Automation plug-in modules access all Photoshop scriptable events. More...

Data Structures
struct	PIActionParameters
	Parameters passed to an automation plug-in through the message data. More...
struct	PSActionsPlugInMessage
	Message passed to all automation plug-in entry points, when the caller is is `kPSPhotoshopCaller` and the selector is `kPSDoIt`. More...
Typedefs
typedef struct PIActionParameters	PIActionParameters
	Parameters passed to an automation plug-in through the message data.
typedef struct PSActionsPlugInMessage	PSActionsPlugInMessage
	Message passed to all automation plug-in entry points, when the caller is is `kPSPhotoshopCaller` and the selector is `kPSDoIt`.
Automation Module Caller and Selector
#define	kPSPhotoshopCaller "PS Photoshop"
	Caller portion of message action sent to an Automation plug-in entry point.
#define	kPSDoIt "Do It"
	Selector portion of message action sent to an Automation plug-in entry point.

Detailed Description

Automation plug-in modules access all Photoshop scriptable events.

These modules appear under the Automate menu or the Help menu. Automation plug-ins are built on top of the Adobe Plug-in Component Architecture (PICA). For further information, see Photoshop Actions Event Guide, and Adobe PICA API.

Since Automation modules are built on top of PICA, they have a different invocation than many of the other Photoshop plug-in modules. By convention the entry point is called AutoPluginMain:

        DLLExport SPAPI SPErr AutoPluginMain(
            const char* caller,   // who is calling
            const char* selector, // what do they want
            void* message         // what is the message
        )

Three arguments are passed to the AutoPluginMain( ) function, collectively they make up a message. The first two parameters represent the message action, describing what the plug-in is supposed to do. The caller string identifies the sender of the message and a general category of action. The selector string specifies the action to take within the category of action.

All PICA plug-ins receive five message actions: startup, shutdown, reload, unload and about. These are documented in The Adobe PICA API. In addition, automation plug-ins receive a caller/selector pair that indicates the plug-in should begin the automation. See kPSPhotoshopCaller and kPSDoIt.

The third parameter is a pointer to a data structure, which provides data that depends on the message action. For an Automation module, when the caller/selector pair is kPSPhotoshopCaller/kPSDoIt, the data structure is the PSActionsPlugInMessage.