I'm a beginning learner of InDesign scripting and would like to help myself with debugging, but my attempts seem to run into walls. Hope someone has some insights that will help me going forward.
I'm working on a little project that loops through some selected tables, puts the 3 tables into an array/variable (accomplished that) and then loops through the content of those tables to find a GREP match and store those in an array/variable (for further uses I won't get into now)
My main objective at this point: See exactly what text characters the .findGrep(); function is catching and display those in the Javascript Console of the ExtendScript Toolkit app.
So here's a bit of the journey up to this point, including codes tried and suggestions from others. (All of my attempted uses of these has failed...why I'm here now... and why this is long; my apologies)
Initial try.
var myTables = []; (in Data Browser this shows values of [object Table], [object Table], [object Table]
var myFinds = [];
var myTest = [];
var myCharacters = [];
app.findGrepPreferences = null;
app.findGrepPreferences.findWhat = "\"";
for (x = 0; x < myTables.length; x++) {
var myFinds = myTables[x].findGrep();
$.writeln(myFinds);
};
Notes on this code: Because not every table has the characters in the findWhat, sometimes in this loop myFinds has nothing, but when it does have something, it shows this in console [object Character],[object Character],[object Character]
So someone (firstHelp) gave me this: And it did not work... error thrown on .contents.toString(); *"undefined is not an object" which I thought, "ok, yes I see at times in the loop myFinds has nothing in it... more on this later"
var stringArray = [];
for( var n=0; n<myFinds.length; n++ ) {
stringArray[n] = myFinds[n].contents.toString();
};
$.writeln(myFinds.join("\r"));
Code revamp Gave up on the $.writeln(myFinds); within the loop and tried this in order to gather Grep finds in a variable/array that could be dealt with outside of loop.
for (x = 0; x < myTables.length; x++) {
$.writeln(myTables[x].cells.firstItem().texts[0].contents[0]);
myFinds.push(myTables[x].findGrep());
};
$.writeln(myFinds);
ExtendScript Toolkit console now showing this for myFinds:
*myFinds = [Array], [object Character], [object Character], [object...
+ (object symbol) 0 =
+ (object symbol) 1 = [object Character], [object Character], [object Character]
+ (object symbol) 2 =
+ (object symbol) _proto_ =*
*again tried the .contents.toString(); on the myFinds and still the same error, "undefined..." including targeting the array when it clearly had something in it.
**So then I get this tipoff...(but no helpful code to apply to what I already have)
"you are dealing with arrays of arrays mixed with texts.
So you have to check with each item of the result array if it is text
or another array of texts.
If it is an array loop that array."
And later this bit of code that is supposed to "flatten" my array... a = [].concat.apply([],a);
Replacing a with myFinds like this, myFinds = [].concat.apply([],myFinds); did absolutely nothing. The array and its contents showed no change in the console... and I have no idea how to loop through each item of this array within an array, find out if it's text or another array and then show its real contents to console.
Really...how many loops and if/thens etc do I need to run on one array to show its actual contents in the console? But I know I struggle with breaking down every little step I want, to its minute scripting granularity and so my ignorance regularly impedes me. I welcome any suggestions/tips to move me closer to my **main objective" as stated above. Thanks
Regarding the first help. The real reason why you get an error while accessing content property is that you don’t check the type of the object and presume it will be a Text object. As the findGrep may not find a Text occurrence, you actually get an empty array. And Array.prototype.contents doesn’t exist hence the error.
Then $.writeln is legacy of Adobe ExtendScript toolkit, the IDE for ExtendScript. This product is no longer de eloped and maintained by Adobe. You should consider using other logging techniques such as the Visual Studio ExtendScript plugin which will allow you to use breakpoints and everything you need.
Working as a QA I need to fill in a lot of applications through a web form.
Idea is to have the personal data in some xls/txt/whatever file, read the file and use Powershell to feed data to the browser.
When I use the code below to fill in the form in IE, even though it seems to work fine, I get an error when submitting the form that no data was entered.
Any ideas or suggestions how to get past this would be much appreciated
Sadly my resources are limited to Powershell 2.0. Selenium or any other "more sophisticated" tools are out of question at least for now.
validation error here
$ie = New-Object -com InternetExplorer.Application
$ie.Navigate("MyURL")
$ie.visible = $true
while ($ie.ReadyState -ne 4){sleep -m 100}
Function ClickById($id) {
$ie.document.getElementById($id).Click()
}
### Základní údaje
$FnId = 'personalData.firstName'
$LnId = 'personalData.lastName'
$PhoneId = 'personalData.mobilePhone'
$EmailId = 'personalData.email'
$DataAgreementCheckBox = 'application.personalDataAgreement'
$SubmitfwdId = 'forward'
$Values = "Ublala", "Pung", "222333444", "ublala#pung.com"
$Ds1Elements = $FnId, $LnId, $PhoneId, $EmailId
$j = 0
foreach ($El in $Ds1Elements) {
$ie.document.getElementById($El).value = $values[$j]
$j++
}
ClickById $DataAgreementCheckBox
ClickById $SubmitfwdId
Thanks for the suggestion but it did not work as the form seemes to be stupid in many ways.
Anyway I used your advice for the focus when going with SendKeys method and it did the trick.
At the beginning I needed to load this assembly
[void] [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("'System.Windows.Forms")
and then changed the loop accordingly to use the SendKeys method
$j = 0
foreach ($El in $Ds1Elements) {
$ie.document.getElementById($El).focus()
[System.Windows.Forms.SendKeys]::Sendwait($values[$j]);
$j++
}
And tradaaaa the form is filled and nobody is complaining :)
Sometimes website forms will wait until the input box has lost focus to pre-validate the value before submitting the form. The text boxes may never get focus if you are manually setting the values in the background so the form believes that you haven't actually entered any values.
You may be able to get around this by manually focusing each text box in turn, and then focusing the submit button before clicking it. Each element in the $ie.Document should have a focus() method you can use.
In Google Sheets, you can add some scripting functionality. I'm adding something for the onEdit event, but I can't tell if it's working. As far as I can tell, you can't debug a live event from Google Sheets, so you have to do it from the debugger, which is pointless since the event argument passed to my onEdit() function will always be undefined if I run it from the Script Editor.
So, I was trying to use the Logger.log method to log some data whenever the onEdit function gets called, but this too seems like it only works when run from the Script Editor. When I run it from the Script Editor, I can view the logs by going to View->Logs...
I was hoping I'd be able to see the logs from when the event actually gets executed, but I can't figure it out.
How do I debug this stuff?
UPDATE:
As written in this answer,
Stackdriver Logging is the preferred method of logging now.
Use console.log() to log to Stackdriver.
Logger.log will either send you an email (eventually) of errors that have happened in your scripts, or, if you are running things from the Script Editor, you can view the log from the last run function by going to View->Logs (still in script editor). Again, that will only show you anything that was logged from the last function you ran from inside Script Editor.
The script I was trying to get working had to do with spreadsheets - I made a spreadsheet todo-checklist type thing that sorted items by priorities and such.
The only triggers I installed for that script were the onOpen and onEdit triggers. Debugging the onEdit trigger was the hardest one to figure out, because I kept thinking that if I set a breakpoint in my onEdit function, opened the spreadsheet, edited a cell, that my breakpoint would be triggered. This is not the case.
To simulate having edited a cell, I did end up having to do something in the actual spreadsheet though. All I did was make sure the cell that I wanted it to treat as "edited" was selected, then in Script Editor, I would go to Run->onEdit. Then my breakpoint would be hit.
However, I did have to stop using the event argument that gets passed into the onEdit function - you can't simulate that by doing Run->onEdit. Any info I needed from the spreadsheet, like which cell was selected, etc, I had to figure out manually.
Anyways, long answer, but I figured it out eventually.
EDIT:
If you want to see the todo checklist I made, you can check it out here
(yes, I know anybody can edit it - that's the point of sharing it!)
I was hoping it'd let you see the script as well. Since you can't see it there, here it is:
function onOpen() {
setCheckboxes();
};
function setCheckboxes() {
var checklist = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("checklist");
var checklist_data_range = checklist.getDataRange();
var checklist_num_rows = checklist_data_range.getNumRows();
Logger.log("checklist num rows: " + checklist_num_rows);
var coredata = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("core_data");
var coredata_data_range = coredata.getDataRange();
for(var i = 0 ; i < checklist_num_rows-1; i++) {
var split = checklist_data_range.getCell(i+2, 3).getValue().split(" || ");
var item_id = split[split.length - 1];
if(item_id != "") {
item_id = parseInt(item_id);
Logger.log("setting value at ("+(i+2)+",2) to " + coredata_data_range.getCell(item_id+1, 3).getValue());
checklist_data_range.getCell(i+2,2).setValue(coredata_data_range.getCell(item_id+1, 3).getValue());
}
}
}
function onEdit() {
Logger.log("TESTING TESTING ON EDIT");
var active_sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet();
if(active_sheet.getName() == "checklist") {
var active_range = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getActiveRange();
Logger.log("active_range: " + active_range);
Logger.log("active range col: " + active_range.getColumn() + "active range row: " + active_range.getRow());
Logger.log("active_range.value: " + active_range.getCell(1, 1).getValue());
Logger.log("active_range. colidx: " + active_range.getColumnIndex());
if(active_range.getCell(1,1).getValue() == "?" || active_range.getCell(1,1).getValue() == "?") {
Logger.log("made it!");
var next_cell = active_sheet.getRange(active_range.getRow(), active_range.getColumn()+1, 1, 1).getCell(1,1);
var val = next_cell.getValue();
Logger.log("val: " + val);
var splits = val.split(" || ");
var item_id = splits[splits.length-1];
Logger.log("item_id: " + item_id);
var core_data = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("core_data");
var sheet_data_range = core_data.getDataRange();
var num_rows = sheet_data_range.getNumRows();
var sheet_values = sheet_data_range.getValues();
Logger.log("num_rows: " + num_rows);
for(var i = 0; i < num_rows; i++) {
Logger.log("sheet_values[" + (i) + "][" + (8) + "] = " + sheet_values[i][8]);
if(sheet_values[i][8] == item_id) {
Logger.log("found it! tyring to set it...");
sheet_data_range.getCell(i+1, 2+1).setValue(active_range.getCell(1,1).getValue());
}
}
}
}
setCheckboxes();
};
As far as I can tell, you can't debug a live event from google docs, so you have to do it from the debugger, which is pointless since the event argument passed to my onEdit() function will always be undefined if I run it from the Script Editor.
True - so define the event argument yourself for debugging. See How can I test a trigger function in GAS?
I was trying to use the Logger.log method to log some data whenever the onEdit function gets called, but this too seems like it only works when run from the Script Editor. When I run it from the Script Editor, I can view the logs by going to View->Logs...
True again, but there is help. Peter Hermann's BetterLog library will redirect all logs to a spreadsheet, enabling logging even from code that is not attached to an instance of the editor / debugger.
If you're coding in a spreadsheet-contained script, for example, you can add just this one line to the top of your script file, and all logs will go to a "Logs" sheet in the spreadsheet. No other code necessary, just use Logger.log() as you usually would:
Logger = BetterLog.useSpreadsheet();
2017 Update:
Stackdriver Logging is now available for Google Apps Script. From the menu bar in the script editor, goto:
View > Stackdriver Logging to view or stream the logs.
console.log() will write DEBUG level messages
Example onEdit() logging:
function onEdit (e) {
var debug_e = {
authMode: e.authMode,
range: e.range.getA1Notation(),
source: e.source.getId(),
user: e.user,
value: e.value,
oldValue: e. oldValue
}
console.log({message: 'onEdit() Event Object', eventObject: debug_e});
}
Then check the logs in the Stackdriver UI labeled onEdit() Event Object to see the output
I've gone through these posts and somehow ended up finding a simple answer, which I'm posting here for those how want short and sweet solutions:
Use console.log("Hello World") in your script.
Go to https://script.google.com/home/my and select your add-on.
Click on the ellipsis menu on Project Details, select Executions.
Click on the header of the latest execution and read the log.
A little hacky, but I created an array called "console", and anytime I wanted to output to console I pushed to the array. Then whenever I wanted to see the actual output, I just returned console instead of whatever I was returning before.
//return 'console' //uncomment to output console
return "actual output";
}
If you have the script editor open you will see the logs under View->Logs. If your script has an onedit trigger, make a change to the spreadsheet which should trigger the function with the script editor opened in a second tab. Then go to the script editor tab and open the log. You will see whatever your function passes to the logger.
Basically as long as the script editor is open, the event will write to the log and show it for you. It will not show if someone else is in the file elsewhere.
I am having the same problem, I found the below on the web somewhere....
Event handlers in Docs are a little tricky though. Because docs can handle multiple simultaneous edits by multiple users, the event handlers are handled server-side. The major issue with this structure is that when an event trigger script fails, it fails on the server. If you want to see the debug info you'll need to setup an explicit trigger under the triggers menu that emails you the debug info when the event fails or else it will fail silently.
It's far from elegant, but while debugging, I often log to the Logger, and then use getLog() to fetch its contents. Then, I either:
save the results to a variable (which can be inspected in the Google Scripts debugger—this works around cases where I can't set a breakpoint in some code, but I can set one in code that gets executed later)
write it to some temporary DOM element
display it in an alert
Essentially, it just becomes a JavaScript output issue.
It grossly lacks the functionality of modern console.log() implementations, but the Logger does still help debug Google Scripts.
Just as a notice. I made a test function for my spreadsheet. I use the variable google throws in the onEdit(e) function (I called it e). Then I made a test function like this:
function test(){
var testRange = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(GetItemInfoSheetName).getRange(2,7)
var testObject = {
range:testRange,
value:"someValue"
}
onEdit(testObject)
SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName(GetItemInfoSheetName).getRange(2,6).setValue(Logger.getLog())
}
Calling this test function makes all the code run as you had an event in the spreadsheet. I just put in the possision of the cell i edited whitch gave me an unexpected result, setting value as the value i put into the cell.
OBS! for more variables googles gives to the function go here: https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/triggers/events#google_sheets_events
Currently you are confined to the container bound nature of using scripts within docs. If you create a new script inside outside of docs then you will be able to export information to a google spreadsheet and use it like a logging tool.
For example in your first code block
function setCheckboxes() {
// Add your spreadsheet data
var errorSheet = SpreadsheetApp.openById('EnterSpreadSheetIDHere').getSheetByName('EnterSheetNameHere');
var cell = errorSheet.getRange('A1').offset(errorSheet.getLastRow(),0);
// existing code
var checklist = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("checklist");
var checklist_data_range = checklist.getDataRange();
var checklist_num_rows = checklist_data_range.getNumRows();
// existing logger
Logger.log("checklist num rows: " + checklist_num_rows);
//We can pass the information to the sheet using cell.setValue()
cell.setValue(new Date() + "Checklist num rows: " + checklist_num_rows);
When I'm working with GAS I have two monitors ( you can use two windows ) set up with one containing the GAS environment and the other containing the SS so I can write information to and log.
The dev console will log errors thrown by the app script, so you can just throw an error to get it logged as a normal console.log. It will stop execution, but it might still be useful for step by step debugging.
throw Error('hello world!');
will show up in the console similarly to console.log('hello world')
For Apps Script projects that are tied to a single Sheet (or doc) — in 2022 — there is no View menu like other answers suggest. Instead you need to look in the Executions menu on the left sidebar to see the executions of your onSelectionChange function (or any other function), from there you can click REFRESH until your console.log messages appear.
just debug your spreadsheet code like this:
...
throw whatAmI;
...
shows like this:
This was asked in 2008. Hopefully there's a better answer now.
How can you combine PDFs in ruby?
I'm using the pdf-stamper gem to fill out a form in a PDF. I'd like to take n PDFs, fill out a form in each of them, and save the result as an n-page document.
Can you do this with a native library like prawn? Can you do this with rjb and iText? pdf-stamper is a wrapper on iText.
I'd like to avoid using two libraries (i.e. pdftk and iText), if possible.
As of 2013 you can use Prawn to merge pdfs. Gist: https://gist.github.com/4512859
class PdfMerger
def merge(pdf_paths, destination)
first_pdf_path = pdf_paths.delete_at(0)
Prawn::Document.generate(destination, :template => first_pdf_path) do |pdf|
pdf_paths.each do |pdf_path|
pdf.go_to_page(pdf.page_count)
template_page_count = count_pdf_pages(pdf_path)
(1..template_page_count).each do |template_page_number|
pdf.start_new_page(:template => pdf_path, :template_page => template_page_number)
end
end
end
end
private
def count_pdf_pages(pdf_file_path)
pdf = Prawn::Document.new(:template => pdf_file_path)
pdf.page_count
end
end
After a long search for a pure Ruby solution, I ended up writing code from scratch to parse and combine/merge PDF files.
(I feel it is such a mess with the current tools - I wanted something native but they all seem to have different issues and dependencies... even Prawn dropped the template support they use to have)
I posted the gem online and you can find it at GitHub as well.
you can install it with:
gem install combine_pdf
It's very easy to use (with or without saving the PDF data to a file).
For example, here is a "one-liner":
(CombinePDF.load("file1.pdf") << CombinePDF.load("file2.pdf") << CombinePDF.load("file3.pdf")).save("out.pdf")
If you find any issues, please let me know and I will work on a fix.
Use ghostscript to combine PDFs:
options = "-q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite"
system "gs #{options} -sOutputFile=result.pdf file1.pdf file2.pdf"
I wrote a ruby gem to do this — PDF::Merger. It uses iText. Here's how you use it:
pdf = PDF::Merger.new
pdf.add_file "foo.pdf"
pdf.add_file "bar.pdf"
pdf.save_as "combined.pdf"
Haven't seen great options in Ruby- I got best results shelling out to pdftk:
system "pdftk #{file_1} multistamp #{file_2} output #{file_combined}"
We're closer than we were in 2008, but not quite there yet.
The latest dev version of Prawn lets you use an existing PDF as a template, but not use a template over and over as you add more pages.
Via iText, this will work... though you should flatten the forms before you merge them to avoid field name conflicts. That or rename the fields one page at a time.
Within PDF, fields with the same name share a value. This is usually not the desired behavior, though it comes in handy from time to time.
Something along the lines of (in java):
PdfCopy mergedPDF = new PdfCopy( new Document(), new FileOutputStream( outPath );
for (String path : paths ) {
PdfReader reader = new PdfReader( path );
ByteArrayOutputStream curFormOut = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
PdfStamper stamper = new PdfStamper( reader, curFormOut );
stamper.setField( name, value ); // ad nauseum
stamper.setFlattening(true); // flattening setting only takes effect during close()
stamper.close();
byte curFormBytes = curFormOut.toByteArray();
PdfReader combineMe = new PdfReader( curFormBytes );
int pages = combineMe .getNumberOfPages();
for (int i = 1; i <= pages; ++i) { // "1" is the first page
mergedForms.addPage( mergedForms.getImportedPage( combineMe, i );
}
}
mergedForms.close();
If you want to add any template (created by macOS Pages or Google Docs) using the combine_pdf gem then you can try with this:
final_pdf = CombinePDF.new
company_template = CombinePDF.load(template_file.pdf).pages[0]
pdf = CombinePDF.load (content_file.pdf)
pdf.pages.each {|page| final_pdf << (company_template << page)}
final_pdf.save "final_document.pdf"
I am trying to get a specific music cd from Amazon using ruby-aaws.
il = ItemSearch.new( 'Music', { 'Artist' => artist_title,
'Title' => album_name } )
rg = ResponseGroup.new( 'Large' )
req = Request.new(AMAZON_KEY_ID, AMAZON_ASSOCIATES_ID, 'de')
resp = req.search( il, rg, 5)
But this fails. It only seems to work when I search for artist or title, not both at the same time. What am I making wrong? If I construct the url by hand, it works prefectly, but I really don't want to parse the xml manually myself.
I've had a bit of a look at the code of ruby-aaws. It looks like you should be able to set $DEBUG to true before calling any of the ruby-aaws methods/classes and see what URLs are being requested. If there are any discrepancies between your handcrafted URL and the one being generated by ruby-aaws, this might give you some clues.
I just tried this use-case with the latest version of ruby-aaws and it works just fine.
I used the following for the ItemSearch (with the same code you posted initially):
il = ItemSearch.new( 'Music', { 'Artist'=>'The Smiths', 'Title'=>'Hatful' })
and got good results back as I would expect. Please try again and see if perhaps the latest ruby-aaws has ironed out a wrinkle which was stopping you.