Adobe ExtendScript development - How different than regular JavaScript?

Question

Question

I'm wondering how different ExtendScript is from JavaScript? Could I theoretically hire a web developer who has JavaScript savvy to develop it without demanding an excessive amount of learning on their part?

Overview

I'm working on a media database (or a so-called "multimedia library") project and it is based on XMP (the eXtensible Metadata Platform). The logical tool for administering the metadata and keywording seems to be Adobe Bridge, however I need to contract out the development of a couple of scripts to add a few key functions to Bridge, mainly for interfacing with a server-stored controlled keyword vocabulary.

Upper management, in their infinite wisdom, has decided that putting a software alpha/beta tester and Adobe heavy-lifter [me] in charge of developing the project discovery is the best way to go about this. Whilst I know what I need done, I'm unsure who can actually do it.

Regrettably, my programming knowledge is limited to C++, XML, Apple Script and web languages (unfortunately not including JavaScript), so I'm way out in the weeds when it comes to questions about JavaScript.

Bridge Developer Center

Adobe has a handy SDK out there on the subject, but I can't really make much sense of the overall picture. Much of the Adobe user-to-user forum content is old or unrelated.

Project description

I need a menu added to the menu bar with three options. The three options would all use "Clear and Import" function possible in Bridge's Keywords panel to import 1 of 3 different tab-delimited text files from the database server using either the FTP or HTTP object.

The reading I've done in the Bridge SDK and JavaScript guide suggests that menu items can be added as I've shown in the image below for clarity. Additionally, I've managed to get a very rough version of the "Clear and Import" method to work as a startup script, however I'd like to be able to call them on the fly by clicking on the appropriate menu entry.

For a larger view of the image, click here

Answer 1

If it's anything like the scripting used for the old Flash IDE, then I think it's just straight javascript/ECMAScript. The only real difference is the APIs you have avaialble. I expect anyone who's good with javascript would be able to pick it up fairly quickly.

Answer 2

ExtendScript is very close to regular JavaScript. They've made a few extensions (e.g., operator overloading) but overall the two are very similar. Adobe products include an IDE called the "ExtendScript Toolkit" (ESTK) that provides a nice environment for writing scripts with an interactive debugger.

You can create new menu items in Bridge by creating instances of MenuElement. Set the onSelect property of the MenuElement object you create to be the function you want the menu item to perform when you select it. The Bridge CS4 JavaScript Reference guide has all the details.