Scripting the Twixl Publisher plug-in

This article expects that you are familiar with Adobe's ExtendScript scripting language.

1. InDesign ExtendScript Labels

The way the Twixl Publisher plug-in stores the interactive properties is by attaching labels to the different elements.

Every object in Adobe InDesign can be provided with one or more labels via de ExtendScript function:

object.insertLabel(key, value)

To retrieve the label, you can use the extractLabel function using a specific key:

object.extractLabel(key)

2. Attaching properties

Here's an overview of the type of InDesign elements you can attach properties to, depending on the type of interactive element:

Slide Show: MultiStateObject
Web Viewer: Rectangle
Web Overlay: Rectangle, TextFrame, PageItem
Scrollable Content: Rectangle with one PageItem as its child element
Full screen image: Graphic
Movie: Movie
Sound: Sound
Image Sequence: Rectangle

3. Twixl Publisher interactive element keys

Every type of Twixl Publisher interactive element has its own key under which the properties are saved. Here's an overview:

Slide Show	com.rovingbird.epublisher.mso
Web Viewer	com.rovingbird.epublisher.wv
Web Overlay	com.rovingbird.epublisher.wo
Scrollable Content	com.rovingbird.epublisher.sc
Full screen image	com.rovingbird.epublisher.image
Movie	com.rovingbird.epublisher.movie
Sound	com.rovingbird.epublisher.sound
Image Sequence	com.rovingbird.imagesequence

4. JSON

Under these keys, all properties are saved in a JSON data structure. JSON (http://www.json.org) is a text based format which makes it very easy to store key/value structures.

var myProperties = {
    key1: “value",
    key2: “value",
    key3: “value"
};
var myJsonString = JSON.stringify(myProperties);
myObject.insertLabel("com.rovingbird.epublisher.mso", myJsonString);

To retrieve it later on, you can use the following code:

var myLabel = myObject.extractLabel("com.rovingbird.epublisher.mso");
var myProperties = JSON.parse(myLabel);

5. Property overview

5.1. Slide Show

{
    'msoShowScrollViewIndicator':            false,
    'msoAllowUserInteraction':               false,
    'msoShowScrollbars':                     false,
    'msoAllowFullScreen':                    false,
    'msoScrollViewIndicatorOpacity':         50,
    'msoScrollViewIndicatorBackgroundColor': '000000',
    'msoScrollViewIndicatorActiveColor':     'FFFFFF',
    'msoScrollViewIndicatorInactiveColor':   'AAAAAA',
    'msoFileFormat':                         'PNG',
    'msoFileFormatIdx':                      0,
    'msoFileFormatDesc':                     '',
    'msoTransitionStyle':                    'Push',
    'msoTransitionStyleIdx':                 0,
    'msoAllowAutoPlay':                      false,
    'msoInterval':                           0,
    'msoDelay':                              0,
    'msoTapPlayPause':                       false,
    'msoAllowLoop':                          false,
}

5.2. Web Viewer

{
    'wvUrl':                  '',
    'wvAllowUserInteraction': false,
    'wvTransparent':          false,
    'wvScaleToFit':           false,
    'wvShowScrollbars':       false,
    'wvOpenLinksInline':      true,
    'wvShowLoadingIndicator': false,
}

5.3. Web Overlay

{
    'woUrl':                  '',
    'woAllowUserInteraction': false,
    'woWidth':                '',
    'woHeight':               '',
    'woShowScrollbars':       false,
    'woShowLoadingIndicator': false,
    'woBackgroundColor':      '000000',
    'woBackgroundOpacity':    50,
    'woAnalyticsName':        '',
    'woScaleToFit':           false,
}

5.4. Scrollable Content

{
    'scAllowScrolling': false,
    'scShowScrollbars': true,
    'scEnablePaging':   false,
    'scEnableZooming':  false,
}

5.5. Movies

{
    'movieAutoStart':           false,
    'movieShowController':      false,
    'movieLoop':                false,
    'movieShowFullScreen':      false,
    'movieReturnToPosterFrame': false,
    'movieAnalyticsName':       '',
}

5.6. Sound

{
    'soundAutoStart':     false,
    'soundLoop':          false,
    'soundAnalyticsName': '',
}

5.7. Full Screen Images

{
    'imageAllowFullScreen': false,
    'imageAnalyticsName':   '',
}

5.8. Image Sequences

{
    'isqFolder':        '',
    'isqReverse':       false,
    'isqAnalyticsName': '',
}

6. Automating preflight, export and preview

Download an example (for .article and .publication files) to see how the preflight, export and preview processes can be scripted:

InDesign-Plugin Scripting Examples

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