I’m afraid there’s no way to get the name of a Style from a Layer as Styles don’t work that way – but maybe someone else knows different …

I suppose a work-around would be to copy the style and paste it on the intended layer; you should be able to use Scripting Listener-code for that, something like this:

function transferEffects (layer1, layer2) {

app.activeDocument.activeLayer = layer1;

var id157 = charIDToTypeID( "CpFX" );

executeAction( id157, undefined, DialogModes.ALL );

app.activeDocument.activeLayer = layer2;

var id158 = charIDToTypeID( "PaFX" );

executeAction( id158, undefined, DialogModes.ALL );

};

There is a key layerFXVisible that I think will tell you if a style is applied but im still not any good with how to get these… One of the others will no doubt show us both…

Part of the code Mark posted is scriptlistener( action manager ) code. It can be hard to understand but it is the only way to work with layer styles in scripting.

Below are two functions. One checks for layer effects( styles ). It will return true if the layer has any effect applied. The other just checks for the stroke fx. It will only return true if the layer has a stroke effect. You can make similar functions to test for other effects, if the effects are visible, etc.

Getting the settings used in an effect is somewhat harder but is done with action manager as well. You get the descriptor for the layer. From that you get the descriptor for the layer effects. Then you get the descriptor for the effect itself from that descriptor.

Because each of the 10 effects has different descriptors(settings) and those descriptors are not documented by Adobe it takes some work to build each function. The last function below shows one way to get the size of the stoke effect. The size is in pixels.

function hasLayerFX(){
     var ref = new ActionReference();
     ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID("Lyr "), charIDToTypeID("Ordn"), charIDToTypeID("Trgt") ); 
     return  executeActionGet(ref).hasKey(stringIDToTypeID('layerEffects'));
};

function hasStrokeFX(){
     var res = false;
     var ref = new ActionReference();
     ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID("Lyr "), charIDToTypeID("Ordn"), charIDToTypeID("Trgt") ); 
     var hasFX =  executeActionGet(ref).hasKey(stringIDToTypeID('layerEffects'));
     if ( hasFX ){
          var ref = new ActionReference();
          ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID("Lyr "), charIDToTypeID("Ordn"), charIDToTypeID("Trgt") ); 
          res = executeActionGet(ref).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID('layerEffects')).hasKey(stringIDToTypeID('frameFX'));
     }
     return res;
};

function getStrokeSize(){
    try{
        var ref = new ActionReference();
        ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID("Lyr "), charIDToTypeID("Ordn"), charIDToTypeID("Trgt") ); 
        var desc = executeActionGet(ref).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID('layerEffects')).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID('frameFX'));
        return desc.getUnitDoubleValue(stringIDToTypeID('size'));
    }catch(e){}
};

This is only a thought but if you started off with some layers with styles applied. Is it possible to not only copy the FX over but have the name of the used style in layer metadata? and bring that too? With a second function… just thinking aloud can't try any of this… don't have metadata in my layers so Im unsure what you can do with it yet…

Mike, does a document's metadata inherit layer metadata? If you added a namespace etc. and put some data in it would this be visible to apps or the OS outside of Photoshop or is this just something that Photoshop stores in the file for its own usage?

That function only checks the active layer. If the active (target) layer has an effect it should return true.

Here are the stringIDs for the 10 layer effects.

'dropShadow'
'innerShadow'
'outerGlow'
'innerGlow'
'bevelEmboss'
'solidFill' // color overlay
'gradientFill' // gradient overlay
'patternFill' // pattern overlay
'chromeFX' // satin
'frameFX' // stroke

Try this...

ps.ApplicationClass app = new ps.ApplicationClass();
String Code = "var ref = new ActionReference();" +
"ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID('Lyr '), charIDToTypeID('Ordn'), charIDToTypeID('Trgt') ); " +
"  ReturnCode =  executeActionGet(ref).hasKey(stringIDToTypeID('layerEffects'))?'Style Exists' :'Style Does Not Exist';";
String ReturnCode = app.DoJavaScript(Code, null, null);
MessageBox.Show(ReturnCode);

I'm sorry I should have asked which version of Photoshop you are using. The 'layerEffects' key was not added to the layer descriptor until CS3. I don't know of a way to access info about a layer's effects via scripting in versions before CS3.

Mike, your function NO work for me either (because of the version thing) I did post earlier that I could see…

Key 9 = layerFXVisible : DescValueType.BOOLEANTYPE

In the output from a script that you gave me… I still struggle like hell with these but would this NOT at least indicate the state of an effect on a layer? I can see this in my CS2… I can see its type so I tried using getBoolean() but it NO work…

Mike, thanks it looks like a case of mistaken ID and you are right it does not deliver what I was expecting it to… No surprise there… One function returned false all the time now that one's true… I also tried to copy FX from a layer to see if it had any but I couldn't catch that properly either…

jconor29 wrote:

 

Does anybody know how we can take the properties of a layer style? For example, the colors of the gradient fill, etc.

What version of Photoshop are you using? I can show you how to get info about a layer's effects but it requires CS3 or higher.

I am  eager   to  know  it  either,  but  no  answer

Michael L Hale just offered to explain how to do it, didn’t he?

But he wants to know the Photoshop versions in use.

This may need more testing and you might want to change it if you are only interested in the colors used in the gradient but it should give you a good start. Note it requires CS3 or higher.

function getGradientInfo(){
    try{
        var ref = new ActionReference();
        ref.putEnumerated( charIDToTypeID("Lyr "), charIDToTypeID("Ordn"), charIDToTypeID("Trgt") );
          // get gradient descriptor
        var desc = executeActionGet(ref).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID('layerEffects')).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID('gradientFill')).getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID('gradient'));
          // get an ActionList of color settings used in gradient
          var colorsList = desc.getList(stringIDToTypeID('colors'));
          var count = colorsList.count;// the number of color stops in gradient
          var colors = [];// array to hold custom color objects
          for( var c = 0; c < count; c++ ){
               desc = colorsList.getObjectValue(c);// get color descriptor
               var colorStop = {};// object to hold color stop info
               colorStop.location = desc.getInteger(stringIDToTypeID('location'));
               colorStop.midpoint = desc.getInteger(stringIDToTypeID('midpoint'));
               colorStop.type = typeIDToStringID(desc.getEnumerationValue(stringIDToTypeID('type')));
               
               var colorDesc = desc.getObjectValue(stringIDToTypeID('color'));
               var color = new SolidColor();
               switch(app.activeDocument.mode){
                    case DocumentMode.GRAYSCALE:
                         color.gray.gray = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Gry '));
                         break;
                    case DocumentMode.RGB:
                         color.rgb.red = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Rd  '));
                         color.rgb.green = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Grn '));
                         color.rgb.blue = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Bl  '));
                         break;
                    case DocumentMode.CMYK:
                         color.cmyk.cyan = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Cyn '));
                         color.cmyk.magenta = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Mgnt'));
                         color.cmyk.yellow = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Ylw '));
                         color.cmyk.black = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Blck'));
                         break;
                    case DocumentMode.LAB:
                         color.lab.l = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('Lmnc'));
                         color.lab.a = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('A   '));
                         color.lab.b = colorDesc.getDouble(charIDToTypeID('B   '));
                         break;
               }
               colorStop.color = color;
               colors.push(colorStop);
          }
          return colors;
    }catch(e){}
};
var colorstops = getGradientInfo();
alert('first color stop color(rgb):\r'+colorstops[0].color.rgb.red+','+colorstops[0].color.rgb.green+','+colorstops[0].color.rgb.blue);

Thank you! It was very useful.