InDesign style variable - variables

Question

Is there a way to use variables in styles (script?) to share styles with some variations, like color?
Example: I am laying out a book, with multiple chapters. Each chapter is an InDesign document. I would like to use common styles for all the documents in the book, but they would vary in color. So instead of having multiple objects styles like: RoundedBox-red, RoundedBox-blue etc, I would only have one style, RoundedBox, and just input the value of the color variable somewhere…

Answer 1

Do you have a reason to examine only rectangles, ovals, and polygons? If not, you can use pageItems. Ditch the shape selection and the switch, and use:
shapes = myDoc.allPageItems;
for (var i=0; i<shapes.length; i++)
{
if (shapes[i].appliedObjectStyle.name === oldStyle.name)
{
shapes[i].applyObjectStyle( newStyle );
}
}
Since you have each chapter in a separate document, you could also just change the definition of your object style:
oldStyle.fillColor = newSwatch;
so you don't have to loop over the actual objects. Not tested but it should work.

Answer 2

Well, I found out. The hardest part was really to find a good documentation for the Indesign javascript scripting API... Adobe's documentation is either hard to find or lacking. In addition, they publish everything as PDFs, which IMHO is really annoying. I found a good online documentation for CS6. I am working on CC but everything I used seems the same. Anyhow, I have created the following script, very incomplete and not perfect, but works for me...
// Setup the dialog UI
var myDialog = app.dialogs.add({
name: "Style Variables",
canCancel: true
});
// I usually never use 'with', but this is how it is done
// in Adobe's documentation...
with(myDialog.dialogColumns.add()) {
staticTexts.add({staticLabel: "Main Color swatch name:"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel: "Style to replace:"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel: "Replace style with:"});
staticTexts.add({staticLabel: "Choose shape type to target:"});
}
with(myDialog.dialogColumns.add()){
var swatchField = textEditboxes.add({editContents:'', minWidth:180}),
oldStyleField = textEditboxes.add({editContents:'', minWidth:180}),
newStyleField = textEditboxes.add({editContents:'', minWidth:180}),
shapeTypeField = dropdowns.add({stringList:['Rectangles', 'Ovals', 'Polygons']}); // Defaults to rectangles
}
// Get the user input and do stuff with it
var myResult = myDialog.show();
if (myResult === true)
{
var docs = app.documents,
myDoc = docs[0],
allStyles = myDoc.objectStyles,
oldStyle = allStyles.itemByName(oldStyleField.editContents),
newStyle = allStyles.itemByName(newStyleField.editContents),
swatches = app.documents[0].swatches,
newSwatch = swatches.itemByName(swatchField.editContents),
shapes;
// Get the shape type we are targetting:
switch(shapeTypeField.selectedIndex)
{
case 0:
shapes = myDoc.rectanges;
break;
case 1:
shapes = myDoc.ovals;
break;
case 2:
shapes = myDoc.polygons;
break;
default:
shapes = myDoc.rectangles;
}
// Set the base style color to the user chosen swatch:
newStyle.fillColor = newSwatch;
for (var i=0; i<shapes.length; i++)
{
if (shapes[i].appliedObjectStyle.name === oldStyle.name)
{
shapes[i].applyObjectStyle( newStyle );
}
}
}
else
{
alert('Script cancelled, nothing was done.');
}
// Destroy dialog box
myDialog.destroy();