Need a script for time tracking

JJMack wrote: What I'm not sure of is whether the document is in Photoshop when the events scripts get control I would guess the document would be there.

Yes I was not sure and my guess was wrong. The Event scripts get control after the event take place.  So the Document is in Photoshop after the Open event. However after a Close event when the script gets control the document is no longer in Photoshop. During the close event if there  is a current document  it is not the document you want to log. So associating such a script with a close event would be a mistake for if there is an active document it would be a different document then the one closed the wrong document.

So the only way I was able to do what you wanted was to write a script and associate it with three Photoshop events. New Document Event, Open Document Event and Save Document Event.  The Save Event catches two Photoshop file menu items "Save" and "Save As...".  Note the Photoshop file menu item "Save for Web & Devices.." does not trigger the Save event.  The Photoshop Script I wrote also turned the Save event into a "File" event for it re saves the Document to clean out the recorded start time in the meta-data and then closed the Photoshop document to end the current Photoshop session on that document.  During the Save event the script log the session in a session log in the folder the script was run from and also alerts the user with a message before the document is closed.

There is a problem also if you duplicate a document there is no event for this which is good for there should be a start time in the document being duplicated meta-data so if it triggered the script it would likely be saved and closed. As it stands now a duplicated document would have the original document edit session start time.

IMO some additional problem exists  with Photoshop Event Manager for Actions do not seem to trigger Photoshop Events.  I tested some actions that  Open New documents  and ones that open old Document and Duplicated a document  none of the actions trigged a new or open event. I would assume then an action the did a save or save as would not trigger a save event.

So I don't think there is a foolproof way of doing what you want to do.  If you have complete control over what is installed into Photoshop you may stand a chance.

I'm just a hacker when it comes down to Photoshop scripts.  Adobe's "Script Events Manager.jsx" is beyond my Javascript and Photoshop Scripting knowledge.  Perhaps someone with a good working knowledge of Javascript and Photoshop scripting could find a way to have Action Steps to trigger Script Events. Or it  might require a change in Photoshop's Action feature I do not know....