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Author Topic: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting  (Read 3286 times)

Rory

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Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« on: May 12, 2014, 07:10:14 pm »

When Adobe released CS6 the scripting UI for Bridge was broken.  Many UI controls, including scroll bars, treeviews and navbars would not work, while they did work in Photoshop and the ESTK.  This was identified by users in the beta release of CS6.  This makes Bridge scripts that use these controls useless.  More than two years later Adobe has yet to fix, or even acknowledge the issue.  As far as I know, the issue still exists in CC.  I gave up creating new scripts in Adobe products due to their lack of support a long time ago, but I sure would like the scripts I have created to continue working.  At this time I am forced to keep a copy of CS5 to run my Bridge scripts.  I can only come to one of the following conclusions regarding Adobe:

  • There are so few people scripting in Bridge that it is not worth Adobe's time to fix the scipt UI issues.  Makes one wonder why they even bother to extend the scripting environment.
  • Adobe simply does not care or the Bridge engineering team is asleep at the switch.

I'm posting this here to make the LL community aware of this issue and in the hope that some Adobe representative reads it and actually takes some action.  Here are some posts about this on the Adobe forums. 

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sniper

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2014, 12:59:55 am »

I suspect it's that a lot of people don't use bridge at all, never mind with scripting.  I frequently talk to people about Photoshop and often ask 'do you use bridge?' I'd guess it's well over 50% who don't use it, and about half of those don't even know they have it.  So i'd guess it's not high on Adobes to do list.
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Keith Reeder

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2014, 04:04:42 am »

It's pretty clear from the fact that Bridge isn't even part of Photshop CC - you have to download it separately if you want it - that Adobe sees its days as numbered.

I've never used it, starting with CS3 and now CC, and as Sniper says, I'm not alone.

They're not going to expend resources on what amounts these days to a niche product.
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Keith Reeder
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Martin Kristiansen

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #3 on: May 13, 2014, 06:37:38 am »

I don't think you can evaluate the usefulness of bridge by speaking to photographers alone. It is used extensivly by designers and other folk that use the other applications made by Adobe. Things like Indesign, Muse, Illustrator.

As a part time retoucher I use it extensivly. It's very useful for evaluating colour across multiple images when they all need to match as it is not needed to open them all in photoshop to do so. Also useful when doing complex compositing as it's quick and easy to dump images from different locations into a temp work folder and keep everything in one easy to see place.

Bridge is always open when I work on a separate monitor. I would be annoyed if it was ever done away with. So would a lot of designers be.
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Paul2660

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #4 on: May 13, 2014, 10:40:27 am »

I don't think Bridge is  going anywhere soon, in fact it was enhanced in the CC version.  I was also surprised that it was a separate download in CC, but from what I have read on other sites, forums Bridge has commitment from Adobe.   I can't see them taking it away and forcing LR for the browser.  (imports etc.)  I would not like that either.  I use LR for my main raw conversions for Fuji, Nikon and Canon, but do not use the catalog 100%, only importing the images I need to work on. 

Can't speak to the scripting issue but I can understand the frustration. 

Paul

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Paul Caldwell
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sniper

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2014, 02:19:52 am »

I don't think you can evaluate the usefulness of bridge by speaking to photographers alone. It is used extensivly by designers and other folk that use the other applications made by Adobe. Things like Indesign, Muse, Illustrator.

As a part time retoucher I use it extensivly. It's very useful for evaluating colour across multiple images when they all need to match as it is not needed to open them all in photoshop to do so. Also useful when doing complex compositing as it's quick and easy to dump images from different locations into a temp work folder and keep everything in one easy to see place.

Bridge is always open when I work on a separate monitor. I would be annoyed if it was ever done away with. So would a lot of designers be.

I didn't say I only spoke to photographers, my contacts include graphic designers.
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Martin Kristiansen

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #6 on: May 14, 2014, 05:09:17 am »

I didn't say I only spoke to photographers, my contacts include graphic designers.

Well the collective noun for anecdotal evidence is not data. I would be very surprised if Bridge was dumped by Adobe
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john beardsworth

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #7 on: May 14, 2014, 05:51:30 am »

Rory is sounding off about Bridge's scripting capability, and I wouldn't get too distracted by ideas that Adobe might abandon Bridge - I agree it's unlikely.

My guess is that the problems at CS6 were introduced when the app was rewritten for 64 bit. Tranbery is usually very communicative, though you may get greater traction if you can show the problems also affect Photoshop JavaScript scripting.

Now might be a good time to try again. As explained here, Photoshop is losing the Flash-based customisation panels and replacing them with HTML5 which will be closer in technological terms to what you've been doing in Bridge. Another thought might be to see if you can migrate the non-functional Bridge scripts into Photoshop, so Bridge will be only be responsible for launching a Photoshop script which is where your drop down boxes are created.

John
« Last Edit: May 14, 2014, 06:11:05 am by john beardsworth »
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Dave (Isle of Skye)

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #8 on: May 14, 2014, 09:35:35 am »

I use Bridge all the time, it is absolutely central to my workflow, so I for one would be lost without it - just sayin...

Dave
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tived

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #9 on: May 14, 2014, 10:49:13 pm »

Bridge is my central - go to place - I don't like Lightroom. But I also see myself more as a retoucher/graphics then photog....

I hadn't noticed the scripting issue, I am currently on CC

Henrik

PS: Well, if they would let me login and download :-(
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Lundberg02

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #10 on: May 15, 2014, 12:45:31 am »

Adobe's login is seriously broken today. The 24 hour chat guy, Ajeet(guess where he's located) said try again tomorrow.
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tived

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #11 on: May 15, 2014, 01:40:16 am »

thanks (tak) Lundberg - arrh!!!  >:(
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Rory

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #12 on: May 15, 2014, 09:56:39 am »

Rory is sounding off about Bridge's scripting capability, and I wouldn't get too distracted by ideas that Adobe might abandon Bridge - I agree it's unlikely.

My guess is that the problems at CS6 were introduced when the app was rewritten for 64 bit. Tranbery is usually very communicative, though you may get greater traction if you can show the problems also affect Photoshop JavaScript scripting.

Now might be a good time to try again. As explained here, Photoshop is losing the Flash-based customisation panels and replacing them with HTML5 which will be closer in technological terms to what you've been doing in Bridge. Another thought might be to see if you can migrate the non-functional Bridge scripts into Photoshop, so Bridge will be only be responsible for launching a Photoshop script which is where your drop down boxes are created.

John

Yes, I have thought about moving the UI to photoshop but it sort of defeats the purpose of the scripts, which describe what to do to a bridge selection of images and then batch process them in photoshop.  I can think of klutsy work arounds to make it happen but my purpose here is to get the darn thing fixed in Bridge. 

Jeffrey Tranberry said he would get someone on the Bridge team to take a look over a year ago but has not responded since then, even to personal emails.  It is a black hole.

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mouse

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #13 on: May 18, 2014, 01:22:53 am »

I use Bridge all the time, it is absolutely central to my workflow, so I for one would be lost without it - just sayin...

Dave

I'll second that!  If one doesn't use LR (I don't even own it) how else does one screen a bunch of images, check and add metadata, and choose the image to further edit?
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Lightsmith

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #14 on: May 19, 2014, 08:03:13 pm »

I use a third party application that relies 100% on Adobe scripting to run. But to have a stable work environment the machine that runs this app also has CS5 installed as they work well together.

I will never go to a cloud app to edit photos. It is a dumb idea and I say that as a former software architect who worked on applications for Rational and Autocad and others. The problems that people are posting regarding CC apps is due to the limitations of the design. Adobe knows its a bad approach but it is a very profitable one and so naturally they go for maximizing profits. They make Microsoft look good.
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Nigel Johnson

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Re: Adobe abandons Bridge scripting
« Reply #15 on: May 26, 2014, 01:48:45 pm »

Lightsmith,

You appear to have misunderstood what Adobe Creative Cloud is; not helped by Adobe's poor choice of name. Adobe CC's main applications such as Photoshop are not cloud applications, rather CC applications are downloaded to your local computer just like traditional Adobe applications. The cloud aspect is related to licensing, initial programme installation, programme updates and some sharing applications; most applications can be run without an internet connection, as long as the computer is occasionally connected to allow periodic licence checks.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2014, 01:51:49 pm by Nigel Johnson »
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