Adding menu items and making system calls in AfterEffects (AE,CS3)

We are looking to do the following things via javascript in AfterEffects CS3. It does seem straight-forward, but am unable to find a good reference or example.
* Add at startup a menu item under "File" (or similar main menu) and have it call a script function when clicked.
* Have a script make an external system call (to launch an external application/executable with a few parameters)
Any insights on how to achieve this?
Many thanks!

I wanted to see if there was any update on this, I'm writing a series of tools and would love to create a custom menu for quick and easy access.
If it turns out there isn't an "easy" way to do this (env variables, special directory locations, javascripts) would anyone know if access to the menubar is possible from the Plugin API?
I'm fairly new to After Effects, just getting up-to-speed on the environment now... seeing if I can duplicate the functionality of some old Nuke scripts in AE.
thanks,
Rick_

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Hello Anjum,
Thank you for reporting the issue. It seems to be a Bug and we have logged the same. Hopefully it will get fixed in coming releases.
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look at:
java.lang.RunTime

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Hello
I'm a new user to the forums, but have a little bit of java programming experience.
currently i'm writing some business applications, one of which is a payroll system. The target audience is end-user bookkeepers so i am planning for a GUI front end.
My first question relates to how programs save their state. for example, each month the bookkeeper will launch the program and add the next months payments, or he/she will open the program to fix a mistake. In general how do programs like word, excel (or anything) save and load files to work with? I was thinking about using XML. I thought i would load in an XML file containing all work so far, and then the user could save to it, which would add the new work.
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Edited by: minofifa on Oct 25, 2007 1:09 PM
attempted to take topic off the watch list - sorry guys

My first question relates to how programs save their state. for example, each month the bookkeeper
will launch the program and add the next months payments, or he/she will open the program to fix a
mistake. In general how do programs like word, excel (or anything) save and load files to work with? I
was thinking about using XML. I thought i would load in an XML file containing all work so far, and then
the user could save to it, which would add the new work. It sounds more like you are talking about saving the data instead of state--save in a database for mass and long term storage. Simple state info can be easily save in a database also or in a bean or text file.
Question the second: A lot of gui java apps i use (like argo, symphony etc) have standard menus at
the tops. Items like open, save, close, print etc. How are developers actually doing this? is there
some premade classes i can just use in my programs as well that would be me this funtionality? This
kindof relates to my first question about saving and opening. Further, it seems there are two GUI
libraries to consider - either SWT or Swring. Eclipse plugins are written in SWT (from what i have
heard). Can anybody recommend which API i should be using to create a GUI for my program?Maybe this is not what you are asking, but menu systems are implemented with Menu, MenuBar, MenuItem, etc objects in Java. The specifics of what happens when the individual menu items are selected are left up to the programmer.
If you are looking for prebuilt menubars with code attached to perform common functions, then I do not know of any included in Java.

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function SnpAddMenuItem()
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Determines whether snippet can be run given current context. The snippet
fails if these preconditions are not met:
<ul>
<li> Must be running in Bridge
<li> Must only be executed once in a session
</ul>
@return True if this snippet can run, false otherwise
@type boolean
SnpAddMenuItem.prototype.canRun = function()
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"main program": construct an anonymous instance and run it,
as long as we are not unit-testing this snippet.
if(typeof(SnpAddMenuItem_unitTest ) == "undefined") {
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This will put the two commands at the bottom of the Tools menu....
#target bridge
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stackCommand.onSelect = function () {
//Your code goes here
maskCommand.onSelect = function () {
//Your code goes here

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Hi all. First post and all that jazz.
Wonder if anyone can assist with several issues I'm having with a CK-200. to list them:
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David.
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Hi guys,
I've set up Cisco Jabber for Windows to use Extend and Connect to control a remote PBX endpoint. I've configured the required CTI-RD device, remote destinations, associated the users to the line and added the devices to end-user controlled device. The extend and connect part is working flawlessly without any issues. I'm able to receive inbound calls on the remote PBX endpoint and control the call (hold, resume, transfer etc.) using the Jabber call window that pops up.
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Making system calls in java

I want to join some split files into one. In command prompt I use COPY /B file.1+file.2 file to join the files. How can i do the same in my java application. Please show the code which I suppose will use getRuntime. Thanks in advance.

Well if there is a problem with system calls then can
you tell me if there is a class in java for
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At present I am joing the files
by reading each byte from the files and writing them
to another file which takes hell lot of time. You should read the files in large chunks. Much much faster.
Thanks
in advance again. Also if you say about sequential
file class then please expalin a bit bcs I couldn't
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"Greg Lafrance" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:gd8flp$sul$[email protected]..
> To be fair, Adobe's initial vision for AIR is not as a
technology that
> would
> permit you to create desktop apps that do all that
"regular" desktop apps
> do.
>
> Part of the reason is because they wanted to have a
solution that "starts"
> to
> blur the lines between online and desktop, but I suspect
another reason is
> because they wanted to get it out the door, and dealing
with the
> additional
> security considerations might delay that.
>
> That said, I'm right there with you, I am looking
forward to when AIR apps
> can
> execute native apps.
>
> One of the problems is that Adobe has "grown up" and now
is getting a
> touch
> stiff, though I still believe they will continue to be
one of the greatest
> software firms out there for the next 5 - 10 - 15+
years.
>
> Of course I work there, so I'm at least a bit biased.
But then again, I am
> a
> bit of a rebel against some aspects of Adobe (and
definitely against some
> aspects of the former Macromedia) culture.
Heh. Been there, done that. They stopped giving me t-shirts

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I am writing a program using netbeans. I have put in
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the GUI is constructed. But this is in a blue area in
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Help.just look at the properties maybe you miss something or you can add
menu items manually.

Adding menu items and making system calls in AfterEffects (AE,CS3)

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