Repeating an arrow that changes color and rotation

You can repeat an arrow inline in a Story frame while it rotates and changes color. The output looks like this:

Figure 38

Rotating and color shifting arrows in the output.

To achieve this you create the following structure in a Story:

Figure 39

The story structure

A Story frame containing this story has the script shown below attached to it, creating a $counter array with 23 values, from 0 to 22. The Repeater has an XPath set on it pointing to the $counter array. This means the arrow repeats 23 times.

Example 30

$count = 23;

$i = 0;

while( num($i) < num( $count ) )

{

	   $counter[$i] = $i;

	   $i++;

}

$i = 0;

 

The script below is set as a before script on the Text area within the repeater containing the arrow. This script uses the StSetProperty() script functions to:

•	Increase the rotation by eleven degrees for every repeated arrow.

•	Change the fill color by increasing the green component and reducing the blue component for every repeated arrow.

Example 31

Script before Text area with repeating arrow

$value = num($i) * 11;

stSetProperty("Rotation", $value );

stSetProperty("FillColor", "30:" + $value + ":" + str(255 - num( $value ) ) );

$i++;

 

The substitution inside the arrows displays the rotation in degrees ($value) for each arrow.