Detecting TextAlignment in a Library based text Object

Question

Hi All,
I have several text field objects that are shared (linked) to create a growing group text and button objects that are created at runtime. Oh, TLFtextField's are only being used, but that probably doesn't matter for the this set of issues.
I test the text as it is being filled in each text field to see if it overruns the field. Lots of layout and size variations.
I am inserting over 30 different languages into the text and will ultimately use RTL and BiDi (bi-directional) text. Some text is also center justified. Some text grows the text field too. I am automating this for testing and to help our translation service. We also have a translation database to reuse old phrases (but they may not fit new layouts).
So things that I need to detect are: Locale, Justification, Alignment, MultiLine, autoSize.direction, etc.The text Field will report x,y,w,h but not textFormatAlign (null) or direction (null - I believe from earlier tracing).
How can I extract the settings on these Library based  text objects?
Do I have to expectedly set each feature that I have to text for when constructing the text instances I am placing on stage?
Would we classify the text object in the library as a 'Prototype' object? (to help me get my head around this and for others too) ?
Thanks,
Jim

Answer 1

Hi,
I already solved the problem, correctly implementing the lines count function, forcing a pagebreak upon the correct count of lines. But I'll follow up just out of interest in another solution :o).
The formulae in the problematic part of report are as follows:
The text field itself is formula based. Upon a condition it draws data either from one source column or from another one. The difference here is that one of the columns' data is a single line, while the other is four lines (i.e. includes three CRLF chars). In both cases the text can also be empty or null.
The text field's Can grow and Keep together are both on, the may number of lines is 0 (= can grow infinitely).
The section containing the field is a group footer of group level 2, suppressed based on a formula detecting whether the text was already displayed in the group of group level 1 (the higher level). This is done by a variable which contains the group1 identifier for previous group2 data. If the previous and current group1ID are not equal (which means that the current group2 record is the first one in current group1), the text is displayed, otherwise it is suppressed.
Also, the section is suppressed if blank (= if the text data are empty or null).
Just FYI, the last problem of the linescount function was solved by merging the two section-suppressing condition into one.
Hope it helps.
BR, Petr