kimtorch

Maybe, maybe not.
Given I was the one who started this discussion almost 5 years ago - and explicitly mentioned things like PDF creation, tagged text, importing into documents etc - I think it's reasonable for me to have an opinion on scripting capabilities.
I hope they do bring scripting capabilities to Affinity Photo, but with over 40 years experience in the printing and publishing industry, I have a very good idea of where priorities for automation should lie.
As to your point about Affinity information, it's in their best interests to give as much information as possible as early as possible. The last thing they'd want to do is spend many years working on something only to find it doesn't meet the expectations or requirements of users. They're far better off getting feedback before they're fully committed to a wrong direction.

I'm pleased to see some progress but - I'm sorry - a little underwhelmed by the examples. As a publishing company our primary tool is InDesign. Our priority for scripting is Publisher and things like placing and formatting text, importing tagged text, archiving files, creating PDFs, exporting for web etc.
Creating grids and designs is 'pretty', but it's of zero interest to us compared to the aforementioned text and document processing which happens every minute of every day and is where the real time savings are. I appreciate others may feel differently, but as a working publishing company I'm focused on the greatest savings we can get.
Thanks for the update but I'll reserve any 'excitement' for when you can demonstrate some productivity scripts in Publisher.

Maybe, maybe not.
Given I was the one who started this discussion almost 5 years ago - and explicitly mentioned things like PDF creation, tagged text, importing into documents etc - I think it's reasonable for me to have an opinion on scripting capabilities.
I hope they do bring scripting capabilities to Affinity Photo, but with over 40 years experience in the printing and publishing industry, I have a very good idea of where priorities for automation should lie.
As to your point about Affinity information, it's in their best interests to give as much information as possible as early as possible. The last thing they'd want to do is spend many years working on something only to find it doesn't meet the expectations or requirements of users. They're far better off getting feedback before they're fully committed to a wrong direction.

Maybe, maybe not.
Given I was the one who started this discussion almost 5 years ago - and explicitly mentioned things like PDF creation, tagged text, importing into documents etc - I think it's reasonable for me to have an opinion on scripting capabilities.
I hope they do bring scripting capabilities to Affinity Photo, but with over 40 years experience in the printing and publishing industry, I have a very good idea of where priorities for automation should lie.
As to your point about Affinity information, it's in their best interests to give as much information as possible as early as possible. The last thing they'd want to do is spend many years working on something only to find it doesn't meet the expectations or requirements of users. They're far better off getting feedback before they're fully committed to a wrong direction.

I have zero interest in Blender or 3D. I do have massive interest in being able to script the majority of functions of the existing app so I can automate tasks I need today. I'm bemused by the number of comments in this thread saying "do this" or "use that" and it appears they've never actually used or scripted InDesign or Quark.
I'm all for expanding the capabilities going forward but right now I'd settle for being able to create an object and place some text in it. Publisher is a print program first and foremost so the scripting functionality needs to focus on ink on paper - everything else is speculative detritus. As Adobe has the market Affinity wants, it makes perfect sense to compete in that market. I suspect if they wanted the Blender market they'd create a Blender alternative.

101, if we are talking about script support for Affinity Publisher in javascript there are tons of things people need to do on the industry side of things. E.g. batch processing of files/folders and documents, document cleanup, script enhanced search and replace, multiple formats export, automated flightchecks... even on the creative/document creation side there are tons of things that can be done which don't require plugins or full fledged programming language/compiled packages.
I am sure people will want to link AI into this as well, but for most of the industry side it is not needed or wanted. Printing processes are very specialised, most of them are connected to specific printer types and/or RIPs, and we don't need or want a randomly creative AI to muck things up at that level.
WASM compliancy sounds like a good idea to me, just as long as standalone scripts are still allowed. Which is kinda the whole idea with scripting support.

Yes we can, and it's exactly what we do.
You seem to be suggesting Affinity has no desire for our business and the way to resolve the deficiencies of their product is to use a different app.  No problem, I'm sure they're happy for you to tell people not to use their software.  I'd bet we're not the only media company who'd love to change but won't because they can't do the job we need.

They chose what they believed was most suitable.
As Adobe and Quark use Javascript - and as they're the closest competitors -  it makes sense to have a language with which potential users would be familiar.  I doubt they care what Blender etc use as they're not the users they're trying to attract.
In all the software I use none uses Python, but many support javascript and/or applescript.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

It's encouraging to hear this and I want to thank TonyB (and Affinity) for putting it out there. At least we now have some glimmer of hope for the future.
I'm happy enough with javascript as the language. It makes sense to have a single, cross platform language and with JS already available in InDesign, it means a lot of active scripters will have a head start. It will be interesting to see the syntax and object model - just imagine if a script which runs on InDesign could run on Publisher with only minor changes (similar to how Affinity works their magic with IDML files). I know it's fanciful, but it really would be magical!
I'd love to have a rough time-frame but I expect that's asking too much. As mentioned elsewhere I'd be happy with some basics to get started and then build up the library over time.  
Having an API is also encouraging. I don't write C but I can imagine there will be an active marketplace for plugins if they keep to the low-cost Affinity model.

Affinity will support Javascript and also have a 'C' based API binding interface that people can use to write plugins. We will also have the ability to create UI to support their scripts and plugins with dialogs and panels. 
We have a team developing this but the amount of work is very large so unfortunately users will need to be patient.

I'm beyond depressed reading this thread. I started it almost 4 years ago and there's been nothing but crickets...
For mine there should be a few criteria for scripting:
1) it must be cross platform. I don't care if it's two languages (like InDesign) or one but clearly one would be better. I think the obvious one would be javascript but at this stage I'd be happy with even a basic Applescript library
2) it should be able to access non-Affinity apps (Filemaker, Access, Word, Excel etc). The real power of scripting comes from inter-app data sharing. Virtually everything we do with InDesign involves pulling data from our editorial or advertising databases.
3) it needs to be easy enough for a non-programmer to access. Whilst I'm now a programmer, I started my coding journey writing scripts and scripting should be easy enough for a novice. I can't believe people are suggesting every known programming language for simple scripting - some of which would be a terrible introduction to coding.
Given the elapsed time, I think Affinity have given up on the idea of scripting. Sales data probably suggests their market is 'backyarders' so they're largely ignoring the commercial market where scripting is widely used. Ironically, if they had more advanced features they would probably make inroads into the commercial media space. I think not targeting large businesses is vastly underselling Affinity's potential.
I believe if Affinity had serious plans for scripting they would announce it in a roadmap similar to how they announced the iPad products. You'd think if there was even an inkling it might be in the future there would be messages/surveys going to users - particularly users in this thread - about what might be desired.
No, I think scripting is as good as dead and buried so discussion about languages is moot.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

I'd like to offer some brief suggestions of what I believe would be a good start for scripting support. Clearly both InDesign and Quark have extensive scripting libraries but I think with some basic fundamentals a lot can be achieved. I believe the below would allow us to do about 80% of what we need.
Ability to create objects (text frame, image frames and rules) of specific sizes at specific co-ordinates using a list of properties. (set myFrame to create frame (x-coord, y-coord, width, height, colour, tint, border, name, columns, inset etc, etc) 
Ability to populate frames with text or images with ability to fit or scale as required (set story 1 of frame 1 to "myText.txt")
Ability to assign styles to objects (set paragraph style of text frame 1 to "Heading 1")
Ability to create new pages with properties for size, bleed, numbering, spreads etc
Ability to reference selections (set border of selected frame to 0 -  set style of selection to "Bold")
Ability to export using defined PDF Presets (export to myPath with PDF Preset "My Preset")
Ability to address (or loop through) all objects on a pages (set background of all text frames on selected page to "Transparent")
Ability to test for missing or broken links to assets
Ability to create colour swatches, character or paragraph styles, PDF Presets
Ability to create and manipulate layers
Most importantly, the ability to query for any property related to an object (set myProperties to properties of my selection  ->  list of all available properties) This is incredibly useful for writing and debugging.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

I agree. In fact in the very first post of this thread I mentioned that tagged text goes hand in hand with scripting and needs to be supported for automated import of text. I'm not holding my breath for either. I don't think people or companies who use automation are the target audience of Affinity. They seem to be content serving individual users rather than businesses or companies.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

This is the key - Affinity are working on the tools and forgetting about the result (getting the job done). Here's an analogy. I have a really nice Dewalt cordless screwdriver. It's a fantastic tool I enjoy using but if I had to screw in 5000 screws it wouldn't matter how good the tool is the job becomes slow, boring and uneconomical. This is why companies use robotics in manufacturing - it's essentially mechanical scripting. 
No matter how pretty and elegant the interface, I don't want to have to have to create 100, 500, 1000 PDFs manually. Or manually place images, create boxes, format text and export to our RIPS. We do these tasks thousands of times a week (literally). This is why Affinity Publisher is just pipe dream for us right now.

It would be very nice to be able to assign keyboard shortcuts to macros!
 

Hi Chris - I also ran up against this and downloaded 1.7 to no avail, in case more work had been done.  Your Macros did what I needed until I came up against the fact that they can't record an export. With a thousand pictures to run through the macro and out to export/save as, I was forced to revert to using that other program.
Please extend macros to include export/save/save as functionality.

Are there any plans to add scripting support?
I notice there is no Applescript library at all but am interested to know if there are plans to add Applescript or perhaps Javascript support. Virtually everything we do as far as creating PDFs, packaging, placing images and text, formatting, proofing, sending pages to print etc is done via script.
Tagged text goes hand-in-hand with scripting so I think this needs to also be supported.

This is the key - Affinity are working on the tools and forgetting about the result (getting the job done). Here's an analogy. I have a really nice Dewalt cordless screwdriver. It's a fantastic tool I enjoy using but if I had to screw in 5000 screws it wouldn't matter how good the tool is the job becomes slow, boring and uneconomical. This is why companies use robotics in manufacturing - it's essentially mechanical scripting. 
No matter how pretty and elegant the interface, I don't want to have to have to create 100, 500, 1000 PDFs manually. Or manually place images, create boxes, format text and export to our RIPS. We do these tasks thousands of times a week (literally). This is why Affinity Publisher is just pipe dream for us right now.