Add a unique nodeId identifier to VideoClipTrackItem and ProjectItem

Premiere Pro
1

The current practice of using the name property to filter and locate items in the timeline (VideoClipTrackItem) and project panel (ProjectItem) is fundamentally unreliable. This approach suffers from critical flaws:

  1. Non-Uniqueness: It is common for users to have multiple items with the exact same name (e.g., multiple shot_v1 clips, several bgm audio tracks, or duplicated assets).
  2. Mutability: Users can freely rename items at any time, causing name-based lookup logic to break unexpectedly and introducing bugs that are difficult to trace.
  3. Fragility: This makes automation scripts and plugins brittle. Any change to an item’s name by the user can disrupt their functionality.

Relying on name as a unique identifier is an anti-pattern that significantly reduces the robustness and reliability of code built on top of the API.

// CURRENT: Finding an item by name (Unreliable)
let fragileItem = project.findItemByName("MyClipName");
if (fragileItem) {
    // If another item named "MyClipName" exists, this logic fails.
    doSomething(fragileItem);
}
2 Likes
2

related: Is there a way to get the ID of a clip? : PremierePro

3

As mentioned elsewhere (I think there are now 4 different topics requesting the same thing), IDs will be available in the next SDK pre-release.

1 Like
4

Regarding your technical support, I just encountered this issue: I cannot set entry and exit points for the sequence, and AME must be installed to export audio