Javascript - Custom file path

[Juriaan]

Hi there all,

The Javascript actor is something that I use quite often. The thing that is making it a bit of a frustating experience for me as an artist is that the IDE that is provided is not optimal at all. 

I would love to see a way to load in external files by either a External File bin or by a external file path. (Like the Data Array). That way I can use my own IDE (Sublime Text) that has some core features that are currently missing in the IDE.

[DillTheKraut]

Hello @Juriaan,

I'm not sure if it is what you need. But I already do read text files with Javascript. I just use 

var txt = read (arguments[0]);

and put the file path into the input.

This reads the whole file into the variable for further use.

I did a reader that can load EDL (edit lists from Timeline based Video edit Software) and working now on reading Subtitle texts.

https://community.troikatronix...

Best

Dill

Edit: corrected code

[Juriaan]

Hi there,
No, I was not talking about TXT files, I wish to load in a JavaScript file, and I believe this is more of a User Experience request ;)

- Juriaan

[Juriaan]

For example a pain is in the current IDE is that if you wish to tab a few lines of code your entire code will be removed.

Steps to recreate :

- Select a few lines of code

- Press tab

- Boom. Your code is gone.

While in other IDEs you can do that just fine, and it will add a proper tab before the lines that you selected.

[DillTheKraut]

@juriaan, I got you now.

What you want is more script editor functions!? Maybe for now you could use a separate script editor with special functions and always copy - paste the whole script. I use Atom on OSX. It does have a lot of plugins for special features like the ones you mentioned.

Edit: Ok, you just want to avoid the copy - paste and have Isadora load the Javafile in realtime?

[Juriaan]

Yep. I want to press Save in Sublime Text or Athom, and that Isadora will load in the new file ;)

[DusX]

@dillthekraut

You may find this script useful: https://community.troikatronix...

[DusX]

@juriaan

In Javascript we have 2 methods for loading external files.

Read(), and Include().

with Include(), it reads and parses the text with the Javascript engine, and the text must be valid javascript (as used in: https://support.troikatronix.c...)

SO, you can simply enter into a JS actor:

include('mycode.js');

and that single line will load your external script and have the JS engine parse it.. of course it needs to include a main() etc..
Then you can work in your code editor (sublime text) along side Isadora. When you save in Sublime, you will need to have Isadora refresh the 'include'.
There are 2 ways to do this, that I know of. 
1: exit and reenter the scene.
2: Use a 'User Actor on/off' to toggle the state of the scene (forcing a refresh) (this actor is not available in the main scene level, but can be cut and pasted from a user actor..  very handy)

Of course this is not seamless integration, but it works pretty well.
I would also like to see the option of a JS actor where the required input is a file name/path and a trigger opens your code editor of choice (from preferences).