get array of selected layers in photoshop via extendscript

Selected_layers-PS.jsx

var docRef = app.activeDocument;

cTID = function(s) { return app.charIDToTypeID(s); };
sTID = function(s) { return app.stringIDToTypeID(s); };

function newGroupFromLayers(doc) {
    var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
    var ref = new ActionReference();
    ref.putClass( sTID('layerSection') );
    desc.putReference( cTID('null'), ref );
    var lref = new ActionReference();
    lref.putEnumerated( cTID('Lyr '), cTID('Ordn'), cTID('Trgt') );
    desc.putReference( cTID('From'), lref);
    executeAction( cTID('Mk  '), desc, DialogModes.NO );
};

function undo() {
   executeAction(cTID("undo", undefined, DialogModes.NO));
};

function getSelectedLayers(doc) {
  var selLayers = [];
  newGroupFromLayers();

  var group = doc.activeLayer;
  var layers = group.layers;

  for (var i = 0; i < layers.length; i++) {
    selLayers.push(layers[i]);
  }

  undo();

  return selLayers;
};

var selectedLayers = getSelectedLayers(app.activeDocument);


for( i = 0; i < selectedLayers.length; i++) {
    selectedLayers[i].selected = true;
    docRef.activeLayer = selectedLayers[i];
    alert(docRef.activeLayer.name)
 }

Thanks very much for the solution - worked perfectly!

Regarding the comments about this not being supported via the API - at a purely practical level I agree, and it's annoying that you have to resort to a mixture of grouping trickery and Script Listener output to make this work. One should be able to perform this sort of operation without modifying the state of the underlying document (even temporarily) - it's just a query.

Speculatively: it's implemented this way because the PS API reflects how Photoshop internally thinks about the document. You can't edit more than one active ArtLayer at the same time, so the concept of "selected layers" doesn't really make sense to the underlying system - which the API ostensibly exposes.

Not sure if Adobe provides a script interface to the PS UI, which (if my guess above is correct-ish) would be the place to find / implement this kind of functionality.

Why grouping the layers and then regrouping, doesn't that slow down the script?

One thing, the script's name isnt correct I believe. SInce this groups layers, why not name accordingly.
PS why is that undo() in that loop?

Thank you for sharing this with us!

I'm always intrigued by these mysterious charID / actionDescriptor / executeAction snippets. They always look so machine-generated to me. How do you come up with these seemingly random method parameters? Is there a way to somehow export this from Photoshop/actions?

Thanks,
Peter

Hi @peterceluch- I guess you already found this by now, but anyway - get xtools scripts here (http://ps-scripts.sourceforge.net/xtools.html).

These allow you to convert recorded actions into javascript. From there you can modify the code into useful functions with custom parameters and reuse at will.

Regards,
Jachym

Thank you very much, @Picazsoo - I did not know about that!

when i do selectedLayers[i].resize it resizes all layers in selection set. cant figure out why it happens. could you help?

when i do selectedLayers[i].resize it resizes all layers in selection set. cant figure out why it happens. could you help?

got it. we need to select each layer for resize

@myrecs
Well you can change the function to your liking, so for example results ze each one after the other. Depends where you out the resize

When i think about it, it should actually resize each layer one by one. At least if you out the code like you wrote. Since its using [i] per layer. Dont understand why it would resize them all at once. My only guess is that it also resize the artlayergroup at the end. It would need some extra code it guess

One thing, the script's name isnt correct I believe. SInce this groups layers, why not name accordingly. PS why is that undo() in that loop?

My opinion, the main idea of this script is get the child layer, after grouping. He collect the child layer by that group (doc.activeLayer.layers), after collecting, he undo back to ungroup.

@no
I think this resize all items at once and the undoes the grouping.