Status Report on CS5 Panels
Submitted by mitch on Sun, 07/11/2010 - 16:58.
I know there are lots of people waiting for CS5 panels. I want to upgrade the CS4 panels as soon as possible. I have ideas for new panels, too.
What's the problem?
The CS4 panel use two technologies that Adobe Labs dropped: PatchPanel and Switchboard.
The new document object model (DOM) has some changes that cause code that ran just fine under Photoshop CS4 to break under CS5. IOW, the new panels require more than a recompile with a new library. They requie quite a bit of replacement code.
The documentation for creating CDS5 extensions is incomplete, too.
There is a new technology for creating CS5 extensions quickly. It's called Adobe Extension Builder. Unfortunately, it requires a support contract from Adobe that is very expensive. Prohibitively expensive for a single developer giving away all his panels.
Previously, Adobe allowed access for free to their developer support when developers were not-for-profit. I have not found such an option for CS5. I've sent an e-mail to John Nack, explaining that more than $1000 per year to give away tools is not really practical. I'm waiting for an answer, to see if Adobe has a plan for those of us who give away thir tools and add value to Adobe CS5 products.
In the interim, I've been working on retooling the pro sharpening panels. It my percpetion, that these are the most used panels. nce I get them retool, I'll have an idea how long it will take to retool others. ;)
Again, thanks for everyone's patience.
Still Working on the Updates
I haven't heard back from JOhn Nack. Perhaps he is on holiday. Perhaps his spam preventer has swallowed my e-mail. I'll follow-up soon.
I've been working on updating the pro sharpening panels. I might try a simpler panel. The pro panels used the PatchPanel technology that Adobe abandonned. The simpler panels, like the TLRR Velvia Panel do not.
What I'm running into is compiler errors tha tell me there's a Flex problem but don't tell me what that prblem is or its location. I've already removed the code for PatchPanel (which would not be needed anyways now) for the pro sharpening panels.
Anyways, I'll give it a few houras again tonight.
Progress, I Believe!
The documentation about the new CS5 Extensions technology is scattered. The SDK is still missing a lot of useful information. So is the CS5 Panel Developer's Guide.
I've done Google searches, searches on Adobe Developer Network forums, etc.
Between a video on the CS5 Extensions blog, the CS5 Extensions SDK documentation, the CS5 Panel Developer's Guide, and experimentation, I believe I have ported over the TLR Pro Capture Sharpening Panel. At least, it compiles without any errors.
I need to obtain a group certificate for The Light's Right before I can post the panel for testing. Panels now load through the Adobe CS5 Extensions Manager. That requires a certificate to verify identity.
I'll look into obtaining a certificate tomorrow.
If this works, I'll be ale to port the other TLR Pro panels with a few hours work each. :)