Bridge

I'm very confused about what the import and export language extensions do and when one should use them. I have a Bridge application with multiple source files. As long as I don't call code in another file from the startup execution path (before all source files are loaded) and only call across modules after Bridge is running (e.g. from events in Bridge), I don't seem to need import and export. All source files seem to be in the same namespace and all can see each other's global objects/functions. So, when would someone use import or export? And, what is the #engine that the manual discusses in relation to import and export? If some of my source files are library files that I intend to be used by multiple different files/applications, should I be using import/export for that use? Or is this only applicable when there are somehow multiple JavaScript engines involved? And when would that situation arise? --John

I am trying to run the following script and while the "navBar" opens up and becomes visible, I get an error message from bridge that says "could not locate remote server". ------- app.document.topNavbar.type = "html"; app.document.topNavbar.height = 100; app.document.topNavbar.file = new File("c:\\x.html"); app.document.topNavbar.visible = true; ------- The file exists and I can view it with an html editor, but it just won't show in Bridge. I also tried using the path "/c/x.html" with no success. Any ideas?

While scripting Bridge, is there a way to invoke a method on an external object such as a COM object or a DLL function? Doing everything in Javascript is dandy for basic procedures, but if it gets complex or we already have procedures compiled in COM DLLs we'd like to be able to use them!

Good Morning, I hope someone out there can help..... I am having trouble saving all the metadata info using Bridge. I've tried filling in the sections both in Bridge, and 'file info' in PS, and saving the metadata template, and for some reason, all saves ok, except the copyright status, and copyright info url sections. I have checked these check boxes are ticked before I save and close the file, and when I reopen the image, again, both these fields are empty. This happens regardless of if I use 'append metadata' or 'replace metadata', or select all in Bridge and set the metadata via the file info option. The information will only save if I apply to each individual file via photoshop, which is very time consuming, even if I automate an action... Adobe Technical Support have advised me to ask on the forum if there is a known script...please help! many thanks amanda

One of the things we did when we developed the Bridge Workflow Automation Scripts, was create a set of libraries to make bridge scripting easier and more productive. The libraries are AdobeLibrary1.jsx and AdobeLibrary2.jsx. There is an AdobeLibrary3.jsx, but it's primarily patches for the other two. Over the next few weeks, I am going to post some messages about those libraries to help get folks started bridge scripting. First up are some file handling utilities. getBridgeThumbnails and getBridgeFiles are two library functions that return the selected (in Bridge) Thumbnail objects or File objects. getBridgeFiles takes the output from getBridgeThumbnails and converts them to File objects. These functions also ensure that any Version Cue files that were selected are up to date on the local file system prior to returning the selected objects. The definition is: getBridgeThumbnails = function( mask, getFolderChildren, filesOnly, firstOnly ) Where: mask is a comma delimited list o

I have a script I'm working on that consists of multiple files. Just like I do in C++, each class has it's own file. I can get the script to run properly by using the #include directive, including all the script files from one master script file that lives in the startup directory. But, I can't get breakpoints for the debugger or execution errors into the debugger to work in any of the files except the master script file. How should I be configuring this for proper debugging with multiple source files? --John

I want to write a "thing" that will add fixed metadata to selected files. e.g. put in a copyright notice. I call it a thing because my question is what or where would be the simplest place to do this? I'm comfortable digging into Javascript for Bridge. I've done it for Photoshop. I'm wondering if I should use the Bridge Javascript interface, the SDK that Adobe has for metadata, or perhaps there is a way to do this as an action in Photoshop. What would be really nice would be something fairly sophisticated where I could save pre-filled templates.

I'd like to execute the equivalent functionality to some existing menu commands in Bridge from a Bridge script. In particular, I'd like to be able to turn off the favorites panel and the folders panel (View/Favorites Panel) and (View/Folders Panel). Using the published menu identifiers for them, I can tell if they are checked already (e.g. displayed already), but I haven't figured out how to actually call those commands. In case you are wondering why I'd like to turn thse off, I'm creating a new window/document and displaying a custom browse scheme. When using a custom browse scheme, the folders window shows nothing useful so I'd like to turn it off. Further, since I'm not displaying files and folders, I think it will be less confusing to users if they don't see the folders pane. Any ideas? --John

Yesterday my Bridge stopped opening files. I have to go to the file folder once I know the file name and open it the old fashioned way. Anyone know if there is a secret code to get it to open files again? This morning I went to the downloads and downloaded the latest Bridge update, but it did not debug it. Even when you go to Bridge> File> Open, nothing happens. Any help would be appreciated. Jackie Olson kenolson@mchsi.com www.kenolsonphoto.com

Hi, there are some communication problems between Bridge and Photoshop CS2 after upgrading Bridge to 1.0.2: 1) If i choose e.g. the imageprocessor or any other PS-Script via the Bridge menu then PS will be launched, but the sript won´t be started in PS. That means that PS is activated by the command but that´s all... If i launch the script via PS there is no Problem. 2) If i activate "Double Click edits Camera Raw Settings in Bridge" in the Bridge Preferences the image will launch Camera Raw but after that it will not open the image in PS. If i deactivate this then Camera Raw starts PS and it opens the image without any Problem. Before the upgrade to 1.0.2 it worked perfectly. Deinstalling and reinstalling the old Version does not help. Even reinstalling PS and all the components does not work at all... ( System is Windows XP Preferences of Bridge and PSCS2 are resetted. This is a cross posting. I added this topic yesterday in the "Bridge Forum" but nobody there seems to have such

On page 125 of the Bridge JavaScript Reference, it lists the lastModifiedDate property for the thumbnail object. It says that it should be a Date data type. When I access app.document.visibleThumbnails.lastModifiedDate and look at it, I find that this property is a string data type (a bunch of numbers in a string). If I access app.document.visibleThumbnails.spec.modified, I find that it's a date type. According to the doc, both are supposed to be Date types. Is the doc wrong? Is this a bug that lastModifiedDate is showing up as a string. In case you are wondering why I don't just use app.document.visibleThumbnails.spec.modified since it is a proper Date object, I was using that field, but I'm having a problem with that field sometimes returning as "undefined", so that's why I tried to switch to app.document.visibleThumbnails.lastModifiedDate, but it's not the right type. So, I'm temporarily stuck. My code is just trying to determine which thumb has the more recent modification date

I would like to create some new views in Bridge that don't show some files in a directory. In particular, one thing I'm trying to do is to create a view that only shows the latest versions in a directory (e.g. don't display originals when there is an edited derivative). I've got all the script code that iterates through an existing view in Bridge and identifies which thumbs I want to keep and which ones I don't want displayed, but I can't figure out how to modify which thumbs are or are not displayed. Thumbs have a "hidden" property, but that is listed as readOnly and setting it to true does, indeed, not do anything. I can't tell if a Browse Scheme is what I should be implementing or not. I want nearly all of the functionality of the existing file view so I'd hate to have to re-implement all of that in my own scheme. Is it possible to "hook" or "sub-class" the existing file view or file browse scheme so I can modify it slightly? --John

I am trying to get a particular metadata property from a file into Bridge JavaScript. I can see many metadata properties in JavaScript and the one I want is listed in the metadata panel in Bridge, but I can't see to figure out how to access it programmatically. The one I'm interested in is the RAW filename. It's my understanding that this code should work for accessing it, but it doesn't. var metaData = thumb.metadata; metaData.namespace = "http://ns.adobe.com/camera-raw-settings/1.0/"; var acrRawFileName = metaData.RawFileName; But, even though I can see this property in Bridge, all I get in JavaScript is an empty string. I can access other properties in other namespaces like DateTimeOriginal in the EXIF namespace. Anyone know how to programmatically access the original raw filename in the camera raw metadata namespace? --John

I have a weird problem with the ExtendScript debugger application. When my script hits a breakpoint, Bridge stops doing anything and the ExtendScript Toolkit window bar flashes in the system tray. I click on the ExtendScript window bar to activate that app and bring it to the front. When the ExtendScript debugger comes to the front, I see the code window appropriately, but the other panes in the debugger are not active. They are grayed out and clicking in them does nothing. I can't inspect variables in the data browser. But, if I minimize and then restore the ExtendScript app or click on another app and then come back to ExtendScript or just hit Alt-Tab once and then Alt-Tab again, everything fixes itself and I can then use the data browser fine. This appears to be some sort of ExtendScript bug. I know how to work around it, but it's an annoyance that seems like it should get fixes at some point. --John

I have a function hooked up to a menu item in Bridge. So far, I've been unable to get the ExtendScript debugger to set a breakpoint in that script and/or step through it. How would I set it up to do that? My function is loading in the startup directory. It's got a #target "bridge" in the file and $.level = 1; The startup code runs properly and installs the menu item. The callback is executed when I pick the menu item. But, I can't get the debugger to capture the callback function. --John

I have Adobe CS2 English installed in an Spanish Windows XP Professional SP2 work station. None of the scripts under the Tool menu works for me (Photoshop, Illustrator nor Indesign contact sheet). Now there is an update that solves that problem in Japanese systems. Is there any work around for Spanish systems? Note: I installed the demo version of Illustrator CS2 in Mac OS X. The "show me" help doesn't work if my language preferences are set to spanish, but thanks to the multilingual support of Mac OS X I can change the system language to english and everything works ok. So, I supose this is the same problem I'm seeing in windows XP, but in windows you can't change the language. Is there a way to script for any language?

Hi all, I've noticed, when using Thumbnail.moveTo() on a folder with a bunch of images in it, say 2GB of data, Bridge locks up after moving about 1GB. Anybody else notice this? Robert, if you're out there, is this a known bug? I've also seen it non-scripting, when just dragging a thumbnail to another folder. Thanks, Bart

I'm game to learn Bridge scripting if it can do what I want, but I have no idea how I even get started in learning what can and can't be done from Bridge scripting. So, here are a couple questions. If someone can give me some guidance on whether it can be done, I'll dive in and figure out how. I'm interested in adding a new view to Bridge that would filter out original files when there is an edited copy in the same directory with a common root name. I'd like to only show the edited copy and not the root name. In other cases, I'd like to select only the latest version. Is it possible to use the Bridge scripting to make a new menu item that would select only the latest copy of an image? I'd write my own logic in JavaScript to examine the filenames and decide which images should be selected. Also, is it possible to create new views in Bridge so that I could view only the latest version of an image? Again, I'd write my own logic in JavaScript to device which images should be displayed.

In the docs I saw: If you let your mouse pointer rest over a variable or function in an Editor tab, the result of evaluating that variable or function is displayed as a help tip. and You can turn off the display of help tips using the Display JavaScript variables and Enable UI help tips checkboxes on the Help Options page of the Preferences dialog. I can't get either help tips or the var display to work on XP whether the script is running or not. Is this a known problem or is there a magic incantation I am missing? The databrowser is working just fine, though, so I'm not completely blind. ciao, -X

I cannot get the listbox creation property "multiselect" to work on a win xp machine. I should be able to either control or shift click to make a multiselect of listbox items, but I can only select one item. I took a look at the ImportCamera_BR script and noticed that Bob was using the same procedure and this implementation does not work on my computer either. The code Bob uses is: d.folderPath = folderPathGroup.add( "listbox", undefined, {multiselect:true} ); d.folderPath.preferredSize = [400,100]; ... Is this a known bug or am I doing something wrong? Rory

Ok, as per the Adobe Bridge Javascript reference, I'm trying to add a custom browse scheme as follows:<br /><br />app.registerBrowseScheme("mim");<br />var root = new Thumbnail("mim://root", "My MIM");<br />root.displayPath="http://www.pbase.com/"; // just testing<br />root.displayMode="web";<br /><br />app.favorites.insert(root);<br /><br />This inserts the 'My MIM' entry in Favorites - however, there are 2 thumbnails not 1 as expected. Subsequent invocations add another thumbnail each time, so I modified the code as below to check whether it had already been inserted:<br /><br />var hasMIM = false;<br />for (var i=0; i<app.favorites.length; i++)<br />{<br /> if (app.favorites.name == "My MIM")<br /> {<br /> hasMIM = true;<br /> }<br />}<br /> <br />if (!hasMIM)<br />{<br /> app.favorites.insert(root);<br />}<br /><br /&gt

I must be doing something dumb. I ran the script debugger.jsx by double clicking on the script in the windows explorer (from the photoshop javascript samples) and it worked fine, opening the ESTK and breaking on the debugger statement. I then changed the directive #target photoshop to #target bridge, resaved the script as BridgeDebugger.jsx and then tried to run it. Nothing happens. I also have tried inserting breakpoints in the ESTK for scripts that are in the startup folder and execute from the bridge menu. The breakpoints do not work, and the debugger statement does not work. I have made sure to include the statements $.level = 2; debugger; Bridge was open at the time. CS2, Windows XP TIA Rory

I have a power PC G4 Dual 450MHz running 10.3.9 768 MB SDRAM I have sent an e-mail to feedback and made a phone call to Adobe(that was a real experience!!!) to ask about an issue I have with CS2. I still haven't gotten an answer that works, so I thought I would go right to the TOP. I have a Minolta DiMage 7. When I take "jpeg" photos and download them into the computer the extension that comes up is JPE. In CS I had no problem with them opening in the browser. I recently upgraded to CS2 and upgraded camera raw plug-in also. However when I open bridge to view the thumbnails the photos with the JPE extension will not open. They will open OK in photohsop, just not in bridge. I have tried changing the extension on the photos while in bridge to.jpeg and .jpg but that doesn't seem to do the trick. I have tried changing the extension in the file on the hard drive. That doesn't work either. Needless to say this is a real problem for me when using CS2. I still have CS that I can use, but that

Hi everyone ! http://www.jkozniewski.com/tools/CSUIB_2.0a.zip So, after 2 months of sleeping for 4h/day... After almost 3000 lines of ActionScript code... Finally there is alpha version of CSUIB the second This time it's stand alone app with support for CS2 JS GUI, ability to save and open your projects (as most of you asked for this feature) And much more! But there is still so much to do... So, as always I'm opened for your feedback and, what's more, your comments and requests are essential for further development of this app. Regards, Jakub Kozniewski.

How can I generate a preview of my old InDesign CS Files in the Bridge automatically without having to open them manually and save them again? Is there a possibility to script the Bridge and let it open my InDesign files and overwrite it generating a preview of it? Best from Germany, Andy