Possibility to start Importer-Script from outside

[hermify]

Hi,
as part of an automation, i'd like to start Illustrator, open an .ai-File and load the Variables automatically (with standard importsettings).

Right now, a naive Windows-MacroRecorder Script is doing this, but not properly and professional. Is there a way in Illustrator to call a file, open script and load .csv-file in one step? Maybe to write another script, that is calling this script with the right information?

Maybe this feature could be interesting for all?

[Silly-V]

Yes, this is a highly valuable and desired feature!
I believe the first step is to create added code which allows it to be ran from an external source with arguments.
On a mac, an AppleScript which has Adobe Illustrator type reference dictionary would be able to call a javascript file with arguments.
On a Windows computer, the same would be done using VBScript.
Each of them can produce a smaller interface dialog which has just a couple fields: for your template and csv file, or an added one with the preset to be used, etc. However that's at the user-level; when the platform-specific scripts (AS or VBS) are also executable, (Applescript as compiled .app), they could have their own argument-sniffing logic ("I'm expecting my latest arguments to be in this text file, or this URL of a web application that serves some data") and they could be triggered by outside applications.
One must be cognizant of Adobe's preference to disallow any non-licensed-user activity such as allowing an Illustrator to be ran by itself with no human there activating workflows and processing wishes of online customers. However if this workflow is going to be activated in some way or form by a licensed user then it's ok.
Anyways, what this amounts to is, a properly automated facility could have just a few graphic super-workers who are able to monitor and maintain automated workflows among multiple devices such as one employee who is able to send 10 different jobs to 10 different printers by telling their desktop PC's Illustrator to execute those executables and printing the results through Illustrator.
If you are doing sports-wear, the implication is to be able to process an entire batch of variable roster data concurrently.
You can go ahead and email me your desired workflow at vasily.hall @ gmail . com

[hermify]

Hi there,
i programmed several plugins for our workflow.
And of course, they are not 100% automated, as it is not allowed in the licenses.

It would be nice, if there is a function inside variable-importer to import several csv-files to several ai-files. In 2 variables, i have arrays with csv and ai-files. now i'd like to run variable-importer for all of those files without a dialog (because the settings are always the same).

For example:
importVariables( csvFile, aiFile, showdialog=false, openFileAfterImport=false);

Is there a possibility to add those function to the plugin, sothat I call the importfunction from another script?

[Silly-V]

Yes, one day I shall make it happen.