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T
ttwn
Participating Frequently
January 8, 2007
Question

Location of plug-ins directory

  • January 8, 2007
  • 6 replies
  • 2616 views
I'm a plug-in developer and currently use the following registry entry to find the location of Photoshop plug-ins:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Adobe/Photoshop/...

This gives me the location of the plug-ins folder. I have a few questions.

Is there a way to find the name of the Filters subdirectory. Note that it's not always "Filters". In French, for example, it's "Filtres".

Is this a valid technique. Or, put another way, will CS3 and Lightroom place similar entries in the registry? Or should I be gathering this information in a different way?
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6 replies

T
ttwnAuthor
Participating Frequently
October 12, 2008
I have seen a few cases, especially on German installations, where Adobe had the wrong entry in the registry. I do an MSI install that runs an executable, after installation, to copy the plug-in to the appropriate place. If it finds an entry in the registry, but no corresponding directory, it displays a warning that the plug-in was not installed. I also include instructions for manual installation.

For the Filters directory I check for Filters (English) Filter (German) and Filtres (French). If none of the above, but there is a Plug-ins directory, I simply install under it.

Things get more interesting on Vista-64. There you have to check for 32-bit Photoshop and 64-bit Photoshop and install an appropriate plug-in in the appropriate place. We'll all know more about this in a few days.
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_Chaker_Nakhli_
Participating Frequently
October 12, 2008
The registry key PluginPath contains a wrong value on my install! it is set to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Plug-Ins\ on my machine, which is correct for the English version but not for my French install! Using this dir makes my plugin not to work.

Curvemeister: Did you try this registry key on localized installs?

Thank you
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_Chaker_Nakhli_
Participating Frequently
October 12, 2008
* You're right, the folder names inside the plugin forder do not matter. you can create your own directory in the plugin dir and put your files there, it will work perfectly.

* I can find the registry path you gave: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop but the key PluginPath isn't there, at least for CS3. I found it under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\10.0
I guess the installer should detect the versions available undder HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop and then ask the user for which version it should install the plugin (if more than one version is supported).

I do not have CS2 installed. Does it put the PluginPath key under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\9.0 or directly under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop?

Thank you in advance!
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_Curvemeister_
Known Participant
October 12, 2008
On Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:50:15 -0700, Chaker_Nakhli@adobeforums.com wrote:

> * You're right, the folder names inside the plugin forder do not matter.
> you can create your own directory in the plugin dir and put your files
> there, it will work perfectly.

This happens occasionally.

> * I can find the registry path you gave:
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop but the key PluginPath isn't
> there, at least for CS3. I found it
> under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\10.0 I guess the
> installer should detect the versions available undder
> HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop and then ask the user for which version
> it should install the plugin (if more than one version is supported).

Yes, this is exactly what is required. Enumerate the keys in the Photoshop
folder - there is one for each installed version of Photoshop. There is a
similar key for Elements.

> I do not have CS2 installed. Does it put the PluginPath key under
> HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop\9.0 or directly under
> HKLM\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop?

Under the 9.0 key there will be another key called PluginPath. The default
value - with a blank name - for that key is the pathname.

> The registry key PluginPath contains a wrong value on my install! it
> is set to C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Plug-Ins\ on my
> machine, which is correct for the English version but not for my French
> install! Using this dir makes my plugin not to work.

I don't have an explanation, but I do have one guess. Is it possible that
at some point you installed an English version of Photoshop - for example a
tryout version?

> Curvemeister: Did you try this registry key on localized installs?

Yes, my product is used in dozens of countries. It is certainly possible
that I'm using the wrong keys - I can only tell you about what I have used
and what seems to work. I don't know about any official documentation for
this. Perhaps someone else has something to say about this.
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_Chaker_Nakhli_
Participating Frequently
September 27, 2008
Thanks a lot Curvemeister. I'll try this out immediately!
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_Chaker_Nakhli_
Participating Frequently
September 27, 2008
In french the directories are as follows:

Filters: "Adobe Photoshop CS3\Modules externes\Filtres"
Automations: "Adobe Photoshop CS3\Modules externes\Automatisation"
Import/export: "Adobe Photoshop CS3\Modules externes\Importation-Exportation"

Is it possible to get this info from PS registry keys? It is not a good idea to hard code the pathes in the plug-in installer...

Thanks

Chaker
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_Curvemeister_
Known Participant
September 27, 2008
Enumerate each Photoshop product by scanning registry entries in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Adobe\Photoshop

Within each of those registry keys, the base plugin folder is the default
entry in the PluginPath key.

Note: the Photoshop installer also saves the same folder name in the
PluginPath registry *value* under the per product key. This value contains
the same pathname, and is absent for Elements installations. If you will
also be installing under Elements, use the key for uniformity.

I have not been able to find a reference for naming the folders inside the
plugin folder, but these names do not seem to matter. I use "Filters" for
the folder name, and this works even on non-English systems. The same may
be true of automation and Import-Export.
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_David_C__Blake_
Participating Frequently
February 3, 2007
I have run into a similar issue: the file format plug-in directory on German systems is ../Photoshop/Zusatzmodule/Dateiformat/

Adobe needs to provide a way to find the localized names of the directories so that we can determine where to install the plug-in. Perhaps this already exists, but I haven't seen anything like this in the SDKs.
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