It would be very helpful if there was an illustration (e.g. a flowchart) of how the product setup works.

Here it is: productlis::establish.

placeholder::change_tags (frame, 0, "STRINGID", stringid); does work on InDesign^® but not on InDesign^® Server.

This bug is fixed now.

The parameter allPages introduced in the last release works without errors. Unfortunately, we continue to have problems with frames like in the screenshot:

We get the following result:

For InDesign^®, frames belong to the page on which the larger part of the frame's BoundingBox is located. So the result is perfectly correct. But it is clear to us that it is difficult to move frames spread-wise. We have therefore added another parameter spreadWise to the itemlist::move_to function. If this parameter is set to 1, the following result is obtained:

When creating a custom dialog using the dialog framework (through cScript or Python), the tab order inside the dialog seems to be random. It would be nice to have the tab order in order of creation of the widgets.

The problem is solved now.

In InDesign, when running a cScript through the Front Row panel or through a product pool panel action, the global Variable gDocumentID is not available, but only when I have a text cursor set into a text frame.

The problem is solved now.

It seems that the colors of page elements are shifted by one between PubServer setting and plugins.

In the plugins an entry in the color list was missing. This is fixed.

For an error-free color assignment, the color definition may also have to be corrected on the server side. In case of problems please contact our support again.

If a template contains only one frame and this frame is moved by a Layout Rule during the build, the build always starts on a new page after the product.

After executing the Layout Rules, we are checking how the frame geometries have changed in the process. After that, the location in the build-grid is updated accordingly. For the check of the frame geometries the size was used so far - but with a merely shifted frame this remains unchanged. Hence the problem.

The problem is solved now.

I have a placeholders pre/post fixes defined like this:



If the placeholder contains text, the "red" is applies correctly. But if the placeholder is empty (e.g. = <0x200B> the "blue" style is not applied. Am I doing something wrong here?

No, the definitions are well done. The problem was inside the plugins and is fixed now.

The list of cScript functions contains the new 'c/o' column with the availability in the different environments. May it be helpful.

The distinct keyword can be used to remove multiple entries from xmlquery selects. The problem is that results are already removed if they are the same in only one column.

Using the new syntax distinct (colName [, colName]) the uniqueness can be restricted to a any number of specific columns now.

See here for more information.

Using the new keyword child_N you can easily refer to the n-th child an an XML element with xmlquery now.

See here for more information.

You now can copy/paste Layout Rules between frames and text placeholders. To do that use the new fly-out menues Copy, Paste and Paste All or the buttons and at the bottom of the panel Layout Rules.

The following improvements are now available for the Python integration:

• Product pool entries can now be loaded using Python.
• Selecting the page when placing a PDF is now possible
• Consistency updates

Our XPATH implementation now also successfully executes statements where elements with different paths are found:

foo//bar
foo/following-sibling::bar
foo/../bar

I lock a local change of a placeholder using the = of panel ToDo List. But unfortunately the state of the placeholder is set back to 'Changed' on every sync.

This bug is fixed.

Attention: Defective placeholders must be decoupled once and then locked again using the = button of the ToDo List.

I noticed a possible bug when using Python or an error in the documentation. When running the comet.link.collect function, I actually wanted to pass named parameters to avoid having to write empty parameters in the function call. In the online documentation, the parameter for the placeholder IDs is called "placeholders"; in the VSCode plugin it is explained with “placeHolders”. http://kb.priint.com/comet/PyDoc/Module_link.html#comet.link.collect When executing both variants ...

The correct keyword for the link.collect function is 'placeholderIDs'. The documentation is fixed now.

Mir ist bei den Python-Funktionen comet.placeholder.link und comet.placeholder.load aufgefallen, dass die die Parameter zum Ausführen der Layoutregeln unterschiedliche heißen (applyLayoutRules & applyRules):

• comet.placeholder.link(currentFrame, cId, applyLayoutRules=True)
• comet.placeholder.load(currentFrame, applyRules=True)

Ich habe den Parameter für comet.placeholder.load jetzt umbenannt nach "applyLayoutRules" - damit ist der Parameter bei beiden Funktionen gleich benannt. Konsistenz ist mir immer enorm wichtig!

Even if I want to edit only one column range of the table, all column widths will be changed anyway.

This happens whenever the table is to be brought to frame width at the same time. We have now changed the behavior of the rule so that only the specified columns are changed in the process as well.

Using the function table::broaden_to_frame I can adjust the width of a table to the frame width (res. column width). The adjustment of the width is done either over one or all columns. Is there also the possibility to specify a range of columns (e.g. 2-5)?

The function table::broaden_to_frame does not taken the left and right paragraph indentions into account. In case of paragraph indentions, the table becomes too wide.

This problem is solved.

I probably came across a bug in the InDesign plugin that affects various panels.

When a page element is selected in InDesign and one of a few specific panels is then opened, the element's Comet settings are not recognized and the panel appears blank. It's only after the InDesign is deselected and I reselect the element while the panel is open that the Comet settings appear.

As far as I know, this affects the following panels, among others: design rules placeholder The bug occurs to me most of the time. During a test, I was in an offline XML project and logged on to a pub server. After that, the bug no longer occurred, at least in the design rules panel. It still appeared in the placeholder panel afterwards.

I am currently using version 4.2 R32286 for InDesign 18.1 on Windows

Boah, ... . We have tried to cover all situations and have fixed the 2 or 3 that did not respond

I have a placeholders pre-fix defined by #pStyle "red". But if the placeholder is empty (e.g. = <0x200B> the "red" style is not applied.

The problem is fixed now.

Functions like substr (child_2.value, 3, 3) are not computed correctly for result columns with dots (.) like child_2.value by xmlquery.

The bug is an unexpected side effect of fix of Fogbugz Case 27192 (How nice the case numbers were back then) and exists since v4.1.7 R26955 (May 09 2020)

The bug is fixed now.

Fractions with 3 digits produce a wrong output in excel::read. E.g. 5.123 is written as 5.12 instead of 5 100/813.

This problem is solved.

Contrary to older requirements, the InDesign^® Server shall now export Comet Notes in the metadata too. To ensure backward compatibility, this capability should be able to be set via a script command in the AfterLogin script. So we need a new script command for this.

prefs::add_notes_to_metadata will do this job.

Using the (fantastic) excel::read function, I can pretty much fetch the contents of an Excel cell as it is displayed in Excel. Is there also a way to get the direct and unformatted value?

You can do that with the following parameter settings now:

• type : kString
• format : kUndef

See here for more information.

Excel cells with fractions like 'As quarter', 'As half', ... are unfortunately still output incorrectly.

This 'problem' is solved now.

The cscript function excel::get_format always returns an error.

The problem is fixed now.

Templates can now be tagged with an InDesign version to protect against overwriting. This can prevent newer InDesigns from overwriting older templates and making them unusable for older InDesigns. See here for more information.

• Mac : InDesign -> About Plug-Ins -> Apply License...
• Windows : Help -> About Plug-Ins -> Apply License...

The plugins now support Single Sign On (SSO) as a login method for the PubServer. To do this, use the menu Plug-Ins -> Connect with Publishing Server (SSO)... .

For SSO Logins the installation of PubServer 4.2.3136 is mandatory!

See here for more information.

You now can place images of the Previews panel directly into your documents.

To do that, simply drag and drop image entries to empty places in the document. If at least one document frame is selected, the new frame is created as an exact copy of the first selected frame. Otherwise, a new frame of size 100x100 is created. The image is placed in the new frame with the settings of the Previews panel.

Until now, only the top level products of the Product Pool could be loaded via script. Now you can load the subentries by script too.

Please take care : The subentries must still be implemented in the panelstatements (and not in the findstatements like the top level script based statements).

If the page template of a page is changed by page::set_info, the parent page defined in the page template can now be applied at the same time.

See here for more information.

InDesign^® Server 2022 always crashes during normal shutdown. I have tested with Mac OS Ventura. Here is the crash log:

Thread 0 Crashed::  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   AppFramework	0x1190b0a58 0x1190a0000 + 68184
1   AppFramework	0x1190b0a50 0x1190a0000 + 68176
2   SoapServer		0x10f5e0bf4 0x10f5a8000 + 232436
3   SoapServer		0x10f5e10cc 0x10f5a8000 + 233676
4   AppKit		0x19e7be360 -[NSApplication _handleEvent:] + 60

As you can see from the log, our plugins are not involved in the crash at all. And this is also confirmed if InDesign^® Server is started completely without our plugins. Also then the crash is exactly the same.

So unfortunately there is nothing we can do here.

Using the Python function Page.setSize will reproducible crash InDesign. The error occurs on the Mac only.

The bug is fixed now.

In case of invalid page numbers the function frame::place_pdf_with_crop behaves differently in InDesign^® and comet_pdf:

• InDesign^® uses the first page of the given PDF
• comet_pdf returns an error

The behavior is now consistent: In both cases the first page is automatically placed. The same applies to the function frame::place_pdf.

Additionally, the functions now have an additional parameter to control the behavior in case of wrong page numbers. See here for more information.

PDFs with binary data generate an error when calling the function file::pdf_count_pages.

The problem is fixed.

The key-value-mapping dialog is not adjusted to the UI scaling. That's why you can't click the Okay button anymore.

This is fixed.

For some time now, the Translations panel seems to have stopped working.

The Translations panel is a YLYSYK (You Look, You See, You Know) panel and has no documentation therefore. Unfortunately, there was nothing more with "You See". This is fixed now and the panel works as expected again.

If I use productlist::append with not allowDoubles, the list stays empty always.

The problem is solved now.

Is it possible to automatically embed an inline image created with <w2inline>?

With the specification ... embed_image 1 ... in the <in> resp. <w2inline> tag this works now.

I have an excelquery like this:

#pragma var "ROW"
#pragma var "COLUMN"

"$EXCELFILE"
select "%s" with
     plain <Unquoted_ROW>, <Unquoted_COLUMN>

EXCELFILE is defined in the Settings panels. But the statement failed because $EXCELFILE is not replaced in the path but appended to the path of my current xml folder.

The problem is solved now.

Globally opened Excel files are closed only on logout. This could be a bit late if you have several (many) tables open. Is there any way to close the files sooner as well?

Reading in the Excel files is quite fast. We therefore close globally opened Excels at the next Idle time now always.

I have an excelquery like this:

"$DESKTOP/Formats.xlsx"
select "%s" with
  tt "Table 1"!C17 script 905

This call crashes InDesign reproducibly. If I omit the script 905, it works. The script 905 does nothing:

int main ()
{
    return 0;
}

Yes, this is a side effect of the Illustrator^® integration for Excel. The bug is fixed.

When I use excel::read or excelquery with type kInt or kFloat as out value type, the result is usually wrong or empty. For example, if I have a cell with the value 5.12 in the representation 5 1/8, I get the result 5 for float (but not 5.12).

This bug is fixed now.

If the last/first column/row of an Excel sheet does contain images only (and no text in any cell), this column/row is not taken into account by the functions excel::last_col, ... .

This is done now (but since you can not import images from the Excel file now, this fix will not have any effect).

The tags <ID>, <ID2>, ... are not replaced in the panelstatements 100 (and others) for loading the panel Publication Information.

This is fixed now.

I use the function document::begin_sequence in a Front Row action. Unfortunately, the call has no effect.

Yes, the Front Row actions cover the action by its own (and additional) commend sequence. Unfortunately, this is necessary for a working One Step Undo. So you should avoid using document::begin_sequence in front row actions.

At this point we also cleaned up a bit and marked the functions document::open_sequence, document::purge_sequence and document::close_sequence as deprecated. These functions are likely to destroy the undo stack of InDesign^® if they are used incorrectly (which can happen very easily).

With a collection of new script commands it is now possible to select Comet Notes and link with new targets.

• itemlist::doc_notes
• itemlist::page_notes
• itemlist::group_notes
• itemlist::frame_notes
  
  
• frame::note::get_dest
• frame::note::change_dest

The script commands are available for both InDesign^® and comet_pdf.

The Excel import (e.g. excel::read) now reads all standard number formats and all date/time formats. Only user-defined numbers are not yet imported in an Excel-compliant way.

There are several new enhancements to the Python integration, inlucing a bugfix for the notorious 'ModuleNotFoundError'.
For more information see here

It is about the import via the comet.pyImport() method, of a file that has already been imported by another script. Apparently there is the problem that the already imported script cannot be recognized from the XCache.

This problem is fixed.

When I update a template, the preview of the template is animated in the panel, but the old preview is still displayed. Only when I reload the panel, the new preview appears. Also, in my Templates panel, the icon for the template type is missing.

This happens when the configuration is incomplete. In this case the panel statement 23 was missing. This is of course a configuration error. Anyway, we now use a default statement anyway when panel statement 23 is missing.

It seems that the Comet Plugin has issues in keeping the correct document ids after a manual save. This needs to be discussed with WerkII to assure that they check for issues on their side.

The problem was that we had mistakenly defined the integer parts of the document IDs in the script as char* strings. Because of this, the IDs were no longer correct, of course. The error is fixed.

Comments for Outlined Comet Notes could be made directly in the Comet Notes panel. This works, but it is very slow. Each letter takes about 2 seconds.

The reason is that every change is immediately applied to the document and the panel. Of course, this takes a moment. But of course, 2 seconds is too long. We managed to shorten this so that you can write (almost) at normal speed.

The content search for Comet Notes of the Comet Notes panel unfortunately ignores the comments of Outline notes.

This is fixed. The search now also works for outline notes.

When I delete a Placeholder Variant from the Placeholders panel, the placeholder list is reloaded afterwards. But then almost all entries are missing. Only when I press the magnifying glass again, I get all entries again.

Yes, this is because the ALT key is held down to delete the variant - and it is still held down when the list is (automatically) reloaded. But Load+ALT means : Load the Recent Entries. So you see the recent entries now only.

We solved this problem now and you will get the same panel entries as before the deletion of the variant now (except the one you've even deleted of course :-) ).

Is ist possible, to format an integer value as unsigned in the wlog, printf, ... functions of cscript?

Int numbers are internally represented in cScript as 64-bit numbers. These are gigantic numbers and there are actually no applications for unsigned in our environment. But if you really want to do that : with %u you can do it now. See here for more information.

Try this:

showmessage ("%d\n%u\n%x",
 	0x800000000000000F,
 	0x800000000000000F,
 	0x800000000000000F);

If the cScript alloc function is to allocate more memory than available, InDesign^® crashes on the Mac.

The reason for the crash seems to be different for Intel and M1:

• Intel : The function llvm::report_bad_alloc_error(char const*, bool) of the Apple-System-Library AppleIntelKBLGraphicsGLDriver aborts the program.
• M1 : Very strange - When we write the result to the log, it says 0, but the test result==0UL says false. Thereupon the char* string is initialized with *result=0; - and this leads to the crash. Huh?!!

We were able to work around the problem by reaching deep into the bag of tricks. 18 Exa-Bytes of RAM are still not available of course, but it no longer leads to a crash

The function document::get_links can shrink its results by a given page number and/or layer. This work perfectly if all the links (images) are 'normal' images frames. But if there are also some inlines with images, the results are wrong.

The bug is fixed now.

If a placeholder is loaded with TaggedText and the text contains coded tabs (<0x0009>) then the TosDos panel always reports an error. The funny thing is that when comparing the document and database values, it still says that both values are equal.

Yes, the problem is that TABs should not be encoded in TaggedText. If you replace <0x0009> with a TAB (\t), the problem no longer occurs.

Nevertheless, we have adapted our string comparison (string::get_netweight) so that <0x0009> is automatically taken into account as well. This solves the problem even without any changes on your side.

Every time I load the Placeholder list, I get a message that placeholder_variants.xml cannot be loaded.

The error only occurs in PubServer/SOAP connections and only when the + button at the top left of the panel is enabled (blue). In this case, the panel tries to load all Placeholder Variants as well. If the system is not yet extended accordingly, this message appears.

The problem is fixed now. You will now only get a corresponding message when you actually want to create a new variant (the small + at the bottom of the Placeholder panel), and not already when loading the placeholder list.

In the xml created by productlist::to_xml the product type (normal, new, deleted, moved, page template) is missing.

We have added this entry now. The value is also read by productlist::from_xml

Apparently, in the methods of the Table Module, the variable gFrame is no longer defined since v4.2.

This is fixed. The variable is now defined again in Table Module Insert and Layout methods and contains a reference to the first frame of the tables text chain.

It should be published only in v4.3. But you can test it already today: The JSON support of cScript. A (not yet quite complete) documentation can be found here.

Sometimes the next product of a build-chain after the one we build with the continue frame has the wrong position (not always but in some cases). The next product does not place in the position x and y of the page template element but got moved to the top with an offset.

This problem is solved.

The product build-up falls into an infinite loop in the following situation:

• Two products are kept together.
• The second product may have continuations.
• The first part (the main template) still fits on the same page like the "Keep with next" product

The problem is solved now.

The product build-up falls into an infinite loop in the following situation:

• Two products are kept together.
• The second product may have continuations.
• The first part (the main template) still fits on the same page like the "Keep with next" product

The problem is solved now.

itemlist::adapt_by fails while adapating frames of master parent pages.

This problem was a little bit more difficult to solve: Geometry operations always require the page of the frames. But master parent page frames do not have a page. To solve this problem, we had to dig a little deeper into the bag of tricks. It works now.

I tried to use the itemlist::adapt_by script command. This works. But it always opens a new document, which then becomes the new front document. When my script then continues to work, it continues to works there of course - and unfortunately not in my original document.

Oh, the document was only open for testing purposes. Apparently no one has used this command until now. The problem is fixed.

When I export an unlinked frame (e.g. no placeholder) to W2ML and re-import the W2ML again, the frame gets an "unlinked" marker afterwards in the document.

This frame marking is now prevented.

Is there a way to query the executing program of a script?

Yes, you can use system::version:

• -1 = comet_pdf
• 0-23 = InDesign + Parameter isServer
• >=24 = Illustrator

But since the version number increases by 1 every year, this will no longer work in 5 years. To prevent this the parameter isServer is called hostApp now and returns the program type:

• 0 : InDesign (like before)
• 1 : InDesign Server (like before)
• 2 : comet_pdf
• 3 : Illustrator

The CScript function document::get_styles always returns an error even if the collected styles seem correct.

The problem is fixed.

There are several new enhancements to the Python integration.
For more information see here

I discovered two small typos in the latest New Features and Bug Fixes splash screen. As a result, 'Improved' and 'highlighting' are both misspelled.

...

When downloading the actions from a SOAP (Pub Server) connection, the error -43 occurs from time to time. The error only happens on the Mac (tested with Mac OS X 10.14 - Mojave) and always affects diffferent files. Most of actions can be loaded, but in about 1 out of 100 cases this error occurs.

We've' found a workaround that solves the problem after a long search.

My document contains a number of hidden frames (hidden by itself!, not by the layer!). Unfortunately, these frames are ignored when linklist::insert_toc_entry is called. What can I do about this?

If the value 8 is added to parameter flags of the function, the placeholders of hidden frames are also collected. This hint was unfortunately missing in the documentation (and has now been added.) So you can use the feature immediately even without new plugins.

In the order dialog there is also a license for a product called priint:xcell. What is that ?

This is the license for the priint:xcell plugin of the same name. At our CEO's request, we have now removed this entry.

Most panel have a label with the current data connection at the bottom. But on some panels the text overlaps the following button, is cut off incorrectly or ellipsized differently. I would suggest that the 'overset points' (...) are always in the middle of the label.

I would like to have your problems ...

Anyway, I have revised all the labels again accordingly. The labels should all fit now and are abbr...ed in the middle.

All other panel now have a small help button in the lower right corner. In the panel Placeholder Values this was probably forgotten, right?

The panel even has FOUR help buttons - one for each category - the turquoise name of the category. You just have to click on it. But if it calms you down, we have additionally added another button at the bottom right :-)

All other panel now have a small help button in the lower right corner. In the panel Web Images this was probably forgotten, right?

Yes, that's it. The Help button has now been inserted.

Unfortunately, the BuildSupport for Creating New Pages does not work properly yet. I only add a single product that creates another page with an additional frame. But unfortunately the product is built TWICE. And also the second product gets a following page with an additional frame. It's just like building the same product two times.

Magic Moments :-)

The problem is solved now.

When I create new pages in the BuildSupport script and create new frames there, all these frames lack the display of the UID in the document. Is that a bad thing?

No, that's not bad. But I fixed it anyway.

Is there any way to easily export an cScript XML tree to JSON?

No, there is no possibility for this so far. But with the methods of the xmlnode module you could write it yourself with reasonable effort.

We have also implemented the new xmlquery::to_json method.

The xmlquery::open function does not seem to read the XML tree ht immediately. Unfortunately, if you try to write a copy with xmlquery::write immediately after opening the tree, the copy remains empty.

The tree is not read in immediately because at this point it is not yet clear whether xmlquery or XPATH should be used as the query language. Both methods require different internal representations of the tree and parsing the tree is therefore done first if necessary for performance reasons.

Nevertheless, we have added another optional parameter to the function, which can be used to read the tree immediately when it is opened. For more information see here.

Hi Team, I’m using “priint.comet 4.2 R31859” across InDesign^® 2020 thru 2022 on MacOS. I’ve run into an issue where the Comet Notes panel has a display issue when there are many notes in the list. They crash behind the rest of the panel.

FXD

In the latest build, “priint.comet 4.2 R31859” a new tool was introduced for Comet Notes. The translation of the fly-out menu is still in German.

FXD

The doc now comes with built-in syntax hilightning for cScript and XML. In addition, behind the functions, types, keywords and global variables of cScript there are tooltips and links that are activated on mouse hovers.

Here's an arbitrary example script. To see the tooltips, please move the mouse over a cScript function, type or keyword. Nevertheless, the Copy buttons in the upper right corner of the code examples will continue to work.

#include "internal/types.h"

int main ()
{
    ItemRef	frame	= item::alloc ();
    int		result;

    result = frame::create (
     			frame,
     			kStar,
     			10.0, 210.0, 300.0, 400.0,
     			2,			// Page
     			"Layer 3",	// Layer name
     			1,			// Number of columns
     			0,			// Vertical columns
     			12.3,		// Column gutter
     			13, 40		// Sides and length
     			);
    if (result != 0)
    {
        showmessage ("Error %d" ,result);
        item::release (frame);
        return 1;
    }
    result = frame::create (frame,
     			kLine,
     			10.0, 210.0, 300.0, 400.0,
     			2,			// Page
     			"Layer 3",	// Layer name
     			);
    frame::stroke_rgb (frame, 255, 0, 0, 20.0);
    frame::color (frame, "", 1, 1);

    item::release (frame);
    return 1;
}

With the script functions table::cell::get_strokecolor_cmyk et al. the color name (swatch) can also be determined. This works with InDesign^® but with InDesign^® Server unfortunately not.

This problem is solved now.

In the BuildSupport Script, additional frames can be created after creating new page. These frames are then properly placed in the current 1:N page element. Unfortunately, this only works for a row-by-row page elements. Is it possible to do this also for a column-wise elements?

I've improved the behavior accordingly.

The Template Behavior setting 'Ignore Frame' () unfortunately does not work properly.

This problem is fixed.

The plugins now support documents whose ZIPs are larger than 2GB.

Please note: From a user's point of view, such large documents are not a nice experience. These documents not only push InDesign^® to its limits, also the times for packaging and loading these files become unbearably long. Usually it should be possible to reduce the size of the documents - e.g. do not embed images but link them or even do an intermediate export of the documents to IDML, that can work wonders here! If nothing helps, you can try to split the documents and combine the parts in books.

Next to the Comet Notes button in the toolbar you can find a new tool for so called Outlined Comet Notes now. The left one is for the (old) Comet Notes with its text text inside, the right one is new and will create so called outlined Comet Notes and arrows:

To add a describing comment to the outlined notes, please use the new multi-line edit field at the bottom of the Comet Notes panel. Here's a screenshot of some new outlined Comet Notes.

The Comet Notes panel has four new fly-out menus now:

• Standard Layout
• Use as Standard for ~ Notes
• Reset Standard Layout for ~ Notes
• Reset All

With the help of these menus you can manage the the default layout of your note types (stroke width and type, colors, corners, etc.).

All Comet Notes are coming this rounded corners now (but you can easily change your default layout - see above).

The download files of Web Images can now be provided with own name suffixes or even own file names and the display names are automatically sent through the translation process now. See here for more information.

I have a template with a frame. This frame has a placeholder that does the following:

1. Create a new frame at the position of the frame.
2. Then the frame removes itself.

Really?! You add a frame, only to delete it again right away?! You're practically sawing off the branch you're sitting on? And then the tree and the saw are to blame? Yes, that used to be possible in the past - but at the high price of crashes if you were just a little careless.

Anyway, we got the problem solved with some effort.

The function file::size unfortunately returns wrong results for files larger than 2 GB.

This bug is fixed now.

The cScript functions file::read and file::write are obviously delimited by a file size of 2GB. Could that be?

Yes, that is unfortunately the case so far. The problem is that the corresponding functions of the MacOS API for reading and writing files are limited to 32 bit lengths. We were able to work around this problem and can now read and write files larger than 2 GB.

I was writing some documentation and discovered that the language used for the placeholder visibility options is different between the InDesign^® toolbar and the menu bar/ right click context menu:

The menu bar/ right click gives us:

• Hide
• Show
• Show with State

But the toolbar gives us:

• Hide Placeholder
• Show Placeholder
• Show Placeholder with Modification Status

Is it possible to make the language match between these two elements?

Both 3rd entries are called now Show [Placeholder] with Status.

I was trying to better understand smart templates and found an unclear tooltip for the frame settings in the Template Behavior Panel. I have included a screenshot below.

For the third column (Text Continuation), the tool tip refers to three settings: Black Triangle, White Triangle, and Empty. However, there is not a black triangle in the current UI, and what is described as "White" may be incorrect.

The help text is changed to Filled resp. Empty Triangle now.

When I call textmodel::get_linenr with a text position inside a table cell, I get a line number that is greater than the line number of the entire text.

Yes, the line numbers in the table cells isaresimply incremented after the primary text. Of course, you can't do that much with these numbers. In table cells, therefore, the line number within the cell is now returned.

If the list of frames contains frames from multiple pages, the function itemlist::move_to moves only the frames from the page of the first frame.

The frames are not moved individually but as a 'group'. Therefore it makes no sense to move frames of different pages at the same time. But we improved the function to move the frames page-wise.

When I insert multiple Web Images with the same URL and password into the document, each frame gets its own container in the panel.

Yes, this is because in each frame the password is coded differently. The issue is fixed now.

Products can be kept together with their successor product in such a way that both products are placed on one page when building-up products now. See here for more information.

See here for more information.

To support a little bit longer search field labels in thr Previews panel we rearranged the Previews panel a bit. If you change the panels width, the following is done with the controls on the top of the panel:

• The search labels have a little more space
• The search fields grow to the right
• The template and image part shift to the right

When I use a larger UI scaling in InDesign^® 2022, the cursors of the nails and magnets become invisible.

This problem is fixed now.

Workaround: Turn off Scale Cursor Proportionally in your InDesign^® preferencens.

I think the translation key may have be misconfigured for this dialog when assigning a user for a Comet Note. Could you look into it for the next release. Or, is there a global way we can change it for our customer? We’re getting ready for UAT for them and want to have a good user experience.

FXD

Pressing the << key of panel Products of Document while holding down the ALT key will crash InDesign^®.

This is fixed.

We have now implemented the following functions for to set/get line ends (arrows):

• frame::set_lineends
• frame::get_lineends

There are several new enhancements to the Python integration:

• New functions
• Several bugfixes
• and more...

For more information see here.

You now can use Web Image URLs with //// delimited display names in the Previews panel. In addition, if the previews name is empty, the Web Image display name is used as the previews names in panel.

The passwords in URLs of previews should not be shown in the panel 'Previews'.

We replace the passwords in the Previews panel now by '***'. The same we did in the help text, in the Preview Details panel, in Web images and for the log file.

Unfortunately, when I select a preview entry with an URL image, no image is displayed in the Preview Details panel.

FXD

Since the change to the PlugIn version R31400 and InDesign ^® 2022 we have the issue that "gRun" is no longer recognized in the double-click script (1002). Please for info and/or examination.

gRun is defined in panel actions and placeholder scripts only, see here. For the sake of peace, we now define the variable with the value 0 in all other scripts as well.

Base64 decoding is Base64 decoding but just in case: To check the SOAP log files I want to be sure, that I use the same Base64 decoder like SOAP. Is there a way to do this with cScript?

In principle there is the function decode_base64 for this. Anyway, I have added another parameter there. If this parameter has a value unequal 0, now exactly the same Base64 decoder is used, which is also used by gSOAP.

Our customer thinks that it used to be possible to use a page layout or page reorganization in such a way that the distance to the next product was not increased by hidden frames.

This is a regression of fix FogBugz 32585

We reverted the change and are exploring other options

The images of my Previews panel all show 1 x 1 px as image size.

This always happens when the preview entries are configured via the PubServer with Java. The default size of the images here is always set to 1 x 1. To fix the error, the following lines should be added in the Java method:

preview.setWidth(0);
preview.setHeight(0);

Then the InDesign^® plugins will automatically calculate the sizes correctly. To avoid this fix in the future, the plugins will now calculate the image sizes also if the 1 is given for image dimensions.

In the Preview Panel I can define URLs for the images. This works and I can link my document frames against this images. Nice! But unfortunately I can see no preview of in the panel itself. 

This only happens with so-called Mediaproxy URLs with the specification ?downloadUrl=http... . The bug is fixed now, we had defined the cookie needed in these cases incorrectly.

Everytime I use the gProductsDirect list provided in Build Support Scripts my InDesign^® crashes immediately.

The problem is fixed now.

We have found an issue in selected product in the product pool while testing the Previews panel new feature.

 ■ Preproduce steps

1. Create text placeholder and assign first product in product pool panel
2. Open Preview panel, check box Watch Document Selection
3. Select created placeholder, Previews panel will show all images having in the first product
4. Unselected Watch Document Selection in Previews panel
5. Select placeholder again and assign the second product in product pool panel

■ Problem

In the preview panel, it doesn't change anything, it still shows images belong to the first product

■ Expectation

In the preview panel, it should show all images having in the second product.

This is fixed now.

It is possible that during a product build, a template containing of multiple frames next to each other gets torn apart when a new page is created.

Some frames are moved to the right by the width of the newly created page, resulting in a product which never fits any page element. Afterwards the build process is cancelled. For this to happen the following conditions have to apply:

• Build is 1:N and row-wise
• Build is on a left page
• There is already a product on the page
• The next product template has a minimum expected size configured which would still fit next to the first built product
• The next product template consists of multiple frames horizontally next to each other
• The next product template is so wide that some frames entirely leave the page when placed next to the first product
• There is no more space below the first product for the next product template

When creating a page in InDesign, frames not on the left page (>50% of area) get moved to the right by the width of the newly inserted page. This is an InDesign behavior. We build a hopefully correct workaround around this behavior.

When e.g. triggering a Python rendering script through priint planner which fails for any reason, the InDesign^® Server becomes unresponsive afterwards. Also it seems the script is triggered twice.

FXD

During a row-wise product build it can sometimes happen that the grid position of the next product is calculated wrongly when layout rules change the size of the current product in the situation kAfterBuild. This then causes wrong placement on a newly created page.

FXD

In comet InDesign® the translations panel seems to crash when I undock it.

FXD

When using the CScript function run_python in a text placeholder which has loaded text before the call, the value of gLen is wrong and reflects the initial value before replacing the text

FXD. We now properly update the value of gLen before executing the Python script

You now can mark Layout Rules as to be Exclusive. If at least one Layout Rules is mark as Exclusive, all other layout lules are ignored until the exclusivity is taken away from all layout rules. See here for more information.

The newly introduced feature that I can automatically create missing page template documents via ALT click on the fly unfortunately does not work for ODBC connections.

FXD

It's only a small update issue: If I select a Comet Note of type 'Page' I can see a small screenshot of the page in panel 'Comet Notes'. Then I change a frame of this page and select the note again. But the page screenshot remains the same. Only when I select another page note, the image changes.

Really, a very small 'bug'. It is a side effect of the fix for FB 27451 and could be fixed now. The page preview will now be updated correctly.

priint:comet URLs for the media proxy cannot be loaded if the download URL contains encoded characters of the like %3A. These characters are apparently converted back before the download.

In the example the %XX's are re-translated into their original letters. But the included download URL must be passed on unchanged:

https://aaa.bbb.de/...?downloadUrl=https%3A%2F%2F...
https://aaa.bbb.de/...?downloadUrl=https://...

Yes, in the plugins any corrections are made to the URLs. This was exactly the default in other cases and without these corrections these URLs will no longer work. Since we can't decide which parts of a URL need correction and which don't, I suppress the correction in all URLs that contain the text 

    ?downloadUrl=http

(in exactly this notation!) after consulting our IT. This solves the problem (again : for exactly such URLs). See here for more information.

In the template metadata dialog, in the lower part there are some settings for 'The template is to be used the placeholder of a repeating element'. What is this for?

This is an old setting that automatically links (or creates) a placeholder to the template that supports the template as a repeating element. This setting is no longer needed and the entire block is removed from the dialog therefor. Here's a screenshot of the new templates metadata dialog:

What is the Placeholder panel fly-out menu 'Initial Placeholder Versions' for?

The menu come from the early days of our plugins, when the definition of the placeholders has grown again and again. The submenus were used to add the new data to the missing placeholders already set in documents. That was all a long time ago and noone will have placeholders that old anymore. We have therefore now removed these menus.

In the panel Products of Document, I can start the reorganization only from a certain entry (product or page template). In the productlist::reorganize script command, I can only specify a starting frame, but not a list entry. But my list entry would be a page template (and therefore naturally has no frame) - because I want to reorganize from this page.

I have added a corresponding parameter to the function. If the new parameter firstEntry is not empty and contained in the product list of the call, the reorganization is only started from this entry. The specification of the first frame is ignored in this case.

I remember that the description of a placeholder was shown as a tooltip in the placeholder list. But that apparently doesn't work anymore.

The hints are now shown again.

Under som e circumstances the magnifier glass of the Placeholder Option panel does not work. In the log I see error messages like these:

select class, type, id, ..., objectnameidprefix, postfix, ... node metadata.placeholder where id > 0 orderby id
Node 'objectnameidprefix' used in columns not found.
Node 'objectnameidprefix' used in columns not found.

Yes, the problem occurs with XML offline and SOAP when the placeholder definitions contain the attributes postfix, prefixifempty, .... The problem is solved.

If you have selected a publication when closing InDesign^® (selected is sufficient, the publication does not have to be open), InDesign^® cannot be started afterwards. Only a single start without the priint:comet plugins solves the problem.

InDesign^® tries here to restore the old list selection. This is not possible, of course, because the publications are not loaded at all. No idea why InDesing^® is so brash and optimistic here. We have to disappoint InDesign^® at this point and now expilcitly resolve the list selection again when restarting. This solves the problem.

The rect::alloc function apparently corrects the input values so that a rectangle is created that is as correct as possible. E.g., the input (0.0, 20.0, 0.0, 0.0) creates the rectangle (0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 20.0).

That's actually only fair from the InDesign API behind it. But we now set all components individually, then you can also define 'wrong' rectangles.

Everytime the layout rule Search and Replace should be executed, InDesign^® chrashes immediately.

The bug ist fixed now.

Even if I choose 'all corners' the function frame::set_corner only sets the top left corner of the frame.

This is apparently a new bug in the InDesign^® API. It definitely worked in the past. But the workaround is of course simple :-) The bug is fixed.

All priint:comet panles now have a ? link at the bottom right to display an appropriate help. May it be helpfull :-)

In the Table Module and PlaceHolder Options panels, the help can be opened by clicking on the (green-blue) subheadings.

I include the following image info in my PreviewStatement:

"", 234, 567, 360, 24, // Format, Width, Height, Resolution, BitDepth

But in the panel my values for width, height, ... are not displayed.

This is because the given format is empty. In this case, we charge for the image info inside the plug-ins. I know that I wrote in the doc that the internal calculation is only done when all the entries are empty (or 0). This remark was actually wrong, but anyway, we only fill in the values of the internal calculation that you have not filled now.

Here's an example:

"", 234, 0, 360, 0,

Here we will only calculate the image format, height and color depth. For the image width and resolution, we will use your information, whether it is correct or not.

My URLs of the preview palette unfortunately always generate the 35 error (SSL connect error), but if I use the same URL for a Web Image, the download works. 

The bug is a side effect of Case 2129681 (file::download ends with error 35 (SSL connect error), see below. We have created the workaround here, but please keep in mind the following hint from the Previews Documentation:

Attention : Despite all efforts, it may happen that URLs cannot be resolved. Non-resolvable URLs are not subject of the WERK II support! Please feel free to contact our support in these cases, but please understand that we treat enhancements in this area as (chargeable) feature requests.

I try to download an URL using file::download. But unfortunately this always ends with the error 35 (SSL connect error). I have tried a lot with combinations of the CURL options, but nothing helps. Can you please help me here?

We ran into a bug in the CURL version we are using here, which we had already fixed for the Web Images some time ago: 

The communication endpoint (the so-called peer) checks the incoming SSL certificate, but is configured in such a way that the certificate check may also be omitted. On the client side, this is controlled by the CURL option CURLOPT_SSL_VERIFYPEER. When the verify value is 0, the connection succeeds regardless of the names in the certificate. At least according to theory :-) But in the used CURL version 7.55 setting the option to 0 does not work. Instead of setting the value to 0, you must omit the option completely. Then it works.

What a trick. The error is fixed.

An error has crept in during a revision of our internal error handling and affects the following functions:

• CFrame.getTextModel
• CFrame.getColumnGutter
• CFrame.setColumnGutter
• CFrame.getText
• CFrame.setText
• CFrame.getColumnCount

Thesse bugs are fixed.

When I set the value of a function variable to 'Custom', any existing old value is removed. Is it not possible to keep the current value with this action?

We can do that as well. If a value is already entered, this value is now automatically taken over by the inline edit. Then you can change the value.

In the function variables one can set the value 'Custom'. To set the value then, the column 'Custom Value' must be clicked three times. Then an inline edit appears where you can enter the value. Can't the inline edit appear automatically?

Yes, we can. This is how it is done now.

When the Function Variables are locked, the values of the function variables are unfortunately grayed out and therefor difficult to read. Unfortunately, the locked state is the normal case. Is there anything that can be done here? 

Yes we can, the values of the list are now no longer disabled - but they can also not be changed when the lock is closed. When trying to change a value, only a warning appears.

The panel Placeholder Options with the function variables is unfortunately so high that it no longer fits on every screen. Is there anything that can be done?

We have re-designed the panel a bit, so that it is now a little less high. Hopefully that fits then.

Sometimes there is no document for a Page Template. Product Build-Ups and 'Show Page Elements in document work this way, but if you want to change the page template, of course this does not work.

You now can ALT double click such entries. A new document with all defined elements is then generated automatically.

The textmodel variable kEnd does not work properly in Table Layout Rules.

FXD

If a Function Variable has more than 30 values to choose from (we have heard of up to 2,000 (sic!) values), you should talk to your IT about user experiance. Regardless of your IT, a dialog instead of the dropdown will automatically appear when clicked.

This list can be easily narrowed down to a manageable length using the Value search field. Additionally you can reorder the list with 

DragAndDrop and with ALT+arrow keys. Maybe this creates a better overview. With a click on the word Value you can restore the original sorting.

Double clicking a list entry will take this value. By clicking 'Okay' the first selected (or first) entry of the list is used as value.

See here for more information.

All new priint:comet plug-ins (starting with release) for Adobe InDesign^® 2022 and Adobe InDesign^® Server 2022 require version 17.2 of Adobe InDesign^® and Adobe InDesign^® Server. With older versions of Adobe InDesign^® 2022 and Adobe InDesign^® Server 2022, the new priint:comet plug-ins will no longer start.

Python Support on Macs

For the Mac InDesign^® 2022 plug-ins of the last release R30683 it was mandatory to have Python 3.10 installed. Without the installation of Python 3.10, the plugins could not be started on the Mac. We are pleased to inform you that this restriction is no longer necessary:

The plug-ins will start now even if no Python is installed. Python scripts are terminated with an error in this case.

If you wish to run Python scripts, the following Python versions must be installed:

• Python 3.10 for all Universal Mac versions of the 2022s
• Python 3.8 otherwise (This means, for example, that InDesign^® 2022 also requires Python 3.8 if the 'normal' plugins are used.)

In all cases, the installation must be located at the default path /Library/Frameworks. Deviating Python installations are not supported. Python installer can be found at www.python.org.

Native Apple Silicon (M1) Support

Since a while Apple Macs are delivered with Apple Silicon M1. Apple said that this chip has the world's fasted CPU core "in low power silicon", and we also think our new Macs are quite fast!

Well, this architecture change requires some software changes. Adobe InDesign^® release 16.3 onwards, InDesign runs in native mode on Apple computers using the Apple Silicon M1 chip. Today we are proud to announce that our comet plug-ins for Adobe InDesign® 2022, Adobe InDesign® Server 2022 and Adobe Illustrator® 2022 are available in native versions for Mac OS 12 (Monterey).

To install these so called universal plug-ins use the installers with Universal (or ARM for releases pior R30370) in their names. These plug-ins will work natively on both Intel and Apple Silicon M1 based Macs with Mac OS 12 (Monterey) at least.

Please note, that the universal plug-ins will not run on Mac OS versions prior Mac OS 12, not even on Mac OS 11 (Big Sur)! Please use the 'normal' installers in these cases and activate the Rosettta 2 mode in case of Big Sur für InDesign resp. Illustrator.

• get_script_clipboard set_script_clipboard clear_script_clipboard

Is there any way to determine the pre/postfix of a placeholder I got by linklist::collect?

We have added the following new functions to do that:

• link::prefix
• link::prefix_if_empty
• link::postfix
• link::postfix_if_empty

There are several new enhancements to the Python integration:

• 3 New Classes
• 45+ New functions
• And more...
  

For more information see here

There are new cScript functions available:

• run_python

There are installers for the native Apple Silicon plug-ins now for InDesign® 2022 and InDesign® Server 2022 as well. From MacOS 12 (Monterey) use the installers with the name suffix ARM to install the so called universal versions of the plug-ins. These plugins will run on both Intel and Apple Silicon (M1) machines.

But please note : The universial plugins will not run on system prior Monterey!. For versions prior Monterey (MacOS 12) please use the 'normal' installers without the ARM suffix.

The function frame::get_rotate always returns the value 0.0 since some time. Tested with v4.1.8 R30603.

FXD

The doc says that all parameters of the document::sync::create_variant function have default values. But if I don't specify any parameters, I get the error parameterMissingErr. At least the first parameter must have a value.

FXD