Important Notice: I am currently in the process of releasing full non-beta versions of all my scripts and as of today - 18 Feb 2006 - am withdrawing all outstanding beta versions. To stay in touch with the full-release rollouts, subscribe to the thread:
Andrew Hall - Script Development, Update List
bb/viewtopic.php?t=190&start=15
The new versions will have much improved dialogs, better integration with Bridge and many new features.
Andrew Hall 18 Feb 2006]
AH BridgeLaunch2 will manage, list, run and batch your Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and GoLive (JS) scripts and actions directly from Bridge. Load it from 'Scripts' in the Bridge Main Menu, or directly from the (right-click) context menu for selected images.
AH BridgeLaunch2 has considerably more powerful batching tools than AH Dynamic Scripts Menu but the direct access to individual scripts the latter has is useful too. Because of this I have made it so that both scripts can be run simultaneously and in fact they are quite complementary - just remember that each script has it's own independent list of target scripts. The next images show both working in their shared menus:
Scripts in Normal mode simply get run doing their own image selection, opening, processing, saving, etc.
Batch mode allows you to easily batch actions and also to batch scripts - something Bridge or Photoshop batch will not do at all:
- target images selected in Bridge,
- target image folders,
- scan subfolders,
- select images by simple character searches (e.g. 'e.jpg' selects jpg images whose name ends in e),
- use more powerful image selection specifying a list of extensions and various patterns for the name (regexp search is also available),
- rename images with the ability to use: image creation date and time, metadata, numbers from the existing name, create new unique numbers etc.
- process images into new formats e.g. raw files to tif, psd and jpg or tif files to jpg files,
- move processed images to different destination folders.
- alternatively, images can be opened for batching and left open for the target script or action to save and close as desired.
- you can also use the separate ah-chains.js script to link a series of actions and scripts into a single chain thereby enabling you to batch an action containing a script: again something that neither Photoshop nor Bridge can normally do.
There are three variations of Batch mode:
- Batch opens target files, runs the script, closes target files according to your batch settings.
- Batch LO (batch leave open) opens files and runs the script leaving files open (the script or action can close the file).
- Files mode runs the script in Normal run mode but passes the target script an array of file paths called batchFiles which the script can use.
AH BridgeLaunch2 also has a special 'repeat' mode which will execute the target script using exactly the same settings (other than your Bridge File Selections) as were used for the previous run. To access 'repeat' mode you simply Shift-Click AH BridgeLaunch2 in the Bridge menu.
AH BridgeLaunch2 is similar to my previous AH Bridge Script Launcher however there are two big differences:
- AH BridgeLaunch2 is run entirely from it's control dialog - AH Bridge Script Launcher runs from the individual script listings in the Bridge menu.
- AH BridgeLaunch2 is significantly more powerful - far better batching controls, image selection filters, plus file processing / file renaming capability.
- AH BridgeLaunch2 is really an Image Processor for scripts and actions.
Many things can be done from the initial control panel but for advanced control there is a second dialog. All the settings in this advanced dialog are remembered on a per-script basis.
Special features for Script Writers
Because AH BridgeLaunch2 has been designed with batching scripts as a central objective, it has built-in capabilities for script writers, who can create scripts to manipulate images individually but can avoid having to create their own image selection UI and batching routines. AH BridgeLaunch2 provides scripts with thre special purpose control variables:
- ah_DataObj: an object which will be in-scope for the target script and will retain data from one pass of the script to the next,
- ah_i: a numeric loop counter, starting at 0, for batched images. This allows you to do many things including open a UI for your script on the first image loop and then use the UI parameters for all subsequent images.
- ah_DataObj.lastTime: a preperty of ah_DataObj which is true after the last image has been opened,
- as noted above, when run in 'Files' batch mode the target script is passed an array of file paths called batchFiles.
Files batch mode has a special feature when the Adv Run button is used. If you also specify a list of extensions in the 'Extension' text box, files having these extensions will be passed to the target script even if they are not openable by the target application. This could be useful (for example) if you want to pass a list of image files to a script working in GoLive, even though GoLive itself cannot open image files. Similarly you could use it to pass a list of xmp files to a script about to be run in Photoshop.
For more detail and installation and running instructions read the help file:
bb/files/ahbridgelaunch2-help.htm
I have included a separate download of three test files which demonstrate how one would modify a script designed for single image processing to take advantage of the batching and file handling facilities of AH BridgeLaunch 2. I am putting a simple tutorial together on this in a separate thread here:
bb/viewtopic.php?t=294
As a final aid, there is a very useful helper script ah-chains.js that allows you to chain together any number of scripts and actions and to run them, in batch mode using Bridge Launch 2. You will find it here:
bb/viewtopic.php?t=241
If you come across any problems with the script, or have feature requests please tell me.
Andrew