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July 31, 2011
Question

Opening a File Requester

  • July 31, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 1069 views

Is it possible to open a File Requester Dialog using the After Effects SDK?

For example to load Effect specific data triggered by a custom UI button press.

- David

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Community Expert
August 1, 2011

the simplest way by far is to use java. (it is also cross platform)

you can run java from within an effect (or aegp).

as simple as:

ExectureScript( "File.openDialog" );

in the following thread there's a excellent example of how to use java and retrieve the returned string from it.

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3625857#3625857

the other solution is to use platform specific OS calls.

takes more code, but offers the full capabilities of the c++ API of the system.

in my opinion,

for such a simple, too-rare-to-matter-for-efficiency task, go with java, and move on with your life.

August 1, 2011

Thanks for the answer!

The only trouble with that approach is that the ExecuteScript() function requires a AEGP_PluginID,

which is only available for AEGP plugins as far as I see,

but I need it in an Effects plugin.

- David

Community Expert
August 1, 2011

The only trouble with that approach is that the ExecuteScript() function requires a AEGP_PluginID,

no it doesn't.

most functions that require an AEGP_PluginID, including ExecuteScript(), take NULL for that param with no problem.