Confusion about Photoshop custom panels in the future
Hey Guys!
Recently I used the Adobe Configurator 4 to create custom panels for my colleagues at work.
This panel mostly contains of buttons that call actions. Works fine in cs6 and I was super happy until I tried to install that panel under cc 2015, where it "refused to work". I then read that adobe abandoned the flash based panels in favor for html5 based ones.
Now I'm left a bit confused on how I can tinker on my small yet useful panels. I'm no programer by any means, but I think I can manage to wrap my head around html... I just don't really know where to start.
Is there a tool similar to the adobe configurator?
Do I need to now distribute these panels via the cloud?
Can older photoshop versions also use these new panels?
How would I call actions via html?
Replies
Yeah I already tried that, with no success.
Imho that only works for older cc version (so photoshop Version14 - 15), whereas cc 2015 is version 16.
@0xffff Haha thanks for the advise, I'll most likely follow it.
So the conclusion is that none one of you guys created panels/plugins for cc2015, or knows the process to do so?
Maybe I'm just a bit "too early", but I think it is sad that Adobe is abandoning easy straightforward tools like the configurator
and not offering a solution to port to the new system, without jumping through a lot of hoops.
So I spent about an hour to find an answer ifI can create a custom panel - no functionality - just a panel for cc2015.
Short answer:
Well I guess there is no short answer.
As I dug deeper in the adobe forums, this .gif became more and more relevant:
- Bottom line is cc2015 dropped flash panels in favor for html 5 panels
- some extensions might work, but only if the follow certain criteria
(lost the link to back that up, thus the vague answer. but it had to do with not being allowed to adress certain folders e.g scripts)
- from now on you create your extensions/panels with the "adobe extension sdk" (this obiously requires some scripting)
- you have to publish them via cloud and then restrict the access only to small group (add your colleagues to your "cloud bros"), to keep it a company tool
Conclusion:
The underlying Ui system for Photoshop apparently was just too old and they needed to change it fundamentally.
Now it's cooler and more in depth, but require more coding knowledge.
...which is a dealbreaker for me. I enjoy helping people out and speeding up the pipeline even just a bit. But I don't consider myself a tech artist. Therefore I will just stick with cs6 and hope Adobe releases something similar to the Configurator for the new system.
If any of guys can prove me wrong, I'm happy to accept my human nature
Additional information:
A short Guide to HTML5 Extensibility
Adobe extension SDK documentation (.pdf)
HTML5 the alternative to the Configurator
Ps.:
@TooLzor could you shed some light on this topic? You seem to have some experience with this? Am I right about the panels? Do you know the resitrictions to create "classic extension" so that they still work in 2015 without using the cloud?
Not true, you can load unsigned extensions by addinga specific windows registry key.
On win10 this is HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Adobe\CSXS.5\PlayerDebugMode = 1
Thanks for the info! Then at least the distribution is not as tedious as I thought.
Actually the whole CEP (common extension platform) from adobe is pretty neat! Having a chrome instance as a panel and doing just plain html/js is quite nice - there is just so much software from the web tech that just works. I mean you even have a nodejs instance at hand - so they really mangaged to implement support for a really large code base...
this doenst free you from the wonkyness of the extendscripting - and even adds more complexity to work with both VM's but i think any average techartist /programmer can totally handle it
So in short its not a tool anyone to throw some stuff together quickly - but its gotten way more powerfull than ever..
Actually if you only need panel for buttons for actions, actions panel already has that options. I use it and it's amazing timesaver (especially if you're using Wacom and have somewhat limited keyboard access.
Just switch to Button Mode in the Actions panel options.
@Nyx702 Luckily Configurator 4 has cs5-cc2014 covered, the trouble starts with cc2015
@Pirgo You are right the button mode is pretty cool. The thing is I had some scripts in them as well, so different panels for different tasks (I was inspired by the Zbrush custom panels, which are a huge time saviour for me). But thanks for the tip I only stumbled across that recently.
@Kio Ok I think I get it now. Thank you and everybody in this thread who helped me to understand what's going on.I can see the potential and hope I someday have the time to look into it!