InDesign script to list hyperlinks in active document

Question

I am trying to get a list of hyperlinks from my document printed in the console or output to text file. This is what i'm playing with:

for (k=0; k<app.activeDocument.hyperlinks.length-1; k++)
{
    $.writeln(app.activeDocument.hyperlinks.item[k]);
}

Answer 1

More than one error there, I'm afraid. "Hyperlink" is not covered in the latest version of Adobe's own Scripting guide (which would be "Adobe InDesign CS6 Scripting Guide: JavaScript" on http://www.adobe.com/devnet/indesign/documentation.html), but that's no reason to just 'try' things. The ExtendScript Toolkit Editor has a Help of its own – the "Object Model Viewer" under "Help" – in which you can find hyperlink and all of its properties, but I prefer this version of the same data: Hyperlink.

You have the following problems:

1. app.activeDocument.hyperlinks.item[k]: item is not an array, it is a function (see Hyperlinks.item()).
2. When you correctly ask for the item, you will get an [Object Hyperlink] because it is an object with multiple properties.

3. .. and the property you are interested in is destination:

   The text, page, or URL that the hyperlink points to. Can return: HyperlinkTextDestination, HyperlinkPageDestination, HyperlinkExternalPageDestination, HyperlinkURLDestination or ParagraphDestination.

4. .. more specifically, since hyperlinks can point to lots of different objects, the destination must be of type HyperlinkURLDestination;

5. .. which is an object of its own, again with lots of properties (see HyperlinkURLDestination); and you presumably want to get the destinationURL.

Putting all of that together, the following script

for (k=0; k<app.activeDocument.hyperlinks.length; k++)
{
    if (app.activeDocument.hyperlinks[k].destination instanceof HyperlinkURLDestination)
        $.writeln (app.activeDocument.hyperlinks[k].destination.destinationURL);
}

will list out all external URLs. Writing to a file is straightforward as well:

writeFile = File(Folder.myDocuments+'/urls.txt');
writeFile.open("w");

for (k=0; k<app.activeDocument.hyperlinks.length; k++)
{
    if (app.activeDocument.hyperlinks[k].destination instanceof HyperlinkURLDestination)
        writeFile.writeln (app.activeDocument.hyperlinks[k].destination.destinationURL);
}
writeFile.close();
writeFile.execute();