- A visibility variable could hide an object but never show it again: dataset
application, capture and binding refused any object that wasn't visible
(`is_editable`), so a row that hid an object left it hidden for good and a
capture after hiding it in the Layers panel didn't record it. They now use
`Document::variable_target`, which ignores the object's own visibility
(locked art and art on hidden or locked layers are still skipped).
- Renaming a variable renamed the active dataset when the two shared a name,
leaving it pointing at a dataset that doesn't exist.
- `variable.delete` and `dataset.delete` without `names` act on the
highlighted variable and the active dataset, so Window > Variables > Delete
Variable / Delete Data Set no longer fail with "missing `names`".
- `ids` is checked like other commands' explicit targets (a non-list no longer
falls back to the selection, bad ids are errors), names are trimmed and
capped at 255 characters, and the bind checks are shared by Bind and Make
Dynamic.
- Make Dynamic's fallback name no longer becomes " 2" for unnamed art.
- `dataset.list` reads the art once for every row's drift check, and
`Variables::prune` looks names up in a set.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Select Bound Object ran variable.unbind on the selection, so choosing it silently
removed the bindings; Delete Variable and Delete Data Set deleted every row. Now
the panel keeps a highlighted variable row (a click highlights and selects what
it drives, as the reference panel does): Select Bound Object selects what the
highlighted variable drives via select.set, Delete Variable deletes only it, and
Delete Data Set deletes only the current set. Variable Options and Rename Data
Set open their dialogs preselected with the highlighted variable / active set
(the double-click used to invoke variable.rename with a bare name, which only
errored). Unbind enables only over a bound selection; Make Text Dynamic only for
exactly one type object.
The highlight is per-document session state with its own command
(variable.highlight, no undo step, like layer.highlight): rename carries it,
delete clears it when stale. New engine tests (18) and panel tests cover the
reviewer's regression case, verified to fail on the old wiring.
The engine side was called a solid base, but the panel could only list and
apply: variables and datasets were made through commands, which most people
won't find. The reference app's Variables workflow is now what the panel does,
and every button runs a `variable.*` / `dataset.*` command, so the panel and an
agent drive the document the same way.
New commands (all also in Window › Variables, the palette and over MCP):
- `variable.makeTextDynamic` / `variable.makeVisibilityDynamic`: define a
variable of that kind over the selection, named after what it drives, and
bind it — one step, as the panel's two buttons.
- `dataset.capture`: record what the bound objects hold right now as a new row
("Data Set 1"… ) and make it active. This, rather than typing values, is how
rows are made: change the art, then capture.
- `dataset.update`: write what the art holds now into the active row. Without
an active row it says so rather than picking one.
- `variable.rename` / `dataset.rename` (Variable Options…, Rename Data Set…):
a name is how a variable is referred to, so renaming carries its bindings and
its values in every row with it.
- `dataset.list` reports `matches` per row: whether the art still holds what
that row says.
`Document::captured_values` is the one place that reads a bound object's value,
so capture, update and the drift check can't disagree about what the art says.
Panel: the current data set across the top as a dropdown with ◀ ▶; variable
rows with their kind's icon and the name of the object they drive ("Multiple
objects" when it is more than one), a click selecting it and a double click
opening Variable Options; a dataset row in italics once an edit has moved the
art away from what it says; Make Text/Visibility Dynamic, New, Unbind and Delete
below, Capture and Update on a second line; and a (≡) menu with the same
commands for the ones that act on a row rather than the selection.
Checked on Rust 1.99 (the current stable), which is what the review asked for:
cargo xtask ci, all 7 steps pass.
`bindings` mapped an object id to a single variable name, so binding an object
to a second variable silently dropped the first — a binding lost with nothing
to show for it. The reference app binds the selected object to the selected
variable, one click at a time, and nowhere says a second binding replaces the
first (https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/desktop/automate-visualize-data/
automate-actions/work-with-variables.html), so this allows several instead.
`bindings` is now a set of variable names per object. `dataset.select` walks
them in the order the variables are defined, which keeps two text variables on
one object deterministic (the later one's value is what is left, and `applied`
counts both). `variable.bind` reports `bound` (added) and `already` (was there
already); `variable.unbind` takes an optional `variable` to drop one binding
instead of all of them.
This is done before the field ships rather than after: `variables` has never
been in a released file, so the shape can still change for free. Once a version
with it is out, the same change would need a format version bump and a
migration, since `crates/format` keeps every version from 1 loading.
A strict superset of what worked before: every binding a document had is still
there and still applied, in the same order.
cargo xtask ci: all 7 steps pass.
Review of #761 turned up three real defects and a feature that was visible
but not usable. All of it is fixed here, each defect with a regression test
that fails without the fix.
- A binding outlived the object it named. Deleting art left its entry in
`variables.bindings` forever: it counted as a skip in every dataset
application, `variable.list` counted it, and the saved file grew with every
delete. `Document::prune_variable_bindings` now lets them go after each
edit, as `prune_assets` does for Asset Export's.
- `Variables::prune` cleared `active_dataset` by comparing it against the
*variable* names being deleted. A dataset named like a variable lost its
active state when the variable went. The two are separate namespaces; the
block is gone (dataset.delete already did it right).
- `variable.delete` reported the number of names asked for, not the number
deleted, so deleting a name that was not there still said `deleted: 1`.
- `dataset.set` (new): a dataset's values could only be set when it was
created, so changing one meant deleting and rebuilding the row — losing its
place in the list and the active one. This replaces the row's values and
reports what it dropped.
- Window › Variables, and dialogs for the "…" commands. Every command had an
empty menu path and the command palette runs those with `{}`, so nothing
could be defined from the UI at all. The commands now carry their menu
path, the "…" ones open a Variables dialog (a name and a kind; a name and a
field per variable, its kind's editor), and `dataset.set` opens with the
row's own values.
- Locked art is neither bound nor rewritten by a dataset, and says so.
- `set_plain_text` told a node that existed but was not type that it was
missing.
- The panel had Document Info's icon, so the two were indistinguishable in
the collapsed column; it gets its own, plus New/Delete buttons, and its
rows say what their count is.
Format round trips now cover variables (the testkit fixture defines both
kinds, binds them and applies a row), and ROADMAP/README no longer list the
feature as missing.
cargo xtask ci: all 7 steps pass.
bflatastic
Fahri Meral