JSFL in Flash CS4: Project Panel Alternative?
I just saw that the project panel has been changed in Flash CS4, and the JSFL commands related to it are gone, as well.
Are there new JSFL API methods that are used with the new project panel? I don't see any API methods for it in the documentation. My Gaia Framework leverages the existing Project Panel in its Scaffolding engine and I need to figure out a CS4-centric way to do it now. What is the alternative in Flash CS4?
One of the things that the old Project Panel allowed was the ability to publish an entire project using project.testProject(). This would publish all of the .fla files in a project without opening them, and finally launch the primary .fla.
With JSFL automation, looping through a list of .fla files, opening them, publishing and closing them was MUCH slower than using project.testProject(). There is no JSFL API equivalent to do what the project panel was able to do.
While many people may not have used the project panel, I found it an invaluable tool when doing JSFL automation. Adobe has removed the ability to publish a Flash file without opening it, which really sucks for automation with JSFL.
Adobe, would you be willing to share the C code that was used by the project panel to publish Flash files without opening them since you're no longer using it?
September 26th, 2008 at 11:56 am
Hey Steven,
Try dropping Grant Skinner a note – his gProject panel is the built in replacement for the old project panel. I didn't even notice that the JSFL commands associated with the original project panel were gone until you pointed it out. It would have been nice if they could have left those commands in and leveraged them into the new version. If there is no way to do it now, perhaps an update to the panel that exposed maybe via local connection, at least a quick way to iterate through project items, and publish them out might be somewhat helpful and sounds like its the same thing as the slower alternative you mentioned as its not nearly as nice as being able to publish without opening them. Maybe there are some undocumented features.
Good luck!
Rob
September 26th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I see that there's a new swfPanel type whose instances are accessible through fl.swfPanels. I wonder if the new project panel is available there. Obviously, you'll still need documentation for what you can use via swfPanel.call(), but that's a place to start, at least.
September 29th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Hey Steven,
I also fortgot to mention that perhaps there are some extra functionality documented in the ExtendScript toolkit that offers similar functionality to what JSFL and the old deprecated methods of the project panel offered. Perhaps its worth looking into, as well as Switchboard – http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/SwitchBoard
I would be curious to see what that might offer – let us know how you make out.
September 29th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I already asked this question (you know, when you can ask questions directly to the developers and have a little chance they fix it) and I was answered that we'd have to wait like until CS5.
IMHO a lot of things feel unfinished in CS4 (too much work on the new GUI?). I'd like to be proved wrong but it looks like Adobe wants to make us pay each year for bug fixes (think of the ridiculous UI bugs in CS3).
September 29th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I don't think "deprecated" is the right word to use, since that implies it's still available, just not officially supported. They have ripped the Project Panel and all its JSFL functionality out without warning, and replaced it with Grant Skinner's gProject.
I don't know why they felt the need to take such a drastic measure. It seems like ever since Robert Penner left, JSFL consideration has taken a back seat.
IMO, it was a mistake to remove the existing project panel without warning or a grace period. If the new project panel API was not going to be available until CS5, then give us at least a little transition time.
I've basically been put over a barrel here and forced to make my own JSFL project panel in order to support Gaia's scaffolding. This is no small amount of work they're putting on me, and until I do it, Gaia won't work in Flash CS4.
October 24th, 2008 at 10:58 am
so now that its out any idea of how to get back my cs3 project window i miss it. i used it to batch publish and wish they would have atleast made a check all button clicking off 123 files was 15 min of pure fun then i waited. i ran a test cs3 vs cs4 batch publish same files both with some stuff. so basicly cs3 stuff. 100 files.
cs4
took 8 min to check them on
took 43 min to publish
cs3
took 30 seconds to add
took 28 min to publish
thanks adobe for making my coffee brake longer im sure my boss loves it. lol
October 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
ok just ran a better test cause i think my cs4 was cranky cause i was working before the test.
86 files
cs4
252.10
253.10 fin checking
001.00 total time
254.00 publish
309.20 end
015.20 total time
total time 16.2 min
per file 11.395 sec
cs3
313.00
313.27 add files
000.27 total time
315.00 publish
319.07 end
004.07 total time
total time 4.34 min
per file 3.186 sec
that's a 357.6585% increase wow nice.
anyone know how i can just create my own batch publisher that dose what cs3 dose?
October 29th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
meybe use flex sdk?
fl.trace(fl.flexSDKPath);
I don't know for 100% if this will work
November 11th, 2008 at 2:59 pm
Look at here :
http://www.iteratif.fr/blog/index.php?post/2008/11/03/Assistants-de-code-pour-Flash-CS3/CS4
extension for Flash CS3 and CS4
November 20th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I'm not a French-speaker (to any certified degree!) but I think I've found an English translation of Savage's link (Nov 11th):
http://www.flashguru.co.uk/communicating-between-actionscript-and-jsfl
As I understand it (AKA what Adobe says what is *can* be capable of) Flex probably has three ways to do the same thing, though I don't know any
As it stands JSFL's FileSystem class looks darned useful; shame I want future-proofing in the project I'm making (i.e any use of it won't work in CS4)
November 20th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
P.S.
In their semi-lengthy diatribe on JSFL Bugs in CS3, "Josh" writes about something called XFL (that in turn Colin "Genius" Moock has written about).
JSFL errors article:
http://joshblog.net/2008/04/07/feature-requests-and-bugs-in-jsfl-for-flash/
XFL article:
http://www.moock.org/blog/archives/000269.html
November 25th, 2008 at 3:59 am
I am really confused by this move to the new project panel. All the dialogs come up wrap inside the panel, thus needing to having it at a lrger size etc. It is really hard to understand how Adobe can let this kind of (fundamental item) go backwards. Are they trying to stop everybody using Flash all together? Great new features, not-so-great changes…
December 19th, 2008 at 4:30 am
The new project panel is a much needed improvement over the last one (I used it about once?). Well done!
External AS editing support would be nice as the one in Flash isn't the best… I use FlashDevelop.
April 26th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
I created FlashAntTasks as an alternative for the project panel if you have Flex Builder
http://blog.jodybrewster.net/2009/04/26/flashanttasks-compiling-flash-movies-with-ant/
August 23rd, 2009 at 7:56 am
fyi for the record, the project panel jSFl features were brought back in the 10.0.2 update to FLash Pro