JavaScript

[seneca]

Are you going to publish JavaScript manual for QuarkXpress?
I can't find anything relating to that.

[franz.wohlkoenig]

You mean something like https://github.com/qxpjs/ ?

[MikeWenzloff]

I suspect seneca doesn't mean the JS repository.

Real documentation of the DOM and samples tied to each element--what they and how they are used. Ya know, documentation! I need it and so does just about everyone else that is going to use JS in Q.

For now, this is the best I have found and can apply to Q2018, sans a published DOM.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/doc ... xpressions

And while we're at it (the wanting/wishing part), Q needs to do what Adobe did with its ExtendScript. Much of what one can do in ID is directly tied to ES.

Mike

[seneca]

Indeed.
The only way to see what's going on is to set breakpoints on running scripts and dig in.
All the JavaScript code used by Quark is in the QuarkXpress bundle. On macOSX right-mouse click on the application bundle to get into the folder. You should not find it too difficult to discover where it is.
Also, I can't see any UI elements except for JS prompt which is extremely basic.
I'm sure that in time this will improve or some folks will come up with some other ideas.
May we can employ Electron for that.
I suppose, we should treat the initial JavaScript support in Q18 as an early beta.

[Matthias Guenther (Quark)]

Hi,

the JavaScript documentation is still in progress, it will appear soon on our documentation page.

We'll publish two documents, one API reference and one Scripting Guide.

Thanks
Matthias

[seneca]

That's great.
Thanks Matthias.

[thoromyr]

Reviewing the scripts it appears that user interaction is extremely limited, e.g., getValidStringInput() and getValidNumericInput(). The sample script "Create Grid by Dividing a Box.js" requires bouncing through four dialogs which suggests that the API doesn't offer anything more sophisticated.

Is there any intention to provide a more functional dialog? Something along the lines of "new DialogWindow()" to which widgets (string inputs, combo boxes, etc.) can be added and their data collected (via something like promise) would go a long way toward making this usable.

[Matthias Guenther (Quark)]

Hi Thoro,

yes, that's on the roadmap.

Thanks
Matthias

[Matthias Guenther (Quark)]

The JavaScript API documentation is now online:
http://www.quark.com/documentation/quar ... index.html

The JavaScript Scripting Guide is still in review and will appear soon.

Thanks
Matthias