Illustrator script to fill a layer and repeat

Question

I'm very new to illustrator and I have not done scripting before, I have like a hundred illustrator files that I need to change the background color lets say background color is layer 5 for every file, can scripting make it like repeat changing the background color for all my files, i would really appreciate some help with how to start writing a script.

Example below:

script below:

    var doc = app.activeDocument;
    var layers = doc.layers;
    var colortest = new RGBColor();
    colortest.red = 251;
    colortest.green = 237;
    colortest.blue = 31;
    layers[4].color = colortest;

i havent done any scripting before, and ive just been researching for a while and its really confusing me. i tried the script above based on my researches but its wrong.instead of changing the blue color of the layer it changes that yellow color thing

Script result:

Answer 1

The issue is that you're targeting the wrong scripting object to command. The layer.color is simply the layer's color-marker inside the layers panel. What you want to do is actually change the artwork inside the actual layer. Check out the edited script here- it uses the collection of pathItems inside a layer to target the first path. This will only work if your blue shape is a rectangle inside the layer - and is not part of any group but is a top-level piece. (Open up your individual layers inside the layers panel to observe the artwork grouping structure) It will also not work if your blue shape is a raster image, etc.

#target illustrator function test(){ var doc = app.activeDocument; var layers = doc.layers; var colortest = new RGBColor(); colortest.red = 251; colortest.green = 237; colortest.blue = 31; layers[4].pathItems[0].fillColor = colortest; }; test();

Answer 2

Actually guys ive got an answer from another forum and it works great

var main = function() {  
var doc,   
fo = Folder.selectDialog("Please select some folder with ai files"),  
aiFilter  = function(f){return /\.ai$/i.test(decodeURI(f.name))},  
aiFiles, n, aiFile;  

if ( !fo ) return;  

aiFiles = fo.getFiles ( aiFilter );  
if ( !aiFiles.length ) return;  
while ( aiFile = aiFiles.pop() ){  
processAiFile ( aiFile );  
}  


}  


function processAiFile ( aiFile ) {  
var doc = app.open ( aiFile ),  
aiLayer = getLayerByName (doc, "Layer 5"),  
background;  

if ( !aiLayer ) {  
log ( "Layer \"Layer 5\" couldn't be found in  "+doc.name );  
doc.close( SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES );  
return;  
}  

if ( !aiLayer.pathItems.length ) {  
log ( "Layer \"Layer 5\" doesn't contain any path item" );  
doc.close( SaveOptions.DONOTSAVECHANGES );  
return;  
}  


background = aiLayer.pathItems[0];  

 background.filled = true;  
background.fillColor = getColor({cyan:0, magenta:100, yellow:100, black:0} );  

doc.close ( SaveOptions.SAVECHANGES );  
log ( aiFile.fsName+ " processed successfully" );  
}  


 function getColor(obj) {  
  newCMYKColor = new CMYKColor();  
  newCMYKColor.black = obj.black;  
  newCMYKColor.cyan = obj.cyan;  
  newCMYKColor.magenta = obj.magenta;  
  newCMYKColor.yellow = obj.yellow;  
  return newCMYKColor;  
 }  


function getLayerByName ( doc, layerName) {  
var found = false,  
layers = doc.layers,  
n = layers.length;  

while ( n-- ) {  
if ( layers[n].name == layerName ) {  
return layers[n];  
  }  
 }  


return null;  
}  


var log = function(msg) {  
var r = new File ( Folder.desktop+"/log.txt" );  
r.open('a');  
r.writeln ( msg );  
r.close();  
}  
main();  

credits to Loic

http://www.ozalto.com/