How to get fillColor for characterStyle

Question

Hi
I'm trying to get the filColor for each paragraphStyle and characterStyle in a document. The (abbreviated) code below works just fine for paragraph styles.
        for (mySCounter = 0; mySCounter < myDoc.paragraphStyles.length; mySCounter ++) {
            var myPS = myDoc.paragraphStyles.item(mySCounter);
            if (myPS.name != "[No Paragraph Style]" & myPS.name != "[Basic Paragraph]" & myPS.name != "PAGER") {
                myTF.insertionPoints.item(-1).contents = "p." + myPS.name + " {\r"
                + "\tcolor: \"" + myPS.fillColor.name + "\";\r"
                + "}\r";
When I adapt it for character styles, though, Extendscript Toolkit burps at me.
        for (mySCounter = 0; mySCounter < myDoc.characterStyles.length; mySCounter ++) {
            var myCS = myDoc.characterStyles.item(mySCounter);
            if (myCS.name != "[None]" & myCS.name != "pager") {
                myTF.insertionPoints.item(-1).contents = "span." + myCS.name + " {\r"
                + "\tcolor: \"" + myCS.fillColor.name + "\";\r"
                + "}\r";
I've tried lots of variations with and without "name" in "myCSfillColor.name," including adding "toString()," "toSource()," and "toSpecifier()." The closest I can get to a valid return is "[object Color]." I'm not sure where the problem(s) lies, exactly. It could be that most of my character styles are returning a null, but that seems unlikely because I'm collecting other character style properties that are undefined, and they don't throw an error.
According to Jongware's help files, characterStyle.fillColor can return NothingEnum or a swatch while paragraphStyle.fillColor can only return a swatch. This seems to support the possiblity that those character styles that have no defined color are throwing the error, but I don't know what to do with that information. I could write an if statement, but the "\tcolor: ..." line above it in the middle of a long string that I'm building, and I can't think how I would put a conditional in the middle of that line.
Any thoughts on how I can capture the name of the fillColor for characterStyle? I can live with including "null" or "NOTHING" for those that are undefined.
I've pasted the full script below in case anyone wants to test it. It requires that a document be open and that it have at least one paragraph style other than "[Basic Paragraph]" and one character style other than "[None]." It will create a new document and dump into it selected properties of the paragraph and character styles (it's building a custom CSS template).
Thanks.
m.
CSS_Processor() // Invoke the framework for the processing routines
    function CSS_Processor() {
        app.textPreferences.typographersQuotes = false;
        var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
        var myStylesDoc = app.documents.add();
        var myTF = myStylesDoc.pages.item(0).textFrames.add();
        myTF.geometricBounds = [3, 3, 63, 48];
        myTF.textFramePreferences.textColumnCount = 3;
        for (mySCounter = 0; mySCounter < myDoc.paragraphStyles.length; mySCounter ++) {
            var myPS = myDoc.paragraphStyles.item(mySCounter);
            if (myPS.name != "[No Paragraph Style]" & myPS.name != "[Basic Paragraph]" & myPS.name != "PAGER") {
                myTF.insertionPoints.item(-1).contents = "p." + myPS.name + " {\r"
                + "\tfont-family: \"" + myPS.appliedFont.name.slice(0, myPS.appliedFont.name.indexOf("\t")) + "\";\r"
                + "\tfont-style: \"" + myPS.fontStyle + "\";\r"
                + "\tfont-size: \"" + myPS.pointSize + "\";\r"
                + "\tline-height: \"" + myPS.leading + "\";\r"
                + "\tletter-spacing: \"" + myPS.kerningMethod + "\";\r"
                + "\tword-spacing: \"" + myPS.tracking + "\";\r"
                + "\tvertical-align: \"" + myPS.baselineShift + "\";\r"
                + "\ttext-align: \"" + myPS.justification.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tmargin-left: \"" + myPS.leftIndent + "\";\r"
                + "\tmargin-right: \"" + myPS.rightIndent + "\";\r"
                + "\ttext-indent: \"" + myPS.firstLineIndent + "\";\r"
                + "\tmargin-top: \"" + myPS.spaceBefore + "\";\r"
                + "\tmargin-bottom: \"" + myPS.spaceAfter + "\";\r"
                + "\torphans: \"" + myPS.keepFirstLines + "\";\r"
                + "\twidows: \"" + myPS.keepLastLines + "\";\r"
                + "\tkeep with next: \"" + myPS.keepWithNext + "\";\r"
                + "\tcolor: \"" + myPS.fillColor.name + "\";\r"
                + "\ttint: \"" + myPS.fillTint + "\";\r"
                + "\tcase: \"" + myPS.capitalization.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tposition: \"" + myPS.position.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tunderline: \"" + myPS.underline + "\";\r"
                + "\tstrikethrough: \"" + myPS.strikeThru + "\";\r"
                + "\thyphenation: \"" + myPS.hyphenation + "\";\r"
                + "}\r";
        for (mySCounter = 0; mySCounter < myDoc.characterStyles.length; mySCounter ++) {
            var myCS = myDoc.characterStyles.item(mySCounter);
            if (myCS.name != "[None]" & myCS.name != "pager") {
                myTF.insertionPoints.item(-1).contents = "span." + myCS.name + " {\r"
                + "\tfont-family: \"" + myCS.appliedFont.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tfont-style: \"" + myCS.fontStyle.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tfont-size: \"" + myCS.pointSize.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tline-height: \"" + myCS.leading.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tletter-spacing: \"" + myCS.kerningMethod.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tword-spacing: \"" + myCS.tracking.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tvertical-align: \"" + myCS.baselineShift.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tcolor: \"" + myCS.fillColor.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\ttint: \"" + myCS.fillTint.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tcase: \"" + myCS.capitalization.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tposition: \"" + myCS.position.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tunderline: \"" + myCS.underline.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "\tstrikethrough: \"" + myCS.strikeThru.toString() + "\";\r"
                + "}\r";
/*        myStylesDoc.exportFile(format:ExportFormat.TEXT_TYPE, to:folder.Desktop + "template.css");
        myStylesDoc.close(); */
        app.textPreferences.typographersQuotes = true;

Answer 1

Vamitul wrote:
if the cstyles don't have defined a pointSize (or a leading, for that matter), they will return 1851876449 (meaning NothingEnum.NOTHING).
.. I was going to check if Linus was right on that, but of course you are correct -- this was my test script:
chs = app.activeDocument.characterStyles[1];
alert (chs.name);
alert (chs.fillColor);
// alert (chs.fillColor.name); // error!
alert ((chs.fillColor == null) ? 'Not set' : chs.fillColor.name);
alert (chs.pointSize); // ???
alert ( (chs.pointSize == NothingEnum.nothing) ? "Not set" : chs.pointSize);
but .. for the long list of properties in the original post, I would suggest an entirely different method -- easier to debug, easier to maintain and easier to understand. Instead of building one single long string (possibly interspersed with ternary operations), create an array and use push to add each of the property lines in turn:
cssprops = [];if (chs.fillColor != null)
cssprops.push('color: '+chs.fillColor.name+';');
Then use this
cssprops.join('\r')
to make it a single long line. It's easier to debug (etc.) because you typically need only one or two lines per inspected property. You can easily change the order in which properties are listed, and insert and remove any of the properties at will.