Auto Counter Pattern

Question

The example script that is provided as part of the ESL project does not reset the autocounter for the functions to the new maximum counter value once the elements are renumbered. This would be beneficial in the example.

Additionally guidance about how to access and define the auto counter pattern (i.e. prefix string and numbering pattern) from a script would be useful.

medini_1024169437 · Answer

Nils, after fiddling around a bit I at least made some progress with the mentioned existing object from "finderEx.js". There is a nice method named "updateAutoCounter(object, attributeName). It simply takes the value of the attribute and updates the counter, assuming the object "has the last value".

So if you pass an event with "E020", the counter will be set to 21. The code from the FTA script may then look like:

load(".lib/finderEx.js");

// ....

// now give them a new unique ID
		for (var j = 0; j<events.length; j++) {
			events[j].id = ("E0" + (j+1));
		}

AutoCounterSupport.updateAutoCounter(events[events.length-1], "id");

One remark: this is a bit fragile. So for example note how I set the value to "E0" prefix.

That's because the pattern must match the value, an id value "E1" does not match "E{00}" which is a pity.

Anyway, that's a start I think.

Regards Jan

medini_1024169437 · Answer

Hi Nils,

in this article I mentioned that the auto-counter support can be utilized by importing the "finderEx.js" library. However, the support is currently limited to obtain the next counter, not (yet) to change the counter value or even the pattern.

I will have to check myself which part of the API can be safely used and which not.

Stay tuned

Jan