I tried the script as is and it didn’t work. Openning InDesign got:
Error Number: 90884
Error String: No documents are open

The variable did not change as expected.

In our workflow the template we are using for this project will always have the “SlugArea” variable. We want the script to simply ignore any other document.

I was able to take parts of the new script and got something working, it looks like this:

#target indesign;
#targetengine “mysession”;

var myHandler = function(ev)
{
try{
if(app.eventListeners.length > 2){
app.removeEventListener(“afterSave”, myHandler);
app.removeEventListener(“afterSaveAs”, myHandler);
}
}catch(e){
$.writeln(e);
}

if(app.activeDocument.textVariables.item(“SlugArea”).isValid){
fileNameVariable = app.activeDocument.name.match(/[A-Z]{2,10}(?=)/)[0];
// alert(fileNameVariable);
app.activeDocument.textVariables.item(“SlugArea”).variableOptions.contents = fileNameVariable;
}
else{
//…
};
}

app.eventListeners.add(“afterSave”, myHandler);
app.eventListeners.add(“afterSaveAs”, myHandler);

I am going to keep testing but it seems to be working.

On line 7 “if(app.eventListeners.length > 2){“:

In your script you had it set as “> 0”. When that was the case the script only worked on the first page that was opened, so I changed to “> 2” and it works continuously.

Thanks again Oleh! Do you have a donation page or something?

The new tidier script with Oleh’s input:

#target indesign;
#targetengine “myCustomGetFileNameHandler”;

var myHandler = function(ev)
{
fileNameVariable = app.activeDocument.name.match(/[A-Z]{2,5}(?=)/)[0];
// alert(fileNameVariable);
app.activeDocument.textVariables.item (“SlugArea”).variableOptions.contents = fileNameVariable;
}

app.eventListeners.add(“beforeSave”, myHandler);

Love the help, thanks again Oleh! I can’t say I am ready to create my own scripts but this helps a lot in learning how to manipulate them.

I found some local help! This is the script that is working for my situation:

#target indesign;
#targetengine “myCustomGetFileNameHandler”;

var myHandler = function(ev)
{
fileNameVariable = app.activeDocument.name.split(“_”)[1];
// alert(fileNameVariable);
fileNameVariable1 = fileNameVariable.split(” “)[0];
app.activeDocument.textVariables.item (“SlugArea”).variableOptions.contents = fileNameVariable1;
}

app.eventListeners.add(“beforeSave”, myHandler);

I wish I could spend more time learning how to script.

Is this working? I posted earlier and my post hasn’t showed up?

If you ever want to take the next step…

I have been using Content Management Systems for the past 14 years. The system/Company I am most familiar with is Pindar Agility. Over the years I have seen other systems and they will all work, well almost all, but the one that stands out to me is Wave B.media:

https://www.wavecorp.com/products/bmedia/

Non of these companies actually show you much on their websites, so you do have to make a call.

If you call Wave, tell Charlie Omar sent you :)