you should install the “ScriptingListener”
plug-in. This plug-in is located in the “Scripting Guide” folder. Look inside the “utilities” folder
that is part of the scripting support download.

To install the plug-in place it in the Adobe Photoshop CS\Plug-Ins\Adobe Photoshop

Only\Automate\ folder.

“ScriptingListener” records most of your actions to a file on your hard drive. To avoid slowing
down Photoshop as well as not to create a big file on your drive, only install the plug-in when you
are creating Action Manager scripts.

When “ScriptingListener” is installed it will record a file with scripting code corresponding to the
actions that you perform from the UI.

The Windows version of “ScriptingListener” creates the following file:

• C:\ScriptingListenerJS.log: contains JavaScript code corresponding to the actions that are

performed from the UI.

The Macintosh version “ScriptingListener” creates the following file:

• ScriptingListenerJS.log: the file is created on the desktop and contains JavaScript code
corresponding to the actions that are performed from the UI.

Note: There is no AppleScript interface to the Action Manager, but you can execute JavaScripts
from AppleScript, so you are able to access Action Manager functionality from AppleScripts.

Using the Action Manager from JavaScript

Imagine, for example, that you want to be able to use the Emboss filter. The Emboss filter is not
part of the filters that are exposed to the various scripting languages, but using the Action
Manager you are able to use this filter. First make sure that you have installed the
“ScriptingListener”. Then from the UI, open a document and apply the Emboss filter using the
settings: angle 135, height 3 and amount 100.
JavaScript Reference Guide 83

When the ScriptingListener is installed, running the Emboss filter is recorded to a file called
“ScriptingListenerJS.log” (see above for location of this file on the various platforms).

Open the “ScriptingListenerJS.log” file. At the end of the file you will see something like the
following. Note the numbers may vary:

var id19 = charIDToTypeID( "Embs" );

var desc4 = new ActionDescriptor();
var id20 = charIDToTypeID( "Angl" );
desc4.putInteger( id20, 135 );
var id21 = charIDToTypeID( "Hght" );
desc4.putInteger( id21, 3 );
var id22 = charIDToTypeID( "Amnt" );
desc4.putInteger( id22, 100 );
executeAction( id19, desc4 );

The ScriptingListener divides every command by a line, so it is easy to find the last command.

The next step in making Emboss scriptable is to identify the values that you entered (135, 3 and
100). Copy the JavaScript code from the “ScriptingListenerJS.log” file to another file and substitute
the filter values with variable names. In the following example, we have wrapped the code in a
JavaScript function and replaced 135 with angle, 3 with height, and 100 with amount.

function emboss( angle, height, amount )

{
var id32 = charIDToTypeID( "Embs" );
var desc7 = new ActionDescriptor();
var id33 = charIDToTypeID( "Angl" );
desc7.putInteger( id33, angle );
var id34 = charIDToTypeID( "Hght" );
desc7.putInteger( id34, height );
var id35 = charIDToTypeID( "Amnt" );
desc7.putInteger( id35, amount );
executeAction( id32, desc7 );
}

You now have a JavaScript function that performs the Emboss filter on the current document. To
activate the Emboss filter from JavaScript you must include the function definition shown above
and then call the function with the desired parameters. To apply Emboss with angle 75, height 2
and amount 89, you say:

// First include the emboss function somewhere in your JavaScript

// file
function emboss( angle, height, amount )
{
var id32 = charIDToTypeID( "Embs" );
var desc7 = new ActionDescriptor();
var id33 = charIDToTypeID( "Angl" );
desc7.putInteger( id33, angle );
84 JavaScript Reference Guide

var id34 = charIDToTypeID( "Hght" );

desc7.putInteger( id34, height );
var id35 = charIDToTypeID( "Amnt" );
desc7.putInteger( id35, amount );
executeAction( id32, desc7 );
}
// Then call emboss with desired parameters
emboss( 75, 2, 89 );

Running JavaScript based Action Manager code from AppleScript

As there is no Action Manager functionality in AppleScript you will have to use JavaScript to use
the Action Manager on the Mac. To do this you use the AppleScript command: “do javascript.”
Provide filter settings in the “arguments” parameter.

You need to re-write your JavaScript code slightly to work with the “do javascript” command to
use the “arguments” collection to get access to the AppleScript values from JavaScript. For
example change the Emboss JavaScript shown in the previous section to the following and save it
in a file called “Emboss.js”:

function emboss( angle, height, amount )

{
var id32 = charIDToTypeID( "Embs" );
var desc7 = new ActionDescriptor();
var id33 = charIDToTypeID( "Angl" );
desc7.putInteger( id33, angle );
var id34 = charIDToTypeID( "Hght" );
desc7.putInteger( id34, height );
var id35 = charIDToTypeID( "Amnt" );
desc7.putInteger( id35, amount );
executeAction( id32, desc7 );
}
// Call emboss with values provided in the "arguments" collection
emboss( arguments[0], arguments[1], arguments[2] );
From AppleScript you can then run the Emboss filter by saying:
tell application "Adobe Photoshop CS"
do javascript (file <a path to Emboss.js>) ¬
with arguments { 75,2,89 }
end tell

Running JavaScript based Action Manager code from VBScript

From VBScript you have a choice of either running JavaScript based Action Manager code or
VBScript based Action Manager code. This section describes how to access JavaScript based
Action Manager code. The next section covers how to run VBScript based Action Manager code.
JavaScript Reference Guide 85

To access JavaScript code from VBScript, you must use the “DoJavaScriptFile” command and
provide specific settings in the “arguments” parameter.

Save the following script in a file called “C:\Emboss.js”

function emboss( angle, height, amount )

{
var id32 = charIDToTypeID( "Embs" );
var desc7 = new ActionDescriptor();
var id33 = charIDToTypeID( "Angl" );
desc7.putInteger( id33, angle );
var id34 = charIDToTypeID( "Hght" );
desc7.putInteger( id34, height );
var id35 = charIDToTypeID( "Amnt" );
desc7.putInteger( id35, amount );
executeAction( id32, desc7 );
}
// Call emboss with values provided in the "arguments" collection
emboss( arguments[0], arguments[1], arguments[2] );

From VBScript you can then run the Emboss filter by saying:

Set objApp = CreateObject("Photoshop.Application")

objApp.DoJavaScriptFile "C:\Emboss.js", Array(75, 2, 89)
86 JavaScript Reference Guide
 6
JavaScript Interface

The object classes of the JavaScript type library are presented alphabetically and in tabular format
in this interface section.

Class properties and methods are described.

• Properties of a class include the property itself, access status (read only or read/write) ,
value type, and a description.
When the value type is an enumeration, enumerated values are defined in UPPER CASE, as
illustrated below:

Property Access Value Type What it is

displayDialogs R/W DialogModes controls whether or not Photoshop
DialogModes.ALL displays dialogs
DialogModes.ERROR
DialogModes.NO
• Methods of a class include the method name, a description, parameters and return values, if
applicable.
Italics indicates that a parameter type is optional.
When the parameter type is an enumeration, enumerated values are defined in UPPER CASE.

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

purge Purges one or more target as PurgeTarget
caches PurgeTarget.ALLCACHES
PurgeTarget.CLIPBOARDCACHE
PurgeTarget.HISTORYCACHES
PurgeTarget.UNDOCACHES

Note: Descriptions are omitted for properties and methods that are self-explanatory; for example:
removeAll. Return values and parameter types, if none apply, may also be left blank.

Sample code for several object model classes is given to help illustrate the syntax as well as usage
of the object class.

87
88 ActionDescriptor JavaScript Reference Guide

ActionDescriptor

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
count RO Long number of keys contained in the
descriptor

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
clear Clears the descriptor
erase Erases a key from the Key as Long
descriptor
getBoolean Gets the value of a key Key as Long Boolean
of type boolean
getClass Gets the value of a key Key as Long Long
of type class
getDouble Gets the value of a key Key as Long Double
of type double
getEnumerationType Gets the enumeration Key as Long Long
type of a key
getEnumerationValue Gets the enumeration Key as Long Long
value of a key
getInteger Gets the value of a key Key as Long Long
of type integer
getKey Gets ID of the Nth key Index as Long Long
getList Gets the value of a key Key as Long ActionList
of type list
getObjectType Gets the class ID of an Key as Long Long
object in a key of type
object
getObjectValue Gets the value of a key Key as Long ActionDescriptor
of type object
getPath Gets the value of a key Key as Long File
of type Alias
getReference Gets the value of a key Key as Long ActionReference
of type
ActionReference
JavaScript Reference Guide ActionDescriptor 89

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

getString Gets the value of a key Key as Long String
of type string
getType Gets the type of a key Key as Long DescValueType
getUnitDoubleType Gets the unit type of a Key as Long Long
key of type UnitDouble
getUnitDoubleValue Gets the value of a key Key as Long Double
of type UnitDouble
hasKey Does the descriptor Key as Long Boolean
contain the provided
key?
isEqual otherDesc as ActionDescriptor Boolean
putBoolean Key as Long
Value as Boolean
putClass Key as Long
Value as Long
putDouble Key as Long
Value as Double
putEnumerated Key as Long
enumType as Long
Value as Long
putInteger Key as Long
Value as Long
putList Key as Long
Value as ActionList
putObject Key as Long
classID as Long
Value as ActionDescriptor
putPath Key as Long
Value as File
putReference Key as Long
Value as ActionReference
putString Key as Long
Value as String
putUnitDouble Key as Long
unitID as Long
Value as Double
90 ActionList JavaScript Reference Guide

ActionList

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
count RO Long number of items in the list

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
clear Clear the list
getBoolean Gets the value of an Index as Long Boolean
item of type boolean
getClass Gets the value of an Index as Long Long
item of type class
getDouble Gets the value of an Index as Long Double
item of type double
getEnumerationType Gets the enumeration Index as Long Long
type of an item
getEnumerationValue Gets the enumeration Index as Long Long
value of an item
getInteger Gets the value of an Index as Long Long
item of type integer
getList Gets the value of an Index as Long ActionList
item of type list
getObjectType Gets the class ID of an Index as Long Long
object in an item of
type object
getObjectValue Gets the value of an Index as Long ActionDescriptor
item of type object
getPath Gets the value of an Index as Long File
item of type Alias
getReference Gets the value of an Index as Long ActionReference
item of type
ActionReference
getString Gets the value of an Index as Long String
item of type string
getType Gets the type of an Index as Long DescValueType
item
JavaScript Reference Guide ActionList 91

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

getUnitDoubleType Gets the unit type of Index as Long Long
an item of type
UnitDouble
getUnitDoubleValue Gets the value of anm Index as Long Double
item of type
UnitDouble
putBoolean Value as Boolean
putClass Value as Long
putDouble Value as Double
putEnumerated enumType as Long
Value as Long
putInteger Value as Long
putList Value as ActionList
putObject classID is Long
Value as ActionDescriptor
putPath Value as File
putReference Value as ActionReference
putString Value as String
putUnitDouble classID is Long
Value as Double
92 ActionReference JavaScript Reference Guide

ActionReference

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
getContainer ActionReference
getDesiredClass Long
getEnumeratedType Gets type of Long
enumeration of an
ActionReference
whose form is
'Enumerated'
getEnumeratedValue Gets value of Long
enumeration of an
ActionReference
whose form is
'Enumerated'
getForm Gets form of ReferenceFormType
ActionReference
getIdentifier Gets identifier value for Long
an ActionReference
whoxse form is
'Identifier'
getIndex Gets index value for an Long
ActionReference
whoxse form is 'Index'
getName Gets name value for an String
ActionReference
whoxse form is 'Name'
getOffset Gets offset value for an Long
ActionReference
whoxse form is 'Offset'
getProperty Gets property ID value Long
for an ActionReference
whoxse form is
'Property'
putClass desiredClass as Long
putEnumerated desiredClass as Long
enumType as Long
Value as Long
putIdentifier desiredClass as Long
Value as Long
JavaScript Reference Guide ActionReference 93

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

putIndex desiredClass as Long
Value as Long
putName desiredClass as Long
Value as String
putOffset desiredClass as Long
Value as Long
putProperty desiredClass as Long
Value as Long
94 Application JavaScript Reference Guide

Application

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
activeDocument R/W Document the frontmost document
backgroundColor R/W SolidColor
colorSettings R/W ANYTHING name of selected color settings' set
displayDialogs R/W DialogModes controls whether or not Photoshop
DialogModes.ALL displays dialogs
DialogModes.ERROR
DialogModes.NO
documents RO Documents the open documents
fonts RO TextFonts the fonts installed on this system
foregroundColor R/W SolidColor
freeMemory RO Double the amount of unused memory available
to Adobe Photoshop
name RO String the application's name
path RO File the full path of the location of the
Photoshop application
preferences RO Preferences preference settings
scriptingVersion RO String the version of the Scripting interface
version RO String the version of Adobe Photoshop
application

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
beep
charIDToTypeID Converts from a four charID as String Long
character code to a
runtime ID
doAction Plays an action from action as String
the Actions Palette from as String
JavaScript Reference Guide Application 95

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

executeAction Plays an eventID as Long ActionDescriptor
ActionManager event
descriptor as ActionDescriptor
displayDialogs as DialogModes
DialogModes.ALL
DialogModes.ERROR
DialogModes.NO
executeActionGet Obtains an action reference as ActionReference ActionDescriptor
descriptor
load()
makePhotoGallery Creates a web photo inputFolder as File String
gallery outputFolder as File
options as GalleryOptions
makePDFPresentation()
open Opens the specified document asFile Document
document option as ANYTHING
purge Purges one or more target as PurgeTarget
caches PurgeTarget.ALLCACHES
PurgeTarget.CLIPBOARDCACHE
PurgeTarget.HISTORYCACHES
PurgeTarget.UNDOCACHES
stringIDToTypeID Converts from a string stringID as String Long
ID to a runtime ID
typeIDToCharID Converts from a typeID as Long String
runtime ID to a
character ID
typeIDToStringID Converts from a typeID as Long String
runtime ID to a string
ID

First Sample Script

The following application script invokes an alert box to display properties important to an
application such as version number, path to the application, memory available, and number of
documents open.

Pressing the OK button on the alert box opens a second dialog, which asks users whether they
would like the foreground and background colors set for the document presently open. If no
document is open, the script opens a new document for the user.
96 Application JavaScript Reference Guide

The script (with no document open) produces the following progression of dialogs.

Code (application.js)

// build up a message to display to the user

// append the name of the application and the version

var message = “Welcome to “ + app.name;
message += “ version “ + app.version + “\r\r”;

// find out where Photoshop is installed

message += “I’m installed in “ + app.path.fsName + “\r\r”;

// see how much memory Photoshop has to play with

message += “You have this much memory available for Photoshop “ +
app.freeMemory + “\r\r”;

// see how many docments are open

var documentsOpen = app.documents.length;
message += “You currently have “ + documentsOpen + “ document(s) open.\r\r”;

// display the message to the user

alert(message);

// answer will be true for a “Yes” answer and false for a “No” answer
var answer = confirm(“Do you want me to set the foreground and background to my
favorite colors?”);

// set the colors

if (answer) {
JavaScript Reference Guide Application 97

// I don’t have a favorite color. Why did I ask you may wonder?
app.foregroundColor.rgb.red = Math.random() * 255;
app.foregroundColor.rgb.green = Math.random() * 255;
app.foregroundColor.rgb.blue = Math.random() * 255;

app.backgroundColor.rgb.red = Math.random() * 255;

app.backgroundColor.rgb.green = Math.random() * 255;
app.backgroundColor.rgb.blue = Math.random() * 255;
}

// You really need a document open

if (app.documentsOpen == 0) {

// use the application’s path and the offset to the samples folder
var sampleDocToOpen = File(app.path + “/Samples/Eagle.psd”);

// compose a message with the name of the file

message = “Would you like me to open a sample for you? (“;
message += sampleDocToOpen.fsName;
message += “)”;

// ask the user another question

answer = confirm(message);

// open the document accordingly

if (answer) {
open(sampleDocToOpen);
}
}
98 Application JavaScript Reference Guide

Second Sample Script

The following PDF presentation script presents a slide show images in PDF format.

The script produces the following progression of images as a PDF slide show.

Code (PDFPresentation.js)

// use all the files in the Samples folder

var inputFolder = new Folder(app.path + “/Samples/”);

// see if we got something interesting

if ( inputFolder != null) {

// get all the files found in this folder that are Photoshop (.psd)
var inputFiles = inputFolder.getFiles(“*.psd”);

// output to the desktop

var outputFile = File(“~/Desktop/JavaScriptPresentation.pdf”);

// there are defaults but I like to set the options myself

var options = new PresentationOptions;
options.presentation = true;
JavaScript Reference Guide Application 99

options.view = true;
options.autoAdvance = true;
options.interval = 5;
options.loop = true;
options.transition = TransitionType.RANDOM;

// create the presentation

makePDFPresentation(inputFiles, outputFile, options);
}

Note: To run this code on non-English platforms, substitue the following path for the outputFile
variable:

var outputFile = File(“~/JavaScriptPresentation.pdf”);

100 ArtLayer JavaScript Reference Guide

ArtLayer

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
allLocked R/W Boolean
blendMode R/W BlendMode
BlendMode.COLORBLEND
BlendMode.COLORBURN
BlendMode.COLORDODGE
BlendMode.DARKEN
BlendMode.DIFFERENCE
BlendMode.DISSOLVE
BlendMode.EXCLUSION
BlendMode.HARDLIGHT
BlendMode.HUE
BlendMode.LIGHTEN
BlendMode.LINEARBURN
BlendMode.LINEARDODGE
BlendMode.LINEARLIGHT
BlendMode.LUMINOSITY
BlendMode.MULTIPLY
BlendMode.NORMAL
BlendMode.OVERLAY
BlendMode.PASSTHROUGH
BlendMode.PINLIGHT
BlendMode.SATURATION
BlendMode.SCREEN
BlendMode.SOFTLIGHT
BlendMode.VIVIDLIGHT
bounds RO Array( UnitValue ) Bounding rectangle of the
Layer
fillOpacity R/W Double the interior opacity of the
layer (between 0.0 and
100.0)
grouped R/W Boolean is the layer grouped with
the layer below?
Photoshop CS changed the
menu name to Create/
Release Clipping Mask
isBackgroundLayer R/W Boolean is the layer a background
layer?
JavaScript Reference Guide ArtLayer 101

Property Access Value Type What it is

kind R/W LayerKind to create a text layer set
LayerKind.BRIGHTNESSCONTRAST this property to 'text layer'
LayerKind.CHANNELMIXER on an empty art layer of
LayerKind.COLORBALANCE type 'normal'
LayerKind.CURVES
LayerKind.GRADIENTFILL
LayerKind.GRADIENTMAP
LayerKind.HUESATURATION
LayerKind.INVERSION
LayerKind.LEVELS
LayerKind.NORMAL
LayerKind.PATTERNFILL
LayerKind.POSTERIZE
LayerKind.SELECTIVECOLOR
LayerKind.SOLIDFILL
LayerKind.TEXT
LayerKind.THRESHOLD
linkedLayers RO Object
name R/W String the name of the layer
opacity R/W Double master opacity of layer ( 0.0
- 100.0 )
parent RO Object the object's container
pixelsLocked R/W Boolean
positionLocked R/W Boolean
textItem RO TextItem the text item that is
associated with the art
layer. Only valid for art
layers whose 'has text' is
true
transparentPixelsLocked R/W Boolean
visible R/W Boolean
102 ArtLayer JavaScript Reference Guide

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
adjustBrightnessContrast Adjusts brightness as Long
brightness and contrast as Long
contrast
adjustColorBalance shadows as Object
midtones as Object
highlights as Object
preserveLuminosity as Boolean
adjustCurves Adjusts curves curveShape as Object
of the selected
channels
adjustLevels Adjusts levels inputRangeStart as Long
of the selected inputRangeEnd as Long
channels inputRangeGamma as Double
outputRangeStart as Long
outputRangeEnd as Long
applyAddNoise Applies the add amount as Double
noise filter
distribution as NoiseDistribution
NoiseDistribution.GAUSSIAN
NoiseDistribution.UNIFORM

monochromatic as Boolean
applyBlur Applies the blur
filter
applyBlurMore Applies the blur
more filter
applyClouds Applies the
clouds filter
applyCustomFilter Applies the characteristics as Object
custom filter scale as Long
offset as Long
applyDeInterlace Applies the De- eliminateFields as EliminateFields
Interlace filter EliminateFields.EVENFIELDS
EliminateFields.ODDFIELDS

createFields as CreateFields
CreateFields.DUPLICATION
CreateFields.INTERPOLATION
applyDespeckle Applies the
despeckle filter
JavaScript Reference Guide ArtLayer 103

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

applyDifferenceClouds Applies the
difference
clouds filter
applyDiffuseGlow Applies the graininess as Long
diffuse glow glowAmount as Long
filter clearAmount as Long

applyDisplace Applies the horizontalScale as Long

displace filter verticalScale as Long

displacement as Type as DisplacementMapType

DisplacementMapType.STRETCHTOFIT
DisplacementMapType.TILE

undefinedAreass as UndefinedAreas
UndefinedAreas.REPEATEDGEPIXELS
UndefinedAreas.WRAPAROUND

displacementMapFile as File
applyDustAndScratches Applies the radius as Long
dust and threshold as Long
scratches filter
applyGaussianBlur Applies the radius as Double
Gaussian blur
filter
applyGlassEffect Applies the distortion as Long
glass filter smoothness as Long
scaling as Long
invert as Boolean

texture as TextureType
TextureType.BLOCKS
TextureType.CANVAS
TextureType.FILE
TextureType.FROSTED
TextureType.TINYLENS

textureFile as File
applyHighPass Applies the radius as Double
high pass filter
104 ArtLayer JavaScript Reference Guide

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

applyLensFlare Applies the lens brightness as Long
flare filter flareCenter as Array( UnitValue )

lensType as LensType
LensType.MOVIEPRIME
LensType.PRIME105
LensType.PRIME35
LensType.ZOOMLENS
applyMaximum Applies the radius as Double
maximum filter
applyMedianNoise Applies the radius as Double
median noise
filter
applyMinimum Applies the radius as Double
minimum filter
applyMotionBlur Applies the angle as Long
motion blur radius as Double
filter
applyNTSC Applies the
NTSC colors
filter
applyOceanRipple Applies the size as Long
ocean ripple magnitude as Long
filter
applyOffset Applies the horizontal as UnitValue
offset filter vertical as UnitValue
undefinedAreas as OffsetUndefinedAreas
OffsetUndefinedAreas.REPEATEDGEPIXELS
OffsetUndefinedAreas.SETTOBACKGROUND
OffsetUndefinedAreas.WRAPAROUND
applyPinch Applies the amount as Long
pinch filter
applyPolarCoordinates Applies the conversion as PolarConversionType
polar PolarConversionType.POLARTORECTANGULAR
coordinates PolarConversionType.RECTANGULARTOPOLAR
filter
JavaScript Reference Guide ArtLayer 105

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

applyRadialBlur Applies the amount as Long
radial blur filter
blurMethod as RadialBlurMethod
RadialBlurMethod.SPIN
RadialBlurMethod.ZOOM

blurQuality as RadialBlurQuality
RadialBlurQuality.BEST
RadialBlurQuality.DRAFT
RadialBlurQuality.GOOD
applyRipple Applies the amount as Long
ripple filter
size as RippleSize
RippleSize.LARGE
RippleSize.MEDIUM
RippleSize.SMALL
applySharpen Applies the
sharpen filter
applySharpenEdges Applies the
sharpen edges
filter
applySharpenMore Applies the
sharpen more
filter
applyShear Applies the curve as Object
shear filter
undefinedAreas as UndefinedAreas
UndefinedAreas.REPEATEDGEPIXELS
UndefinedAreas.WRAPAROUND
applySmartBlur Applies the radius as Double
smart blur filter threshold as Double

blurQuality as SmartBlurQuality
SmartBlurQuality.HIGH
SmartBlurQuality.LOW
SmartBlurQuality.MEDIUM

mode as SmartBlurMode
SmartBlurMode.EDGEONLY
SmartBlurMode.NORMAL
SmartBlurMode.OVERLAYEDGE
106 ArtLayer JavaScript Reference Guide

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

applySpherize Applies the amount as Long
spherize filter
mode as SpherizeMode
SpherizeMode.HORIZONTAL
SpherizeMode.NORMAL
SpherizeMode.VERTICAL
applyStyle styleName as String
applyTextureFill Applies the textureFile as File
texture fill filter
applyTwirl Applies the angle as Long
twirl filter
applyUnSharpMask Applies the amount as Double
unsharp mask radius as Double
filter threshold as Long
applyWave Applies the generatorNumber as Long
wave filter minimumWavelength as Long
maximumWavelength as Long
minimumAmplitude as Long
maximumAmplitude as Long
horizontalScale as Long
verticalScale as Long

waveType as WaveType
WaveType.SINE
WaveType.SQUARE
WaveType.TRIANGULAR

undefinedAreas as UndefinedAreas
UndefinedAreas.REPEATEDGEPIXELS
UndefinedAreas.WRAPAROUND
randomSeed as Long
applyZigZag Applies the amount as Long
zigzag filter ridges as Long

style as ZigZagType
ZigZagType.AROUNDCENTER
ZigZagType.OUTFROMCENTER
ZigZagType.PONDRIPPLES
autoContrast Adjusts
contrast of the
selected
channels
automatically
JavaScript Reference Guide ArtLayer 107

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

autoLevels Adjusts levels
of the selected
channels using
auto levels
option
clear
copy merge as Boolean
cut
desaturate
duplicate Creates a relativeObject as Object Object
duplicate of the (Layer)
object insertionLocation as ElementPlacement
ElementPlacement.INSIDE
ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING
ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND
ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE
ElementPlacement.PLACEAFTER
equalize Equalizes the
levels
invert Inverts the
currently
selected layer
or channels
link Links the layer with as Object (Layer)
with another
layer
merge Merges the ArtLayer
layer down.
This will
remove the
layer from the
document. The
method returns
a reference to
the art layer
that this layer is
merged into
mixChannels only valid for outputChannels as Object
RGB or CMYK monochrome as Boolean
documents
108 ArtLayer JavaScript Reference Guide

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

move Moves the relativeObject as Object
object
insertionLocation as ElementPlacement
ElementPlacement.INSIDE
ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING
ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND
ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE
ElementPlacement.PLACEAFTER
posterize levels as Long
rasterize target as RasterizeType
RasterizeType.ENTIRELAYER
RasterizeType.FILLCONTENT
RasterizeType.LAYERCLIPPINGPATH
RasterizeType.LINKEDLAYERS
RasterizeType.SHAPE
RasterizeType.TEXTCONTENTS
remove Deletes the
object
resize horizontal as Double
vertical as Double

anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
.AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
rotate angle as Double
]
anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
.AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
JavaScript Reference Guide ArtLayer 109

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

selectiveColor selectionMethod as AdjustmentReference
AdjustmentReference.ABSOLUTE
AdjustmentReference.RELATIVE
reds as Object
yellows as Object
greens as Object
cyans as Object
blues as Object
magentas as Object
whites as Object
neutrals as Object
blacks as Object
threshold level as Long
translate Moves the deltaX as UnitValue
position deltaY as UnitValue
relative to its
current
position
unlink Unlinks the
layer
110 ArtLayer JavaScript Reference Guide

Sample Script
The following script creates art layers to display a duck and a sand dune in an overlying
checkerboard pattern. An alert box prompts the user to press OK. A multi-layered collage then
displays.

The script typically produces the following progression of dialogs.

Code (ArtLayer.js)

// Save the current preferences

var startRulerUnits = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
var startTypeUnits = app.preferences.typeUnits;
var startDisplayDialogs = app.displayDialogs;

// Set Photoshop to use pixels and display no dialogs

app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
app.preferences.typeUnits = TypeUnits.PIXELS;
app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO;

// first close all the open documents

while (app.documents.length) {
app.activeDocument.close();
JavaScript Reference Guide ArtLayer 111

// create a new document to merge all the samples into

var mergedDoc = app.documents.add(1000, 1000, 72, “Merged Samples”,
NewDocumentMode.RGB, DocumentFill.TRANSPARENT, 1);

// Use the path to the application and append Samples

var samplesFolder = Folder(app.path + “/Samples/”);

// get all the files found in this folder

var fileList = samplesFolder.getFiles();

// open each one in turn

for (var i = 0; i < fileList.length; i++) {
// The fileList is folders and files so open only files
if (fileList[i] instanceof File) {
open(fileList[i]);

// use the document name for the layer name in the merged document
var docName = app.activeDocument.name;

// flatten the document so we get everything and then copy

app.activeDocument.flatten();
app.activeDocument.selection.selectAll();
app.activeDocument.selection.copy();

// don’t save anything we did

app.activeDocument.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);

// make a random selection on the document to paste into

// I divided the document up in 4 quadrants and I paste
// into one of them by selecting that area
var topLeftH = Math.floor(Math.random() * 2);
var topLeftV = Math.floor(Math.random() * 2);
var docH = app.activeDocument.width.value / 2;
var docV = app.activeDocument.height.value / 2;
var selRegion = Array(Array(topLeftH * docH, topLeftV * docV),
Array(topLeftH * docH + docH, topLeftV * docV),
Array(topLeftH * docH + docH, topLeftV * docV + docV),
Array(topLeftH * docH, topLeftV * docV + docV),
Array(topLeftH * docH, topLeftV * docV));
app.activeDocument.selection.select(selRegion);
app.activeDocument.paste();

// change the layer name and muck with the opacity

app.activeDocument.activeLayer.name = docName;
app.activeDocument.activeLayer.fillOpacity = 50;
}
}
112 ArtLayer JavaScript Reference Guide

// sort the layers by name

// use good old bubble sort
for (var x = 0; x < app.activeDocument.layers.length; x++) {
for (var y = 0; y < app.activeDocument.layers.length - 1 - x; y++) {
// Compare in a non-case sensitive way
var doc1 = app.activeDocument.layers[y].name;
var doc2 = app.activeDocument.layers[y + 1].name;
if (doc1.toUpperCase() > doc2.toUpperCase()) {
app.activeDocument.layers[y].move(app.activeDocument.layers[y+1],
ElementPlacement.PLACEAFTER);
}
}
}

// Reset the application preferences

app.preferences.rulerUnits = startRulerUnits;
app.preferences.typeUnits = startTypeUnits;
app.displayDialogs = startDisplayDialogs;
JavaScript Reference Guide ArtLayers 113

ArtLayers

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
add Creates a new object ArtLayer
getByName Get the first element in name as String ArtLayer
the collection with the
provided name
removeAll
114 BitmapConversionOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

BitmapConversionOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
angle R/W Double only valid for 'halftone screen'
conversions
frequency R/W Double only valid for 'halftone screen'
conversions
method R/W BitmapConversionType.CUSTOMPATTERN ( default: BitmapConversionType
BitmapConversionType.DIFFUIONDITHER BitmapConversionType.-->
BitmapConversionType.HALFTHRESHOLD DIFFUSIONDITHER )
BitmapConversionType.HALFTONESCREEN
BitmapConversionType.PATTERNDITHER
patternName R/W only valid for 'custom pattern' conversions String
resolution R/W output resolution (in pixels per inch) Double
shape R/W only valid for 'halftone screen' conversions BitmapHalfToneType
JavaScript Reference Guide BMPSaveOptions 115

BMPSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
depth R/W BMPDepthType number of bits per sample
BMPDepthType.BMP_A1R5G5B5
BMPDepthType.BMP_A4R4G4B4
BMPDepthType.BMP_A8R8G8B8
BMPDepthType.BMP_R5G6B5
BMPDepthType.BMP_R8G8B8
BMPDepthType.BMP_X1R5G5B5
BMPDepthType.BMP_X4R4G4B4
BMPDepthType.BMP_X8R8G8B8
BMPDepthType.EIGHT
BMPDepthType.FOUR
BMPDepthType.ONE
BMPDepthType.SIXTEEN
BMPDepthType.THIRTYTWO
BMPDepthType.TWENTYFOUR
flipRowOrder R/W Boolean
osType R/W OperatingSystem target OS. Windows or OS/2 ( default:
OperatingSystem.OS2 OperatingSystem.WINDOWS )
OperatingSystem.WINDOWS
rleCompression R/W Boolean should RLE compression be used?
116 Channel JavaScript Reference Guide

Channel

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
color R/W SolidColor color of the channel (not valid for
component channels)
histogram RO Object color of the channel (not valid for
component channels)
kind R/W ChannelType type of the channel
ChannelType.COMPONENT
ChannelType.MASKEDAREA
ChannelType.SELECTEDAREA
ChannelType.SPOTCOLOR
name R/W String the channel's name
opacity R/W Double opacity of alpha channels (called solidity
for spot channels)
parent RO Object the object's container
visible R/W Boolean

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
duplicate Duplicates the targetDocument as Document Channel
channel
merge Merges a spot channel
into the component
channels
remove Deletes the object
JavaScript Reference Guide Channels 117

Channels

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object’s container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
add Creates a new object Channel
getByName Get the first element in name as String Channel
the collection with the
provided name
removeAll

Sample Script
The following script produces a strobe effect, as a progression of dialogs display.
118 Channels JavaScript Reference Guide

Code (Histogram.js)

// Save the current preferences

var startRulerUnits = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
var startTypeUnits = app.preferences.typeUnits;
var startDisplayDialogs = app.displayDialogs;

// Set Photoshop to use pixels and display no dialogs

app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
app.preferences.typeUnits = TypeUnits.PIXELS;
app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO;

// if there are no documents open then try to open a sample file

if (app.documents.length == 0) {
open(File(app.path + “/Samples/Eagle.psd”));
}

// get a reference to the working document

var docRef = app.activeDocument;

// create the output file

// first figure out which kind of line feeds we need
if ($.os.search(/windows/i) != -1) {
fileLineFeed = “windows”;
} else {
fileLineFeed = “macintosh”;
}

// create the output file accordingly

fileOut = new File(“~/Desktop/Histogram.log”);
fileOut.lineFeed = fileLineFeed;
fileOut.open(“w”, “TEXT”, “????”);

// write out a header

fileOut.write(“Histogram report for “ + docRef.name);

// find out how many pixels I have

var totalCount = docRef.width.value * docRef.height.value;

// more info to the out file

fileOut.write(“ with a total pixel count of “ + totalCount + “\n”);

// channel indexer
var channelIndex = 0;

// remember which channels are currently active

var activeChannels = app.activeDocument.activeChannels;

// document histogram only works in these modes

JavaScript Reference Guide Channels 119

if (docRef.mode == DocumentMode.RGB ||
docRef.mode == DocumentMode.INDEXEDCOLOR ||
docRef.mode == DocumentMode.CMYK) {

// activate the main channels so we can get the documents histogram

TurnOnDocumentHistogramChannels(docRef);

// Output the documents histogram

OutputHistogram(docRef.histogram, “Luminosity”, fileOut);
}

// local reference to work from

var myChannels = docRef.channels;

// loop through each channel and output the histogram

for (var channelIndex = 0; channelIndex < myChannels.length; channelIndex++) {

// the channel has to be visible to get a histogram

myChannels[channelIndex].visible= true;

// turn off all the other channels

for (var secondaryIndex = 0; secondaryIndex < myChannels.length;
secondaryIndex++) {
if (channelIndex != secondaryIndex) {
myChannels[secondaryIndex].visible= false;
}
}

// Use the function to dump the histogram

OutputHistogram(myChannels[channelIndex].histogram,
myChannels[channelIndex].name, fileOut);
}

// close down the output file

fileOut.close();

// reset the active channels

docRef.activeChannels = activeChannels;

// Reset the application preferences

app.preferences.rulerUnits = startRulerUnits;
app.preferences.typeUnits = startTypeUnits;
app.displayDialogs = startDisplayDialogs;

// Utility function that takes a histogram and name

// and dumps to the output file
function OutputHistogram(inHistogram, inHistogramName, inOutFile) {

// find ouch which count has the largest number

120 Channels JavaScript Reference Guide

// I scale everthing to this number for the output

var largestCount = 0;

// a simple indexer I can reuse

var histogramIndex = 0;

// see how many samples we have toal

var histogramCount = 0;

// search through all and find the largest single item

for (histogramIndex = 0; histogramIndex < inHistogram.length;
histogramIndex++) {
histogramCount += inHistogram[histogramIndex];
if (inHistogram[histogramIndex] > largestCount)
largestCount = inHistogram[histogramIndex];
}

// These should match

if (histogramCount != totalCount) {
alert(“Something bad is happening!”);
}

// see how much each “X” is going to count as

var pixelsPerX = largestCount / 100;

// output this data to the file

inOutFile.write(“One X = “ + pixelsPerX + “ pixels.\n”);

// output the name of this histogram

inOutFile.write(inHistogramName + “\n”);

// loop through all the items and output in the following format
// 001 XXXXX
// 002 XX
for (histogramIndex = 0; histogramIndex < inHistogram.length;
histogramIndex++) {

// I need an extra “0” for this line item to keep everything in line
if (histogramIndex < 10)
inOutFile.write(“0”);

// I need an extra “0” for this line item to keep everything in line
if (histogramIndex < 100)
inOutFile.write(“0”);

// output the index to file

inOutFile.write(histogramIndex);

// some spacing to make it look nice

inOutFile.write(“ “);
JavaScript Reference Guide Channels 121

// figure out how many X’s I need

var outputX = inHistogram[histogramIndex] / largestCount * 100;

// output the X’s

for (var a = 0; a < outputX; a++)
inOutFile.write(“X”);

inOutFile.write(“\n”);
}

inOutFile.write(“\n”);
}

// Function to active all the channels according to the documents mode

// Takes a document reference for input
function TurnOnDocumentHistogramChannels(inDocument) {

// see how many channels we need to activate

var visibleChannelCount = 0;

// based on the mode of the document

switch (inDocument.mode) {

case DocumentMode.BITMAP:
case DocumentMode.GRAYSCALE:
case DocumentMode.INDEXEDCOLOR:
visibleChannelCount = 1;
break;

case DocumentMode.DUOTONE:
visibleChannelCount = 2;
break;

case DocumentMode.RGB:
case DocumentMode.LAB:
visibleChannelCount = 3;
break;

case DocumentMode.CMYK:
visibleChannelCount = 4;
break;

case DocumentMode.DUOTONE:
visibleChannelCount = 4;
break;

case DocumentMode.MULTICHANNEL:
default:
visibleChannelCount = inDocument.channels.length + 1;
122 Channels JavaScript Reference Guide

break;
}

// now get the channels to activate into a local array

var aChannelArray = new Array();

// index for the active channels array

var aChannelIndex = 0;

for(var channelIndex = 0; channelIndex < inDocument.channels.length;

channelIndex++) {
if (channelIndex < visibleChannelCount) {
aChannelArray[aChannelIndex++] = inDocument.channels[channelIndex];
}
}

// now activate them

inDocument.activeChannels = aChannelArray;

}
JavaScript Reference Guide CMYKColor 123

CMYKColor

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
black R/W Double the black color value (between 0.0 and
100.0)
cyan R/W Double the black color value (between 0.0 and
100.0)
magenta R/W Double the magenta color value (between 0.0 and
100.0)
yellow R/W Double the yellow color value (between 0.0 and
100.0)
124 DCS1_SaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

DCS1_SaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
dCS R/W DCSType ( default:
DCSType.COLORCOMPOSITE DCSType.COLORCOMPOSITE )
DCSType.GRAYSCALECOMPOSITE
DCSType.NOCOMPOSITE
embedColorProfil R/W Boolean embed color profile in document
e
encoding R/W SaveEncoding type of encoding to use for
SaveEncoding.ASCII document ( default:
SaveEncoding.BINARY SaveEncoding.BINARY )
SaveEncoding.JPEGHIGH
SaveEncoding.JPEGLOW
SaveEncoding.JPEGMAXIMUM
SaveEncoding.JPEGMEDIUM
halftoneScreen R/W Boolean include halftone screen ( default:
false )
interpolation R/W Boolean use image interpolation ( default:
false )
preview R/W Preview type of preview ( default:
Preview.EIGHTBITTIFF Preview.MACOSEIGHTBIT )
Preview.MACOSEIGHTBIT
Preview.MACOSJPEG
Preview.MACOSMONOCHROME
Preview.MONOCHROMETIFF
Preview.NONE
transferFunction R/W Boolean include transfer functions in
document ( default: false )
vectorData R/W Boolean include vector data
JavaScript Reference Guide DCS2_SaveOptions 125

DCS2_SaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
dCS R/W DCSType ( default: DCSType.NOCOMPOSITE )
DCSType.COLORCOMPOSITE
DCSType.GRAYSCALECOMPOSITE
DCSType.NOCOMPOSITE
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in document
encoding R/W SaveEncoding type of encoding to use for
SaveEncoding.ASCII document ( default:
SaveEncoding.BINARY SaveEncoding.BINARY )
SaveEncoding.JPEGHIGH
SaveEncoding.JPEGLOW
SaveEncoding.JPEGMAXIMUM
SaveEncoding.JPEGMEDIUM
halftoneScreen R/W Boolean include halftone screen ( default:
false )
interpolation R/W Boolean use image interpolation ( default:
false )
multiFileDCS R/W Boolean ( default: false )
preview R/W Preview type of preview ( default:
Preview.EIGHTBITTIFF Preview.MACOSEIGHTBIT )
Preview.MACOSEIGHTBIT
Preview.MACOSJPEG
Preview.MACOSMONOCHROME
Preview.MONOCHROMETIFF
Preview.NONE
spotColors R/W Boolean save spot colors
transferFunction R/W Boolean include transfer functions in
document ( default: false )
vectorData R/W Boolean include vector data
126 Document JavaScript Reference Guide

Document

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
activeChannels R/W Object selected channels for
document
activeHistoryBrushSource R/W HistoryState the current history state to
use with the history brush for
this document
activeHistoryState R/W HistoryState the current history state for
this document
activeLayer R/W Object (Layer) selected layer for document
artLayers RO ArtLayers the top level art layers in this
document
backgroundLayer RO ArtLayer background layer for the
document. Only valid for
documents that have a
background layer
bitsPerChannel R/W BitsPerChannelType number of bits per channel
BitsPerChannelType.EIGHT
BitsPerChannelType.ONE
BitsPerChannelType.SIXTEEN
channels RO Channels the channels in this
document
colorProfileName R/W String name of color profile for
document. Only valid for
documents that have been
assigned a color profile
colorProfileType R/W ColorProfile type of color profile
ColorProfile.CUSTOM management for document
ColorProfile.NONE
ColorProfile.WORKING
componentChannels RO Object all color component channels
for this document
fullName RO File full path name of document
height RO UnitValue height of document (unit
value)
histogram RO Object a histogram of values for the
composite document (only
for RGB, CMYK and 'Indexed
colors' documents)
JavaScript Reference Guide Document 127

Property Access Value Type What it is

historyStates RO HistoryStates the history states associated
with this document
info RO DocumentInfo document information
layerComps RO LayerComps the layer comps associated
with this document
layers RO Layers the top level layers in this
document
layerSets RO LayerSets the top level layer sets in this
document
managed RO Boolean is the document a workgroup
document?
mode RO DocumentMode document mode
DocumentMode.BITMAP
DocumentMode.CMYK
DocumentMode.DUOTONE
DocumentMode.GRAYSCALE
DocumentMode.INDEXEDCOLOR
DocumentMode.LAB
DocumentMode.MULTICHANNEL
DocumentMode.RGB
name RO String the document's name
parent RO Object the object's container
path RO File the path of the document
pathItems RO pathItems the art paths associated with
this document
pixelAspectRatio R/W Double the pixel aspect ration of the
document
quickMaskMode R/W Boolean is the document in the quick
mask mode?
resolution RO Double the resolution of the
document (in pixels per inch)
saved RO Boolean has the document been
saved since last change?
selection RO Selection the document's selection
typename RO String the class name of the object
width RO UnitValue width of document (unit
value)
xmpMetadata RO xmpMetadata
128 Document JavaScript Reference Guide

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
changeMode Changes the mode of destinationMode as ChangeMode
the document ChangeMode.BITMAP
ChangeMode.CMYK
ChangeMode.GRAYSCALE
ChangeMode.INDEXEDCOLOR
ChangeMode.LAB
ChangeMode.MULTICHANNEL
ChangeMode.RGB

options as Object
(DocumentConversionOptions)
close Closes the document saving as SaveOptions
SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES
SaveOptions.PROMPTTOSAVECHANGES
SaveOptions.SAVECHANGES
convertProfile Convert sthe destinationProfile as String
document from using intent as Intent
one color profile to Intent.ABSOLUTECOLORIMETRIC
using an other Intent.PERCEPTUAL
Intent.RELATIVECOLORIMETRIC
Intent.SATURATION

blackPointCompensation as Boolean
dither as Boolean
Dither.DIFFUSION
Dither.NOISE
Dither.NONE
Dither.PATTERN
crop Crops the document bounds as Array( UnitValue )
angle as Double
width as UnitValue
height as UnitValue
duplicate Creates a duplicate of Document
the object
exportDocument exportIn as File
exportAs as ExportType
ExportType.ILLUSTRATORPATHS

options as ExportOptionsIllustrator
flatten Flattens all layers in the
document
JavaScript Reference Guide Document 129

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

flipCanvas Flips the canvas direction as Direction
horizontally or Direction.HORIZONTAL
vertically Direction.VERTICAL
importAnnotations Import sannotations file as File
into the document
mergeVisibleLayers Flattens all visible
layers in the document
paste Pastes contents of intoSelection as Boolean ArtLayer
clipboard into the
document
print Prints the document postScriptEncoding as PrintEncoding
PrintEncoding.ASCII
PrintEncoding.BINARY
PrintEncoding.JPEG

sourceSpace as SourceSpaceType
SourceSpaceType.DOCUMENT
SourceSpaceType.PROOF

printSpace as String
intent as Intent
Intent.ABSOLUTECOLORIMETRIC
Intent.PERCEPTUAL
Intent.RELATIVECOLORIMETRIC
Intent.SATURATION

blackPointCompensation as Boolean
rasterizeAllLayers Rasterizes all layers
resizeCanvas Changes the size of the width as UnitValue
canvas height as UnitValue
anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
.AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
130 Document JavaScript Reference Guide

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

resizeImage Changes the size of width as UnitValue
the image height as UnitValue
resolution as Double

resampleMethod as ResampleMethod
ResampleMethod.BICUBIC
ResampleMethod.BICUBICSHARPER
ResampleMethod.BICUBICSMOOTHER
ResampleMethod.BILINEAR
ResampleMethod.NEARESTNEIGHBOR
ResampleMethod.NONE
revealAll Expands document to
show clipped sections
rotateCanvas Rotates canvas of angle as Double
document
save Saves the document
saveAs Saves the document saveIn as File
with specific save options as ANYTHING
options asCopy as Boolean

extensionType as Extension
Extension.LOWERCASE
Extension.NONE
Extension.UPPERCASE
splitChannels Splits channels of the Object
document
trap Applies trap to a CMYK width as Long
document
trim type as TrimType
TrimType.BOTTOMRIGHT
TrimType.TOPLEFT
TrimType.TRANSPARENT

top as Boolean
left as Boolean
bottom as Boolean
right as Boolean
JavaScript Reference Guide Document 131

Sample Script
The following script creates a document that contains two images (an eagle and a duck) obtained
from the Photoshop samples folder.

First, a test is made to determine which image is larger. Then the smaller image is resized to match
the larger image. A merged document twice as high as either image is subsequently created in
order to hold the two images, one stacked on top of the other.

A selection is made on the upper part of the document to paste in the eagle. The selection process
is then inverted and the duck is pasted into the lower part of the document. In the final display, the
eagle is positioned over the duck.

Code (Document.js)

// Save the current preferences

var startRulerUnits = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
var startTypeUnits = app.preferences.typeUnits;
var startDisplayDialogs = app.displayDialogs;

// Set Photoshop to use pixels and display no dialogs

app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
app.preferences.typeUnits = TypeUnits.PIXELS;
app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO;

// first close all the open documents

while (app.documents.length) {
app.activeDocument.close();
132 Document JavaScript Reference Guide

// Now open some samples, path is the location of the executable

var eagleDoc = open(File(app.path + “/Samples/Eagle.psd”));
var duckDoc = open(File(app.path + “/Samples/Ducky.tif”));

// Find out which document is bigger

// make the smaller document the same size
// the resize requires the document be the active/front document
if ((eagleDoc.width.value * eagleDoc.height.value) > (duckDoc.width.value *
duckDoc.height.value)) {
app.activeDocument = duckDoc;
duckDoc.resize(eagleDoc.width, eagleDoc.height);
} else {
app.activeDocument = eagleDoc;
eagleDoc.resizeImage(duckDoc.width, duckDoc.height);
}

// make a new one twice as high as two files

var mergedDoc = app.documents.add(duckDoc.width, duckDoc.height * 2,
duckDoc.resolution, “EagleOverDuck”);

// copy the eagle to the top, we need to make it active first

app.activeDocument = eagleDoc;
eagleDoc.activeLayer.copy();

// paste to the merged, again making the document active

app.activeDocument = mergedDoc;

// set up a square selection for the top of the new document

var selRegion = Array(Array(0, 0),
Array(mergedDoc.width.value, 0),
Array(mergedDoc.width.value, mergedDoc.height.value / 2),
Array(0, mergedDoc.height.value / 2),
Array(0, 0));
// make the selection
mergedDoc.selection.select(selRegion);

// paste in the eagle

mergedDoc.paste();

// do the same thing for the duck

app.activeDocument = duckDoc;
duckDoc.activeLayer.copy();

app.activeDocument = mergedDoc;
mergedDoc.selection.select(selRegion);

// inverting the selection we made before gets us the bottom of the document
mergedDoc.selection.invert();
JavaScript Reference Guide Document 133

// and paste the duck

mergedDoc.paste();

// get rid of our originals without modifying them

duckDoc.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);
eagleDoc.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);

// Reset the application preferences

app.preferences.rulerUnits = startRulerUnits;
app.preferences.typeUnits = startTypeUnits;
app.displayDialogs = startDisplayDialogs;
134 DocumentInfo JavaScript Reference Guide

DocumentInfo

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
author R/W String
authorPosition R/W String
caption R/W String
captionWriter R/W String
category R/W String
city R/W String
copyrighted R/W CopyrightedType
CopyrightedType.COPYRIGHTEDWORK
CopyrightedType.PUBLICDOMAIN
CopyrightedType.UNMARKED
copyrightNotice R/W String
country R/W String
creationDate R/W String
credit R/W String
exif read Object An array of 2 element
onlly arrays of type string
(key/value pairs)
headline R/W String
instructions R/W String
jobName R/W String
keywords R/W Object list of keywords
ownerUrl R/W String
parent RO Object the object's container

provinceState R/W String

source R/W String
supplementalCategories R/W Object
title R/W String
JavaScript Reference Guide DocumentInfo 135

Property Access Value Type What it is

transmissionReference R/W String
urgency R/W Urgency
Urgency.FOUR
Urgency.HIGH
Urgency.LOW
Urgency.NONE
Urgency.NORMAL
Urgency.SEVEN
Urgency.SIX
Urgency.THREE
Urgency.TWO

Sample Script
The following script opens a pop-up that allows you to select a file.

Code (DocumentInfo.js)

// Save the current preferences

var startDisplayDialogs = app.displayDialogs;

// Set Photoshop to use pixels and display no dialogs

app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO;

// ask the user for the input folder

// tag all of the documents with the photo shoot information
var inputFolder = Folder.selectDialog(“Select a folder to tag”);

// ask the user for the output folder

136 DocumentInfo JavaScript Reference Guide

var outputFolder = Folder.selectDialog(“Select a folder for the output files”);

// see if we got something interesting from the dialog

if ( inputFolder != null && outputFolder != null) {

// get all the files found in this folder

var fileList = inputFolder.getFiles();

// save the output’s in JPEG with quality really low for small files
var jpegOptions = new JPEGSaveOptions();

// and I mean really small

jpegOptions.quality = 1;

// open each one in turn

for (var i = 0; i < fileList.length; i++) {

// The fileList is folders and files so open only files

if (fileList[i] instanceof File && fileList[i].hidden == false) {

// get a reference to our new document

var docRef = open(fileList[i]);

// set the file info

docRef.info.author = “Mr. Adobe Programmer”;
docRef.info.caption = “Adobe Photo shoot”;
docRef.info.captionWriter = “Mr. Adobe Programmer”;
docRef.info.city = “San Jose”;
docRef.info.copyrightNotice = “Copyright (c) Adobe Programmer
Photography”;
docRef.info.copyrighted = CopyrightedType.COPYRIGHTEDWORK;
docRef.info.country = “USA”;
docRef.info.provinceState = “CA”;

// change the date to a Photoshop date format

// “YYYYMMDD”
var theDate = new Date();

// the year is from 1900 ????

var theYear = (theDate.getYear() + 1900).toString();

// convert the month from 0..12 to 00..12

var theMonth = theDate.getMonth().toString();

if (theDate.getMonth() < 10) {

theMonth = “0” + theMonth;
}

// convert the day from 0..31 to 00.31

var theDay = theDate.getDate().toString();
JavaScript Reference Guide DocumentInfo 137

if (theDate.getDate() < 10) {

theDay = “0” + theDay;
}

// stick them all together

docRef.info.creationDate = theYear + theMonth + theDay;

// flatten, we are saving to JPEG

docRef.flatten();

// go to 8 bit, we are saving to JPEG

docRef.bitsPerChannel = BitsPerChannelType.EIGHT;

// save and close

docRef.saveAs(new File(outputFolder + “/Output” + i + “.jpg”),
jpegOptions);

// don’t modify the original

docRef.close(SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES);
}
}
}

// Reset the application preferences

app.displayDialogs = startDisplayDialogs;
138 Documents JavaScript Reference Guide

Documents

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
add Adds a document width as UnitValue Document
height as UnitValue
resolution as Double
name as String
mode as NewDocumentMode
NewDocumentMode.BITMAP
NewDocumentMode.CMYK
NewDocumentMode.GRAYSCALE
NewDocumentMode.LAB
NewDocumentMode.RGB

initialFill as DocumentFill
DocumentFill.BACKGROUNDCOLOR
DocumentFill.TRANSPARENT
DocumentFill.WHITE

pixelAspectRatio as Double
getByName Get the first element in name as String Document
the collection with the
provided name
JavaScript Reference Guide EPSOpenOptions 139

EPSOpenOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
antiAlias R/W Boolean use antialias?
constrainProportions R/W Boolean constrain proportions of image
height R/W UnitValue height of image (unit value)
mode R/W OpenDocumentMode the document mode
OpenDocumentMode.CMYK
OpenDocumentMode.GRAYSC
OpenDocumentMode.ALE
OpenDocumentMode.LAB
OpenDocumentMode.RGB
resolution R/W Double the resolution of the document (in
pixels per inch)
width R/W UnitValue width of image (unit value)
140 EPSSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

EPSSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in document
encoding R/W SaveEncodingSaveEncoding.ASCII type of encoding to use for
SaveEncoding.BINARY document ( default:
SaveEncoding.JPEGHIGH SaveEncoding.BINARY )
SaveEncoding.JPEGLOW
SaveEncoding.JPEGMAXIMUM
SaveEncoding.JPEGMEDIUM
halftoneScreen R/W Boolean include halftone screen ( default:
false )
interpolation R/W Boolean use image interpolation ( default:
false )
preview R/W Preview type of preview
Preview.EIGHTBITTIFF
Preview.MACOSEIGHTBIT
Preview.MACOSJPEG
Preview.MACOSMONOCHROME
Preview.MONOCHROMETIFF
Preview.NONE
psColorManagement R/W Boolean use Postscript color management (
default: false )
transferFunction R/W Boolean include transfer functions in
document
( default: false )
transparentWhites R/W Boolean only valid when saving BitMap
documents
vectorData R/W Boolean include vector data
JavaScript Reference Guide ExportOptionsIllustrator 141

ExportOptionsIllustrator

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
path R/W IllustratorPathType which path to export ( default:
IllustratorPathType.ALLPATHS IllustratorPathType.DOCUMENTBOUNDS )
IllustratorPathType.DOCUMENTBOUNDS
IllustratorPathType.NAMEDPATH
pathName R/W String name of path to export. Only valid if
you are exporting a named path
142 GalleryBannerOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

GalleryBannerOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
contactInfo R/W String web photo gallery contact info
date R/W String web photo gallery date
font R/W GalleryFontType the font setting for the banner text
GalleryFontType.ARIAL ( default: GalleryFontType.ARIAL )
GalleryFontType.COURIERNEW
GalleryFontType.HELVETICA
GalleryFontType.TIMESNEWROMAN
fontSize R/W Long the size of the font for the banner
text ( 1 - 7; default: 3 )
photographer R/W String web photo gallery photographer (
default: )
siteName R/W String web photo gallery site name (
default: Adobe Web Photo Gallery )
JavaScript Reference Guide GalleryCustomColorOptions 143

GalleryCustomColorOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
activeLinkColor R/W RGBColor active link color
backgroundColor R/W RGBColor background color
bannerColor R/W RGBColor banner color
linkColor R/W RGBColor link color
textColor R/W RGBColor text color
visitedLinkColor R/W RGBColor visited link color
144 GalleryImagesOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

GalleryImagesOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
border R/W Long the amount of border pixels
you want between your
images ( 0 - 99; default: 0 )
caption R/W Boolean generate a caption for the
images ( default: false )
dimension R/W Long resized image dimensions in
pixels ( default: 350 )
font R/W GalleryFontType font for the gallery images text
GalleryFontType.ARIAL ( default:
GalleryFontType.COURIERNEW GalleryFontType.ARIAL )
GalleryFontType.HELVETICA
GalleryFontType.TIMESNEWROMAN
fontSize R/W Long font size for the gallery images
text ( 1 - 7; default: 3 )
imageQuality R/W Long the quality setting for the JPEG
image ( 0 - 12; default: 5 )
includeCopyright R/W Boolean include the copyright in the
text for the gallery images (
default: false )
includeCredits R/W Boolean include the credits in the text
for the gallery images ( default:
false )
includeFilename R/W Boolean include the file name in the
text for the gallery images (
default: true )
includeTitle R/W Boolean include the title in the text for
the gallery images ( default:
false )
numericLinks R/W Boolean add numeric links ( default:
true )
resizeConstraint R/W GalleryConstrainType how should the image be
GalleryConstrainType.CONSTRAINBOTH constrained ( default:
GalleryConstrainType.CONSTRAINHEIGHT GalleryConstrainType.CONSTR
GalleryConstrainType.CONSTRAINWIDTH AINBOTH )
resizeImages R/W Boolean resize images data ( default:
true )
JavaScript Reference Guide GalleryOptions 145

GalleryOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
addSizeAttributes R/W Boolean add width and height attributes for
images ( default: true )
bannerOptions R/W GalleryBannerOptions options related to banner settings
customColorOptions R/W GalleryCustomColorOptions options related to custom color settings
emailAddress R/W String the email address to show on the web
page ( default: )
imagesOptions R/W GalleryImagesOptions options related to images settings
includeSubFolders R/W Boolean include all files found in sub folders of
the input folder ( default: true )
layoutStyle R/W String the style to use for laying out the web
page ( default: Centered Frame 1 - Basic )
preserveAllMetadata R/W Boolean save all of the metadata in the JPEG files
( default: false )
securityOptions R/W GallerySecurityOptions options related to security settings
thumbnailOptions R/W GalleryThumbnailOptions options related to thumbnail settings
useShortExtension R/W Boolean short web page extension .htm or long
web page extension .html ( default: true
)
useUTF8Encoding R/W Boolean web page should use UTF-8 encoding (
default: false )
146 GallerySecurityOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

GallerySecurityOptions

Properties
Acce
Property Value Type What it is
ss
content R/W GallerySecurityType web photo gallery
GallerySecurityType.CAPTION security content (
GallerySecurityType.COPYRIGHT default:
GallerySecurityType.CREDIT GallerySecurityType.NO
GallerySecurityType.CUSTOMTEXT NE )
GallerySecurityType.FILENAME
GallerySecurityType.NONE
GallerySecurityType.TITLE
font R/W GalleryFontType web photo gallery
GalleryFontType.ARIAL security font ( default:
GalleryFontType.COURIERNEW GalleryFontType.ARIAL
GalleryFontType.HELVETICA )
GalleryFontType.TIMESNEWROMAN
fontSize R/W Long web photo gallery
security font size ( 1 -
72; default: 3 )
opacity R/W Long web page security
opacity as a percent (
default: 100 )
text R/W String web photo gallery
security custom text
textColor R/W RGBColor web page security text
color
textPosition R/W GallerySecurityTextPositionType web photo gallery
GallerySecurityTextPositionType.CENTERED security text position (
GallerySecurityTextPositionType.LOWERLEFT default:
GallerySecurityTextPositionType.LOWERRIGHT GallerySecurityTextPosi
GallerySecurityTextPositionType.UPPERLEFT tionType.CENTERED )
GallerySecurityTextPositionType.UPPERRIGHT
textRotate R/W GallerySecurityTextRotateType web photo gallery
GallerySecurityTextRotateType.CLOCKWISE45 security text rotate (
GallerySecurityTextRotateType.CLOCKWISE90 default:
GallerySecurityTextRotateType.COUNTERCLOCKWISE45 GallerySecurityTextRot
GallerySecurityTextRotateType.COUNTERCLOCKWISE90 ateType.ZERO )
GallerySecurityTextRotateType.ZERO
JavaScript Reference Guide GalleryThumbnailOptions 147

GalleryThumbnailOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
border R/W Long the amount of border pixels you
want around your thumbnail
images ( 0 - 99; default: 0 )
caption R/W Boolean with caption ( default: false )
columnCount R/W Long web photo gallery thumbnail
columns ( default: 5 )
dimension R/W Long web photo gallery thumbnail
dimension in pixels ( default: 75 )
font R/W GalleryFontType web photo gallery font ( default:
GalleryFontType.ARIAL GalleryFontType.ARIAL )
GalleryFontType.COURIERNEW
GalleryFontType.HELVETICA
GalleryFontType.TIMESNEWROMAN
fontSize R/W Long the size of the font for the
thumbnail images text ( 1 - 7;
default: 3 )
includeCopyright R/W Boolean include copyright for thumbnail (
default: false )
includeCredits R/W Boolean include credits for thumbnail (
default: false )
includeFilename R/W Boolean include file name for thumbnail (
default: false )
includeTitle R/W Boolean include title for thumbnail ( default:
false )
rowCount R/W Long web photo gallery thumbnail rows (
default: 3 )
size R/W GalleryThumbSizeType the size of the thumbnail images (
GalleryThumbSizeType.CUSTOM default:
GalleryThumbSizeType.LARGE GalleryThumbSizeType.MEDIUM )
GalleryThumbSizeType.MEDIUM
GalleryThumbSizeType.SMALL
148 GIFSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

GIFSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
colors R/W Long number of colors in palette (only
settable for some palette types)
dither R/W Dither type of dither
Dither.DIFFUSION
Dither.NOISE
Dither.NONE
Dither.PATTERN
ditherAmount R/W Long amount of dither. Only valid for
diffusion ( 1 - 100; default: 75 )
forced R/W ForcedColors
ForcedColors.BLACKWHITE
ForcedColors.NONE
ForcedColors.PRIMARIES
ForcedColors.WEB
interlaced R/W Boolean should rows be interlaced? ( default:
false )
matte R/W MatteType
MatteType.BACKGROUND
MatteType.BLACK
MatteType.FOREGROUND
MatteType.NETSCAPENONE
MatteType.SEMIGRAY
MatteType.WHITE
palette R/W Palette ( default: Palette.LOCALSELECTIVE )
Palette.EXACT
Palette.LOCALADAPTIVE
Palette.LOCALPERCEPTUAL
Palette.LOCALSELECTIVE
Palette.MACOSPALETTE
Palette.MASTERADAPTIVE
Palette.MASTERPERCEPTUAL
Palette.MASTERSELECTIVE
Palette.PREVIOUSPALETTE
Palette.UNIFORM
Palette.WEBPALETTE
Palette.WINDOWSPALETTE
preserveExactColors R/W Boolean
transparency Boolean
JavaScript Reference Guide GrayColor 149

GrayColor

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
gray R/W Double the gray value ( 0.0 - 100.0; default: 0.0 )
150 HistoryState JavaScript Reference Guide

HistoryState

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
name RO String the channel's name
parent RO Object the object's container
snapshot RO Boolean is the history state a snapshot?
JavaScript Reference Guide HistoryStates 151

HistoryStates

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
getByName Get the first element in name as String HistoryState
the collection with the
provided name
152 HSBColor JavaScript Reference Guide

HSBColor

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
brightness R/W Double the brightness value (between 0.0 and
100.0)
hue R/W Double the hue value (between 0.0 and 360.0)
saturation R/W Double the saturation value (between 0.0 and
100.0)
JavaScript Reference Guide IndexedConversionOptions 153

IndexedConversionOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
colors R/W Long number of colors in palette (only
settable for some palette types)
dither R/W Dither type of dither
Dither.DIFFUSION
Dither.NOISE
Dither.NONE
Dither.PATTERN
ditherAmount R/W Long amount of dither. Only valid for
diffusion ( 1 - 100 )
forced R/W ForcedColors
ForcedColors.BLACKWHITE
ForcedColors.NONE
ForcedColors.PRIMARIES
ForcedColors.WEB
matte R/W MatteType
MatteType.BACKGROUND
MatteType.BLACK
MatteType.FOREGROUND
MatteType.NETSCAPENONE
MatteType.SEMIGRAY
MatteType.WHITE
palette R/W Palette Type of palette ( default:
Palette.EXACT Palette.EXACT )
Palette.LOCALADAPTIVE
Palette.LOCALPERCEPTUAL
Palette.LOCALSELECTIVE
Palette.MACOSPALETTE
Palette.MASTERADAPTIVE
Palette.MASTERPERCEPTUAL
Palette.MASTERSELECTIVE
Palette.PREVIOUSPALETTE
Palette.UNIFORM
Palette.WEBPALETTE
Palette.WINDOWSPALETTE
preserveExactColors R/W Boolean
transparency R/W Boolean
154 JPEGSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

JPEGSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in
document
formatOptions R/W FormatOptions ( default:
FormatOptions.OPTIMIZEDBSELINE FormatOptions.STANDARDBA
FormatOptions.PROGRESSIVE SELINE )
FormatOptions.STANDARDBASELINE
matte R/W MatteType
MatteType.BACKGROUND
MatteType.BLACK
MatteType.FOREGROUND
MatteType.NETSCAPENONE
MatteType.SEMIGRAY
MatteType.WHITE
quality R/W Long quality of produced image ( 0 -
12; default: 3 )
scans R/W Long number of scans. Only valid for
progressive type JPEG files ( 3 -
5)
JavaScript Reference Guide LabColor 155

LabColor

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
a R/W Double the a-value (between -128.0 and 127.0)
b R/W Double the b-value (between -128.0 and 127.0)
l R/W Double the L-value (between 0.0 and 100.0)
156 LayerComp JavaScript Reference Guide

LayerComp

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
appearance R/W Boolean use layer appearance
comment R/W ANYTHING the description of the layer comp
name R/W String the name of the layer comp
parent RO Object the object's container
position R/W Boolean use layer position
selected RO Boolean the layer comp is currently selected
visibility R/W Boolean use layer visibility

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
apply Applies the layer comp
to the document
recapture Recaptures the current
layer state(s) for this
layer comp
remove Deletes the object
resetFromComp Resets the layer comp
state to the document
state
JavaScript Reference Guide LayerComps 157

LayerComps

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
add a layer comp name as String LayerComp
comment as String
appearance as Boolean
position as Boolean
visibility as Boolean
getByName Get the first element in name as String LayerComp
the collection with the
provided name
removeAll
158 Layers JavaScript Reference Guide

Layers

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
getByName Get the first element in name as String Layer
the collection with the
provided name
removeAll
JavaScript Reference Guide LayerSet 159

LayerSet

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
allLocked R/W Boolean
artLayers RO ArtLayers the art layers in this layer set
blendMode R/W BlendMode
BlendMode.COLORBLEND
BlendMode.COLORBURN
BlendMode.COLORDODGE
BlendMode.DARKEN
BlendMode.DIFFERENCE
BlendMode.DISSOLVE
BlendMode.EXCLUSION
BlendMode.HARDLIGHT
BlendMode.HUE
BlendMode.LIGHTEN
BlendMode.LINEARBURN
BlendMode.LINEARDODGE
BlendMode.LINEARLIGHT
BlendMode.LUMINOSITY
BlendMode.MULTIPLY
BlendMode.NORMAL
BlendMode.OVERLAY
BlendMode.PASSTHROUGH
BlendMode.PINLIGHT
BlendMode.SATURATION
BlendMode.SCREEN
BlendMode.SOFTLIGHT
BlendMode.VIVIDLIGHT
bounds RO Array( UnitValue ) Bounding rectangle of the Layer
enabledChannels R/W Object channels that are enabled for the layer set.
Must be a list of component channels
layers RO Layers the layers in this layer set
layerSets RO LayerSets LayerSets contained within a LayerSet
linkedLayers RO Object
name R/W String the name of the layer
opacity R/W Double master opacity of layer ( 0.0 - 100.0 )
parent RO Object the object's container
visible R/W Boolean
160 LayerSet JavaScript Reference Guide

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
duplicate Creates a duplicate of relativeObject as Object Object (Layer)
the object insertionLocation as ElementPlacement
ElementPlacement.INSIDE
ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING
ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND
ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE
ElementPlacement.PLACEAFTER
link Links the layer with with as Object (Layer)
another layer
merge Merges the layerset. ArtLayer
Returns a reference to
the art layer that is
created by this method
move Moves the object relativeObject as Object
insertionLocation as ElementPlacement
ElementPlacement.INSIDE
ElementPlacement.PLACEATBEGINNING
ElementPlacement.PLACEATEND
ElementPlacement.PLACEBEFORE
ElementPlacement.PLACEAFTER
remove Deletes the object

resize horizontal as Double

vertical as Double
anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
JavaScript Reference Guide LayerSet 161

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

rotate angle as Double
anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
translate Moves the position deltaX as UnitValue
relative to its current deltaY as UnitValue
position
unlink Unlinks the layer set
162 LayerSets JavaScript Reference Guide

LayerSets

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
add Creates a new object LayerSet
getByName Get the first element in name as String LayerSet
the collection with the
provided name
removeAll Removes the layer set
and any contained
layers or layer sets

Code (LayerSets.js)
$.level = 1;

// first close all the open documents

while (app.documents.length) {
app.activeDocument.close();
}

// create a working document

var docRef = app.documents.add();

// create an array to hold the layer sets

var myLayerSets = new Array();

// a helpful array to hold some text for us

var textArray = Array(“First”, “Second”, “Third”);

// an indexer
var i = 0;

// create three layer sets at the top level

for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
myLayerSets[i] = new Array();
JavaScript Reference Guide LayerSets 163

myLayerSets[i][0] = docRef.layerSets.add();
}

// rearrange them so the first one is on top, second next, etc.

myLayerSets[1][0].moveAfter(myLayerSets[0][0]);
myLayerSets[2][0].moveAfter(myLayerSets[1][0]);

// create a layer set inside each layer set

for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
myLayerSets[i][0].name = textArray[i] + “ Set”;
myLayerSets[i][1] = myLayerSets[i][0].layerSets.add();
myLayerSets[i][1].name = “Inside “ + textArray[i] + “ Set”;
}

// create another array to hold the layers

var myLayers = new Array();

// create a text layer with a description inside each layer set

for (i = 0; i < 3; i++) {
myLayers[i] = myLayerSets[i][1].artLayers.add();
myLayers[i].kind = LayerKind.TEXT;
myLayers[i].textItem.contents = “Layer in “ + textArray[i] + “ Set Inside “
+ textArray[i] + “ Set”;
myLayers[i].textItem.position = Array(app.activeDocument.width * i * 0.33,
app.activeDocument.height * (i + 1) * 0.25);
myLayers[i].textItem.size = 12;
}
164 PathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

PathItem

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
kind R/W PathKind
PathKind.CLIPPINGPATH
PathKind.NORMALPATH
PathKind.WORKPATH
name
parent RO PathKind the object's container
PathKind.CLIPPINGPATH
PathKind.NORMALPATH
PathKind.WORKPATH
subPathItems RO SubPathItems sub items for this path item

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
remove Deletes this path
duplicate Duplicates this path name as String
with a new name
JavaScript Reference Guide PathItem 165

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

fillPath Fills the path with the fillColor as Anything
following information mode as ColorBlendMode
ColorBlendMode.BEHIND
ColorBlendMode.CLEAR
ColorBlendMode.COLOR
ColorBlendMode.COLORBURN
ColorBlendMode.COLORDODGE
ColorBlendMode.DARKEN
ColorBlendMode.DIFFERENCE
ColorBlendMode.DISSOLVE
ColorBlendMode.EXCLUSION
ColorBlendMode.HARDLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.HUE
ColorBlendMode.LIGHTEN
ColorBlendMode.LINEARBURN
ColorBlendMode.LINEARDODGE
ColorBlendMode.LINEARLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.LUMINOSITY
ColorBlendMode.MULTIPLY
ColorBlendMode.NORMAL
ColorBlendMode.OVERLAY
ColorBlendMode.PINLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.SATURATION
ColorBlendMode.SCREEN
ColorBlendMode.SOFTLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.VIVIDLIGHT

opacity as Double
preserveTransparency as Boolean
feather as Double
wholePath as Boolean
antiAlias as Boolean
antiAlias.CRISP
antiAlias.NONE
antiAlias.SHARP
antiAlias.SMOOTH
antiAlias.STRONG
makeClippingPath Makes this path item flatness as Double
the clipping path for
this document
166 PathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

makeSelection Makes a selection feather as Double
from this path antiAlias as Boolean
antiAlias as Boolean
antiAlias.CRISP
antiAlias.NONE
antiAlias.SHARP
antiAlias.SMOOTH
antiAlias.STRONG

operation as SelectionType
SelectionType.DIMINISH
SelectionType.EXTEND
SelectionType.INTERSECT
SelectionType.REPLACE
strokePath Strokes the path with tool as ToolType
the following ToolType.ARTHISTORYBRUSH
information ToolType.BACKGROUNDERASER
ToolType.BLUR
ToolType.BRUSH
ToolType.BURN
ToolType.CLONESTAMP
ToolType.COLORREPLACEMENTTOOL
ToolType.DODGE
ToolType.ERASER
ToolType.HEALINGBRUSH
ToolType.HISTORYBRUSH
ToolType.PATTERNSTAMP
ToolType.PENCIL
ToolType.SHARPEN
ToolType.SMUDGE
ToolType.SPONGE

simulatePressure as Boolean
JavaScript Reference Guide PathItem 167

Sample Script
The following script manipulates multiple art paths to produce a multi-colored version of “Hello
World”.

Code (ArtPaths.js)

// Save the current preferences

var startRulerUnits = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
var startTypeUnits = app.preferences.typeUnits;
var startDisplayDialogs = app.displayDialogs;

// Set Photoshop to use pixels and display no dialogs

app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
app.preferences.typeUnits = TypeUnits.PIXELS;
app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO;

// first close all the open documents

while (app.documents.length) {
app.activeDocument.close();
}

// create a document to work with

var docRef = app.documents.add(5000, 7000, 72, “Hello World“);

// figure out how big a letter would be

168 PathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

var letterBoxWidth = docRef.width / 7;

var letterWidth = letterBoxWidth * .75;
var letterBoxHeight = docRef.height / 4;
var letterHeight = letterBoxHeight * .75;

// move to the top left corner for the first letter

var letterLocationX = letterBoxWidth.value;
var letterLocationY = letterBoxHeight.value;

// this array will hold all the sub paths

// each AddLetter.Path routine will append to the end
var letterSubPaths = new Array();

// add all the paths needed for the letter H

AddLetterHPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

// move over to the next letter

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
AddLetterEPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
AddLetterLPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
AddLetterLPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
AddLetterOPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

// move back to the left and down one row

letterLocationX = letterBoxWidth.value;
letterLocationY += letterBoxHeight.value;
AddLetterWPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
AddLetterOPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
AddLetterRPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
JavaScript Reference Guide PathItem 169

AddLetterLPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,

letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

letterLocationX += letterBoxWidth.value;
AddLetterDPath(letterSubPaths, letterLocationX, letterLocationY,
letterWidth.value, letterHeight.value);

// create the path

var myPathItem = docRef.pathItems.add(“Testing“, letterSubPaths);

// stroke it so we can see something

myPathItem.strokePath(ToolType.BRUSH);

// deselect it
myPathItem.deselect();

// each of the functions below are for each individual letter

// bad design but it makes the stuff above easier to read

function AddLetterDPath(inOutSubPaths, inX, inY, inWidth, inHeight) {

// create the letter D
var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = Array(inX + inWidth, inY);

letterPoints[2] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[2].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[2].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[2].leftDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;
letterPoints[2].rightDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;

letterPoints[3] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[3].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[3].anchor = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[3].leftDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;
letterPoints[3].rightDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;

var insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

170 PathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;
}

function AddLetterRPath(inOutSubPaths, inX, inY, inWidth, inHeight) {

// create the letter R
var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

letterPoints[2] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[2].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[2].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight * .33);
letterPoints[2].leftDirection = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[2].rightDirection = Array(inX + inWidth, inY);

letterPoints[3] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[3].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[3].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[3].leftDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;
letterPoints[3].rightDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;

letterPoints[4] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[4].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[4].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[4].leftDirection = letterPoints[4].anchor;
letterPoints[4].rightDirection = letterPoints[4].anchor;

var insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;
}
JavaScript Reference Guide PathItem 171

function AddLetterWPath(inOutSubPaths, inX, inY, inWidth, inHeight) {

// create the letter W
var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth * .33, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

letterPoints[2] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[2].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[2].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth / 2, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[2].leftDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;
letterPoints[2].rightDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;

letterPoints[3] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[3].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[3].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth * .66, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[3].leftDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;
letterPoints[3].rightDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;

letterPoints[4] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[4].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[4].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY);
letterPoints[4].leftDirection = letterPoints[4].anchor;
letterPoints[4].rightDirection = letterPoints[4].anchor;

var insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;
}

function AddLetterOPath(inOutSubPaths, inX, inY, inWidth, inHeight) {

// create the letter O

var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

172 PathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth / 2, inY);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = Array(inX + inWidth, inY);

letterPoints[2] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[2].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[2].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth / 2, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[2].leftDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;
letterPoints[2].rightDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;

letterPoints[3] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[3].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[3].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[3].leftDirection = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[3].rightDirection = Array(inX, inY + inHeight);

letterPoints[4] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[4].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[4].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth / 2, inY);
letterPoints[4].leftDirection = letterPoints[4].anchor;
letterPoints[4].rightDirection = letterPoints[4].anchor;

var insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;
}

function AddLetterLPath(inOutSubPaths, inX, inY, inWidth, inHeight) {

// create the letter L

var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

JavaScript Reference Guide PathItem 173

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

letterPoints[2] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[2].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[2].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[2].leftDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;
letterPoints[2].rightDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;

var insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;
}

function AddLetterEPath(inOutSubPaths, inX, inY, inWidth, inHeight) {

// create the letter E top, left, and bottom side

var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

letterPoints[2] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[2].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[2].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[2].leftDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;
letterPoints[2].rightDirection = letterPoints[2].anchor;

letterPoints[3] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[3].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[3].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[3].leftDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;
letterPoints[3].rightDirection = letterPoints[3].anchor;

var insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

174 PathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;

// create the letter E cross bar

var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth * 0.66, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;
}

function AddLetterHPath(inOutSubPaths, inX, inY, inWidth, inHeight) {

// create the letter H left side

var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX, inY);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

var insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

JavaScript Reference Guide PathItem 175

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;

// create the letter H cross bar

var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight / 2);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;

// create the letter H right side

var letterPoints = new Array();

letterPoints[0] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[0].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[0].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY);
letterPoints[0].leftDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;
letterPoints[0].rightDirection = letterPoints[0].anchor;

letterPoints[1] = new PathPointInfo;

letterPoints[1].kind = PointKind.CORNERPOINT;
letterPoints[1].anchor = Array(inX + inWidth, inY + inHeight);
letterPoints[1].leftDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;
letterPoints[1].rightDirection = letterPoints[1].anchor;

insertIndex = inOutSubPaths.length;

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex] = new SubPathInfo();

inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].operation = ShapeOperation.SHAPEXOR;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].closed = false;
inOutSubPaths[insertIndex].entireSubPath = letterPoints;
}
176 PathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

// Reset the application preferences

app.preferences.rulerUnits = startRulerUnits;
app.preferences.typeUnits = startTypeUnits;
app.displayDialogs = startDisplayDialogs;
JavaScript Reference Guide PathItems 177

PathItems

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
add Creates a new path name as String PathItem
item entirePath as Object
getByName Get the first element in name as String PathItem
the collection with the
provided name
removeAll
178 PathPoint JavaScript Reference Guide

PathPoint

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
anchor R/W Array( UnitValue ) the edit point on the curve --
leftDirection/rightDirection are points
representing the control handle end
points
kind R/W PointKind
PointKind.CORNERPOINT
PointKind.SMOOTHPOINT
leftDirection R/W Array( UnitValue )
parent RO Object the object's container
rightDirection R/W Array( UnitValue )
JavaScript Reference Guide PathPointInfo 179

PathPointInfo

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
anchor R/W ANYTHING the position of the anchor (in coordinates)
kind R/W PointKind the point type, smooth/conner
PointKind.CORNERPOINT
PointKind.SMOOTHPOINT
leftDirection R/W ANYTHING location of the left direction point (in
position)
rightDirection R/W ANYTHING location of the left direction point (out
position)
180 PathPoints JavaScript Reference Guide

PathPoints

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container
JavaScript Reference Guide PDFOpenOptions 181

PDFOpenOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
antiAlias R/W Boolean use antialias?
constrainProportions R/W Boolean constrain proportions of image
height R/W UnitValue height of image (unit value)
mode R/W OpenDocumentMode the document mode
OpenDocumentMode.CMYK
OpenDocumentMode.GRAYSC
OpenDocumentMode.ALE
OpenDocumentMode.LAB
OpenDocumentMode.RGB
page R/W Long number of page to open
resolution R/W Double the resolution of the document (in
pixels per inch)
width R/W UnitValue width of image (unit value)
182 PDFSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

PDFSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
annotations R/W Boolean save annotations
downgradeColorProfile R/W Boolean should the embedded color profile be
downgraded to version 2
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in document
embedFonts R/W Boolean embed fonts? Only valid if vector data is
included
encoding R/W PDFEncoding ( default: PDFEncoding.PDFZIP )
PDFEncoding.JPEG
PDFEncoding.PDFZIP
interpolation R/W Boolean use image interpolation?
jpegQuality R/W Long quality of produced image. Only valid for
JPEG encoded PDF documents ( 0 - 12 )
layers R/W Boolean save layers
spotColors R/W Boolean save spot colors
transparency R/W Boolean
useOutlines R/W Boolean use outlines for text? Only valid if vector
data is included
vectorData R/W Boolean include vector data
JavaScript Reference Guide PhotoCDOpenOptions 183

PhotoCDOpenOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
colorProfileName R/W String profile to use when reading the image
colorSpace R/W PhotoCDColorSpace colorspace for image
PhotoCDColorSpace.LAB16
PhotoCDColorSpace.LAB8
PhotoCDColorSpace.RGB16
PhotoCDColorSpace.RGB8
orientation R/W Orientation
Orientation.LANDSCAPE
Orientation.PORTRAIT
pixelSize R/W PhotoCDSize dimensions of image
PhotoCDSize.EXTRALARGE
PhotoCDSize.LARGE
PhotoCDSize.MAXIMUM
PhotoCDSize.MEDIUM
PhotoCDSize.MINIMUM
PhotoCDSize.SMALL
resolution R/W Double the resolution of the image (in pixels per
inch)
184 PhotoshopSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

PhotoshopSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
annotations R/W Boolean save annotations
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in document
layers R/W Boolean save layers
spotColors R/W Boolean save spot colors
JavaScript Reference Guide PICTFileSaveOptions 185

PICTFileSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
compression R/W PICTCompression ( default:
PICTCompression.JPEGHIGHPICT PICTCompression.NONE )
PICTCompression.JPEGLOWPICT
PICTCompression.JPEGMAXIMUMPICT
PICTCompression.JPEGMEDIUMPICT
PICTCompression.NONE
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in
document
resolution R/W PICTBitsPerPixels number of bits per pixel
PICTBitsPerPixels.EIGHT
PICTBitsPerPixels.FOUR
PICTBitsPerPixels.SIXTEEN
PICTBitsPerPixels.THIRTYTWO
PICTBitsPerPixels.TWO
186 PICTResourceSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

PICTResourceSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
compression R/W PICTCompression ( default:
PICTCompression.JPEGHIGHPICT PICTCompression.NONE )
PICTCompression.JPEGLOWPICT
PICTCompression.JPEGMAXIMUMPICT
PICTCompression.JPEGMEDIUMPICT
PICTCompression.NONE
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in
document
name R/W String name of PICT resource (
default: \"\" )
resolution R/W PICTBitsPerPixels number of bits per pixel
PICTBitsPerPixels.EIGHT
PICTBitsPerPixels.FOUR
PICTBitsPerPixels.SIXTEEN
PICTBitsPerPixels.THIRTYTWO
PICTBitsPerPixels.TWO
resourceID R/W PICTBitsPerPixels ID of PICT resource ( default:
PICTBitsPerPixels.EIGHT 128 )
PICTBitsPerPixels.FOUR
PICTBitsPerPixels.SIXTEEN
PICTBitsPerPixels.THIRTYTWO
PICTBitsPerPixels.TWO
JavaScript Reference Guide PixarSaveOptions 187

PixarSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
188 PNGSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

PNGSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
interlaced R/W Boolean should rows be interlaced? ( default: false )
JavaScript Reference Guide Preferences 189

Preferences

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
additionalPluginFolder R/W File
appendExtension R/W SaveBehavior on
SaveBehavior.ALWAYSSAVE Windows,
SaveBehavior.ASKWHENSAVING files are
SaveBehavior.NEVERSAVE always
saved with
extensions.
askBeforeSavingLayeredTIFF R/W Boolean
autoUpdateOpenDocuments R/W Boolean
beepWhenDone R/W Boolean
colorChannelsInColor R/W Boolean
colorPicker R/W ColorPicker
ColorPicker.ADOBE
ColorPicker.APPLE
ColorPicker.PLUGIN
ColorPicker.WINDOWS
columnGutter R/W Double gutter of
columns
(in points)
columnWidth R/W Double width of
columns
(in points)
createFirstSnapshot R/W Boolean automatica
lly make
first
snapshot
when a
new
document
is created?
dynamicColorSliders R/W Boolean
editLogItems R/W EditLogItemsType options for
EditLogItemsType.CONCISE edit log
EditLogItemsType.DETAILED items
EditLogItemsType.SESSIONONLY
exportClipboard R/W Boolean
fullSizePreview R/W Boolean Mac only
190 Preferences JavaScript Reference Guide

Property Access Value Type What it is

gamutWarningOpacity R/W Double
gridSize R/W GridSize
GridSize.LARGE
GridSize.MEDIUM
GridSize.NONE
GridSize.SMALL
gridStyle R/W GridLineStyle
GridLineStyle.DASHED
GridLineStyle.DOTTED
GridLineStyle.SOLID
gridSubDivisions R/W Long
guideStyle R/W GuideLineStyle
GuideLineStyle.DASHED
GuideLineStyle.SOLID
iconPreview R/W Boolean Mac only
imageCacheForHistograms R/W Boolean
imageCacheLevels R/W Long
imagePreviews R/W SaveBehavior
SaveBehavior.ALWAYSSAVE
SaveBehavior.ASKWHENSAVING
SaveBehavior.NEVERSAVE
interpolation R/W ResampleMethod
ResampleMethod.BICUBIC
ResampleMethod.BICUBICSHARPER
ResampleMethod.BICUBICSMOOTHER
ResampleMethod.BILINEAR
ResampleMethod.NEARESTNEIGHBOR
ResampleMethod.NONE
keyboardZoomResizesWindows R/W Boolean
macOSThumbnail R/W Boolean Mac only
maximizeCompatibility R/W QueryStateType maximize
QueryStateType.ALWAYS compatibili
QueryStateType.ASK ty for
QueryStateType.NEVER Photoshop
(PSD) files
maxRAMuse R/W Long Maximum
percentage
of available
RAM used
by
Photoshop
( 5 - 100 )
JavaScript Reference Guide Preferences 191

Property Access Value Type What it is

nonLinearHistory R/W Boolean allow non-
linear
history?
numberOfHistoryStates R/W Long number of
history
states to
remember
(between 1
and 100)
otherCursors R/W OtherPaintingCursors
OtherPaintingCursors.PRECISEOTHER
OtherPaintingCursors.STANDARDOTHER
paintingCursors R/W PaintingCursors
PaintingCursors.BRUSHSIZE
PaintingCursors.PRECISE
PaintingCursors.STANDARD
parent RO Object the
object's
container
pixelDoubling R/W Boolean
pointSize R/W PointType size of
PointType.POSTSCRIPT point/pica
PointType.TRADITIONAL
recentFileListLength R/W Long number of
items in
the recent
file list
(between 0
and 30)
rulerUnits R/W Units Note: this is
Units.CM the unit
Units.INCHES that the
Units.MM scripting
Units.PERCENT system will
Units.PICAS use when
Units.PIXELS receiving
Units.POINTS and
returning
values
saveLogItems R/W SaveLogItemsType options for
SaveLogItemsType.LOGFILE saving the
SaveLogItemsType.LOGFILEANDMETADATA history
SaveLogItemsType.METADATA items
saveLogItemsFile R/W File
192 Preferences JavaScript Reference Guide

Property Access Value Type What it is

savePaletteLocations R/W Boolean
showAsianTextOptions R/W Boolean
showEnglishFontNames R/W Boolean
showSliceNumber R/W Boolean
showToolTips R/W Boolean
smartQuotes R/W Boolean
typeUnits R/W TypeUnits unit type-
TypeUnits.MM size that
TypeUnits.PIXELS the
TypeUnits.POINTS numeric
inputs are
assumed
to
represent
useAdditionalPluginFolder R/W Boolean
useDiffusionDither R/W Boolean
useHistoryLog R/W Boolean
useLowerCaseExtension R/W Boolean should the
file
extension
be
lowercase
useShiftKeyForToolSwitch R/W Boolean
useVideoAlpha R/W Boolean this option
requires
hardware
support
windowsTumbnail R/W Boolean this option
requires
hardware
support
JavaScript Reference Guide PresentationOptions 193

PresentationOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
autoAdvance R/W Boolean auto advance when viewing ( default: true )
downgradeColorProfile R/W Boolean should the embedded color profile be
downgraded to version 2 ( default: false )
embedFonts R/W Boolean embed fonts? Only valid if a text layer is
included ( default: false )
encoding R/W PDFEncoding ( default: PDFEncoding.PDFZIP )
interpolation R/W Boolean use image interpolation? ( default: false )
interval R/W Long time in seconds before auto advancing the
view ( default: 5 )
jpegQuality R/W Long quality of produced image. Only valid for
JPEG encoded PDF documents ( 0 12;
default: 10 )
loop R/W Boolean loop after last page ( default: false )
presentation R/W Boolean true if the file type is presentation false for
Multi-Page document ( default: false )
transition R/W TransitionType transition type when switching to the next
document ( default: Transition-Type.NONE )
transparency R/W Boolean ( default: true )
vectorData R/W Boolean include vector data ( default: false )
view R/W Boolean view the document after saving ( default:
false )
194 RawFormatOpenOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

RawFormatOpenOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
bitsPerChannel R/W Long number of bits for each channel (8 or 16)
byteOrder R/W Byte Order only relevant for images with 16 bits per
channel
channelNumber R/W Long number of channels in image
headerSize R/W Long
height R/W Long height of image (in pixels)
interleaveChannels R/W Boolean are the channels in the image interleaved?
retainHeader R/W Boolean retain header when saving?
width R/W Long width of image (in pixels)
JavaScript Reference Guide RawSaveOptions 195

RawSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
spotColors R/W Boolean save spot colors
196 RGBColor JavaScript Reference Guide

RGBColor

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
blue R/W Double the blue color value ( 0.0 - 255.0; default:
255.0 )
green R/W Double the green color value ( 0.0 - 255.0; default:
255.0 )
hexValue R/W String Hex representation of this color
red R/W Double Hex representation of this color
JavaScript Reference Guide Selection 197

Selection

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
clear Clears selection
contract Contracts the selection by UnitValue
copy Copies selection to the merge as Boolean
clipboard
cut Cuts current selection
to the clipboard
deselect
expand Expands selection by as UnitValue
feather Feathers edges of by as UnitValue
selection
198 Selection JavaScript Reference Guide

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

fill Fills the selection fillType as ANYTHING
mode as ColorBlendMode
ColorBlendMode.BEHIND
ColorBlendMode.CLEAR
ColorBlendMode.COLOR
ColorBlendMode.COLORBURN
ColorBlendMode.COLORDODGE
ColorBlendMode.DARKEN
ColorBlendMode.DIFFERENCE
ColorBlendMode.DISSOLVE
ColorBlendMode.EXCLUSION
ColorBlendMode.HARDLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.HUE
ColorBlendMode.LIGHTEN
ColorBlendMode.LINEARBURN
ColorBlendMode.LINEARDODGE
ColorBlendMode.LINEARLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.LUMINOSITY
ColorBlendMode.MULTIPLY
ColorBlendMode.NORMAL
ColorBlendMode.OVERLAY
ColorBlendMode.PINLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.SATURATION
ColorBlendMode.SCREEN
ColorBlendMode.SOFTLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.VIVIDLIGHT

opacity as Long
preserveTransparency as Boolean
grow Grows selection to tolerance as Long
include all adjacent antiAlias as Boolean
pixels falling within the antiAlias.CRISP
specified tolerance antiAlias.NONE
range antiAlias.SHARP
antiAlias.SMOOTH
antiAlias.STRONG

invert Inverts the selection

JavaScript Reference Guide Selection 199

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

load Loads the selection from as Channel
from a channel combination as SelectionType
SelectionType.DIMINISH
SelectionType.EXTEND
SelectionType.INTERSECT
SelectionType.REPLACE

inverting as Boolean
resize horizontal as Double
vertical as Double
anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
.AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
resizeBoundary Scales the boundary of horizontal as Double
selection vertical as Double
anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
.AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
rotate angle as Double
anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
.AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
200 Selection JavaScript Reference Guide

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

rotateBoundary Rotates the boundary angle as Double
of selection anchor as AnchorPosition
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMCENTER
.AnchorPosition.BOTTOMLEFT
AnchorPosition.BOTTOMRIGHT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLECENTER
AnchorPosition.MIDDLELEFT
AnchorPosition.MIDDLERIGHT
AnchorPosition.TOPCENTER
AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT
AnchorPosition.TOPRIGHT
select region as Object
type as SelectionTypeSelectionType.DIMINISH
SelectionType.EXTEND
SelectionType.INTERSECT
SelectionType.REPLACE

feather as Double
antiAlias as Boolean
antiAlias.CRISP
antiAlias.NONE
antiAlias.SHARP
antiAlias.SMOOTH
antiAlias.STRONG
selectAll
selectBorder Selects the border of width as UnitValue
the selection
similar Grows selection to tolerance as Long
include pixels antiAlias as Boolean
throughout the image antiAlias.CRISP
falling within the antiAlias.NONE
tolerance range antiAlias.SHARP
antiAlias.SMOOTH
antiAlias.STRONG

smooth radius as Long

store Saves the selection as into as Channel
a channel combination as SelectionType
SelectionType.DIMINISH
SelectionType.EXTEND
SelectionType.INTERSECT
SelectionType.REPLACE
JavaScript Reference Guide Selection 201

Method What it does Parameter Type Returns

stroke Strokes the selection strokeColor as ANYTHING
width as Long
location as StrokeLocation
StrokeLocation.CENTER
StrokeLocation.INSIDE
StrokeLocation.OUTSIDE

mode as ColorBlendMode
ColorBlendMode.BEHIND
ColorBlendMode.CLEAR
ColorBlendMode.COLOR
ColorBlendMode.COLORBURN
ColorBlendMode.COLORDODGE
ColorBlendMode.DARKEN
ColorBlendMode.DIFFERENCE
ColorBlendMode.DISSOLVE
ColorBlendMode.EXCLUSION
ColorBlendMode.HARDLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.HUE
ColorBlendMode.LIGHTEN
ColorBlendMode.LINEARBURN
ColorBlendMode.LINEARDODGE
ColorBlendMode.LINEARLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.LUMINOSITY
ColorBlendMode.MULTIPLY
ColorBlendMode.NORMAL
ColorBlendMode.OVERLAY
ColorBlendMode.PINLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.SATURATION
ColorBlendMode.SCREEN
ColorBlendMode.SOFTLIGHT
ColorBlendMode.VIVIDLIGHT

opacity as Long
preserveTransparency as Boolean
translate Moves the position deltaX as UnitValue
relative to its current deltaY as UnitValue
position
translateBoundary Moves the boundary of deltaX as UnitValue
selection relative to its deltaY as UnitValue
current position
202 Selection JavaScript Reference Guide

Sample Script
The following selection script creates a new document by dividing an 800 pixel board into 100 x 100
pixel squares.

The checkerboard is created by iterating through an array of alternating selections in the shape of
squares. One alternating selection of squares is filled with a foreground color from the palette.
Then the procedure is inverted and the other selection of squares is filled with a background color
from the palette. The squares are then de-selected to remove the “marching ants”.

The script successively produces the following checkerboards.

Note: For this script to be effective, the foreground and background colors of the current palette
much be different colors.

Code (Selection.js)

// Save the current preferences

var startRulerUnits = app.preferences.rulerUnits;
var startTypeUnits = app.preferences.typeUnits;
var startDisplayDialogs = app.displayDialogs;

// Set Photoshop to use pixels and display no dialogs

app.preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS;
JavaScript Reference Guide Selection 203

app.preferences.typeUnits = TypeUnits.PIXELS;
app.displayDialogs = DialogModes.NO;

// first close all the open documents

while (app.documents.length) {
app.activeDocument.close();
}

// 800 pixel board divided in even 100 x 100 squares

var docSize = 800;
var cells = 8;
var cellSize = docSize / cells;

// create a new document

var checkersDoc = app.documents.add(docSize, docSize, 72, “Checkers”);

// select the checker board

// every other row I need to shift my selection
// one square to the right, this is done with shiftIt
var shiftIt = true;

// loop through vertically

for (var v = 0; v < docSize; v += cellSize) {

// i’m on a new row so switch the shift

shiftIt = !shiftIt;

// loop through horizontally

for (var h = 0; h < docSize; h += (cellSize * 2)) {

// push over the cellSize to start with only

if (shiftIt && h == 0) {
h += cellSize;
}

// make me a square selection

selRegion = Array(Array(h, v),
Array(h + cellSize, v),
Array(h + cellSize, v + cellSize),
Array(h, v + cellSize),
Array(h, v));

// if i just started then start the selection

// otherwise extend the selection
if (h == 0 && v == 0) {
checkersDoc.selection.select(selRegion);
} else {
checkersDoc.selection.select(selRegion, SelectionType.EXTEND);
}
204 Selection JavaScript Reference Guide

// turn this off for faster execution

// turn this on for debugging
WaitForRedraw();
}
}

// now I have my selection I will fill with the foreground

checkersDoc.selection.fill( app.foregroundColor );

// invert the selection

checkersDoc.selection.invert();

// and fill with the background

checkersDoc.selection.fill( app.backgroundColor );

// and clear the selection

checkersDoc.selection.deselect();

// Reset the application preferences

app.preferences.rulerUnits = startRulerUnits;
app.preferences.typeUnits = startTypeUnits;
app.displayDialogs = startDisplayDialogs;

// I little helper function I use for debugging

// It also helps the use see what is going on
// if you turn it off for this example you
// just get a flashing cursor for a long time
function WaitForRedraw()
{
// comment or uncomment the next line
// to slow down or speed up this action
// return;
var eventWait = charIDToTypeID( ‘Wait’ );
var enumRedrawComplete = charIDToTypeID( ‘RdCm’ );
var typeState = charIDToTypeID( ‘Stte’ );
var keyState = charIDToTypeID( ‘Stte’ );

var desc = new ActionDescriptor();

desc.putEnumerated( keyState, typeState, enumRedrawComplete );

executeAction( eventWait, desc, DialogModes.NO );

}
JavaScript Reference Guide SGIRGBSaveOptions 205

SGIRGBSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
spotColors R/W Boolean save spot colors
206 SolidColor JavaScript Reference Guide

SolidColor

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
cmyk R/W CMYKColor return a grayscale representation of the
color
gray R/W GrayColor return a grayscale representation of the
color
hsb R/W HSBColor return a grayscale representation of the
color
lab R/W LabColor return a grayscale representation of the
color
model R/W ColorMode color model
ColorMode.CMYK
ColorMode.GRAYSCALE
ColorMode.HSB
ColorMode.LAB
ColorMode.NONE
ColorMode.RGB

nearestWebColor RO RGBColor The nearest web color to the current color

rgb R/W RGBColor return an rgb representation of the color

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
isEqual Returns true if the color as SolidColor Boolean
provided color is
visually equal to this
color
JavaScript Reference Guide SubPathInfo 207

SubPathInfo

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
closed R/W Boolean is this path closed?
entireSubPath R/W Object all the sub path item's path points
operation R/W ShapeOperation sub path operation on other sub paths
208 SubPathItem JavaScript Reference Guide

SubPathItem

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
closed RO Boolean is this path closed?
operation RO ShapeOperation sub path operation on other sub paths
parent RO Object the object's container
pathPoints RO PathPoints
JavaScript Reference Guide SubPathItems 209

SubPathItems

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container
210 TargaSaveOptions JavaScript Reference Guide

TargaSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
resolution R/W TargaBitsPerPixels number of bits per pixel ( default:
TargaBitsPerPixels.SIXTEEN TargaBitsPerPixels.TWENTYFOUR )
TargaBitsPerPixels.THIRTYTWO
TargaBitsPerPixels.TWENTYFOUR

rleCompression R/W Boolean should RLE compression be used? (

default: true )
JavaScript Reference Guide TextFont 211

TextFont

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
family RO String the family of the font
name RO String the name of the font
parent RO Object the object's container
postScriptName RO String this is the string used to assign a font to a
text item.
style RO String the style of the font
212 TextFonts JavaScript Reference Guide

TextFonts

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
length RO Long number of elements in the collection
parent RO Object the object's container

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
getByName Get the first element in name as String TextFont
the collection with the
provided name
JavaScript Reference Guide TextItem 213

TextItem

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alternateLigatures R/W Boolean use alternate
ligatures?
antiAliasMethod R/W Anti Alias
autoKerning R/W AutoKernType options for auto
AutoKernType.MANUAL kerning
AutoKernType.METRICS
AutoKernType.OPTICAL
autoLeadingAmount R/W Double percentage to use for
auto leading
baselineShift R/W UnitValue baseline offset of text
(unit value)
capitalization R/W TextCase the case of the text
TextCase.ALLCAPS
TextCase.NORMAL
TextCase.SMALLCAPS
color R/W SolidColor color of text
contents R/W String the text in the layer
desiredGlyphScaling R/W Double
desiredLetterScaling R/W Double
desiredWordScaling R/W Double
direction R/W Direction text orientation
Direction.HORIZONTAL
Direction.VERTICAL
fauxBold R/W Boolean use faux bold?
fauxItalic R/W Boolean use faux italic?
firstLineIndent R/W UnitValue (unit value)
font R/W String text face of the
character
hangingPuntuation R/W Boolean use Roman Hanging
Punctuation?
height R/W UnitValue the height of
paragraph text (unit
value)
horizontalScale R/W Long horizontal scaling of
characters (in percent)
214 TextItem JavaScript Reference Guide

Property Access Value Type What it is

hyphenateAfterFirst R/W Long hyphenate after this
many letters
hyphenateBeforeLast R/W Long hyphenate before this
many letters
hyphenateCapitalWords R/W Boolean wheter to hyphenate
capitalized words
hyphenateWordsLongerThan R/W Long hyphenate words that
have more than this
number of letters (
minimum 0 )
hyphenation R/W Boolean use hyphenation?
hyphenationZone R/W UnitValue the hyphenation zone
(unit value)
hyphenLimit R/W Long maximum number of
consecutive hyphens
justification R/W Justification paragraph justification
Justification.CENTER
Justification.CENTERJUSTIFIED
Justification.FULLYJUSTIFIED
Justification.LEFT
Justification.LEFTJUSTIFIED
Justification.RIGHT
Justification.RIGHTJUSTIFIED
kind R/W TextType the type of the text
TextType.PARAGRAPHTEXT
TextType.POINTTEXT
language R/W Language
Language.BRAZILLIANPORTUGUESE
Language.CANADIANFRENCH
Language.DANISH
Language.DUTCH
Language.ENGLISHUK
Language.ENGLISHUSA
Language.FINNISH
Language.FRENCH
Language.GERMAN
Language.ITALIAN
Language.NORWEGIAN
Language.NYNORSKNORWEGIAN
Language.OLDGERMAN
Language.PORTUGUESE
Language.SPANISH
Language.SWEDISH
Language.SWISSGERMAN
JavaScript Reference Guide TextItem 215

Property Access Value Type What it is

leading R/W UnitValue leading (unit value)
leftIndent R/W UnitValue (unit value)
ligatures R/W Boolean use ligatures?
maximumGlyphScaling R/W Double
maximumLetterScaling R/W Double
maximumWordScaling R/W Double
minimumGlyphScaling R/W Double
minimumLetterScaling R/W Double
minimumWordScaling R/W Double
noBreak R/W Boolean
oldStyle R/W Boolean use old style?
parent RO Object the object's container
position R/W Array( UnitValue ) position of origin (unit
value)
rightIndent R/W UnitValue (unit value)
size R/W Double font size in points
spaceAfter R/W UnitValue (unit value)
spaceBefore R/W UnitValue (unit value)
strikeThru R/W StrikeThruType options for strik thru of
StrikeThruType.STRIKEBOX the text
StrikeThruType.STRIKEHEIGHT
StrikeThruType.STRIKEOFF
textComposer R/W TextComposer type of text
TextComposer.ADOBEEVERYLINE composing engine to
TextComposer.ADOBESINGLELINE use
tracking R/W Double controls uniform
spacing between
multiple characters
underline R/W UnderlineType options for
UnderlineType.UNDERLINELEFT underlining of the text
UnderlineType.UNDERLINEOFF
UnderlineType.UNDERLINERIGHT
useAutoLeading R/W Boolean whether to use a font's
built-in leading
information
verticalScale R/W Long vertical scaling of
characters (in percent)
warpBend R/W Double percentage from -100
to 100
216 TextItem JavaScript Reference Guide

Property Access Value Type What it is

warpDirection R/W Direction
Direction.HORIZONTAL
Direction.VERTICAL
warpHorizontalDistortion R/W Double percentage from -100
to 100
warpStyle R/W WarpStyle
WarpStyle.ARC
WarpStyle.ARCH
WarpStyle.ARCLOWER
WarpStyle.ARCUPPER
WarpStyle.BULGE
WarpStyle.FISH
WarpStyle.FISHEYE
WarpStyle.FLAG
WarpStyle.INFLATE
WarpStyle.NONE
WarpStyle.RISE
WarpStyle.SHELLLOWER
WarpStyle.SHELLUPPER
WarpStyle.SQUEEZE
WarpStyle.TWIST
WarpStyle.WAVE
warpVerticalDistortion R/W Double percentage from -100
to 100
width R/W UnitValue the width of
paragraph text (unit
value)

Methods
Method What it does Parameter Type Returns
convertToShape Converts the text item
and its containing layer
to a fill layer with the
text changed to a
clipping path
createPath Creates a work path
based on the text
object
JavaScript Reference Guide TiffSaveOptions 217

TiffSaveOptions

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
alphaChannels R/W Boolean save alpha channels
annotations R/W Boolean save annotations
byteOrder R/W ByteOrder Default value is 'Mac OS' when running on
ByteOrder.IBM MacOS, and 'IBM PC' when running on a
ByteOrder.MACOS PC
embedColorProfile R/W Boolean embed color profile in document
imageCompression R/W TIFFEncoding compression type ( default:
TIFFEncoding.JPEG TIFFEncoding.NONE )
TIFFEncoding.NONE
TIFFEncoding.TIFFLZW
TIFFEncoding.TIFFZIP
jpegQuality R/W Long quality of produced image. Only valid for
JPEG compressed TIFF documents ( 0 - 12 )
layerCompression R/W LayerCompression should only be used when you are saving
LayerCompression.RLE layers
LayerCompression.ZIP
layers R/W Boolean save layers
saveImagePyramid R/W Boolean ( default: false )
spotColors R/W Boolean save spot colors
transparency R/W Boolean
218 xmpMetadata JavaScript Reference Guide

xmpMetadata

Properties
Property Access Value Type What it is
parent RO Object the object's container
rawData R/W String raw XML form of file information
 7
JavaScript Syntax

JavaScript is a powerful, object-oriented scripting language that was first developed by Netscape
Communications to enhance web-page interactivity. Originally named LiveScript, JavaScript
actually has very little to do with Java. Although it uses a language syntax similar to Java (or to C,
for that matter) it is a language of its own, with rules that are often very different from those found
in Java.

JavaScript is an interpreted language. Before you can run your programs in C, C++ or Java, you
need to create a source file, then run a compiler program that translates the source file into an
executable file containing machine code instructions. In a JavaScript environment, however, all
commands and program statements are executed as soon as you type them in.

Originally designed for Netscape's browser software, JavaScript has rapidly evolved to become a
widely used, general-purpose programming language. It is now accepted as a standard under
ISO-16262 of the International Standards Organization. (The first industry-standard version of the
language, endorsed by the European Computer Manufacturers Association, was known as
ECMAScript). The core language has undergone several revisions, the most current being version
1.5.

JavaScript is designed to use the Unicode character set. Therefore, you are free to use your local
characters as long as they fit into the Unicode character set.

219
220 Core JavaScript Language Features JavaScript Reference Guide

Core JavaScript Language Features

In this section, a brief discussion of some of the syntax rules used in JavaScript is given.

Identifiers
An identifier is a name that appears in JavaScript code. Identifiers are used for the names of
variables, functions and labels. An identifier must begin with a letter, an underscore or a dollar
sign, subsequent characters can also include digits. Thus, myVar1, _myFunction, $my_Var17 are all
legal identifiers. Identifiers can contain Unicode characters, so the identifier "" is perfectly legal.

Case Sensitivity
The JavaScript language is case sensitive, the identifier myField is considered different from
myfield. As a result, great care must be taken when typing program statements, an awareness of the
case sensitivity of the language is very important.

Semicolons
The semicolon (;) is used to separate JavaScript statements. If the statements are on separate lines,
the semicolon is optional.

x = 1
y = 2

If the statements are on the same line, which is not good practice, the semicolon separator is
required:

x = 1; y = 2

Using a semicolon at the end of each statement is good practice:

x = 17;
y = x + 1;
z = y * y;

Comments
Comments can be inserted into JavaScript code using either the C++ or C-style commenting
protocol. Any text between a double-slash (//) and the end of a line will be ignored by JavaScript.
Also, any text between /* and */ will be treated as a non-executable item (or comment). The
following are valid comment styles:

// This is a single-line comment.

x = 1;
JavaScript Reference Guide Core JavaScript Language Features 221

/* This is also a comment. */

y = 2; // as is this
/*
*
* An extended comment
*
*/
z = 3;

Comments are extremely important tools because they make programs much more readable and
easier to maintain. JavaScript uses a succinct, C-like syntax, which means a lot can be
accomplished in just a few lines of code.

JavaScript can be quite compact, but nearly indecipherable and hard to debug. Comment the code
liberally as it is written: explain the goal of each code segment, document the parameters used, list
any dependencies, or explain the reasoning used to write the code. The resulting commented code
will make it much easier to read, maintain, extend or debug at a later time.
222 Data Types JavaScript Reference Guide

Data Types
JavaScript supports primitive (core) data types—such as booleans, numbers, and strings—as well
as composite data types, like objects, arrays and functions. The primitive data types are used most
often; consequently, it is important to understand these types and how JavaScript interprets them.

Primitive Data Types

Booleans are the simplest data type, since they can have just two values, true and false. Internally,
JavaScript represents true and false values as 1 and 0, respectively. But anything that has a non-
zero value will be evaluated by the JavaScript interpreter as true in a Boolean context.

Numbers are represented using standard scientific notation, for example, 17, -88, 3.14159, or
6.023e+23. Unlike some other languages, JavaScript does not distinguish between integer or
floating-point values. In JavaScript, all numbers are represented internally as 64-bit IEEE floating-
point values. In base-ten terms, there are about 20 digits of precision in which to work, which
ought to be adequate for most applications.

Note that integer values should not be written with leading zeros in JavaScript. JavaScript
interprets '021' as the octal representation of the base-ten number 17. (In addition to octal triplets,
hexadecimal numbers can be represented using the '0x' prefix plus two hexadecimal digits; for
example, 0xFF represents a value of 255.)

A string is a sequence of letters, digits, punctuation, or other characters enclosed in quotation

marks. Single quotations or double quotations can be used, it doesn't matter as long as they match.
(If a string contains double-quotes as part of the desired string sequence, enclose the entire string
in single quotes. Likewise, if a string contains single-quotes as part of the string sequence, enclose
the entire string in double quotes.) The following are all legal string values:

'This will work.'

"3.14"
'The password is "xyzzy"'

Strings can be concatenated using the "+" operator. For example

"Roses are red " + "and Violets are blue."

JavaScript recognizes a number of escape sequences for representing characters inside strings that
would otherwise be impossible to represent. The following table summarizes those escape
sequences.

Escape Sequence Description

\b Backspace
\f Form feed
JavaScript Reference Guide Data Types 223

Escape Sequence Description

\n Newline
\r Carriage return
\t Tab
\ Single quote
\ Double quote
\\ Backslash
\xXX Character specified by two hexadecimal digits
\uXXXX Unicode character specified by four hexadecimal digits

Escape sequences can be exploited to better handle strings with embedded single or double
quotation marks in them, for example:

"\"Quoth the raven, \'Nevermore!\'\""

Composite data types

JavaScript defines another data type called an object, a structure used for holding a collection of
name/value pairs. The values held in the object can be accessed through its (associated) name.
The names are referred to as the properties of the object. The value of a property can be a primitive
data type, or another object.

Other composite data types, such as arrays and functions, are special types of objects. Though
arrays and functions are objects, JavaScript defines a special syntax for handling each of them.
These composite data types are discussed in the following sections.

Declaring and Accessing Variables

Some important points to keep in mind concerning JavaScript variables are listed below:

• All variable names in JavaScript are case-sensitive, which means that a variable named
MyVariable is not the same as one named myVariable.
• A variable name, which is an identifier, must begin with a letter, an underscore, or a dollar
sign. Subsequent characters in a variable name can be letters, digits, underscores or dollar
signs. Thus, address1, address2, _name, $income are all valid variable names. Since JavaScript
supports Unicode, the usage of Unicode characters in a variable name is OK as well.
• Variables created in JavaScript are permanent, within their scope. Once a variable is
declared, you can use the delete operator to delete a variable. For variables declared with the
var statement, there is no way to manually “undeclare” or destroy them. (JavaScript's
224 Data Types JavaScript Reference Guide

garbage-collection mechanism will automatically de-allocate variables when they are no

longer needed.)
• All variables in JavaScript have a scope which determines the variable's lifetime and
accessibility. A variable declared inside a function is said to have local scope, which means it
can be used only inside the function in which it was declared.

Declaration of variables can be made by typing the keyword 'var' followed by the name of the
variable being declared. For example,

var radius;

Several declarations can be made by separating each variable declaration by a comma. For
example,

var radius, pi, circumference, area; // only one var needed here

Declaring a variable, and initializing its value can be accomplished by using the “assignment”
operator. For example,

var radius = 2, pi = 3.14, circumference, area;

The following example declares variables for different primitive data types:

var creditCard = false; // Boolean

var cost = 19.95; // number
var name = "John Doe"; // string

After declaring a variable and assigning it a value, it is no longer necessary to preface it with the
var keyword. The data is simply accessed through the variable name.

var radius = 2, pi = 3.14, circumference, area;

area = pi * radius * radius;
circumference = 2 * pi * radius;
var strArea = "The area of the circle is " + area;

Here, a string is concatenated with a number. In this case, the JavaScript interpreter converts area,
a number type, into a string type.

It is legal, in JavaScript, to declare a variable without using the 'var' keyword. But since (as we
mentioned) all JavaScript variables must have a scope, this leaves the interpreter in a bit of a
quandary as to how to "scope" a non-'var' variable. The interpreter resolves this problem by
attaching the unscoped variable to the global name space, which has the effect of making the
variable in question "usable" from all points in a program.
JavaScript Reference Guide Data Types 225

Undefined Variables
In JavaScript, as in other languages, any attempt to use a variable in an expression without first
declaring it generates an exception. Consider the following code:

var x = 1;
z = x + y;

where y is a new variable that was not declared anywhere. When these two lines are executed, a
JavaScript exception ReferenceError would be thrown.

JavaScript has relaxed typing rules, but this is not the same as saying that it is an untyped
language. JavaScript does have data types. The operator typeof can be used to identify the data
type of a variable. To test if the variable y has been defined in the document, execute the following
script:

if (typeof y == "undefined")
alert("Undefined variable.");
else {
// the variable is safe to use
}

Here, the predefined alert method is used to put an alert dialog onscreen if the variable being
tested is not defined. Notice that JavaScript uses the C-like “== operator to test for equality. Also
note that strings are compared by value; hence two strings can be compared directly using the “==
operator.

Variables declared with the var keyword do not follow this rule, because the JavaScript interpreter
creates these variables as the var statement is executed. If the var statement did not assign a value
to the variable, its contents are undefined, which is not equal to the variable being undefined.

Actually, JavaScript treats undefined data as being a special value. The predefined global variable
undefined contains this value, and the result of non-existing object properties (as you will see
below) is reported as undefined.

Operators
As in many other programming languages, a large number of operators are built in to JavaScript.
The following table details the available operators; you may notice that there are a few operators
very specific to the JavaScript language.
226 Data Types JavaScript Reference Guide

Unary operators
These are operators that apply to one operand only.

Unary Operators Description

delete Delete a variable. The delete operator applies to a variable or
property reference, like e.g. hoopla, yArray[3] or myObject.prop.
Note that the delete operator cannot delete variables declared
with the var statement. If the variable contains an object, the
object is not destroyed immediately; the garbage collector
destroys it once all references to the object are gone. The value
of the delete operation is either true or false, depending on
whether the operand could be deleted.
void This operand instructs JavaScript to forget about the results of
an operation. Usually, an operation like 4+5 would be 9, but
void(4+5) is Undefined.
typeof Return the type of its operand. The result is one of the strings
"undefined", "Boolean", "number", "string", "function" or "object".
+, - Unary plus and minus.
~ Bitwise inversion.
! Boolean negation.
++, -- Increment and decrement. This operator is either a prefix
operator (++i) or a postfix operator (i++). The result depends on
the type of operator. For a prefix operator, the operand is first
incremented (or decremented), and the result is the outcome of
that operation. For a postfix operation, the result is the contents
of the operand before the operation has been applied.

Binary operators
Binary operators concatenate two operands. They are sorted in their order of precedence. If you
are not sure whether one operator takes precedence of the other, use brackets. This example
demonstrates the usefulness of brackets:

a instanceof String ? b / c : typeof d

This has the same meaning, but is far more readable:

(a instanceof String) ? (b / c) : (typeof d)

JavaScript Reference Guide Data Types 227

Binary Operators Description

* / % Multiplication, division and modulus.
+ - Addition and subtraction. The '+' operator applied to a string
converts its arguments to strings and concatenates them.
<< >> >>> Bitwise shift operators. The left-hand side operand is converted
to an integer and shifted left or right as indicated by the right-
hand operand. The right-shift operation is either signed (>>) or
unsigned (>>>).
< > <= >= Comparison operators. The comparison depends on the type of
operators. If both are strings, the comparison is a string
comparison, otherwise, JavaScript attempts to convert both
operands to a number and to perform a numeric comparison.
instanceof Test whether the class of the object given as the left-hand
operator is an instance of the class given as the right-hand
operator. The right-hand operator must be the name of a global
class constructor function, like e.g. String or Object. The result is
a Boolean value.
in Test whether the left-hand operator is a property of the right-
hand operator. The left-hand operator must either evaluate to a
string or a number, and the right-hand operator must be an
object. The result is a Boolean value. All of the comparison
operators form a group of the same operator precedence
weight.
== != Equality operators. JavaScript attempts to convert both
operand to the same type before comparing them.
=== !== Identity operators. JavaScript does not attempt to convert both
operands to the same type before comparing them. The
identity and equality operators have the same precedence
weight, however.
& | ^ Bitwise AND, OR and XOR. Both operands are converted to
integers before applying the operation, and the result is a
number containing the resulting bits.
&& || Boolean AND and OR. Both operands are converted to Boolean
operands before applying the operator. If the left-hand operand
already satisfies the condition (like being false on an AND or true
on an OR operation), the right-hand side operator is not
evaluated. The result is the Boolean combination of the
operands.
228 Data Types JavaScript Reference Guide

Ternary operators
The ternary operator is actually an abbreviation of the if statement. It has the syntax:

condition ? true-expression : false-expression

The condition is evaluated, and, it if it evaluates to true, the result of the operation is the result of
the true-expression; otherwise, the result is the result of the false-expression. An example:

a = i > 5 ? "Yes" : "No";

The variable a contains "Yes" if i is greater than 5, or "No" otherwise.

Assignment operators
The assignment operators are almost at the very bottom of the operator precedence list.
Assignment operations have a value, which is the value of the right-hand operand. Therefore, a
statement like "a=b=c=0" makes perfect sense.

JavaScript has the simple assignment operator "=" as well as compound assignment operators,
which are the assignment operator combined with an arithmetic or logic operator:

*= /= %= += -= <<= >>=>>>= &= |= ^=

These operators are a short form of

left-hand = left-hand op right-hand

Defining and Using Objects

The treatment of objects will be highly abbreviated. For a more in depth discussion, refer to any
good book covering core JavaScript.

A convenient way of defining an object is the object literal. An object literal is a collection of name/
value pairs, set apart by commas, and enclosed in matching curly braces. The name/value pairs
are separated by a colon. For example:

{ question: "How are you today?", title: "Your Health Status"}

This defines an object with two properties; the property names are question and title. The order in
which the properties are listed is immaterial. Objects can be assigned to variable names, just as
primitive data types can:

var params = { question: "How are you today?",

title: "Your Health Status" };
JavaScript Reference Guide Data Types 229

Data within the object can be accessed through the “.” notation. As opposed to simple variables,
variables as part of an object are called properties. For example, the value of the question property
of the params object is params.question. It is important to note that params.question, in this example,
behaves much like a variable. Here, params.question represents the string "How are you today?".

Values of existent properties can be modified easily:

params.question = "How were you yesterday?";

Properties can be added to the object as well:

params.dflt ="Fine";

Note that you can also use numeric or string constants as property names to define an object; it
depends on whether the property name conforms to the syntax rules of identifiers or not. An
example:

var myObj = { 5: "Five", "John Doe": "My name" };

The [] operator can also be used to access the properties of an object. For example,
params["question"] represents the string "How are you today?". Note that the expression enclosed
in the brackets is a string, not an identifier. As will be seen in the paragraphs on the for/in Loop,
this method of accessing the properties and values of an object is quite useful, and, if the above
example, it is the only way to access the properties of myObj.

As was mentioned before, the value of a property can be a primitive data type, a function, an array,
or another object. If a property of an object has as its value a function, that property is referred to
as a method of the object. JavaScript defines a number of objects, each having properties and
methods.

Example: JavaScript defines the String object. String object have a number of methods that work
on the string contained in the String object, like e.g. the charAt method The method is accessed in
the same way as a property, using the “.” notation, for example,

s = new String ("Hi world");

ch = s.charAt (0);// ch now contains the string "H"

You can also define objects the procedural way, using the Object constructor function:

var params = new Object;

params.question = "How are you today?";
params.title = "Your Health Status";

Declaring and Using Arrays

An object, as described in the previous paragraphs, is an unordered collection of data. An array, is
an ordered collection of data. The data is indexed by the nonnegative integers. There are two
230 Data Types JavaScript Reference Guide

methods of declaring an array that will be discussed in these paragraphs. Arrays can be declared
using an array literal, or an array constructor.

Example:

// array literal
var myArray1 = [ "This", "is", "ExtendScript", 3.0 ];
var myArray2 = [ 1, "String", { x:1, y:2 } ];

Note that the myArray2 contains a mixture of data types: number, string and object.

// Array constructor
var colors = new Array("red", "green", "blue");

The indexing system is 0-based, the first element of the array has index 0, the second element has
index 1, and so on. To access the elements of an array, the [] operator is used, with the index
number inserted between the brackets. For example

var str = myArray1[0]; // now str = "This"

var version = myArray1[3]; // version = 3.0
// The element myArray2[2] is an object, to access it,
// the dot notation is used to access property y
var z = myArray2[2].y; // z is initialized to a value of 2.

The declaration var myArray = new Array() creates an empty array of length zero. The elements of
myArray are undefined:

if (typeof myArray[0] == "undefined")

alert("No such element"); // this message appears
else
alert("There is a 0th element in the array");

One the empty array is declared, elements can be added to it; for example, after the code lines

myArray[0] = "Adobe";
myArray[1] = "Acrobat";

are executed, myArray is an array of length two.

There is no need to supply each element of the array. If you use two consecutive commas, the
element that is missing remains undefined. Note, however, that you will have to use two commas
at the end of the array literal if you want the last array element to be undefined. Examples:

myArray = ["One", "Two",,"Four"];// myArray[2] is undefined

myArray = ["One", "Two", "Three", ];// a three-element array
myArray = ["One", "Two", "Three",, ];// a four-element array
JavaScript Reference Guide Data Types 231

Regular expressions
JavaScript contains a full regular expression object which you can use to parse strings in very
complex ways. The full syntax of regular expressions would be too much for this document;
please refer to more elaborate books about JavaScript. There is a way to declare a regular
expression by enclosing it in slashes:

var regex = /a*/i

This statement creates a RegExp object. The object has a number of methods and properties, the
exec() method being the most important one. That method returns an array of matches, the first
element being the match found, and other elements containing the result of enclosed regular
expression captures. Examples:

var regex = /a+/i

regex.exec ("Bart Simpson"); // returns ["a"]
/(\w*) (\w*)/.exec ("Bart Simpson");
// returns ["Bart Simpson", "Bart", "Simpson"]
232 Functions JavaScript Reference Guide

Functions
A function is a block of JavaScript code that is compiled once, but can be executed many times.
Some of the important points concerning functions include:

• Parameters can be passed to a function

• The function may have a return value
• Within the body of the function definition, any variables declared with the var keyword have
local scope.

There are a number of ways of defining a JavaScript function. Only the most popular style is
presented here. The syntax for defining a function is

function functionName (parameter list)

{
JavaScript statements
}

The labels functionName and parameter list are replaced by the name of the function that is being
defined, and by the list of parameters of the function, respectively. The following defines a
function mySum and will be used to illustrate the itemized points above.

function mySum (x, y) // parameters x and y

{
var z = x + y; // add the two parameters
return z; // use the sum as the return value
}

Once this function is defined, it can be called, consider the following:

var sum = mySum(10, 7); // sum = 17

Here, the values 10 and 7 are passed to the function mySum as its required parameters. The
function then returns the sum of the two passed parameters. In the body definition, a local variable
z is declared. The (local) variable z is unknown outside this function. (Recall the assumption of
this example that the variable z has not been declared anywhere at the top level outside the
function.) To demonstrate this last statement, executing the line

var str = "The value of z is " + z;

results in a ReferenceError being thrown.

A function need not have any parameters or a return value. For example:

function helloWorld() {
alert("Hello world");
}
JavaScript Reference Guide Functions 233

The helloWorld function simply pop ups an alert box on the screen.

If a function is attached to an object, it is called a method. You can attach a function to an object by
assigning the function name to the property or by declaring the function directly:

var obj = new Object();

obj.foo = helloWorld;// note the missing brackets ()
obj.bar = function() {
alert ("This is a wonderful world!");
}

The call obj.foo() would pop up the "Hello world" alert box, and the call obj.bar() would pop up the
alert "This is a wonderful world!".

Actually, a function is just a Function object; therefore, you can attach it to whatever object you
like, or move it around, or even store it into an array. Consider this example of an array literal:

fooArray = [
function() { return "One"; },
function() { return "Two"; },
function() { return "Three"; }
];

This creates an array containing three functions. You could call any of these functions by indexing
the array as usual:

fooArray [0]();// would return "One"

If a function is attached to an object, it can use the this keyword to access the object that it is
attached to. An example:

obj = { value: 5, getValue: function() { return this.value; } };

The call obj.getValue() would return 5. If the this keyword was omitted, it would attempt to locate
the variable value in its scope chain; if it was executed within a function body containing the
variable value defined as var, it would use that value, or it would use the value of the global
variable value if present; so the results may become pretty unpredictable.
234 Predefined variables and functions JavaScript Reference Guide

Predefined variables and functions

The global namespace of JavaScript contains a few variables and functions that are worth
mentioning.

Variables and Functions Description

undefined This variable always contains the value undefined.
NaN This variable contains the special numeric value Not-A-Number.
The value is used for undefined arithmetic operations, like
Math.sqrt (-1).
Infinity This is the value for +∞.
eval (text) Evaluate and run the JavaScript program scriptlet. eval ("a=5")
has the same meaning as a=5.
parseInt (text) Convert the given text to an integer number. Optionally, you
can supply a conversion radix. parseInt ("12", 16) would return
18.
parseFloat (s) Convert the given text to a floating point number.
isNaN (n) Check whether the number is Not-A-Number.
isFinite (n) Check whether the number is a finite number, which is a
number between -∞ and +∞.
this Yes, this keyword also works with the global name space. The
global name space is actually an object containing methods
and properties, and the this keyword points to the global
object. Since undefined properties do not throw an error if
accessed, you could use the following code to work with global
variables without having to care about a ReferenceError being
thrown if the variable is undefined:
var global = this;
a = global.notThere;// assigns Undefined
JavaScript Reference Guide Predefined Core Objects 235

Predefined Core Objects

An object is a collection of named values, called the properties of the object. Properties of an object
can be any type: strings, numbers, boolean, arrays, functions and even other objects. If a property
of an object is a function, it is referred to as a method of that object. In JavaScript, a number of
predefined objects are available: Array, Boolean, Date, Function, Math, Number, RegExp, String. These
objects, in conjunction with their properties and methods, can be used, for example, to manipulate
arrays and dates, make advanced math calculations, and search and manipulate strings.

The String object has a number of methods for searching and replacing strings. Some of these
methods use regular expressions. The RegExp object also has methods for searching strings.

Example: Math Object.

str1 = "The area of a circle of radius 1 is " + Math.PI;

str2 = "The sine of 45 degrees is " + Math.sin(45);

In addition to these core objects, applications usually define a large number of objects, again, each
with their own properties and methods used for manipulating the objects.
236 Conditionals and Loops JavaScript Reference Guide

Conditionals and Loops

Two important program constructs present in all programming languages are conditional
statements and looping.

The Conditional Statement

The syntax for a conditional statement is

if (expression)
statement // to be executed if expression is true
else
statement // to be executed if expression is false

This construct is very important. The parentheses that surround expression are required. If multiple
statements need to be executed, make sure that matching braces enclose the statements.

Examples:

if (i == 1)
alert("The variable i equals 1");
else
alert("The variable i has a value of " + i);
// testing two conditions: if str equals "Yes" and i is greater than 4
if ((str == "Yes") && (i > 4))
alert("You are granted access!");
else // here, str != "Yes" or i <= 4
alert("You may not enter!");

When testing for equality, the == (equality) or === (identity) operator can be used; for testing
inequality, use != (inequality), or !== (non-identity). Other comparisons include < (less than), >
(greater than), <= (less than or equal) and >= (greater than or equal to).

Compound logic can be accomplished using the logical operators of && (and), || (or) and ! (not).

JavaScript has precise operator precedence; however, in the above example, the logical expressions
are grouped using parentheses to be certain the logic is correct.

Another conditional construct, the switch, can execute code based on a series of mutually exclusive
and exhaustive cases. The syntax for the switch statement is illustrated below:

// Assume the variable, myNum, has some numerical

// value when the code below executes
var msg;
switch (myNum) {
case 1: msg = "Case 1";
// possibly other statements
JavaScript Reference Guide Conditionals and Loops 237

break; // break out of case study

case 2: msg = "Case 2"; break;
case 3: msg = "Case 3"; break;
default: msg = "This is the default case";
}
alert(msg);

The switch statement evaluates the expression, myVar, in this case, and tries to match it up with one
of the values listed in the case statements. The switch statement uses the identity operator, ===, to
make the comparisons; consequently, if myVar = "1" (a string value), the above switch would
evaluate to the default case, since (1 === "1") is false. A workaround would be to convert myVar to
a number type.

You can use multiple case statements, like this:

switch (myNum) {
case 1:
case 2:
case 3: msg = "Between 1 and 3"; break;
default: msg = "This is the default case";
}
alert(msg);

Or, you can use arbitrary complex expressions to express your case:

var one = 1, two = 2;

switch (myNum) {
case one: msg = "Case 1"; break;
case two: msg = "Case 2"; break;
case one+two: msg = "Case 3"; break;
default: msg = "This is the default case";
}
alert(msg);

Loops
Loops enable a block of code to be executed repeatedly under (possibly) different conditions
each time.

The while loop

The while loop is a very common way of looping. The general form for the loop is:

while (condition) {
// loop body (JavaScript statements)
}
238 Conditionals and Loops JavaScript Reference Guide

The loop runs repeatedly until the condition is false. JavaScript tests the condition before it executes
the statements inside the loops. An alternate version tests the condition after the statements inside
the loop have been run.

do {
// loop body (JavaScript statements)
} while (condition);

You can leave a loop with the break statement, and you can skip over the remaining statements
inside the loop and have the next check processed with the continue statement.

The for Loop

The for loop is a very common way of looping. The general form for the for loop is

for (initialize; test; increment) {

// loop body (JavaScript statements)
}

The initialize part of the for loop is used to initialize some variables that are used in the loop.
(Multiple initializations must be separated with a comma). The test component is evaluated in a
boolean context: If test evaluates to true, the loop body is executed, otherwise, the loop is
terminated. After the loop body has been executed, the increment expression is evaluated. The
increment expression is usually some sort of assignment, for example, i=i+1. (An assignment of the
form i=i+1 is quite common; the more compact ++ operator is often used. The assignment i=i+1 is
equivalent to i++). The enclosing parentheses are required; the grouping braces are required only
if there are multiple lines within the body of the loop. Prematurely exiting a loop can be
accomplished by executing the break statement, and you can use the continue statement to skip the
remainder of the statements inside the loop and proceed to the next increment operation.

Example: Search through an array for a particular element.

var colors = [ "red", "green", "blue" ];

var msg = "I'm thinking of three colors, guess one of them";
var response = prompt (msg, "");
if (response != null) {
response.toLowerCase();
for (var i = 0; i < colors.length; i++) {
if (colors[i] == response)
break;
}
if (i < colors.length)
alert("You found one!");
else
alert("Guess again");
}
else
alert ("Why don't you guess?");
JavaScript Reference Guide Conditionals and Loops 239

Comments on the Example: After the initial three declarations, the prompt method is used to
acquire a response from the user. The return value of this method is assigned to the variable
response. The documentation for this method states that the return value will be the null value if
the user cancels the dialog. A conditional statement is used, the search will occur only if response is
non-null.

The three components of a for loop appear in the above example:

• Initialize: The variable i is used to index the loop and it is initialized to 0 with the statement
var i = 0.
• Test: The testing condition is i < colors.length. The loop body is repeatedly executed until the
index i is equal to the length of the colors array.
• Increment: After the loop body is executed, the increment expression, i++, is evaluated,
which increases the value of the index i by one. At this point, the test is evaluated and the
body of the loop is executed again, if i < colors.length, or the loop is exited, if i >= colors.length.

In the loop body, note the use of the break statement. If the ith array element favorably compares
with the user’s response, break is executed. If the user did not guess one of the colors, then on exit
from the loop, the value of i will be colors.length. This fact is exploited to determine whether the
user successfully guessed one of the colors.

The for/in Loop

The for/in statement can be used to loop through an object. The syntax for this loop is:

for (variable in object) {

JavaScript statements
}

The enclosing braces are only required it there are multiple lines of JavaScript code contained
within the loop body. Again, you can use the break statement to exit the loop, or the continue
statement to skip the remaining statements inside the loop.

The for/in loop creates an internal snapshot of the object's properties. Every time the loop is run,
the loop variable receives the name of the next property of this snapshot. You can then use the []
notation to access the contents of that property. Note, however, that most properties and method
of built-in object types are not enumerable; you cannot reach them in a for/in loop.

For example, consider this declaration:

params = { question: "How are you today?",

title: "Your Health Status",
dflt: "Fine" };
240 Conditionals and Loops JavaScript Reference Guide

Executing the following code,

for (var p in params)

alert("params." + p + " = " + params[p]);

yields the following results:

params.question = How are you today?

params.title = Your Health Status
params.dflt = Fine

Since an array is also an object, arrays can be searched using the for/in loop as well.
JavaScript Reference Guide Making code readable: the with statement 241

Making code readable: the with statement

The with statement makes code more readable by specifying the object that the statement operates
upon so you do not have to use the object.property notation. Imagine an array of objects that you
need to work on, each containing the same property:

var data = [
{ value: 111 },
{ value: 222 },
{ value: 333 }
];
function sum (objArray) {
var result = 0;
for (var i = 0; i < objArray.length; i++) {
with (objArray [i]) {
// instead of objArray[i].value
result += value;
}
}
return result;
}
alert (sum (data));
242 Dealing With Exceptions JavaScript Reference Guide

Dealing With Exceptions

JavaScript methods throw an exception if a run-time error occurs. You can better control these
exceptions by using try, catch and finally statement blocks, possibly in conjunction with the throw
statement.

The following code defines a method that attempts to access the variable notThere, causing a
ReferenceError to be thrown. The statement below would try to execute the function and catch the
thrown error.

function testMe() {
return notThere;
}
try {
testMe();
}
catch (e) {
alert (e);
}
finally {
alert ("OK, I am done.");
}

The finally statement is always executed, either after a successful try or after a successful catch
operation.

Error handlers can be written to deal with exceptions thrown by the application and by custom
written JavaScript code. A very common case for throwing an exception is if the underlying object
no longer exists inside the application (i.e. it is dead, but a reference to the object still exists).
Consider the following piece of code:

var myDoc = app.newDoc();

myDoc.closeDoc();
myDoc.pageNum = 3;

This will throw an exception when the third line is executed. The document has been closed and
no longer exists. A reference to this document is still being held in myDoc and any attempt to use it
will throw an exception.

If you want to catch multiple different errors or other objects, you can use multiple catch clauses.
The argument of a catch clause can be expanded with an if statement:

catch (if condition) {

statements
}

Note that, unlike the regular if statement, the conditional expression is not surrounded by
brackets.
JavaScript Reference Guide Dealing With Exceptions 243

For example,:

function throwIt() {
throw "Ouch!";
}
try {
throwIt();
alert ("Nothing appeared to be thrown");
}
catch (e if e instanceof Object) {
// catch all objects
alert ("An object was caught");
}
catch (e if e == "Ouch!") {
// catch the string "Ouch!"
alert ("Ouch! This hurt!");
}
catch (e) {
// catch everything else
alert ("Caught " + e);
}

As demonstrated, a JavaScript program can throw anything, from simple numbers or strings to
complex objects. JavaScript will throw runtime errors as Error objects; there are a number of
specialized objects like ReferenceError or TypeError that are derived from Error. Finally, you have to
use an unconditional catch clause as the last of your catch clauses.
244 Coding conventions JavaScript Reference Guide

Coding conventions
This section contains a set of recommendations for writing JavaScript programs. It is organized as
a set of rules with explanations. You are strongly encouraged to follow these rules.

• Use interCaps instead of Underscores

Do not use underscores inside a property or method name to separate parts of the name. Use
interCaps instead. Instead of append_data, use appendData. Which gets us to the next rule:
• Always start a property or a method name with a lowercase letter
In JavaScript, symbols starting with an uppercase letter are considered class names. So, do not
use Document as a property name, but use document, and have that property return a Document
object. Therefore:
• Always start a class name with a uppercase letter
Class names, like String or Boolean, should always start with an uppercase letter so you can
distinguish class names from property or method names. Analog to class names, there are
special constructor functions in the global namespace that carry the same name as the class
name, like String() for the String class etc.
• Do not pollute the global namespace
Define as few global functions and properties as possible, since users will be happy to add
their own stuff. This reduces confusion and possible name collisions. Use objects to group
names instead. Do not, for example, create global functions or properties that deal with the
application. Create an Application object and create a global property app instead, containing
an Application object with all of your application-specific properties.
• Make sure to use undefined for missing arguments
Unfortunately, JavaScript does not support missing arguments in the form
myDoc.addLayer ("My Layer",,"Initial text");
Do Not Use null or "" (an empty string) to indicate missing arguments!
JavaScript defines missing arguments as being undefined. The value null indicates "no object",
and the empty string is clearly a string. The variable undefined is available for these purposes:
myDoc.addLayer ("My Layer",null,"Initial text"); // WRONG!
myDoc.addLayer ("My Layer","","Initial text"); // WRONG!
// THIS IS CORRECT!
myDoc.addLayer ("My Layer",undefined,"Initial text");
Remember that undefined refers to the contents of a global variable named "undefined". Its
value is a special value that JavaScript considers to be an undefined value.
 Index

Symbols Conditionals, 236

~ character as home reference, 5 Controls, user interface, 20
Creating a window, 10
A
Action Manager, 82 D
Action manager, 82 Data types, 222
ActionDescriptor, 88 DCS1_SaveOptions, 124
ActionList, 90 DCS2_SaveOptions, 125
ActionReference, 92 Debugger object, 77
Actions, 81 Debugger window, 70
Actions, palette, 81 Debugging, 69
Active document, 2 Document, 126
Alerts, 23 DocumentInfo, 134
Application, 94 DocumentInfo class, 3
Application object, 1 Documents, 138
ArtLayer, 100
ArtLayers, 113 E
Assignment operators, 228 Elements, user interface, 16
Encodings, 65
B EPSOpenOptions, 139
Binary operators, 226 EPSSaveOptions, 140
BitmapConversionOptions, 114 Error messages, 64
BMPSaveOptions, 115 Event callbacks, user interface, 20
Bounds object, 34 Event handlers, user interface, 35
Breakpoints, 72, 78 Exceptions, 242
ExportOptionsIllustrator, 141
C
Channel, 116 F
Channel class, 2 File and Folder objects, 5
Channels, 117 File and folder objects, 43
CMYKColor, 123 File object, 57
Color classes, 4 Folder object, 55
Command line entry, 72 Functions, 232
246 JavaScript Reference Guide

G PathItems, 177
GalleryBannerOptions, 142 PathPoint, 178
GalleryCustomColorOptions, 143 PathPointInfo, 179
GalleryImagesOptions, 144 PathPoints, 180
GalleryOptions, 145 PDFOpenOptions, 181
GallerySecurityOptions, 146 PDFSaveOptions, 182
GalleryThumbnailOptions, 147 PhotoCDOpenOptions, 183
GIFSaveOptions, 148 Photoshop actions, 81
GrayColor, 149 PhotoshopSaveOptions, 184
PICTFileSaveOptions, 185
H PICTResourceSaveOptions, 186
History class, 3 PixarSaveOptions, 187
HistoryState, 150 Platform interface, 5, 43
HistoryStates, 151 PNGSaveOptions, 188
Home directory, 5, 45 Portability, issues, 49
HSBColor, 152 Predefined core objects, 235
Predefined functions, 234
I Predefined variables, 234
IndexedConversionOptions, 153 Preferences, 189
Interface, 87 Preprocessing statements, 5
PresentationOptions, 193
J Prompt, script, 74
JavaScript syntax, 219 Prompts and alerts, 23
JPEGSaveOptions, 154
R
L RawFormatOpenOptions, 194
LabColor, 155 RawSaveOptions, 195
Layer class, 3 Regular expressions, 231
LayerComp, 156 Resource specification, 18
LayerComps, 157 RGBColor, 196
Layers, 158
LayerSet, 159 S
LayerSets, 162 Script prompt, 74
Loops, 236 Selection, 197
Selection class, 2
M SGIRGBSaveOptions, 205
Modal dialogs, 22 Solid color classes, 4
SolidColor, 206
O Static text element, 14
Object properties, user interface, 31 SubPathInfo, 207
Operators, 225 SubPathItem, 208
SubPathItems, 209
P Syntax, JavaScript, 219
Panel element, 14
Path names, 44 T
PathItem, 164 TargaSaveOptions, 210
JavaScript Reference Guide 247

Ternary operators, 228 User interface, 9

TextFont, 211 Utilities, 81
TextFonts, 212
TextItem, 213 W
TiffSaveOptions, 217 Window object, 30
Window resource specification, 19
U Window, constructor, 10
UI objects, 10 Window, debugger, 70
Unary operators, 226
Unicode I/O, 49 X
User Interface, 5 xmpMetadata, 218
248 JavaScript Reference Guide