Labels, Names, and IDs

Most Showcase messages use unique identifiers (IDs) to reference Models, Alternatives, Behaviors, Environments, Shots, Slides and Storyboards, while others also use names. Only labels are displayed in the user interface.

The API provides ways of retrieving the ID, name or label associated with a message. The Messages Reference specifies which of the three are available. If the ID does not exist, you can use the name in place of it. If the label does not exist, you can use the name.

There are three ways to call messages that use IDs or names as parameters:

1. Use the MessageByLabelsCustom add-in to create new messages that use labels as parameters rather than internal IDs or names and use these messages instead of the original messages.
2. Use the CONVERT_LABELS message to call messages using labels rather than IDs or names.
3. Write your own add-in to identify the required IDs using the IO objects. See Accessing Document Features.