SwitchBoard
From Adobe Labs
Download SwitchBoard
- For Microsoft® Windows® XP and Vista™ (25.5 MB)
- For Mac OS X v10.4.x, 10.5.x (12.2 MB)
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Introduction to the Adobe® SwitchBoard Technology - Preview Release 1
Now AIR applications can drive the Creative Suite!
In 2008, Adobe released Adobe AIR™ for deploying rich Internet applications on the desktop. These dynamic applications are built with the web standards of HTML, Flash®, and Ajax and are run on Mac, Windows, and Linux. Now, with the Adobe technology code-named SwitchBoard, AIR applications can communicate with applications in the Adobe Creative Suite®.
SwitchBoard brings together the power of the automation in the Creative Suite applications with the potential for third parties to extend the creative process with new applications produced using AIR. The result is an extensible, powerful, cross-platform environment that can quickly adapt to today's rapidly changing creative workflows.
System Requirements for SwitchBoard
The system requirements for SwitchBoard are:
- Microsoft® Windows® XP
- Microsoft Windows Vista™
- Mac OS X v10.4.x
- Mac OS X v10.5.x
Installing SwitchBoard
The SwitchBoard installer installs:
- SwitchBoard service which forwards messages between AIR applications and Creative Suite applications.
- SwitchBoard launcher which launches target applications.
To install SwitchBoard, follow these steps:
Windows XP and Vista
- Uninstall prior versions of SwitchBoard before installing a new version. Choose “Add or Remove Programs” from the Control Panel, select Adobe SwitchBoard, and click Change/Remove.
- Download the SwitchBoard ZIP file and unzip the package. The package contains a Setup.exe application.
- Install SwitchBoard by launching the Setup.exe application.
Mac OS X
- Uninstall prior versions of SwitchBoard before installing a new version. Double-click the Adobe SwitchBoard alias in the /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installer folder.
- Download the SwitchBoard DMG file.
- Double-click the DMG item to mount the installer virtual disk. The virtual disk contains a Setup application.
- Install SwitchBoard by launching the Setup application.
After you install SwitchBoard, the SwitchBoard service and the SwitchBoard launcher run in the background.
SwitchBoard Software Development Kit (SDK) for Adobe AIR Developers
The remaining sections of this page are designed to provide information for AIR developers interested in learning more about SwitchBoard and the SwitchBoard SDK. Please read on.
Adobe AIR developers can create applications that participate as first class citizens in creative workflows. Each SwitchBoard solution consists of an AIR application written for SwitchBoard, JavaScripts, and the SwitchBoard service that delivers the scripts to the Creative Suite applications. AIR developers only need to include a Flex library called SwitchBoard.swc in their projects in order to send and receive scripts to and from Creative Suite applications.
We’ve developed an SDK for developers who want to write an AIR application that uses SwitchBoard.
You will need two separate downloads:
- SwitchBoard installer for users who want to run an AIR application that uses SwitchBoard.
- SwitchBoard SDK for developers who want to write an AIR application that uses SwitchBoard.
Note: Your use of this site including software downloads, submission of comments, ideas, feature requests and techniques on this and other Adobe maintained forums, as well as Adobe’s rights to use such materials, is governed by the Terms of Use.
System and Software Requirements for the SwitchBoard SDK
The system requirements for the SwitchBoard SDK are:
- Microsoft® Windows® XP
- Microsoft Windows Vista™
- Mac OS X v10.4.x
- Mac OS X v10.5.x
Other software required by the SwitchBoard SDK
Installing SwitchBoard SDK
The SwitchBoard SDK contains:
- SwitchBoard.swc enables AIR applications to communicate with Creative Suite applications.
- AIRSend is a sample AIR project that sends scripts to Creative Suite target applications and waits for results and errors.
- InDesign Example is a sample AIR project that imports an XML document into InDesign.
- Photoshop Example is a sample AIR project that converts an image to a png file.
- SwitchBoard API Reference, Getting Started with SwitchBoard, and SwitchBoard Inter-Application Communication documentation
To install the SDK, follow these steps:
Windows XP and Vista
- Download the SDK ZIP file.
- Unzip the package and navigate to the unzipped location.
Mac OS X
- Download the SDK DMG file.
- Double-click on the DMG item to mount the installer virtual disk.
Getting Started
Once you have installed the SwitchBoard SDK, see the Getting Started with Adobe SwitchBoard document included in the SDK.
Known Issues
- If you experience problems launching target applications, or sending and receiving messages – especially after working with SwitchBoard immediately after the installation completes – please reboot the machine.
- Launching a target application might fail if the target application is launched and terminated several times in intervals that are smaller than 1 minute.
- Workaround: Manually launch the target application one more time and wait for about 1 minute.
- Windows XP/Vista: com.adobe.SwitchBoard.Client.bringToFront() sometimes only activates the target application but does not bring it to the front.
- Workaround: Bring the target application manually to the front.
- Windows XP/Vista: The SwitchBoard uninstaller takes up to 2 minutes to finish uninstalling.
- Workaround: None.
- OS X: The SwitchBoard uninstaller does not terminate SwitchBoard.
- Workaround: Reboot the machine.
Links
SwitchBoard provides access to ExtendScript DOMs (Document Object Models) for Creative Suite applications. The following documents and other resources provide details of the available DOMs and background information about ExtendScript programming.
- Adobe Introduction to Scripting
- Adobe CS3 Javascript Tools Guide
- Photoshop Scripting
- Illustrator Scripting
- InDesign Development Center
- InDesign CS3 Scripting Guide
Discussion Forum
Discuss SwitchBoard in the Labs discussion forums.
FAQ
This section will be updated from time to time with answers to questions frequently asked in the Discussion Forum.
