Next Month Indesign Text Variable

Question

Is there any way to create a text variable that has a date in the future calculated from today's date?

What I need is: Todays date + 1 month.

I know you can have text variables with the output or modification date but I haven't been able to find a way of doing "math" on a variable.

Answer 1

Here is a full script. Its on german but you can change the names of the months in the script.

 #targetengine 'usernameVariable'

/***************************************************************

***************************************************************/

//This function adds static text variables in InDesign
//They won't be dynamically updated though.
//That's why we need the updating function below
function addVariables(openEvent){

    var doc = openEvent.parent;

    while ( doc.constructor.name != "Document" )
    {
        if ( doc.constructor.name == "Application" ){ return; }

       doc = doc.parent;
    }


    //Adding XMP serverURL to text variables
    createTextVariable(doc, "Next Month", getNextMonth(), true );


}

function getNextMonth() {
    var date = new Date();
    var month = date.getMonth();
    var Months = ["Januar",
    "Ferbruar",
    "März",
    "April",
    "Mai",
    "Juni",
    "Juli",
    "August",
    "September",
    "Oktober",
    "November",
    "Dezember"];

    return Months[month+1];
}

//Generic function to add static custom text variables
function createTextVariable(target, variableName, variableContents, bRewrite){

    var usernameVariable = target.textVariables.itemByName(variableName);
    if(!usernameVariable.isValid){ 
        usernameVariable = target.textVariables.add();
        usernameVariable.variableType = VariableTypes.CUSTOM_TEXT_TYPE;
        usernameVariable.name = variableName;
        usernameVariable.variableOptions.contents = variableContents;
    }
    bRewrite!==false && usernameVariable.variableOptions.contents = variableContents;
}



//Snippet for grabbing the  deep name of the computer
function getComputerName(){

    var APLScript = "get computer name of (system info)";
    var VBScript = "Dim wshShell\
    Set wshShell = CreateObject( \"WScript.Shell\" )\
    strComputerName = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings( \"%COMPUTERNAME%\" )\
    app.scriptArgs.SetValue \"computerName\", strComputerName";

    var scpt = (File.fs=="Windows")? VBScript : APLScript;
    var language = (File.fs=="Windows")? ScriptLanguage.visualBasic : ScriptLanguage.APPLESCRIPT_LANGUAGE;

    var scriptResult = app.doScript(scpt, language);

    var computerName = (File.fs=="Windows")? app.scriptArgs.getValue("computerName") : scriptResult;

    return computerName;
}

//Add listeners to update file when opened.
app.addEventListener('afterOpen', addVariables);
app.addEventListener('beforeSave', addVariables);
app.addEventListener('afterSelectionChanged', addVariables);
app.addEventListener('afterNew', addVariables);

Answer 2

Changing the - to a + in line 5 (setMonth(getMonth()-1)) of this script should do what you need.