.ccx File Installation Errors (error -2 and installing from different locations)

Photoshop UXP Plugin API
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Hey all. I’m currently trying to package a Photoshop plugin using the UXP Developer Tools app and have been encountering some odd behavior regarding installing with a .ccx file and getting error -2. I’ve looked around the forum and have found some other people stating similar issues, but there is no clear answer on how to solve this that I have found.

I created a beta version of a plugin that is working perfectly fine when loaded through the UXP Developer Tools app. I packaged it without issue and sent it to some people for testing. They then told me that they were getting error -2 (see the list of installation errors here). After trying to install the plugin with the .ccx file, I faced the same error on both Mac and Windows. However, I wasn’t experiencing this issue with other .ccx files that I was packaging. Eventually, I had gotten my new .ccx file to install and work properly and am wanting to present my findings here - hopefully someone that understands this all a little more than me can make sense of some of it and it can be helpful to others facing this issue. After doing a little testing, I found two main problems that were leading to error -2.

Issue #1: Plugin ID
We will call the new plugin that I am working on “Breaker”. At first, I gave this plugin the ID “Breaker” in the manifest file, but it seemed to have led to the error -2 being presented upon install. Like I said, I was able to install other .ccx files that I had packaged without issue, so I grabbed another plugin that was working (which we will call “Toner”) and tried making changes to it. I took Toner and changed the plugin ID in its manifest to “Breaker” - I changed nothing else in the code and made sure this ID was unique. After packaging that as a new plugin and trying to install, I once again received error -2. The other interesting thing is that, giving my Toner plugin an ID of “PluginBreaker” or anything including the word “Breaker” still gave error -2. It was only when I removed the word “Breaker” from the ID entirely that Toner was able to be installed successfully again. This lead me to believe that maybe 1) there are certain words/strings that are banned from being used in plugin IDs or 2) the ID is already in use by some other plugin on Creative Cloud.

Issue #2: Installation Location and File Name
I have a folder that I keep all of my plugin/development related files in called “plugins”. Normally, when I package a plugin, the resulting .ccx file is just put into its corresponding folder within the plugins folder - for example, the “Breaker” .ccx file would be in the Breaker folder, the “Toner” .ccx file would be in the Toner folder, and so on. However, it seems that even running a .ccx file even within a folder titled “Breaker” results in error -2. Moving the Breaker.ccx file to the Toner folder or to the desktop allows for it to be installed successfully. It seems that, if Adobe does have certain words banned, they aren’t allowed in the name of the .ccx file or the folder where the .ccx file is run from.

My Best Guess
Like I said, hopefully someone else can make sense of this as I don’t really know what’s going on, but I believe there are certain words or strings that will cause a plugin to fail installation when they are present in 1) a plugin ID, 2) the name of the folder the .ccx file is when it is used to install a plugin, or 3) the name of the .ccx file. For example, I just tried “BL_PS.ccx” and “PLUGINBL_PS.ccx” and they both resulted in error -2 upon installation. However, I had no issue with “B_PS.ccx” or “PLUGINB_PS.ccx”. For the record, the word I was trying to use in the plugin ID is not a word I would imagine being censored in any context - I’m just assuming it contains some short string that Creative Cloud has reserved or something like that.

Anyways, hopefully this was clear. If anyone has an idea of what’s going on or could offer more insight, please let me know. I’m hoping this will be helpful for someone else who is running into the same issue as me and can save themselves some time. Let me know if I can clarify anything to help give more understanding to the issue. Thanks all!

1 Like
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If that’s the case, then “Issue #1: Plugin ID” is no longer a valid issue. Additionally, I gave one of my plugins "id": "Breaker" in the manifest and it installed just fine.

I think the -2 error results when the .ccx file is still in a compressed .zip folder or when it is located on a drive that is different than where Ps and CC app are located. I have no proof of that, but my experience with customers is that if they move the .ccx file to ensure it is on the same drive as Ps and CC app, installation works. Sometimes with Mac that involves placing the .ccx file directly in the “Applications” folder.

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Sorry, I think I wasn’t totally clear on this. “Breaker” was simply a placeholder name I was using; I believe that there are certain strings that Creative Cloud won’t allow. The one I’m encountering is “BL” being present anywhere in the name of a .ccx file or folder. What I’m finding is that the install process had to satisfy two conditions to successfully install for me (the file name and installation location). After running some tests, it seems the ID might not be relevant to this issue, but I’m not 100% sure.

I just did this test to get some more information using my Toner.ccx file (a plugin that successfully installs without issue). First, I tried renaming the file to “BLEND.ccx” and then attempted to install; this resulted in error -2 in Creative Cloud. What’s interesting is naming it “Blend.ccx” gave a successful installation. This file won’t install even when it is on the desktop, in the Applications folder, etc.

Secondly, I took the Toner.ccx file (keeping the name as Toner.ccx) and moved it into a folder named “BLEND”. Again, this resulted in error -2 while “Blend” or other naming conventions didn’t cause this issue.

Thirdly, I changed the Toner.ccx plugin ID in the manifest to be “BLEND”, packaged it (so the resulting file was named “BLEND_PS.ccx”), and then renamed that file to Toner.ccx. This resulted in a successful install as long as the file wasn’t in the “BLEND” folder.

All of this leads me to believe that there are certain strings (or maybe just one that I inconveniently stumbled into) that will give error -2 when they are present in the file name or folder name. I’m now doubting that the string being present in the plugin ID is causing issues, but as the plugin ID is what sets the .ccx file name upon packaging, it could be considered part of the problem.

Hopefully that gives more clarity to the issue. I’m assuming this is not a me only issue since all of my beta testers were also saying they couldn’t install the file, and sending them a new .ccx file with an updated name seemed to result in a successful install.

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I gave a .ccx file that previously installed just fine the name “BLEND.ccx” and it did not install. It gave the error message below:

image

However, I changed the name to “blend.ccx” and it installed OK.

I then gave the file the name “TABLE.ccx” and that failed to install with the same -2 error code.

However, “table.ccx” installed.

“TAble.ccx” and “TABle.ccx” both installed OK (2 and 3 capital letters).

“TABLe.ccx” failed (4 capital letters).

So, it appears that four capital letters in a row might be a problem.

“TabLeS.ccx” installed. (3 capital letters).

TaBLeS.ccx failed (4 capital letters).

So, any four capital letters might lead to failure?

However, TAB-LEs_V0.0.0.13a.ccx installed (6 capital letters but separate by a hyphen and underscore).

“TAB LEs_V0.0.0.13a.ccx” also installed (6 capital letters but separate by a space and underscore).

So, at the end of this trial and error test, it appears that more than 3 capital letters in a row, might cause a problem, but as long as capital letters are separate by a hyphen, space, or underscore, it might not be a problem

Interesting that consecutive letter sequences that contain 4 or more capital letters is an issue, but relatively easy to work around.

NOTE: This was a very quick test. Failure was determined by seeing the -2 error message that appeared immediately. If I received the following message instead, I counted that is a successful install since early testing attempts resulted in successful installation whenever this message appeared.

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I think it’s specifically the BL issue as @samg mentioned. Anything else installs just fine if there’s no BL. For example SORTABle.ccx installs fine, but BL.ccx - error -2

Probably amount of capital letters in a row has nothing to do with it

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@Karmalakas --You are correct.