Getting the filename of a placed image inside a smart object

Question

Hi
I'm wondering if I can get any help with a problem I'm trying to overcome for a friend of mine.
My friend is a photographer who does a lot of schhols work (pupil portraits) and wants to create a little document similar to this (very simplified) version:
I'm trying to help him to create a batch process so that he can make this take up much less of his time!
Here's where I've got to so far. I've created the layout above which is essentially a smart object (from an external file) manipulated in a couple of ways.
The workflow as I see it at the moment (although I'm wide open to suggestions, and I'm having a bit of Friday brain) is this: I generate an action that replaces the content of the external file with the contents of (each file in his incoming list, sequentially).
That file then comes back into the layout above and a new (flattened) copy is saved out from there.
Rinse and rerpeat through the list of incoming files.
I can just about make that bit happen using actions, but here's what I can't get - the filename of the incoming file (the one that's placed in the smart object). Can I can use a modified version of the AddFileName script to generate a text layer based on the filename of the placed contents in the smart object? Does any of that make sense? I'm reading this back to myself and even I'm not sure! ho ho.
My lack of logic/coherent sentence structure here is what probably holds me back in any eforts I have made in getting into scripting.
I'd appreciate any help that could be offered.
Thanks.
Fenton

Answer 1

Ah - alas it sems not to be. I think I am going to have to come up with a different workflow and by extension, solution. My current thinking is that I need to have an input folder for the images to be used in the layout, and an output folder for the results to be saved into, along with the layout.psd (as above) all housed in the same folder. Then I need (help) to write a script that does the following:
Checks that the layout document is open (that bit is easy enough)
if(documents.length==0){
   alert("You need to have your layout template open (-layout.psd-)")
}else{
    // Do next bit here - and what I'm trying to do is described below.
    // Hopefully by typing it out I might start to get it straight in my head
    // Any help with any part of this process is greatluy appreciated
    // I'm trying to learn!
Then what I think the script needs to do is tocheck the contents of the input folder and find out how many files are in it then set this as a variable, to set the length of a loop, maybe? Or should it load the filenames as an array and work through them sequentially?
Once that information is established, there is a smart object on the first layer that needs to be updated with the contents of the first file - my thinking s that this is done by the script opening each image, and then copy/pasting into the smart object, merging down (so I don't end up with an enormous multi-layered file). My reason for thinking this would be a good idea would be that I could just run a quick check to make sure that no landscape pics have sneaked in there and if they have, rotate them (which again, is pretty easy as even I could do that bit, too).
doc = activeDocument;
            if (doc.height < doc.width) {
              doc.rotateCanvas(90);
            } else {
              // Carry on
This will update all of the smart object instances throughout the layout template.
Then the text underneath the main image needs to be updated with the filename of the file that has been pasted in the smart object, and after that a [flattened] copy saved out to an output folder.
Rinse and repeat for the remaining images in the input folder.
Any thoughts?
Thanks
Fenton