`window.alert` in a UXP plugin crashes InDesign

pklaschka · August 8, 2023, 1:26pm

When using window.alert('...') in an InDesign UXP plugin, it sporadically works, at other times, crashes InDesign.

The “crashing” behavior resulted in varying results:

InDesign crashed (showing a popup asking if I want to submit a crash report, which I did)
InDesign crashed without even the “send crash report” popup showing up
InDesign froze entirely and couldn’t be closed without killing the process manually
InDesign didn’t freeze, but the plugin stopped doing anything (the UI wasn’t frozen, though), as if stuck in a loop. InDesign wouldn’t close without manually killing the process

Tested on


Edition	Windows 11 Pro
Version	22H2
Installed on	‎9/‎23/‎2022
OS build	22621.1992
Experience	Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22644.1000.0


Processor	AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-Core Processor 3.80 GHz
Installed RAM	32.0 GB
System type	64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch	No pen or touch input is available for this display

Code to reproduce

github.com

pklaschka/indesign-pride-flagger/blob/de95a54652dd64d5ba784247a881f10eb059369c/index.cjs#L67


      
          			console.log(`Plugin destroy called`);
          			if (listener.isValid)
          				listener.remove();
          		}
          	}
          })
          
          
          function createPrideFlag(flagFunction, historyName = 'Add pride flag') {
          	if (checkSelection() === 'invalid')
          		return window.alert('Please select a rectangle or group to replace, or nothing to create a new page');
          	app.doScript(() => {
          		const newPage = getOrCreateFlagLocation();
          		flagFunction(newPage);
          		if (getTextMessage() !== undefined) {
          			createText(newPage);
          		}
          	}, ScriptLanguage.JAVASCRIPT, [], UndoModes.ENTIRE_SCRIPT, historyName);
          }
          
          function getTextMessage() {

(cf. the README.md for installation instructions)

Workaround (for now) using a <dialog> instead:

Erin_Finnegan · August 8, 2023, 4:22pm

The engineering manager says that alert isn’t supported yet

pklaschka · August 8, 2023, 4:43pm

Fair enough (thank you for looking into this!), but in that case, I would suggest that it shouldn’t crash InDesign but immediately abort with an error message in the console instead. I remember that it was mentioned during office hours at some point that this is an essential piece of functionality, especially for existing InDesign devs (who might try to use it and, with the intermittent behavior, maybe not notice that it doesn’t work consistently)…

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`window.alert` in a UXP plugin crashes InDesign

The “crashing” behavior resulted in varying results:

Tested on

Code to reproduce

Related Topics