Opening a Script in PS from Bridge

Question

The following script was (severely) hacked from Bob's OpenClose_PS.jsx. It is called from Bridge and runs the target script in Photoshop. It seems to work even with complex scripts that go from Photoshop back to Bridge to do more things in Bridge.
#target bridge
function getScript ( ) {
var scp = "remoteScript = " + remoteScript + "\n";
scp += "remoteScript();";
return scp;
function remoteScript ( ) {
var f = new File ('/c/Program Files/Adobe/Adobe Photoshop CS2/Presets/Scripts/ah-rawprocessor1.js');
if (f.open('r')) {
var sStr = f.read();
else throw('failed to open script'+f.fsName);
eval(sStr);
function runScript ( ) {
var bt = new BridgeTalk ();
var theScript = getScript();
bt.target = "photoshop";
bt.body = theScript;
bt.send();
runScript();
BUT I do not understand what is going on in the first line of the getScript function - or perhaps in the whole of that function. I would like to understand it better and as part of that find a way to specify the target script path within the runscript() call ie runScript(targetScript);
Andrew

Answer 1

Just to make sure - you're creating a script (in Bridge) from a PS script in PS' presets/scripts folder, that will eventually be sent to PS - correct?
Send 2 BT messages.
The first one gets the script path. Put the result of that into your script before you actually send it to PS.
You'll get the result in the onResult handler.
var bt = new BridgeTalk();
bt.target = "photoshop";
bt.body = "app.path;"
bt.onResult = continueOp; // function that continues the process
continueOp = function( msg ) {
var path = msg.body;
// do the rest
You have to be careful - there's a bug in BT that causes a queued message (waiting for an app to launch) to un-bind from it's onResult handler. The result is that if you launch PS with a BT message that expects an onResult handler to fire, it won't. Once PS is launched and ready, this isn't a problem.
There's a function - startTargetApplication( target );
that will start the target app and wait until it's ready. You can use that, but it locks bridge up until the target app is fully launched.
Another way is to use this new beastie I've been working on:
AppLauncher = {};
AppLauncher.array = new Array();
AppLauncher.processID = null;
AppLauncher.running = false;
AppLauncher.pause = false;
AppLauncher.id = 0;
AppLauncher.launchTimeout = 2 * 60 * 1000; // 2 minutes
AppLauncher.launchCycle = 3000; // launch and check launch status every 3 seconds
AppLauncher.purge = function() {
AppLauncher.array = new Array();
try {
app.cancelTask( AppLauncher.processId );
} catch ( e ) {
AppLauncher.running = false;
AppLauncher.pause = false;
AppLauncher.launch = function( target, callback, context ) {
if ( !BridgeTalk.isRunning( target ) ) {
var launcher = new AppLauncher.Launcher( target, callback, context );
AppLauncher.array.push( launcher );
if ( !AppLauncher.running ) {
AppLauncher.running = true;
AppLauncher.processId = app.scheduleTask( "AppLauncher._$launch();", AppLauncher.launchCycle, true );
} else {
if ( context ) {
callback.call( context, true, target );
} else {
callback( true, target );
AppLauncher._$launch = function() {
// $.writeln( "launching" );
if ( !AppLauncher.pause ) {
for ( var i = 0; i < AppLauncher.array.length; i++ ) {
AppLauncher.array[ i ].launch();
if ( AppLauncher.array.length == 0 ) {
if ( AppLauncher.processId != null ) {
app.cancelTask( AppLauncher.processId );
AppLauncher.running = false;
AppLauncher.pause = false;
AppLauncher.Launcher = function( target, callback, context ) {
this.id = AppLauncher.id++;
this.target = target;
this.callback = callback;
this.context = context;
this.calledback = false;
this.launched = false;
this.t1 = new Date();
AppLauncher.Launcher.prototype.timedOut = function() {
return ( ( new Date() - this.t1 ) > AppLauncher.launchTimeout );
AppLauncher.Launcher.prototype.resultHandler = function() {
if ( this.context ) {
this.callback.call( this.context, true, this.target );
} else {
this.callback( true, this.target );
AppLauncher.Launcher.prototype.kill = function() {
AppLauncher.pause = true;
var array = new Array();
for ( var i = 0; i < AppLauncher.array.length; i++ ) {
if ( AppLauncher.array[ i ].id != this.id ) {
array.push( AppLauncher.array[ i ] );
AppLauncher.array = array;
AppLauncher.pause = false;
AppLauncher.Launcher.prototype.launch = function() {
if ( this.timedOut() ) {
this.kill();
if ( this.context ) {
this.callback.call( this.context, false, this.target );
} else {
this.callback( false, this.target );
} else {
if ( !this.launched ) {
BridgeTalk.launch( this.target );
this.launched = true;
if ( BridgeTalk.isRunning( this.target ) && ( !this.calledback ) ) {
this.calledback = true;
if ( this.context ) {
this.callback.call( this.context, true, this.target );
} else {
this.callback( true, this.target );
this.kill();
The usage is:
AppLauncher.launch( target, onLaunchedHandler, context );
target is the target app
onLaunchedHandler is a callback to execute when the app has been lauched.
context - is a context object - used ONLY if your onLaunchedHandler is a method of an instance of an object. IF THAT IS THE CASE - include the object as the context. If it is NOT the case, leave as undefined.
onLaunchedHandler = function( success, target ) {
success - boolean -true if app launched and responded
target - target app that launched.
Example:
var ns = {};
ns.continue = function( success, target ) {
// make and execute script
AppLauncher.launch( "photoshop", ns.continue );
fred = fuction( target, script ) {
this.target = target;
this.script = script;
fred.prototype.continue = function( success, target ) {
// make and execute script
var bt = new BridgeTalk();
bt.target = this.target;
bt.body = this.message;
bt.send();
fred.prototype.send = function() {
AppLauncher.launch( this.target, this.continue, this ); // note the context object here because the onLaunchHandler is attached to an instance object
var f = new fred( "photoshop", "app.path;" );
f.send();
This on will not freeze bridge while waiting for launch.
Bob
Adobe WAS Scripting