I just tried to switch over from ExtendScript to UXP development.
There’s one fact that’s very much dissatisfying me: Development can not be done without being connected to the Cloud.
I don’t want to be forced to share anything I do with anyone. Nor do I want to be connected to the Internet all the time while I’m developing.
Moreover, a number of professional development environments (e.g. banking and insurance company software departments) disallow developing on machines that are connected to the Internet due to the elevated privileges these development machines have. We are working in dedicated Citrix VMs then without any Internet connection.
To me, not being able to fully develop while being offline is a serious privacy infringement and security loophole.
Please, provide means to safely and comprehensively develop locally and disconnected.
UXP Developer needs to be online for the first time so that the Developer Terms of Use and authentication is done. After a successful first time login you should be able to use the Tool in offline mode post that.
Are you not able to do this? Can you ensure that you are logged in once.
This came up at Office Hours last week, too. @gregbenz in particular complained that he can’t develop on airplanes or trains where the internet connection is unstable because of a perceived connectivity requirement with the tools. At least one other developer confirmed this.
It also fails randomly (at startup) when there is connectivity. It will report that it cannot connect, even though the connection is fine. Trying to launch UDT several times will often (not always) get around this.
And I continue to get reports that plugins that have been installed by non-Marketplace .ccx files are also unavailable when there is no internet connection. A member of my camera club just mentioned this last night that my plugins, which they installed via .ccx, were missing when they visited a location w/o internet connectivity. My plugins do NOT require an internet connection to work, so there’s no reason in the code why they should fail when there is no internet connectivity. When the camera club member had an internet connection again, his plugins came back. So, there’s definitely something going on here that shouldn’t be happening or is not documented as to why it is happening.
@Erin_Finnegan@pkrishna I just got a customer report that my plugin in the marketplace went missing when he was offline. So this bug seems to affect both standalone CCX and marketplace installations. I ran into this myself this week a couple times. It’s a fairly widespread issue.
Separately, I also frequently run into problems with UDT refusing to launch because it cannot establish a connection (even when I am on a good connection). In that case, quitting and relaunching it once or twice typically resolves the issue, but it seems like it either times out too quickly or is trying to reach an unreliable server. I’m not clear why sign on is required for a free tool and hope the requirements might be relaxed to enable greater robustness.
Sorry to hear about the issue in using plugins from marketplace in offline mode. We tried to reproduce the problem on our side but no luck. The installed desktop plugins are working fine inside Photoshop when the machine is in offline mode. And they are also available in the manage tab in Creative Cloud desktop app.
Can you please help us with few queries to understand the issue -
In what surface are the plugins missing? Inside the Creative Cloud desktop app, or inside the product such as Photoshop etc.
What is the plugin for which users are facing the issue? We tried “Free Web Sharp panel” and “Luminosity Masking Panel” and both seems to be working in offline mode.
the plugins go missing in Photoshop. They are not visible and won’t show in the Plugins menu. When they work on a future launch with internet, they show as floating and no longer docked where they were.
I don’t recall what behavior CCD shows at the time.
UXP plugins are the concern. My marketplace panels have been affected, which includes the Free Web Sharp Panel.
@vimalvarshney Not yet, want to provoke it again so I can tell you a relevant time stamp to review. But I just had a customer report the same problem and it apparently affects him frequently. Requesting his log data.
I have experience this issue many times, when I open photoshop without being connected to the Internet all installed plugins go missing. They come back only after I have access to Internet and relaunch CC and Photoshop.
The next time the plugins go missing, note the time on your computer. Then, run the log collector tool.
In order to investigate the issue, use a file sharing service of your choice (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.) and share the following when you’re back online:
If the plugin is from Adobe’s marketplace, provide a link to the listing. If it’s not from Adobe’s marketplace, engineering will need a copy of the plugin installer from the developer (or the user if you’ve got the installer).
1a. Please list the names of your missing plugins.
The log file(s) you collected. The log collector outputs a ZXP.
2a. It’s very helpful to include the file name of the ZXP in the body of your email.
The time you noted from your computer when the plugins went missing.
Email and share the above to ccintrev@adobe.com and CC vvarshne @ adobe . com
Note that ZXP files tend to get lost in the spam filter. If you’ve sent everything and it’s been a few days with no response, email again with no attachments.
A fix for the above issue is now confirmed and is planned for release in an upcoming update of Creative Cloud desktop app.
Thank you @gregbenz for your help and support in pinning down this. Appreciate it !
Just resurfacing this issue as it has apparently returned. I have six reports of users having their plugins disappear when they’re not connected to the internet.
That’s a lot of steps… it’d be much better if say, the Creative Cloud desktop app let you generate and send logs via steps in the GUI without an additional install.
(I mean, even more ideally, plugins wouldn’t silently fail to install and would prompt you to send crash info to Adobe like our other desktop apps tend to do…)
@Erin_Finnegan I completely agree with your thoughts. This would be a feature request for CC desktop app. I’ll let @pkrishna to comment on this and take this feature request with CCD team.