adobe-node

adobe-node

Control Adobe applications - such as Photoshop, Animate, Illustrator, InDesign - from node. Run JavaScript to remotely - from the command line - create, modify or export document content. This module can be used to automate the workflow by creating an action chain that can be executed without user intervention.

Installation

Add package to your project eg.

npm i adobe-node

You must have cURL installed for this module to work properly.

If you are using Windows and you do not have cURL installed, you can use this link to download and install it. It is important that you can run curl from the command line.

API

Methods

Method	Arguments	Description
init	-	Initializes the AdobeApp instance/ starts Adobe Event Listener.
on	event: string, callback: (message: BroadcastMessage) => void	Adds an event handler function to listen to an event so that when that event occurs, the callback will be triggered.
runScript	script: string, options?: Options	Runs custom JavaScript
saveDocument	document: string, saveAs?: string	Saves changes made to the document. Optionally, it can save the changes as a new file
openDocument	...documents: string[]	Opens documents.
closeDocument	...documents: string[]	Closes documents.
newDocument	options?: NewDocumentOptions	Creates document.
open	-	Opens the Adobe application.
close	-	Closes the Adobe application.
dispose	-	Closes Adobe Event Listener and rest of the AdobeApp components.

Config

Config

Method	Type	Description
app	AdobeAppConfig	Adobe application config
host	string	Domain name of the server.
port	number	Port number on which the server is listening.
appTimeout	number	Time after which the application process will close. Useful when the application freezes. By default - 0 - this option is off.
jsPath	string	Location of the javaScript files. Default path is "./js"

AdobeAppConfig

Method	Type	Description
name	AdobeAppName	Adobe application name. eg. AdobeAppName.Photoshop
path	string	Path to the Adobe's app executable file.
adobeScriptsPath	string	Location of the Scripts directory of the selected Adobe app.

Others

BroadcastMessage

Property	Type	Description
command	string	Command name
stdout	string	Standard output
stderr	string	Standard error

NewDocumentOptions

Property	Type	Description
name	string	Name of the document
width	number	Document width
height	number	Document height
...	any	+ other custom, optional properties

Events

Event	Description
JS script file name	the event for a specific function called by the runScript() method
AdobeAppEvent.OpenApp	-
AdobeAppEvent.CloseApp	-
AdobeAppEvent.NewDocument	-
AdobeAppEvent.OpenDocument	-
AdobeAppEvent.CloseDocument	-
AdobeAppEvent.SaveDocument	-

Examples

Basic example

import newAdobeApp, { AdobeAppName, AdobeAppEvent, AdobeApp, BroadcastMessage } from "adobe-node";

const sleep = (duration: number) => new Promise(resolve => { setTimeout(resolve, duration) });

const main = async () => {
    const app: AdobeApp = newAdobeApp({
        app: {
            name: AdobeAppName.Photoshop,
            path: '/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019',
            adobeScriptsPath: '/Applications/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019/Presets/Scripts'
        },
        host: 'localhost',
        port: 5000
    });

    app.on(AdobeAppEvent.OpenApp, () => {
        console.log(`The Adobe App is open`);
    })
    .on(AdobeAppEvent.NewDocument, () => {
        console.log(`The document has been created`);
    })
    .on(AdobeAppEvent.OpenDocument, (data: any) => {
        console.log(`The document has been opened`);
    })
    .on(AdobeAppEvent.CloseDocument, () => {
        console.log(`The document has been closed`);
    })
    .on(AdobeAppEvent.CloseApp, () => {
        console.log(`The Adobe App has been closed`);
    })
    .on("test_script", (message: BroadcastMessage) => {
        console.log(`Testing custom script - ${message}`);
    });

    app.init();
    
    await app.open();
    await app.openDocument('/test1.psd');
    await sleep(2000);
    await app.closeDocument('/test1.psd');
    await sleep(2000);
    await app.close();
    app.dispose();
}

main();

Running custom scripts

In Adobe applications you can run scripts in JSFL (Adobe Animate) and JSX (Photoshop, Illustrator etc.)
One of the features of this module is the ability to run a custom scripts written in javaScript.
There are a few things to explain, first of all this is the script template triggered in the selected Adobe application.

Template of Adobe Script

var ___{{__command__}} = (function() {
    var __stderr;
    var __stdout;
    
    try {
      {{__vars__}}  
      __stdout = {{__fn__}}
    } catch (e) {
      __stderr = e;
    } finally {
      {{__broadcast__}}
    }
  })();

Texts between {{}} are replaced with values prepared for a specific event/command. The javaScript code is pasted in the {{__fn__}} placeholder.

As you can see {{__fn__}}/ JS code is assigned to the __stdout variable, this means that your javaScript code must be included in the IIFE function and it must also return a value - even if the logic doesn't require it - which will be passed in to the event.

// IIFE example
(function(){
    ... some magic
    return true; // whatever
}());

Running script without any arguments

...
await app.runScript('/some_custom_script.js');
...

Running script with arguments

...
await app.runScript('/some_custom_script.js', {
  title: "New Document",
  width: 1024,
  height: 768
});
...

The arguments/ options used in the runScript() method are pasted in the {{__vars__}} placeholder.
These vars are also available in the IIFE function.

Generated Adobe Script

Here is an example of a generated script file that runs in Adobe app.

var ___new_document = (function() {
    var __stderr;
    var __stdout;
    
    try {
      var title = "New Document";
      var width = 1024;
      var height = 768;

      __stdout = (function(){
          var doc = app.documents.add(width, height, 72, title, NewDocumentMode.RGB, DocumentFill.TRANSPARENT, 1);
          return true;
      }());

    } catch (e) {
      __stderr = e;
    } finally {
      app.system("curl -d '{\"command\":\"new_document\",\"stdout\":\"" + __stdout + "\", \"stderr\":\"" + __stderr + "\" }' -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" -X POST http://localhost:5000");
    }
  })();

The generated adobe scripts files - jsx/jsfl - are saved in the location specified in the adobeScriptsPath configuration.

Info: If there are no specific reasons against, it is better to use the default location of the Adobe application.