cross-dom-functions

Cross-DOM functions

The cross-DOM is a small application programming interface (API), which provides a set of functions that are common across message-enabled applications. These include functions to open files, execute scripts, and print files. For details of the function set, see Cross-DOM API reference.

You can access cross-DOM functions in any script by prefixing the function name with the namespace specifier for the target application (see Namespace specifiers). For example, a Photoshop CC script can call indesign.open(file) to open a file in Adobe InDesign® CC.

The cross-DOM functions for each application are implemented in JavaScript. You can see the implementation for each installed application by reading its associated startup script in the Adobe startup folder. For example, Adobe Illustrator® CC defines illustrator.open() in the illustrator-14.jsx startup script (14 is the version number of the installed application). See Startup folder locations.

Example

The sample code distributed with the Adobe ExtendScript SDK includes these code examples that specifically demonstrate the use of cross-DOM functions:

Example	Description
OpenImageInPhotoshop.jsx	Shows how to send an image file to be opened in Photoshop.

Application-specific exported functions

In addition to the required base cross-DOM functions, each message-enabled application can provide application-specific functionality to all scripts through a simple syntax. You can access exported functions in any script by prefixing the function name with the namespace specifier for the target application (see Namespace specifiers). For example, Photoshop CS5 exports the photomerge function, so an Illustrator CS5 script can directly call photoshop.photomerge(files).

The only difference between cross-DOM functions and the application-specific exported functions is that all applications expose the same set of cross-DOM functions, whereas each application exposes its own set of application-specific functions. Each application determines the extent of its exported functionality.

Some applications provide extensive support for exported functions, others less.

For details of additional functions that are exported by individual applications, refer to the startup scripts for those applications. The application startup scripts are named appname-n.jsx, where n is the version number of the installed application. See Startup folder locations.

Startup folder locations

For each platform, there is a startup folder shared by all Adobe Creative Suite 4 applications that support JavaScript, and an application-specific startup folder.

In Windows®, the installation startup folders are: %CommonProgramFiles%\Adobe\Startup Scripts CS5\Adobe AppName\
In Mac OS®, the installation startup folders are: /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Startup Scripts CS5/Adobe AppName/

Cross-DOM API reference

All exported functions, including those of the cross-DOM API, are invoked through the exporting application, identified by its namespace specifier (see Namespace specifiers). For example:

//execute an Illustrator script in version 12
illustrator12.executeScript(myAIScript);

A specifier with no version information invokes the highest installed version of the application. For example:

//execute a Photoshop script in the highest available version
photoshop.executeScript (myPSScript)

Cross-DOM Functions

All message-enabled applications implement the following cross-DOM functions:

executeScript()

appspec.executeScript(script)

Description

Performs a JavaScript eval on the specified script. The entire document object model (DOM) of the target application is available to the script.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`script`	String	The script to be evaluated.

Returns

Nothing

open()

appspec.open(files)

Description

Performs the equivalent of the target application’s File > Open command on the specified files.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`files`	File object or array of File objects.	File(s) to open. For applications that use compound documents, this should be a project file.

Returns

Nothing

openAsNew()

appspec.openAsNew([options])

Description

Performs the equivalent of the target application’s File > New command.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`options`	Application-specific creation options:	Optional. Creation options.
	- Adobe Bridge: none
	- Photoshop: none
	- InDesign: creation options are: `(Boolean:showingWindow, ObjectOrString:documentPresets)`. See the arguments for `documents.add()` in the Adobe InDesign CS5 Scripting Reference.
	- Illustrator: creation options are: `([DocumentColorSpace:colorspace][, Number:width, Number:height])`. See the arguments for documents.add() in the Adobe Illustrator CS5 JavaScript Reference.

Returns

Boolean. true on success.

print()

appspec.print(files)

Description

Performs the equivalent of the target application’s File > Print command on the specified files.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`files`	File object or array of File objects.	File(s) to print. For applications that use compound documents, this should be a project file.

Returns

Nothing

quit()

appspec.quit()

Description

Performs the equivalent of the target application’s File > Exit or File > Close command.

Returns

Nothing

reveal()

appspec.reveal(file)

Description

Gives the target application the operating-system focus, and, if the specified file is open in that application, brings it to the foreground.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`file`	File object or String	File info to reveal

Returns

Nothing