Preserved Topic: COM and PhotoShop

Has anyone used COM to control PhotoShop from another program? I have been trying to do this with limited success. I have been able to open PhotoShop as a COM server, but then I can't figure out how to send commands to PhotoShop to get it to do anything.

I have looked at the COM Interface for PhotoShop using OLE-Viewer in MSDN and it seems to me that all interactions have to be as actions, but I can't figure out how to create an action in my program or how to send it to PhotoShop.

I would appreciate any help anyone can give me.



-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.

I've tried it a bit with MS Office but not with PS.
This http://www.devshed.com/Server_Side/PHP/PHPandCOM/page1.html page helped me on that.

One thing you do need is to know what methods/functions you can access in the COM object you work with.
/Dan

{cell 260}
-{ a vibration is a movement that doesn't know which way to go }-

I've never even remotely looked at COM but you guys have really peaked my interest.

Does anybody know of any good beginners resources that I can use to start learning and exploring this?

Thanks

-Butcher-

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Thanks InI

If I want to use it with PHP like the tutorial that DmS posted at Devshed, does the application I'm trying to access have to be on the same physical machine that the server is running on?

What I mean is, I have three computers on my LAN here at home with one of them running the server. The machine with the server doesn't have Excel installed on it, but the other 2 computers do. Can I write a script that will access one of the instances of Excel on one of the other computers?

Also, I've done a bit of searching and can't seem to find a comprehensive list of what applications you can access with COM. Is there such a thing?

Thanks again.

-Butcher-

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

The poster has demanded we remove all his contributions, less he takes legal action.
We have done so.
Now Tyberius Prime expects him to start complaining that we removed his 'free speech' since this message will replace all of his posts, past and future.
Don't follow his example - seek real life help first.

WOW!!!

You've certainly given me a good push in the right direction. What a great bunch of links and resources. I'll be spending a bit of time on these.

Thanks very much for all your time and effort InI!!

-Butcher-

Ini: Thanks for all the information on using COM with PHP and MS Applications. I have been using Perl and C++ to talk to Excel and Word for some time so I understand a lot of these things already.

I will have to try Photoshop.CustomFilterKernel and Photoshop.ActionFile to see if those will help me.

Do you happen to know the format of an action file? I am interested in being able to create an action file from a C++ program or a Perl script.

-- not necessarily stoned... just beautiful.