[scribus] Copy and Move Text Frame using API

[Gregory Pittman]

On 3/9/21 2:19 PM, Matt Miller wrote:
> I'm trying to use the API to copy a text frame to a different page of the same document, then change the frame's name and position.  copyObjects() / pasteObjects() works for me to get the frame copied, but I'm not able to change the new frame's name.  I'm thinking to use getObjectAttributes() / setObjectAttributes() to change the new frame's name, but getObjectAttributes() always returns an empty list.  For example, I execute this from the scripter console:
> 
> dummy = newDocument((5, 3), (0, 0, 0, 0), PORTRAIT, 1, UNIT_INCHES, PAGE_1, 0, 2)
> gotoPage (1)
> orig_name = createText (1, 1, 1, 1)
> copyObjects (orig_name)
> gotoPage (2)
> new_name = pasteObjects ()
> new_attrs = getObjectAttributes (new_name[0])
> print (len (new_attrs))
> 
> and that last print statement shows that the attribute list is empty.  I expected getObjectAttributes() to return a list of dictionary, and that I could then update the first (and only) dictionary in that list, changing the value of the "Name" element to the new name I want for the copied frame.
> 
> What's wrong with how I''m using the API here, and/or, is there another way to accomplish this?

Hi Matt,

When you paste the object, new_name should contain a name assigned by Scribus. To be safe you might need to specify new_name[0].
To set the name to something else you use 

setItemName("changetoname", new_name[0]) 

-- this is in Setting Object Properties in the manual menu.

I've never quite been able to figure out what these "attributes" are that you get from getObjectAttributes().

Greg