Cannot get a TabbedPalette of type "web" (browser palette) in Bridge CC 2018

[Ienne65]

I must be dumb--and I am certainly not at all familiar with Javascript and Extendscript--but I cannot get TabbedPalette to work....

I have a script which used to work in past versions of Bridge and, among other things, it opened an HTML page in a TabbedPalette. It does not work anymore because the TabbedPalette is not created, and I do not have a clue why.

Here is the simplest example (copied quasi-verbatim from the Adobe Bridge CC 2018 Javascript Reference):

#target bridge
// create browser palette
var webPalette = new TabbedPalette(app.document, "myWebPalette", "myWebID", "web", "http://www.adobe.com");
$.writeln("webPalette visible: " + webPalette.visible);
// create ScriptUI palette
var scriptPalette = new TabbedPalette(app.document, "myScriptPalette", "myScripID", "script");
scriptPalette.content.add('statictext', [15,15,105,35], 'Display this text in my tab.');
$.writeln("scriptPalette visible: " + scriptPalette.visible);

I can run it in Adobe Extendscript Toolkit CC and the scriptPalette is created as expected in Bridge. Not the webPalette. I see no error message of any sort. The output on the console is as follows:

webPalette visible: undefined
scriptPalette visible: true

Hence it seems that the webPalette is not even created. Certainly it is not visible.

What am I doing wrong?

p.

--

Adobe Bridge CC 8.0.1.282 x64

Adobe Extendscript Toolkit CC 4.0.0.1

Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

[SuperMerlin]

You are not doing anything wrong, it is just one more bug with ScriptUI

It is a pity that the Bridge team do not fix any of these bugs.

The only answer it to use a previous Bridge version.

[Ienne65]

Thanks, SuperMerlin. Suddenly, I feel a little less dumb. But I am naively astonished that something so big is broken and not repaired (I have the vague feeling that the script did not work already in a recent CC 2017 version, but I may be wrong). Is there anyway to check that Adobe acknowledges this to be a bug and not anything else? Is there a way to see if Adobe suggests a workaround? I found no trace of the problem searching the web (hence this question in the forum), Sorry for the silly questions, but I have no experience of Adobe's support system....

[SuperMerlin]

Adobe will not acknowledge any bugs in ScriptUI, they know its bust and everytime there is an update more gets bust.

It all started with CS6 64bit and they haven't fixed anything!

[Ienne65]

SuperMerlin, I am afraid you must be right. I submitted a support case and it has been so far a most surreal experience.

First, in a chat with Adobe Support, someone wanted repeatedly to take control of my computer to "fix the issue"; I repeatedly asked whether he/she had tried the above code him-/herself and finally I was told that yes (whether it is true or not I cannot tell) and that he/she observed the same behaviour. Nevertheless, even if the bug appears perfectly repeatable, the person insisted to control remotely my PC (which I refused) and to get some logs from my PC (which ultimately I agreed to). This took some 1h30m and the result was a support case submitted.

Since then, I have some other Kafaesque discussion with someone who keeps telling me that the "Web gallery output feature is available only until Bridge v. 7.0". I just realized that he/she is talking of something completely different and probably has never read what my problem is about.

Is there any way to escalate this? No point?

[Ienne65]

On a more practical note, does anyone know if there is a simple way to spawn a browser (e.g., Firefox) from ScriptUI? That would be a possible workaround....

[SuperMerlin]

Sorry to hear that Adobe is behaving badly yet again!

Would something like this work for you?

var list = ["https://forums.adobe.com/community/bridge/content",
"https://forums.adobe.com/community/photoshop/photoshop_scripting/content",
"https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family"];
var cmd = "start  /B firefox.exe \""+ list[0]+ "\" ";
app.system(cmd);

[Ienne65]

SuperMerlin, thanks. That is exactly the workaround I was thinking of (and I am too much of a Javascript ignoramus to know...).

[Kukurykus · Accepted solution]

You may also log a bug at Bridge | Photoshop Family Customer Community​ but I doubt they're going to even answer anything if some experienced scripter like Paul Riggott​​ who helped this community a lot has no power to make Adobe Bridge Team at least fix few - most irritating bugs. What is point to relase new Bridge versions with stuff noone needs, removeing that what was useful, producing next bugs instead just focus on that users do want and mainly on fixing everything that originally worked. Just read it from beggining and you understand there is no communication at all:

Bridge: ExtendScript UI not drawing correctly | Photoshop Family Customer Community

[Ienne65]

Thanks, I did not see the post you mention. I guess it is the best documented answer to my question. Still, the code by SuperMerlin suggests the best workaround--thanks, again!

Personally, I am surprised at the apparent incompetence of the Adobe support staff: I chatted with people who do not seem to understand the notion of a reproducible bug or corresponded with others who give repeatedly answers which have simply nothing to do with the problem described. Pretty depressing.