view notes from the Notes Tool?

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 9:43 pm

Is there any way to read the text annotations left with the notes tool in a document via js? I looked through the manual and also skimmed through the meta data and didn't see them stored in either place. Looks like a no go but thought I would check with you guys,

Patrick

Mike Hale · Post by **Mike Hale** » Mon Jul 30, 2007 10:28 pm

annotations doesn't seem to be an exposed class. It's not in the document's descriptor so I don't think you can get to it with scriptlistner.

I checked exiftool because it will read some Photoshop tags (I use it to get the slices descriptor). However annotations is not one of the tags exiftool can read.

One day I hope to get my hands on the Photoshop file format specs. Maybe then...

I noticed that CS3 will let you import a file into the doc's annotations. But I didn't see a way to read the current annotation or even tell if the doc has one.

Mike

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:11 pm

Thats what I was afraid of - thanks for looking into it.

Patrick

Mike Hale · Post by **Mike Hale** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:43 pm

For what it's worth, I can find the annotation tag when I look at a psd file using a hexeditor.

I'll play around it this some and see what I can come up with.

Mike

Mike Hale · Post by **Mike Hale** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 1:35 am

I think that I will be able to come up with something that will let you find the number of notes, who created the notes, the creation date, and note contents if it's text(I haven't even looked at audio notes)

But it will be read-only. The script will not be able to create or edit notes.

If read-only is ok let me know and I'll work out the details.

Mike

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 5:17 am

Mike, that would be great. One of the companies we work with sends over files sometimes with excessive notes in it, so I was just looking to write the contents out to a csv file or something of the sort. If you ever get it going I would definitely be interested in checking it out so I could use it. Thanks a lot,

Patrick

Mike Hale · Post by **Mike Hale** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 3:45 pm

I wish I had Xbytor's skill in turning something like this into a class. But as I don't here is what I have come up with. I have tested it with several different notes and it seems to be working.

As it is now it will only extract the first note.

If the image is not a tif file you will need to save a temp version as a tif. You will also need to create a batch file for exiftool to extract the raw annotations. I'm sure you can handle that but let me know if you need help. The command line for exiftool is

Code: Select allexiftool -b -annotations imageFile > dataFile

The script below uses anno.raw as the dataFile name and looks for it in c:\temp. You can edit that to match you needs.

Edit: updated script as I worked out more details. Now reads all notes-assumes text only. MH

Code: Select all// These File functions are apapted from functions
// in Xbytor's Stream.js bb/viewtopic.php?t=369
// ET is the byte order. Use 'BE' for Mac. The default byte order is Intel.
// Function names come from Tiff file format data types.
// encoding needs to set to 'BINARY'
File.prototype.readByte = function() {//aka unsigned byte
return this.read(1).charCodeAt(0);
};

File.prototype.readShort = function(ET) { //aka unsigned short, word = 2 bytes
var self = this;
var b1 = this.readByte();
var b2 = this.readByte();
if(ET == "BE"){
return (b1 << 8) + b2;
}else{
return (b2 << 8) + b1;
};
};

File.prototype.readLong = function(ET) {//aka unsigned long = 4 bytes
var self = this;
var s1 = self.readShort(ET);
var s2 = self.readShort(ET);
if(ET == "BE"){
return (s1 << 16) + s2;
}else{
return (s2 << 16) + s1;
}
};

var f = new File('/c/temp/anno.raw');
f.encoding = 'BINARY';
f.open('r');
f.seek(4,0);// skip first 4 bytes - version?
var notes = new Object();
notes.toString = function(){return 'annotations'}
notes.count = f.readLong();// Number of notes
var cnt = 1;
while(cnt <= notes.count){
var note = new Object();
note.number = cnt;
note.toString = function() {return 'Note'+this.number}
note.noteTagLength = f.readLong();
note.type = f.read(4);//Atxt = text or Asnd = sound
note.isNoteOpen = !!f.readByte();
note.flag = f.readByte();//x1C
note.flag2 = f.readShort();// x01
note.iconBounds = [f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong()];//not same order as js bounds
note.bounds = [f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong()];
note.color = [f.readShort(),f.readShort(),f.readShort(),f.readShort(),f.readShort()];//note sure how to decode
note.authorLength = f.readByte();
note.author = f.read(note.authorLength);// note's author
!!(note.authorLength % 2) ? f.seek(2,1):f.seek(3,1)// align to even offset
note.dateLength = f.readByte();
note.noteDate = f.read(note.dateLength);
note.noteTotalLength = f.readLong();
note.noteType = f.read(4);//Ctxt = text
note.noteLength = f.readLong()-2//minus tag?
note.noteTag = f.readShort();//may be note tag - seems to always be xFExFF
note.contents = f.read(note.noteLength).replace(/\x00/g,'');
notes['a'+cnt] = note;
cnt++;
}
f.close();
alert(notes.a3.author+': '+notes.a3.contents)

It's ugly and there are parts of the annotation I skip over but it does seem to work fine.

Let me know if it helps and if you need the skipped parts or need to read more than the first note.

Mike

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Thu Aug 02, 2007 11:03 pm

Thanks a ton Mike, I will give this a try tonight and let you know.

Patrick

Mike Hale · Post by **Mike Hale** » Sun Aug 05, 2007 2:25 am

Patrick,

Have you had a chance to try this out yet? I've tested it many times but I would like to make sure that it works on another computer.

Mike

Patrick · Post by **Patrick** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 5:19 pm

Mike Hale wrote:Patrick,

Have you had a chance to try this out yet? I've tested it many times but I would like to make sure that it works on another computer.

Mike

Mike, just got around to giving it a go and have it almost done. The only problem I am having is looping through the notes, since they are not in a array I am not sure how to change the # (i.e. a1, a2, a3). Im sure it is a really basic programming thing I am overlooking but I am stumped. I tried stuff like

Code: Select allnotes.a+i+.contents

but it justs gives me errors. Any ideas on that part? Anyways, here is what I have so far:

Code: Select allfunction main() {
try {

   var docRef = app.activeDocument;
   var tif = new File("/c/ps_logs/temp.tif");
   var raw = new File("/c/ps_logs/notes.raw")

   // save temp tiff
   docRef.saveAs(new File("/c/ps_logs/temp.tif"), new TiffSaveOptions(), true, Extension.LOWERCASE);

   $.sleep(1000);

   // write bat to dump the raw data in exiftool
   var bat = new File('/c/ps_logs/dumpraw.bat');
   bat.open('w');
   bat.writeln('c:');
   bat.writeln('cd C:\\ps_logs');
   bat.writeln('exiftool -b -annotations temp.tif > notes.raw');
   bat.writeln('exit');
   bat.close();

   // run the batch file
   bat.execute();

   $.sleep(1000);

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// chunk Mike Hale wrote
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
   // These File functions are apapted from functions
   // in Xbytor's Stream.js bb/viewtopic.php?t=369
   // ET is the byte order. Use 'BE' for Mac. The default byte order is Intel.
   // Function names come from Tiff file format data types.
   // encoding needs to set to 'BINARY'
   File.prototype.readByte = function() {//aka unsigned byte
      return this.read(1).charCodeAt(0);
   };

   File.prototype.readShort = function(ET) { //aka unsigned short, word = 2 bytes
      var self = this;
      var b1 = this.readByte();
      var b2 = this.readByte();
      if(ET == "BE"){
      return (b1 << 8) + b2;
      }else{
      return (b2 << 8) + b1;
      };
   };

   File.prototype.readLong = function(ET) {//aka unsigned long = 4 bytes
      var self = this;
      var s1 = self.readShort(ET);
      var s2 = self.readShort(ET);
      if(ET == "BE"){
      return (s1 << 16) + s2;
      }else{
      return (s2 << 16) + s1;
      }
   };

   var f = new File('/c/ps_logs/notes.raw');
   f.encoding = 'BINARY';
   f.open('r');
   f.seek(4,0);// skip first 4 bytes - version?
   var notes = new Object();
   notes.toString = function(){return 'annotations'}
   notes.count = f.readLong();// Number of notes
   var cnt = 1;
   while(cnt <= notes.count){
      var note = new Object();
      note.number = cnt;
      note.toString = function() {return 'Note'+this.number}
      note.noteTagLength = f.readLong();
      note.type = f.read(4);//Atxt = text or Asnd = sound
      note.isNoteOpen = !!f.readByte();
      note.flag = f.readByte();//x1C
      note.flag2 = f.readShort();// x01
      note.iconBounds = [f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong()];//not same order as js bounds
      note.bounds = [f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong(),f.readLong()];
      note.color = [f.readShort(),f.readShort(),f.readShort(),f.readShort(),f.readShort()];//note sure how to decode
      note.authorLength = f.readByte();
      note.author = f.read(note.authorLength);// note's author
      !!(note.authorLength % 2) ? f.seek(2,1):f.seek(3,1)// align to even offset
      note.dateLength = f.readByte();
      note.noteDate = f.read(note.dateLength);
      note.noteTotalLength = f.readLong();
      note.noteType = f.read(4);//Ctxt = text
      note.noteLength = f.readLong()-2//minus tag?
      note.noteTag = f.readShort();//may be note tag - seems to always be xFExFF
      note.contents = f.read(note.noteLength).replace(/\x00/g,'');
      notes['a'+cnt] = note;
      cnt++;
   }
   f.close();
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// chunk Mike Hale wrote
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

   // write notes out to csv
   var csv = new File('/c/ps_logs/notes.csv');
   csv.open('w');
   csv.writeln("author,note");

   var test = "notes.a3.contents";

   // loop through all the notes
   var i = 1;
   while (i <= notes.count) {
      csv.writeln(notes.a1.author +","+notes.a1.contents);
      i++;
   };

   csv.close();

   // cleanup
   tif.remove();
   raw.remove();
   bat.remove();

} catch (e) {
   // if an error, make sure it does not leave any temp files behind
   if (tif.exists) {
      tif.remove();
   };
   if (raw.exists) {
      raw.remove();
   };
   if (bat.exists) {
      bat.remove();
   };

   // show the error
   alert(e);
}
}

main();

Thanks a lot for figuring out how to read the annotations, all that reading bytes is way over my head!

Patrick