Just getting into Ruby for SketchUp, and the first tool I’m trying to develop is a mass view exporter, which would require user input to choose a list of scenes to export from, and a dynamic form reading the layer info inside the model. I got the scene exporting part figured out, but the UI is a bit confusing at first given it’s actually html+js, and it’s at its most confusing when I try to figure out how to push for example a list of model layer names as array into Javascript so I can dynamically generate a multi-select form in the html window.
The script below that I wrote kind of works, but it feels very hard coded and I’m posting here to see if I’m understanding `HtmlDialog.add_action_callback` and `HtmlDialog.execute_script` correctly, and if there are far more efficient and elegant ways to do this.
Thank you! ( ~~And also how do you post code in here? There is only blockquote and pre-formatted text~~ Thnx I got it!) And if you have better htmldialog example scripts, please share!
```ruby
module Example
model = Sketchup.active_model
model_layers = model.layers
model_scenes = model.pages
scene_names = []
model_scenes.each {|scene| scene_names.push(scene.name)}
html = <<-EOT
To post code, precede your code on a separate line by three backticks and the word `ruby`
End it, again on a separate line, by three backticks.
````auto
```ruby
... ruby code here...
````
` ` `
three backticks at the end, but I can’t format them here to display properly inside the ruby code block - I used the html code `#96;`to show them and that only works outside the block.
If I type two, they show, but when I type a third, they all disappear.
They are all wrapped in
````nohighlight
```text
...plain text here...
````
` ` `
Again, I tried to show the three backticks at the end of the `text` wrapper, but only two ticks or none show.
There must be a way to ‘escape’ the backtick characters but I can’t see how. It isn’t either \ or /.
Searched the forum for ‘how to post ruby code’ but nothing relevant came up in the dozen or so results.
---
> [@july\_warm](#):
>
> And also how do you post code in here?
```ruby
module YourCode
# Your code here
end
```
Gives this:
```ruby
module YourCode
# Your code here
end
```
So your (unchanged) code would look like:
```ruby
model = Sketchup.active_model
model_layers = model.layers
model_scenes = model.pages
scene_names = []
model_scenes.each {|scene| scene_names.push(scene.name)}
html = <<-EOT
> [@john\_mcclenahan](#):
>
> Again, I tried to show the three backticks at the end of the `text` wrapper, but only two ticks or none show.
>
> There must be a way to ‘escape’ the backtick characters but I can’t see how. It isn’t either \ or /.
You have to escape each backtick individually
\`\`\`ruby
module YourCode
# Your code here
end
\`\`\`
To show this
```ruby
module YourCode
# Your code here
end
```
to show the first one here you have to escape the backslashes too.
---
Thank you and where did you find information like this? Also trying to figure out how to strike through texts.
Also do you have any insight on the main question of my post?
---
> [@july\_warm](#):
>
> Thank you and where did you find information like this? Also trying to figure out how to strike through texts.
> Also do you have any insight on the main question of my post?
> [@\[How to\] Post correctly formatted and colorized code on the forum?](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/how-to-colourize-code-on-the-forum-wiki/46189):
>
> Continuing the discussion from [Ruby backtick returns nothing!](https://forums.sketchup.com/t/ruby-backtick-returns-nothing/46120/17): Triple backtick delimiter lines. [What is a backquote ?](https://www.computerhope.com/jargon/b/backquot.htm) [image] Backquote character key on US keyboard. If it is error message text (or some other plain text that contains \<, \>, #, or other characters that can confuse Discourse markdown,) then specify “text” as a lexing language: ```text paste error message here ``` If it is Ruby, then: ```ruby # code here ``` If it is Javascript, then: ```javascript /\* js…
The escaping was trial and error.
I’m no expert on using HtmlDialog.
~~Strikethrough~~ with two tildes before and after like this:
~~Strikethrough~~
---
> [@july\_warm](#):
>
> Also do you have any insight on the main question of my post?
There are 2 options for getting the arrays over to the JS.
Use JSON (which describes as JavaScript object and can therefore be used to define a JS object.)
It is likely that SketchUp’s native extensions have already loaded Ruby’s JSON library, but just to be sure you should add a dependency require ta the top of your file …
```ruby
require 'json'
```
- [Module: JSON (Ruby 2.5.5)](https://ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.5.5/libdoc/json/rdoc/JSON.html)
**a.** Send it when the page is ready via a callback …
```ruby
dialog.add_action_callback("views_to_form") {|action_context|
json_text = Sketchup.active_model.pages.map(&:name).to_json
dialog.execute_script("var scenes = #{json_text}; load_scene_select();")
}
```
… or …
```ruby
dialog.add_action_callback("layers_to_form") {|action_context|
json_text = Sketchup.active_model.layers.map(&:name).to_json
dialog.execute_script("var layers = #{json_text}; load_layer_select();")
}
```
The examples assume a couple of JS functions to load the array values once on the JS side into the appropriate `