Generator guidelines/howto/getting started questions

As far as packaging your script, there is a packager on the Adobe Addons site that will create a zxp package. You can also post and sell it there. You can create extensions using Brackets, which setups up the basic foundation for creating an extension for you, which is nice. Davide Barranca has some tips on packaging zxp files, which I've used and is very helpful when the Addons site doesn't work well.

http://www.davidebarranca.com/2014/05/html-panels-tips-10-packaging-zxp-installers/

Few more pointers on paths in Win & Mac:

• Paths in Mac resolve to using "/" and in Windows "\". However in Windows you can use paths with "/", which makes operating easier. Also Mac paths come with a trailing "/" and Windows does not. Good idea to sanitize folders like below
• Temp path in Windows resolves to "C:/Users/Username/AppData/Local/Temp/" and in Mac "something of form /var/folders/26/d_y13s7n4hj93wrqzwbd2b_00000gn/T/"
• Plugin path in Windows resolves to "C:/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CC 2014/Plug-ins/Generator/PluginFolderName/" and in Mac "/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2014/Plug-ins/Generator/PluginFolderName/"

sanitizePath: function (path) {

        if (path) {

            path = path.replace(/\\/gi, "/")

            if (path[path.length-1] != "/") {

                path = path + "/"

            }

            return path

        }

    },

Just wanted to follow up that the packaging worked out as above, i.e. you can package a panel and generator plugin as a hybrid zxp using an mxi like below. Just copying the the plugin files to right directory starts geneartor automatically, so works out great.

One thing I had to look up is how to reference the plugin directory in generator code and it can be done using Node.js variable __dirname. So you can call jsx-files in the mxi like _generator.evaluateJSXFile(__dirname + "/foo.jsx").

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>

<macromedia-extension name="Foo Panel" id="com.yourdomain.yourapp.bundle" requires-restart="true" version="1.10.0">

   <author name="Your Name"/>

   <description/>

   <license-agreement/>

   <products>

      <product familyname="Photoshop" maxversion="15.9" primary="true" version="15.0"/>   

   </products>

   <files>

      <file destination="" file-type="CSXS" products="" minVersion="15.0" maxVersion="15.9" source="panel.zxp"/>

      <file destination="$photoshopappfolder/Plug-ins/Generator/ShopMyAppDesigner" file-type="ordinary" products="" source="main.js"/>

      <file destination="$photoshopappfolder/Plug-ins/Generator/ShopMyAppDesigner" file-type="ordinary" products="" source="package.json"/>

      <file destination="$photoshopappfolder/Plug-ins/Generator/ShopMyAppDesigner" file-type="ordinary" products="" source="foo.jsx"/>

      <file destination="$photoshopappfolder/Plug-ins/Generator/ShopMyAppDesigner" file-type="ordinary" products="" source="bar.jsx"/>

   </files>

</macromedia-extension>

For everyones info, this is based on the node module "tmp". It tries to search environment variables and defaults to "/tmp". At least in the standalone Node.js in Windows it resolves to C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Temp

_findTemporaryDirectory: function () {

  var tmpNames = ['TMPDIR', 'TMP', 'TEMP'];

  var dir = null

  for (var i = 0, length = tmpNames.length; i < length; i++) {

  dir = dir || process.env[tmpNames]

  }

  _temporaryDirectory =  dir || '/tmp'

  console.log("_findTemporaryDirectory: " + _temporaryDirectory)

}

The Github site is the main place you want to look. The latest Photoshop sdk  has some general info on the Photoshop network API (connectionsdk), and some code samples.

There have been some additions to the APIs and the json format we use to report document info.  But existing APIs should continue to work in the future (where possible).  The json has a semver version to mark changes we make in newer versions.

Do's dont's .. Well I suppose mostly just follow the github project, look at the wikis, code samples, ask questions.

Temp files, there is probably a node.js/os convention for that.

Packaging, not sure.  zxp is usually used for panels, you may be able to install a plugin too

There's an ExtendScript-able preference for generator enabled/disabled.  You should be able to use that in a panel.  Sorry, I don't have the details handy, I usually use the ScriptListener plugin to tease out ExtendScript for things I don't know.