How to change group indices

Question

I am writing a script (in VB) to fill out a catalogue page (or several pages). The page is filled with blank catalogue entries, each of which is a group of text frames and image frames. One field is manually typed in and the rest is autofilled form an XML file. After the data is filled in, the groups need shuffling down to fit on the page and where there is no space, they get moved to the next page. I rely on the user ordering the groups such that when the code iterates throguh the groups by index, the groups are worked through from the top of the page to the bottom. This works fine until I move a group to the next page. Moving a group means it gets added to the end of the list of groups. My question: is there a way to change the order of the groups (as they appear in the layers panel)?
This problem would also arise if the user wanted to insert a new item into a already populated indesign file.
Thanks
Steve

Answer 1

Hi Steve,
Arranging Page Items
Page items in an InDesign layout can be arranged in front of or behind each other by adjusting their stacking order within a layer, or can be placed on different layers. The following script fragment shows how to bring objects to the front or back of their layer, and how to control the stacking order of objects relative to each other.
//Given a rectangle "myRectangle" and an oval "myOval",
//where "myOval" is in front of "myRectangle", bring
//the rectangle to the front...
myRectangle.bringToFront();
When you create a page item, you can specify its layer, but you can also move a page item from one layer
to another. The item layeritemLayerItemLayer property of the page item is the key to doing this, as shown
in the following script fragment (for the complete script, refer to ItemLayer).
//Given a rectangle "myRectangle" and a layer "myLayer",
//send the rectangle to the layer...
myRectangle.itemLayer = app.Documents.item(0).layers.item("myLayer");
The stacking order of layers in a document can also be changed using the move move method of the layer
itself, as shown in the following script fragment (for the complete script, refer to MoveLayer).
//Given a layer "myLayer", move the layer behind
//the default layer (the lowest layer in the document
//is layers.item(-1).
myLayer.move(LocationOptionsafter, app.documents.item(0).layers.item(-1));
Thanks
-Anshul