Additional modal UI window creation

[babichfx]

Hey!

I would like to be able to save and load the presets but also would be great to have a gallery with an already saved ones.

I want to open the new modal window over the AE to give a possibility to see what are you choosing. It should work fine on both systems - Win and Macos.

What would be the best way to create and customize this kind of multiplatform window? 

[Mylenium]

That would all be a custom control like the various editors in Red Giant, Trapcode, Sapphire and whatnot, so it's entirely up to you. the only real trick would be the data structures so the settings are handed over cortrectly to the APIs.

Mylenium

[babichfx]

Yeah, exactly! Sorry I was not clear.

The question is what technology, library, API, SDK or whatever else can I use/learn to do create this window?

All the "backend" is prepared, but dont know how to do the frontend 🤷‍

[Mylenium]

https://ae-plugins.docsforadobe.dev/effect-ui-events/custom-ui-and-drawbot.html

Mylenium

[babichfx]

Thanks! As I know the Drawbolt can be used just to draw on Effect panel. But I need for a separate window first.

Sachar, thanks. Agree the scripted window looks a bit rustic. 

Not sure I understand right, you wrote "quictime" -is that a QuickTime library? Ill try to find an information.

The option to write the different code for win and mac generally is fine, but is it true Ill need to write on SWIFT on mac to create a window and customize it? Would be double load to learn the API and the language at the same time 😃

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

At this point you can work just fine with C/ C++ on Macs. Swift will eventually become the core language, but I doubt they will ever not support an industry behemoth like C, be it just via some libraries that convert the function calls or a runtime compiler. Shachar no doubt means Qt rather than Quicktime: https://www.qt.io/ .

Mylenium

[shachar carmi · Accepted solution]

easiest way would be to use javascript to create the window. you can launch it from the plugin using AEGP_ExecuteScript().

the upside is that it's cross platform by default. the downside is that it tends to look kind of harsh and non-chic.

you could use c++ libraries such as quictime that are also cross platform to create native os windows that are much more  cusomizable. downside is that it's a lot more complex to build, and some libraries cost money to use.

least easy way would be to build the window separately for windows and osx using the native os API.

[babichfx]

Ok Guys, thanks for help!

I faced to issue I cant solve.

I created the window on mac with  runModalForWindow:_window.

After that the main app gui locked but the opened window also blocked. What was missed?

If I create the window without modal call - everything works fine.

Should I setup anything from AE API? Maybe there is another way to block the AE?