Installing Third Party Actions in PSE 7

Question

I have figured out a way to add third party actions to PSE 7.<br /><br />It is similar to PSE 6, byt now all the files are in one directory, and they have changed the format of the XML files.<br /><br />Any suggestions or comments on how to improve the process would be greatly appreciated!<br /><br />To add third party Actions to Adobe's Photoshop Elements 7, you need four files:<br />    The Action file, which ends with a .atn<br />    A PNG icon for the action<br />    A JPG icon for the action<br />    A xml file for the action<br />    <br />Assuming your action name is "Sample Action.atn", you will need:<br />    Sample Action.atn<br />    Sample Action.png<br />    Sample Action.jpg<br />    Sample Action.metadata.xml<br />    <br />The xml file has the following format:<br /><br />    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><br />    <PSEContent xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/PSEContent/2.0/"><br />        <subscription value="free" /><br />        <name value="$$$/content/photoeffects/NAME-NO-SPACE=NAME" /><br />        <type value="effect" /><br />        <category value="$$$/content/category/type/CATEGORY-NO-SPACE=CATEGORY" /><br />    </PSEContent><br />   <br />So, if we wanted our sample action to be in a category called "3rd Party Actions", we <br />would have a xml files that looks like the following:<br /><br />    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><br />    <PSEContent xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/PSEContent/2.0/"><br />        <subscription value="free" /><br />        <name value="$$$/content/photoeffects/SampleAction=Sample Action" /><br />        <type value="effect" /><br />        <category value="$$$/content/category/type/3rdPartyActions=3rd Party Actions" /><br />    </PSEContent><br /><br />Copy all four files to the following directory<br /><br />XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\Photo Creations\photo effects<br />Vista: C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\Photo Creations\photo effects<br />MAC: [system drive]:Library:Application Support:Adobe:Photoshop Elements:7.0:Photo Creations:photo effects<br /><br />NOTE: I have not tested the Vista and MAC systems, so the directories MAY be different there<br /><br />You now need to force PSE to rebuild it's database of effects. You do this by deleting<br />or renaming the following files:<br /><br />XP:<br />C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\ThumbDatabase.db3<br />C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\Locale\en_US\MediaDatabase.db3<br /><br />Vista:<br />C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\ThumbDatabase.db3<br />C:\ProgramData\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\7.0\Locale\en_US\MediaDatabase.db3<br /><br />MAC:<br />[system drive]:Library:Application Support:Adobe:Photoshop Elements:7.0:ThumbDatabase.db3<br />[system drive]:Library:Application Support:Adobe:Photoshop Elements:7.0:Locale:en_US:MediaDatabase.db3<br /><br />NOTE: I have not tested the Vista and MAC systems, so the directories MAY be different there<br /><br />Start up the PSE 7 Editor. You sill see a progress bar as the effects databases are rebuilt.<br /><br />Once the databases have been rebuilt, you will find your new category in the Effects pallette under Photo Effects, or under <br />the "All" section.

Answer 1

A minor update to the discussion. After more experimenting, I have changed the XML description.<br /><br />Assume we have the following files:<br />sampleaction.atn<br />sampleaction.png<br />sampleaction.jpg<br />sampleaction.metadata.xml<br /><br />The xml file has the following format:<br /><br /><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><br /><PSEContent xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/PSEContent/2.0/"><br /><subscription value="free" /><br /><name value="$$$/content/photoeffects/FILE-NAME=DISPLAY-NAME" /><br /><type value="effect" /><br /><category value="$$$/content/category/type/CATEGORY-NO-SPACE=CATEGORY" /><br /></PSEContent><br /><br />Where:<br />FILE-NAME is the name of the .atn file, without the .atn<br />DISPLAY-NAME is the name you want displayed in the PSE 7 Effects Palette<br />CATEGORY-NO-SPACE is the category name for the effect without spaces<br />CATEGORY is the Category name you want the effect listed under<br /><br />So, if we wanted our sample action to be in a category called "3rd Party Actions", we<br />would have a xml files that looks like the following:<br /><br /><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><br /><PSEContent xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/PSEContent/2.0/"><br /><subscription value="free" /><br /><name value="$$$/content/photoeffects/sampleaction=Sample Action" /><br /><type value="effect" /><br /><category value="$$$/content/category/type/3rdPartyActions=3rd Party Actions" /><br /></PSEContent>