Better workflow to export/import actions

@Kukurykus 

Oh I see what you mean. Thanks.

My questions before your reply were not related to that though.

All I wanted to know if that particular script was supposed to run inside xtools (because I was/am assuming that that is an app?) or if I could run it by itself (which I then tested and realized it can) and also, if that script can be changed to bypass the window where it asks where to save the backuped actions, because I want my actions to always backup to a specific folder, so being asked where the destination is, is just an extra step that I would like to bypass, if possible.

If you don't want to keep your .jsx's in 'Presets / Folder' of your Photoshop but elsewhere and still have them seen by Photoshop (so displayed as items in 'File / Scripts') do as I described.

@Kukurykus 

Sorry, but I don't understand your message... can you clarify what you mean and what that would do?

Thank you

Create system shortcut to .jsx files in backup folder and put it in 'Presset / Scripts'.

@Stephen Marshsorry, by question wasn't clear enough. My question was if that file was a normal script that could be run by PS or if it was a file that would only run by using any other files inside that xtools thing. Again, I'm not familiar with xtools and so I saw a lot of files there, assuming that it was some kind of "app" and that "app" would then read certain jsx files, including the one you mentioned, making it impossible to read the jsx file by itself. Does it make sense?

Anyway, from your reply, I understood it is a script, ran it and it's a great alternative indeed!

Now, I opened that file and I was like WHAAAAT? 20k lines of code?!

My question: do you know if all that code is indeed only for saving the actions?

Also, do you know how to bypass that panel where it asks where to save the actions and just insert the destination on the code itself? For example I have a Backups folder where I save a lot of backup files from different apps. Since I started using Keyboard Maestro I would like to create a macro that would run that backup for PS actions, but I would like it to go straight to my Backups folder (/Users/dannywyatt/Backups). Is this easy to achieve? Do you know how to make that change to the code?

Thanks! 🙂

Scripts can be installed, browsed, dragged onto the Photoshop application icon etc.

https://prepression.blogspot.com/2017/11/downloading-and-installing-adobe-scripts.html

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/scripting.html

@Stephen Marsh 

Thanks for the link to xtools. I'm not familiar with what this is, but I downloaded it and I can see the jsx file you mentioned. Should I put this on my scripts folder and run it from inside PS? Is that how I should use it?

Thank you!

Also, it seems weird to me that saving more than 1 set isn't available, even if it would save each set separately, not as a single atn file. It would be way better than going 1 set at a time.

By @TiagoRocha

The expectation is that the action set is saved to an .atn file when it is first created or when updated. So repeating again multiple times for multiple action sets is likely beyond the original scope. Yes, it would be nice to have a native feature to save multiples in one go.

You may have missed this in the other topic, however, the link to my blogpost mentions the following:

There is a script in xtools (ActionsPaletteToFiles.jsx) to automatically export out each action set in the actions palette as individual .atn files (actions containing binary data may take a long time to save).

@Stephen Marsh I don't think it needed a major reworking or changing how sets and actions work. Behind the scenes it could just do some stuff that we can do normally and manually. For example, if one or more actions are selected and we choose Save Actions, it would (without the user seeing the process):

1 - Create a new temporary set

2 - Create a duplicate of the selected action(s) inside that new temporary set

3 - Export that set as an atn file

4 - Delete that new temporary set once the save actions window is closed

Or it would automatically recognize that 1 or more actions were selected and it would save an atn file with just that action(s).

Or, to avoid breaking old versions as you said, sets would still be called atn, but now individual actions would have a different extension like acn, since at the moment, they don't have one. So on the menu we would have Save Actions (Set) - it would save the set (atn) the way it is now, Save Actions (Selected) - it would save the selected action(s) - new acn files.

Also, it seems weird to me that saving more than 1 set isn't available, even if it would save each set separately, not as a single atn file. It would be way better than going 1 set at a time. I started using Keyboard Maestro recently and now I am able to at least reduce the work and time when saving actions a little bit, but I still need to do one at a time when I want to create my weekly backups.

Any disadvantages I'm not aware?

By @TiagoRocha

I'm guessing that this would take a major reworking of Actions (long overdue), most likely breaking actions from older versions, or making new actions only forward compatible.

Actions may "look like a file in a folder", with the "folder" being the action set, however, this is not the case. To carry that metaphor, the "folder" contents can't be saved, only the "folder" can be saved.

The use of a "folder" for an action set, unfortunately, sets the expectation that the set is "just a folder" when it is really a latent file, which only exists in the Actions Palette.psp file until it is actually saved as an .atn file.