Ghetto Photoshop Panel Dev Guide

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Here's what I told the last person that asked about how to get started with Photoshop panel development. One day I'll write a good version of this.

I'll warn you, Photoshop development is a real headache. There is a lot of stuff to try to figure out, but stick with it! It's worth it.

Is the flex part Easy , i mean the interaction part (the interface build must be easy)

Flex is basically XML. You can create most of it by dragging and dropping components if you don't want to customize the UI.

So during the install you install the panel plus a script ?
Essentially yes. For the most basic panel there is a panel file (.swf), script file (.jsx), and icon files (.png). You can even do the panel without the script file, though doing so limits you mostly to CS5.

Where are the setting saved?
Using the CSXS library (the connection between the panel and photoshop) you save the settings in Photoshop's internal settings storage area

Last question : what tools do you use to make the instal package ?
For CS4, the Adobe Extension Manager (this works for cs5 too, but you can't do certain things with it). I had some custom things I needed to do that the Extension Manager couldn't do, so I used the command line packaging utility that Adobe provides.

Also, here are some great videos that walk you through the basic process for creating a panel. I found them in the second to last week of GuideGuide development. I wish I would have found them months earlier, as they answered a whole lot of question I had to figure out on my own.

https://my.adobeconnect.com/_a295153/p48386410/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQYw7SBY1ao