Indesign 18.0 idleTask not run

[pierrem32632919]

Hello, during the migration of a plugin from 17 to 18, I saw that the idleTask in my case I use CIdleTask did not run when the indesign desktop application is not the one used, for example I work on indesign then I switch to the terminal; in my case I use macos monterey on m1 and ventura on intel.

you can find the same problem on the sample provided in the CustomDataLink sdk in the CusDtLnkLinkResourceStateUpdaterIdleTask class by adding logs in the runtask

[pierrem32632919]

Sorry for the bad english on the first post, here is a corrected version :

Regression on Indesign 18.0 : Idle tasks don't run anymore when app is not focused.

While migrating a c++ plugin we made from Indesign 17 to 18, it seems idle task (in my case a CIdletask instance) don't run anymore when Indesign isn't focused. Tested on MacOs Monterey (M1) and MacOs Ventura (Intel).

It also seems the same problem can be reproduced with the sample provided in the CustomDataLink SDK, in the CusDtLnkLinkResourceStateUpdaterIdleTask class, in which I added logs (in the runtask) to check if the function was executed

[Manan Joshi]

I thought this is how it's designed. Quoting an excerpt from the SDK documentation below

"An idle task is a function point that can called when the application is waiting to receive user events"

This gives me an impression that the application being active but not recieving any input from the user is the condition for the Idle task to run.

Did you check it with an older version and see how it behaves.

-Manan

[Robert Tkaczyk]

Is this a quote from the actual SDK? 

"An idle task is a function point that can called when the application is waiting to receive user events"

Wow... 

[Manan Joshi]

Hi @Robert Tkaczyk it is and I had already noticed what you are pointing but did not bother to change it. Afterall, humans are not infalliable 🙂

I checked the SDK for CC2023, I am not sure when this typo crept in as I keep docs for only one copy of the SDK to save space.

-Manan

[pierrem32632919]

Our plugin has worked based on the use of the CIdleTask for a bit more than 15 years,  to carry out treatments when the user doesn’t actively use the application and doing certain action types.

The SDK documentation (checked on both versions 17 (working) and 18 (not working) doesn’t mention the need for the app to be active either : “Idle tasks are given a chance to execute when there are no events in the EventQueue for the application to process. Idle tasks are a great way to defer expensive operations and allow the user to continue using the application”.

I found another ancient but vaguely related topic on the forum mentioning it, which shows that it used to work before :
https://community.adobe.com/t5/indesign-discussions/cs6-mac-idletask-isn-t-running-if-indesign-is-no...

Has the feature officially changed (and if so, what other way do we have to execute treatments when the app is in the background), or is it a bug introduced on InDesign CC 2023 ?

[Manan Joshi]

I ain't contesting that you are missing something. Your quote from the SDK also betters fits the assumption that the application is the one in focus, as a suspened application might halt its event queue as well.

Having said that the best possible way out of this is to use an older version of InDesign that worked for you and be exactly sure that it works the way you say, then we can provide exact information to the Adobe Engineering team as which version worked and which version is not working.

Looking at the discussion you sent I see the same behaviour(erroneuos one) being verified for CS5 onwards. If your code has been working for 15 years then surely it must be a much recent version of the application wher it worked the way you need, just identify it.

-Manan

[G. Lobry]

Hi Manam,

As said previously, our plug-in works correctly from the beginning (InDesign CS, plugin ID was register in decembre 2006) till almost now (InDesign 2022 17.x). With the latest versions of InDesign 2023 (18.x), the CIDleTask is not called when the application is not the frontmost.

So, to answer your question, the much recent version of the application where it works is the 17.4.1.

Georges

[Manan Joshi]

Thanks for sharing the info. I think now only Adobe engineering team would be able to comment on what changed in this respect between the versions you quote. You might need to open a support case with them. I am tagging @Rishabh_Tiwari to see if he can get us some info on this

-Manan

[G. Lobry]

I have opened a support case like I do every time I have such a case (January 18, 2023).

The robot answers me but no human response since.

Thats why I am coming back here to find someone to report the problem to.

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi @G. Lobry ,

We're so sorry to hear about the trouble. Please DM me the case reference number from the support so that I can check and escalate it further. You can DM me by clicking on my name.

Thank you @Manan Joshi, for tagging. I'll share the update in this discussion as soon as I hear from the team.

Thanks

Rishabh

[Rishabh_Tiwari]

Hi All,

Thank you for your patience. A bug is logged, and I'll update this discussion as soon as I hear from the team.

Thanks

Rishabh

[Jamesey2001]

Hi All, 

This issue is affecting some of our products too and came to light when some customers reported it recently.

In our use case, we use the idletaskthread to upload content asynchronously to a web endpoint. This now gets suspended when the user switches apps ( quite likely if they are waiting for content to upload or doing other tasks ).

We have tested in CC2021/2022 and it works fine, only CC2023 is affected at this time.
Do you have a timeline for a fix for this?

Will this still be an issue in the upcoming 19.x version of ID?

[sreeder]

Hi Rishabh,

Do you have an update on this issue. We are experencing issues with this and wondering if there will be a fix any time soon?

Thanks

Simon