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A
alexw6348634
Inspiring
October 13, 2015
Answered

QE: What is this rabbithole?

  • October 13, 2015
  • 2 replies
  • 4926 views

Soooo as the title asks: What is QE? There's absolutely no documentation on it, and it appears to house most of the information that we want to access, albeit not reliably.

Most importantly out of anything that I'm looking for - why is there no documentation on not just QE, but the rest of everything within Premiere's capabilities of extendscript?

A single piece of code on Github is not sufficient for a documentation substitute.

As far as the seeming instability of QE:

Consider the following code for Premiere Pro CC 2015:

app.project.activeSequence.exportAsFinalCutProXML("C:\\Users\\user\\Desktop\\XML_Testing.xml")






app.enableQE()


var mySeq = qe.project.getActiveSequence(0)


var myTrack = mySeq.getVideoTrackAt(0)


var myClip = myTrack.getItemAt(0)


myClip.name

If I have a project open in Premiere and execute this using ExtendScript Toolkit, I receive back a myTrack object with a name of 'Wildlife.wmv'.
If I then switch to a new project in Premiere(does not contain 'Wildlife.wmv') and re-execute that same code in ExtendScript Toolkit, the myTrack object stays the same, and I don't receive a new object.

This seems hazardous at best.

Thank you.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Bruce Bullis

What is QE?

Short for Quality Engineering. The QE DOM was created for internal automation and testing use. Still, as you noted, it provides loads of interesting and useful functions. You also mentioned the QE DOM's Achilles heel: its project model refreshing is unreliable. Thus, the QE DOM remains officially unsupported, and not recommended.

Since CC (2013), we've been gradually moving compelling and safe functions from the QE DOM to the 'paved road' regular DOM. No dates, but we realize that sequence element manipulation [intelligent re-timing of clips, clip insertion, setting opacity...] is a pretty compelling area for panel developers, and it is appropriately prioritized in the PPro API backlog. I'll add your vote.

why is there no documentation on not just QE, but the rest of everything within Premiere's capabilities of extendscript?

In a former Adobe life, I wrote the After Effects C++ plug-in SDK's 350-page .pdf, in FrameMaker; indexed, cross-referenced and hyperlinked, which documented every param of every function, noting changes across versions...which almost no one ever read*, before simply asking me their question. Now, I spend less time in FrameMaker's print dialog inserting hand-coded DSC comments into the PostScript stream for Acrobat Distiller, so that my function suite headers remained clickable in the .pdf it eventually produced...

...and more time working with customers, writing sample code, and answering developer questions.

[On that note—we'd be happy to discuss whatever integration you'd like to create, and provide whatever help and guidance we can.]


The quick-start guide, the sample, and our help have been sufficient to get ~140 panels in the field; hopefully, we can get you going as well.

Hope [above] helps; feel free to ask me anything [here, or direct; b b b at adobe dot com]

-bbb

Bruce Bullis

Integration Engineering Manager

Adobe Pro Video

bbb@adobe.com

* I'm reasonably sure Brendan Bolles @ Fnordware, Pete & Pierre @ RE:VisionFX, and Paul @ Profound Effects, read it. Also, Zac's current AE API documentation is much better than mine was, and is now built in InDesign.


2 replies

BobPowell
BobPowell
Participant
October 20, 2016

Bruce, just for the record, I'd have read the manual. ;-)

    Bruce Bullis
    Bruce BullisCorrect answer
    Legend
    October 15, 2015

    What is QE?

    Short for Quality Engineering. The QE DOM was created for internal automation and testing use. Still, as you noted, it provides loads of interesting and useful functions. You also mentioned the QE DOM's Achilles heel: its project model refreshing is unreliable. Thus, the QE DOM remains officially unsupported, and not recommended.

    Since CC (2013), we've been gradually moving compelling and safe functions from the QE DOM to the 'paved road' regular DOM. No dates, but we realize that sequence element manipulation [intelligent re-timing of clips, clip insertion, setting opacity...] is a pretty compelling area for panel developers, and it is appropriately prioritized in the PPro API backlog. I'll add your vote.

    why is there no documentation on not just QE, but the rest of everything within Premiere's capabilities of extendscript?

    In a former Adobe life, I wrote the After Effects C++ plug-in SDK's 350-page .pdf, in FrameMaker; indexed, cross-referenced and hyperlinked, which documented every param of every function, noting changes across versions...which almost no one ever read*, before simply asking me their question. Now, I spend less time in FrameMaker's print dialog inserting hand-coded DSC comments into the PostScript stream for Acrobat Distiller, so that my function suite headers remained clickable in the .pdf it eventually produced...

    ...and more time working with customers, writing sample code, and answering developer questions.

    [On that note—we'd be happy to discuss whatever integration you'd like to create, and provide whatever help and guidance we can.]


    The quick-start guide, the sample, and our help have been sufficient to get ~140 panels in the field; hopefully, we can get you going as well.

    Hope [above] helps; feel free to ask me anything [here, or direct; b b b at adobe dot com]

    -bbb

    Bruce Bullis

    Integration Engineering Manager

    Adobe Pro Video

    bbb@adobe.com

    * I'm reasonably sure Brendan Bolles @ Fnordware, Pete & Pierre @ RE:VisionFX, and Paul @ Profound Effects, read it. Also, Zac's current AE API documentation is much better than mine was, and is now built in InDesign.


      A
      alexw6348634Author
      Inspiring
      October 19, 2015

      I'll mark it as complete because it technically is.

      I still feel that documentation is paramount to examples. The 140 panels have no weight if they're not accessible. As of now, the only one that's capable of being found easily is the one that you've put up on Github - which is a great resource in and of itself, but is not tantamount to verbose documentation that illustrates API and developer intent.

      I do appreciate the willingness to help, it's orders of magnitude better in this forum compared to the AI/PS forums. I have many more questions, and you'll be hearing more from me.

      And as far as QE - it shows a lot of promise. Hopefully it becomes usable before long.

        Bruce Bullis
        Bruce Bullis
        Legend
        October 19, 2015

        Thanks, Alex!

        Let us know what you're thinking of developing, and any specific workflows you'd like to create/support; we're happy to help.

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