"Arrange Documents" panel plugin bug - Please Adobe give technical details

[main...@adobeforums.com]

Hi,

A lot of users are hit by this bug that appears when installing certain
plugins under CS4 (Nik Software plugins for example):

- the menu bar buttons that should be highlighted in color when hovering
them switch to a full grey area.
- the 2 top Panels in the Arrange Documents drop down menu are
invisible.

Adobe say this is a problem with older plugins and a misunderstanding
about how resources are managed in plugins (read : it's a developer
mistake) and plugin vendors don't make any firm statement about this
issue.

The workaround that generally works is to close and reload the plugin
but this works only for the current session.

It would be nice if Adobe could give us users clear and detailed
technical information about this issue. Many of us are developers or
power users and since the communication between the plugin vendors and
Adobe doesn't seem to be that effective, at least we would be able to
transmit the information to the vendor's technical support ourselves.
And as a developer, I'd like to know what mistake so many developers
have made when using the CS4 SDK.

It's very annoying to live with such trivial problems since months
without seeing any fix released.

--
Patrick

[Don_Mc...@adobeforums.com]

I would suggest that this is an issue that should be brought up in the SDK forum.

[main...@adobeforums.com]

Don,

I'm not sure. Of course, this is a development problem but this is also a lasting communication problem between Adobe and third-party addin developers.

Since I'm not aware of any document produced by Adobe explaining how to avoid what appears to be a common programming mistake and since on the other hand, a lot of third-party developers don't seem to be aware of this SDK pitfall, I'd like users that are not developers to be able to tell the third-party support: "Hey, this is a known problem. Please just have a look there.". They don't need to understand what the programming problem is. They need to be able to give the information to the relevant technical support.

This is why I'd like this information (or a link to it) published in a forum that a "normal" user is supposed to visit: this one. Not the SDK forum.

--
Patrick

[Chri...@adobeforums.com]

Have you asked about this on the SDK mailing list?
Or contacted the Adobe product manager who works with third party plugin developers?

We maintain pretty active communication with third party developers.

[main...@adobeforums.com]

Chris,

However, it seems that there's a communication problem about this
particular issue, at least with some major vendors. I received a message
from Nik Software yesterday telling me that they are aware of the
problem and working on a fix. However, this is not a new problem and
since it is apparently a well-known misunderstanding about how some PS
APIs are working and since many plugins from various vendors are
triggering this misbehavior of the PS UI, I guess this must have been
documented somewhere. I can't imagine that this is not the case. If Nik
Software had received the right information from Adobe, the problem
should be gone since a long time.

Well, ok, I'll ask on the SDK forum.

Regards.

--
Patrick

[Chri...@adobeforums.com]

The SDK mailing list should be the conduit for that kind of information.
Once we have more solid documentation, we'll probably make a post in the SDK forum.

I think this boils down to a case of incomplete documentation. We thought it was complete, and some vendors did the right thing. But apparently the documentation wasn't complete because someone else reading it went and did something they shouldn't have.