Scripting

[rdm0rris]

I was wondering if anyone is interested in helping me setup an open source plugin boilerplate repo. The goal is to create starting point for people who would like to create plugins, and not reinvent the wheel to do it. If anybody has any api documentation I could peruse to get this ball rolling I would appreciate it.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, rdm0rris said:

I was wondering if anyone is interested in helping me setup an open source plugin boilerplate repo. The goal is to create starting point for people who would like to create plugins, and not reinvent the wheel to do it. If anybody has any api documentation I could peruse to get this ball rolling I would appreciate it.

The only API info so far is that produced by Adobe for writing Photoshop image plugins, and it's only useful for Affinity Photo. 

When Scripting is released that will be a major new function that's totally different from the plug-in interface, and there's no description or documentation of it yet because it doesn't exist.

[rdm0rris]

Should I be looking at their UXP documentation or the earlier stuff?

Update: I am starting here if it's a dead end I will update this update. 

Edited September 7 by rdm0rris
Adding context and keep info consolidated.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, rdm0rris said:

Should I be looking at their UXP documentation or the earlier stuff?

Probably earlier. It needs to describe how to create basic .8bf image plugins. But as I've never written one I can't say for sure.

You could probably also look at the open source G'Mic package. There's a Windows implementation that provides a plug-in that works with Affinity Photo, and as it's open source you can see what it does.

[kirk23]

Chat GPT writes best on Python  for some reason.  Sometimes adding  convenient features I even forget to ask for.    So why not Python?   I just wonder.   

 

It writes javascripts for Photoshop too   but it sometimes takes days to re-do  till they start  to really work.

[rdm0rris]

I tend to get better code from claude.ai and JS seems to be the Photoshop standard. I may be wrong. I was actually planning on using the python skimage lib for processing. I have been working on the interop steps to achieve this.

[WaveF]

On 9/12/2024 at 4:12 AM, kirk23 said:

Chat GPT writes best on Python  for some reason.  Sometimes adding  convenient features I even forget to ask for.    So why not Python?   I just wonder.   

 

It writes javascripts for Photoshop too   but it sometimes takes days to re-do  till they start  to really work.

Using JavaScript makes it easier to transfer PS scripts. Before the official JS API is released, I've tried to use other ways to temporarily write some simple script functions such as randomize, Convert Images to Artboards, Batch Masking, Reverse Layer Arrangement, Batch Rename Layers... They are also in kind of JS.

[littlepolygon]

Been reading various threads on scripting this afternoon, which apparently go back over two years (??)

My 2c -- as a game artist, give me boring productivity options.  E.g. it would be useful to batch-export different layers/artboards as different texture maps. It doesn't need to be fancy or over-engineered, just some automation macros to reduce the amount of tedious clicking I'm clicking.  Blender, as an example, makes these sorts of macros discoverable with a view-mode which prints script snippets for each Mouse + Keyboard action you take.

[These8arms]

Really looking forward to this! I'll be honest in that it is one of the main things holding me back from pushing Affinity more into my workflow.
You could categorize the work I do into two buckets mostly:  highly repetitive stuff that I have a set of scripts and macros to automate, and (mostly 2D) motion design work.  The former, I am currently stuck to using Photoshop (ugh) and Illustrator (UGH) as doing it in anything else right now means things taking twice as long, unless I have a way to script some of it.  The latter, I feel that this is where Adobe has me by the...you know what. For all the options out there, After Effects is one where certain workflows just still don't have anything that is applicable as a viable replacement for it.  

However, that workflow depends a lot on some of the integration with Illustrator, and that is mostly not a built in thing, but something achieved by third party plugins (i.e. Overlord). While I know having an API/SDK is not a guarantee that someone could somehow build something akin to BattleAxe's Overlord allowing the easier transfer of assets from Affinity Designer to AF...a man can hope. 

Seriously, please just save me from the pain that is running Illustrator, I beg you. 

I often work with complex files that Affinity Designer handles like magic, and Illustrator appears to be having a stroke trying to open the file or just, you know, having the audacity of trying to move any of the elements or deities forgive, actually editing any of it.