Scripting

[Nicholas Lamme]

First, I'd like to say that I'm excited to try out the new features in Publisher. I am super about the new notes options. That held me back from using Publisher in anything but personal projects because I do a lot of long document publishing. Just a note. I still bought v1 and would have still bought v2 to encourage competition with Adobe, and I realize that Adobe has had many more years to develop their software. However, Serif doesn't have to develop every feature requested by users!!!

I suggest (and I'm not the first) that Serif offer an API to programmers to provide scripts and plug-ins to extend the functionality of Publisher (and obviously the other apps). This would be huge and would also create a new ecosystem around the software and brand loyalty. No company has ALL the resources necessary to address every user's demands and should be expected to. So, what I think Serif should do is open up the software to coders to offer (at a cost to the consumer... or as freeware if they desire) extended functionality. This is not only a huge opportunity for coders, but also for Serif, too.

This is my suggestion and I was hoping v2 would have had this. I haven't found it in the features. So, I reopen the discussion here and urge Affinity to consider this for the near-term.

Yours,

Nico

[IPv6]

Seconding the request... Lack of scripting is a major drawback for now //

[MikeTO]

Serif has stated this is in development

 

[Lisbon]

In the promotional video "Something Big is Coming" is mentioned "there is actually one more thing... something we know you have been waiting for but you gonna have to wait and see". I really thought he was referring to scripting.

By the way, does anyone know the feature we were waiting for?

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Lisbon said:

By the way, does anyone know the feature we were waiting for?

I think it was Publisher for iPad, but it was never exactly clear at the launch. It felt like the marketing team was trying to ape Apple, but then forgot to actually follow through.

[Lisbon]

46 minutes ago, Bryan Rieger said:

I think it was Publisher for iPad

Makes sence.
An app for a new platform is an important milestone for the company.

[Nicholas Lamme]

On 11/12/2022 at 8:18 AM, MikeTO said:

Serif has stated this is in development

 

Thank you!! That was super helpful. I had not seen that post. Looking forward to when they do get that up and running. Thanks again.

[Darrell]

Yes! Scripting would be awesome!

[Laura Ess]

On 11/12/2022 at 4:19 PM, Nicholas Lamme said:

I suggest (and I'm not the first) that Serif offer an API to programmers to provide scripts and plug-ins to extend the functionality of Publisher (and obviously the other apps). This would be huge and would also create a new ecosystem around the software and brand loyalty.

Absolutely. My original graphics editor was JASC PaintShop Pro and that had scripting (Python) ages ago.  Despite my disliking GIMP, apart from being free it also has Script-Fu. And while Photo has the ability to use .8bf plugins, the actual usability is hit and miss. 3rd Parties (so far as I know) don't design plugins for Affinity. An API and proper scripting language (Python would be cool) would allow the users to extend these apps in directions that are in popular demand.  The scripting's necessary because extensions are more than just making a filter - you could add extra import and export options, dialog boxes, et al. Adobe for all its faults has these and had them 10 years ago.

Adding both an API and proper scripting would go a long way to getting some users back.

[Scott F]

I agree with the suggestion for more robust scripting since I'm still unable to use Affinity Photo to complete tasks I can do in other Adobe products (even PS Elements) in an expedited workflow that makes sense.

Affinity Photo will not launch external Photoshop plugins from macro playback, even if I don't care about it saving all the external plugins settings.

I thought I could always create extra keyboard shortcuts to do similar things in a hurry.  The documentation claims you can create keyboard shortcuts for plugins under the filter shortcuts, but no.  The plugins do not show up here in Windows no matter what I do.  No shortcuts for me. I've seen this as a long running complaint and bug report from Windows users that's never been fixed.

I guess people need to resort to scripting with something like Autohotkey or Microsoft PowerAutomate, if they want it to work (not exactly my first choice).

Even sad-sack Corel (the company where formerly good programs go to fester and die a long slow death) has scripting capabilities in Paint Shop Pro.  Maybe because they got them when they acquired it from JASC 20 years ago. They can also launch Photoshop plugins as part of playback.  But they have a lot of other issues which makes me want to avoid them.

Affinity Photo is a good looking program with a lot of quality features but it still has some real bugs and holes in its feature set (better automation and scripting is one; better automatic subject selection is another).

I really want to love it and use it as my main editing program but it needs to fill in some of the gaps before I can.

I don't mind that I've bought it twice since it's my contribution to try and support someone who's not Adobe. I want to see someone else give them some competition, it's unfortunate that it's not truly a competitive product for many things I do.

Keep up the good work and I hope to see scripting support sometime.

[debraspicher]

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

Keep up the good work and I hope to see scripting support sometime.

See below (and the updates):
 

 

[LaB]

I wish Affinity pub (2) had scripting as well. However, they could one-up Adobe by either making something like adobe Photoshop "action script recorder", or even do block script programming (like the popular kids " scratch" programming where there are blocks you can stack and program scripts within code. just drop a box for select (table row) drop blocks under stating to set color swatch, a block for tint, and to repeat for every <x> rows. and instead of needing to know how to code, anyone can find the function they want, stack the blocks and run it.