ExtendScript, PatchPanel + SwitchBoard Tutorials
Adobe PatchPanel, Adobe SwitchBoard, ExtendScript' Add commentsTo be fair… I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with a series of tutorials I created – some for Adobe – using ExtendScript, SwitchBoard, PatchPanel and Photoshop Panels (aka the CSXSLibrary.swc). A few of these you will find on Adobe’s devnet for Photoshop, but many of which are previously unreleased to the public. I was kicking around the idea of either including them in a book or future workshops – but with Golan’s posting of the videos from Art and Code and the renewed interest, in the spirit of open source, I’m going to post the link to them here, for now, and on Google Code in the new future.
Download url
drwoohoo.com/downloads/ESSBPP.zip
Notes on the tutorials
Please note that these tutorials compliment and build off of the excellent documentation and examples already included with these tools. I would recommended starting with Adobe’s documentation first and then proceeding to these tutorials. The order of my tutorials is important as well, starting from simple and building from there. In addition, to minimize your learning curve, I have started with methods in ExtendScript which I build upon and integrate into SwitchBoard, PatchPanel and I believe Photoshop Panels as well. For the seasoned ActionScript developer, I would suggest focusing on the ExtendScript tutorials followed by either SwitchBoard – if you’re interested in building AIR applications that interface with the Creative Suite apps (Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) – or PatchPanel – if you’re interested in creating Flash plug-ins for the CS apps mentioned above.
The scripts included in the download, the majority of which come with a pdf tutorial:
ExtendScript
- Hello Photoshop
- Add a new Photoshop document
- Get the # of layers in my Illustrator document
- Add/Remove all of the symbols in my Illustrator document
- Remove all the Swatches in my Illustrator document
- How to paint with Symbols in Illustrator
SwitchBoard (SB)
- Integrating your ExtendScripts with SB
- Debugging Embedded JS/ES files
- Two-way communication between SB and Illustrator
- Extending Photoshop’s DOM by adding Callbacks
PatchPanel (PP)
- Integrating your ExtendScript with PP
- Flash Panels for multiple Creative Suite applications
- Painting with Code in Photoshop
Photoshop Panels (aka CSXSLibrary.swc)
- Enhanced Hello world
- Integrating your ExtendScripts with the CSXSLibrary
- Integrating Papervision3d with your Photoshop Panel
- Integrating WiiFlash + Papervision3d with your Photoshop Panel
It’s important to note that these tutorials would not be possible without the tireless support of John Nack, Bernd Paradies, Michael Daumling, Jeff Tranberry and Tom Ruark.
If you do choose to download the tutorials, please note that you are not allowed to republish them without my permission. In addition, they are as is… and will be largely unsupported due to my increasingly busy workload. With that said, I hope you find them invaluable in your pursuit to push the creative edge further and to make these applications sing for you.
Thanks for the examples! I’ll ask a question and if you ever have time I’d appreciate an answer. I know you’re busy melting people’s faces off with your cool work.
Have you ever had trouble targetting ‘photoshop’ through SwitchBoard? Seems like I can change my target to ‘illustrator’ or ‘bridge’ and those apps launch fine. Photoshop doesn’t.
Here’s my specs.
Operating system: OSX 10.5.*
SwitchBoard version: SwitchBoard 1.0 (build 27, #347069, 2008/06/04 12:58:16, )
Creative Suite: CS4, Photoshop CS4 version 11.0.1
Target application: PS (not working), Bridge( launches program, script not relevant to app), AI (launches program and executes script).
This is all using your SB_IntegrateESwithSB code. It’s giving me the caught error, “ERROR: TARGET COULD NOT BE LAUNCHED”
Thanks and take care.
great catch burton. the short answer is:
use ‘photoshop-11.032′ if you’re targeting 32-bit OS’ and ‘photoshop-11.064′ if you’re targeting Vista64.
the long answer and some ways to determine what target app/version # to use on the fly is here: http://forums.adobe.com/message/2106765#2106765