Insert Text Variable

Question

Hello,
Need to set the content of a textFrame on a master page to "Current Page Number" a slash and then the missing item "Last Page Number" as found under Type -> Text Variables -> Insert Variable -> "Last Page Number";
How do i add a text variable with scripting?
....parentTextFrames[0].contents = "^N/" + ?????;

Answer 1

By coincidence, I just happen to be working on a script that inserts a text variable. The following also creates a text frame and a paragraph style, but you can see the relevant bit in the middle:
var myDocument = app.documents.item(0);
var myPage = app.activeWindow.activePage;
myDocument.viewPreferences.horizontalMeasurementUnits =
MeasurementUnits.points;
myDocument.viewPreferences.verticalMeasurementUnits = MeasurementUnits.points;
var myTextFrame = myPage.textFrames.add({geometricBounds:[100, 100, 200, 400]});
myTextFrame.insertionPoints.item(-1).contents = "Today's date:\r";
myVariable = myDocument.textVariables.item("Modification Date");
myTextFrame.insertionPoints.item(-1).textVariableInstances.add({associatedTextVariable:myV ariable});
var myParagraphStyle = myDocument.paragraphStyles.item("Date");
try {var myName = myParagraphStyle.name;}
catch (myError){myParagraphStyle =
myDocument.paragraphStyles.add({name:"Date"});}
myParagraphStyle.appliedFont = "Arial";
myParagraphStyle.pointSize = 24;
myTextFrame.paragraphs.item(0).applyParagraphStyle(myParagraphStyle, true);
myTextFrame.paragraphs.item(1).applyParagraphStyle(myParagraphStyle, true);
You can be sure that the above is more clunky and verbose -- and less elegant -- than anything Peter writes, but it does work for me in CS3 and CS4.
EDIT: 'associatedTextVariable' gets split by the word wrap of the forum software -- just make sure you remove any added breaks.