Insert sequence in media placeholder via script Premiere Pro

[asd21ewads]

Hi, guys,

Any chance of implementing adding sequence to media placeholder in Premiere Pro via script?

We have thousands of users that suffer from the lack of this feature. 

Our app imports premade templates and we would like to automatically insert placeholders for users.

The lack of this feature confuses users. 

You can edit everything in MOGRT file via script beside media placeholders. 

[Bruce Bullis · Accepted solution]

PPro has no additional ExtendScript API work planned. Any new API work would be addressed once PPro moves to UXP-based extensibility; no dates available. 

[asd21ewads]

Once it moves will I have to rewrite all the software to be compatible with it?

[Bruce Bullis]

Yes.

[asd21ewads]

wow, you guys can mess things up. Don't mind people that spent 5-10 years building and supporting software around you. Your regular releases cause enough headaches. Normal companies do backward compatibility for APIs, have you heard about things like that?

[Bruce Bullis · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure what you think we've messed up; here's some further context, to better understand our forthcoming changes.

The last breaking change to PPro integration was 11 years ago, in 2012; we replaced Flex panels with CEP + ExtendScript integration. We supported both integration methods for ~1.5 years, before discontinuing support for Flex panels. 

For the past 11 years, we've improved and expanded the functionality available via CEP + ExtendScript...without breaking backward compatibility. So yes, we have heard about things like that.

Like other Adobe point products, PPro is replacing CEP + ExtendScript integration, wherein the UI is handled by JavaScript of a web page being loaded in a Chromium instance and host interactions are handled by ExtendScript, with UXP integration, wherein all interactions are handled via modern JavaScript.

I answered "Yes" to your question, because there is no way Adobe can make existing integrations work under UXP without modification; existing integrations will need to be rewritten. 

While we work to make UXP integration available, we are no longer implementing additional ExtendScript APIs; any new requests (like yours, to provide an API to manipulate media placeholders within .mogrts) will be delayed, until UXP integration is available. 

[asd21ewads]

I can give a 10 hours lecture about where you "messed up" and thousands of workarounds we have to do but this is beside the point of the conversation. I can give you one example with After Effects. In the 2022 release, there was a bug that broke parent layers. We had around 20,000 After Effects projects we had to redo! to make a workaround.

You're giving an example of something 12 years ago. At that point, there were almost no or very few third-party developers. There are thousands of developers building products around Adobe right now. You cannot compare those 2 things. If you're building an ecosystem of developers and users you cannot just say "hey, go rewrite everything". Any small change you make has a ripple effect on users and developers.

We've been building our software using Extendscript for 8 years now. There is god knows how million lines of code. How could you expect us to just rewrite it? It will cost me 6-7 figures to "rewrite" it.

If you would say hey, we will put a freeze on the development of Extendscript but all apps will work indefinitely. If you want to use the old version or play around with the new version. That would be justifiable. But to force people to rewrite the things they have been building for years is insanity. I understand that if someone chooses to make plugins for some platform there is always a risk of breaking changes and some rewrites, that's fine, I haven't made any posts in my life, just quietly rewrote the software and moved on. But it is reasonable to expect that the platform will not go mad and throw away everything.

Just to be clear about my point. New changes - OK. Stopping supporting existing tech (even in 2 years) - NOT OK. 

You're supporting extensions, scripts, and plugins all at once right now. What would be the problem to leave current extensions? As I understand Exntedscript will be gone from everywhere including After Effects, and Premiere Pro completely.

[Bruce Bullis]

In both the 2012 case, and the "UXP change someday soon" case, Adobe has worked and will work with our partner community to ensure that important integrations are supported, and provide time for partners to migrate critical integrations to newer architecture, before disabling the old.