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Lanto Cadley
Lanto Cadley
Inspiring
September 21, 2022
Answered

I'm confused as to what tools I need in order to run scripts in Premiere, After Effects, etc

  • September 21, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 343 views

I hope this isn't something that has been beat into the ground already in the discussions page. Though I do like to find information on my own, this is an issue that just gets more confusing the more I google. 

 

As far as I am aware, for a long while the program that was used to build and run scripts in Premiere and After Effects was ExtendScript Toolkit. At some point within the last year or two, this program was no longer recieving development support, and would not be a viable resource moving forward. Now it is my understanding that there is something called ExtendScript Debugger, which is to run in Visual Studio Code. 

 

The Questions: 

 

Is there a difference between the functionality of ExtendScript Toolkit and ExtendScript Debugger in Visual Code Studio? 

 

Is the ExtendScript Debugger in Visual Code Studio supported by an Adobe development team?

 

Are the scripting guides for Premiere and After Effects still relevant to ExtendScript Debugger?

 

 

I hope these aren't too much a burden to answer, and I appreciate your time.  

 

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Manan Joshi

    HI @Lanto Cadley,

    Here is the thing. MAC discontinued support for 32 bit application support from Catalina onwards so a situation arose wherein MAC users would not be able to to use ExtendScript Toolkit anymore since it's 32 bit. There were two options either to update ExtendScript Toolkit or create a new thing. Adobe chose not to update ExtendScript Toolkit and instead created a plugin for VSCode. So now, for the users on MAC, the only choice available is the VSCode plugin and for WIN users they still can use ExtendScript Toolkit as well as the VSCode plugin. However, the bottom line is that ExtendScript Toolkit will no longer be updated and any further work that Adobe does would only be on the VSCode plugin

    @Lanto Cadley wrote:

    Is there a difference between the functionality of ExtendScript Toolkit and ExtendScript Debugger in Visual Code Studio? 

    Nothing much you can do a lot of stuff using the VSCode plugin that you can do with ExtendScript Toolkit, like debugging your scripts, looking at the call stack, variable values etc. Some things are missing like the ability to browse DOM, profiling , you need to setup debugging via making entries in a json file etc. See the documentation here for further details on this.

    @Lanto Cadley wrote:

    Is the ExtendScript Debugger in Visual Code Studio supported by an Adobe development team?

    Yes, infact it is developed by Adobe itself

    @Lanto Cadley wrote:

    Are the scripting guides for Premiere and After Effects still relevant to ExtendScript Debugger?

    Yes, the way you code and things that worked or did not work before would remain the same as that is dependent upon the scripting engine implemented inside the native application. So unless there is an update within the application's engine those thing remain the same

    I hope this clears it out for you. Try it out and share if you find anything confusing or if something does not seem to work

    -Manan

    1 reply

    M
    Community Expert
    Manan JoshiCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    September 22, 2022

    HI @Lanto Cadley,

    Here is the thing. MAC discontinued support for 32 bit application support from Catalina onwards so a situation arose wherein MAC users would not be able to to use ExtendScript Toolkit anymore since it's 32 bit. There were two options either to update ExtendScript Toolkit or create a new thing. Adobe chose not to update ExtendScript Toolkit and instead created a plugin for VSCode. So now, for the users on MAC, the only choice available is the VSCode plugin and for WIN users they still can use ExtendScript Toolkit as well as the VSCode plugin. However, the bottom line is that ExtendScript Toolkit will no longer be updated and any further work that Adobe does would only be on the VSCode plugin

    @Lanto Cadley wrote:

    Is there a difference between the functionality of ExtendScript Toolkit and ExtendScript Debugger in Visual Code Studio? 

    Nothing much you can do a lot of stuff using the VSCode plugin that you can do with ExtendScript Toolkit, like debugging your scripts, looking at the call stack, variable values etc. Some things are missing like the ability to browse DOM, profiling , you need to setup debugging via making entries in a json file etc. See the documentation here for further details on this.

    @Lanto Cadley wrote:

    Is the ExtendScript Debugger in Visual Code Studio supported by an Adobe development team?

    Yes, infact it is developed by Adobe itself

    @Lanto Cadley wrote:

    Are the scripting guides for Premiere and After Effects still relevant to ExtendScript Debugger?

    Yes, the way you code and things that worked or did not work before would remain the same as that is dependent upon the scripting engine implemented inside the native application. So unless there is an update within the application's engine those thing remain the same

    I hope this clears it out for you. Try it out and share if you find anything confusing or if something does not seem to work

    -Manan

    -Manan
      Lanto Cadley
      Lanto CadleyAuthor
      Inspiring
      September 22, 2022

      Thank you so genuinely for all this information, you've provided a great deal of context and have helped me understand the whole situtation much more clearly. 

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