Do You Offer 2 Versions Of Your Plugin?

Photoshop UXP Plugin API
1

I recently decided to make all new plugins with API version 2 thinking this was a way forward but just had an email from someone saying they cannot install it because their MAC does not support Photoshop 23.

How are you dealing with situaltions like this

2

Good question. I’m currently upgrading one of my plugins which was on v1 and required Ps v22.0 :thinking: Now I’m almost done with the new features upgrade and it will require Ps v23.1 :confused: Seems like I’ll have to hold it for a bit. Didn’t know latest Ps is not supported on Macs. Sounds quite strange

3

Apparently, this person said his Mac was quite old just how old I dont know. My guess is that his MAC does not support 64bit.

Something we have to think about though, my old AP1 plugins are working fine he says so now I am not sure what the best route is.

4

Thinking now if it would be possible to provide user with older version CCX file to install locally (keeping plugin ID in manifest if it’s a paid plugin) and advising to turn off auto updates of plugins via CCD :confused:

5

I have just done a test.

I dropped the MinVersion in the Manifest to 22 which allowed the plugin to install but because I have coded it with the the API 2 code structure, none of the plugin buttons worked.

6

Not sure. But from what i know the 2006 2,1 MacPro is the only device that wouldn’t work with UXP. PS 2018 is the latest version that would run on such an old Mac. The younger Macs should all work, but kinda slow since PS 2021. That was when hardware acceleration for cropping and such was thrown into the pot. I think that was Camera Raw 13 or so. That update rendered many devices useless. Such as the older Windows PCs with integrated 4th gen graphics.
And i think that was a break point where many users decided to roll back to earlier versions because PS was slow all of a sudden. Many MacMini and Imac users were affected.

7

With all plugin developers registered on here, I thought this question would get more replies

8

Currently I only have plugins with API version 1 live. Already updating all of them to version 2 is to risky for me. For me I decided to wait that the needed version is at least one year out. Otherwise I’m sure a lot of users can’t use it because they are on older versions.

9

What are the disadvantages of carrying on using API 1

10

On API 2 more DOM functions are available (but I’m mostly using batchplay) and other new implementations (executeAsModal, manifest flags, etc.).

11

I only use BatchPlay mostly but I do like how you can wrap everything into a single History step. You cant do that with API 1 can you ?

12

No, you can’t do it with version 1. This is another downside.

13

API 2 only for me. Adapt or die is my theory :slight_smile:

I have a few thousand users. Only a handful have needed API 1 for lack of CC 2022 support on their computers. For those, I sent them the old API 1 versions, but with the knowledge that the old versions are not maintained or supported in any way.

1 Like
14

Pretty much the same here. Hence my thought to send user the CCX of an old version

15

You can wrap BatchPlay commands into a single history step, although executeAsModal is more powerful.

16

Do you have an example of this Davide

17

Hi Ian,
sure here you go:

const someDescriptor = {/* ... */}
const someOtherDescriptor = {/* ... */}

await photoshop.action.batchPlay([
  someDescriptor,
  someOtherDescriptor
], {
  modalBehavior: "fail",
  synchronousExecution: true,
  historyStateInfo: {
    name: "This string goes in the History as a single step",
    target: {
      _ref: "document",
      _enum: "ordinal",
      _value: "targetEnum"
    }
  }
})
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18

Thank you Davide, much appreciated

1 Like