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Enabling Support for Custom Platforms

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  1. Adobe Animate User Guide
  2. Introduction to Animate
    1. What's New in Animate
    2. Visual Glossary
    3. Animate system requirements
    4. Animate keyboard shortcuts
    5. Work with Multiple File Types in Animate
  3. Animation
    1. Animation basics in Animate
    2. How to use frames and keyframes in Animate
    3. Frame-by-frame animation in Animate
    4. How to work with classic tween animation in Animate
    5. Brush Tool
    6. Motion Guide
    7. Motion tween and ActionScript 3.0
    8. About Motion Tween Animation
    9. Motion tween animations
    10. Creating a Motion tween animation
    11. Using property keyframes
    12. Animate position with a tween
    13. How to edit motion tweens using Motion Editor
    14. Editing the motion path of a tween animation
    15. Manipulating motion tweens
    16. Adding custom eases
    17. Creating and applying Motion presets
    18. Setting up animation tween spans
    19. Working with Motion tweens saved as XML files
    20. Motion tweens vs Classic tweens
    21. Shape tweening
    22. Using Bone tool animation in Animate
    23. Work with character rigging in Animate
    24. How to use mask layers in Adobe Animate
    25. How to work with scenes in Animate
  4. Interactivity
    1. How to create buttons with Animate
    2. Convert Animate projects to other document type formats
    3. Create and publish HTML5 Canvas documents in Animate
    4. Add interactivity with code snippets in Animate
    5. Creating custom HTML5 Components
    6. Using Components in HTML5 Canvas
    7. Creating custom Components: Examples
    8. Code Snippets for custom Components
    9. Best practices - Advertising with Animate
    10. Virtual Reality authoring and publishing
  5. Workspace and workflow
    1. Creating and managing Paint brushes
    2. Using Google fonts in HTML5 Canvas documents
    3. Using Creative Cloud Libraries and Adobe Animate
    4. Use the Stage and Tools panel for Animate
    5. Animate workflow and workspace
    6. Using web fonts in HTML5 Canvas documents
    7. Timelines and ActionScript
    8. Working with multiple timelines
    9. Set preferences
    10. Using Animate authoring panels
    11. Create timeline layers with Animate
    12. Export animations for mobile apps and game engines
    13. Moving and copying objects
    14. Templates
    15. Find and Replace in Animate
    16. Undo, redo, and the History panel
    17. Keyboard shortcuts
    18. How to use the timeline in Animate
    19. Creating HTML extensions
    20. Optimization options for Images and Animated GIFs
    21. Export settings for Images and GIFs
    22. Assets Panel in Animate
  6. Multimedia and Video
    1. Transforming and combining graphic objects in Animate
    2. Creating and working with symbol instances in Animate
    3. Image Trace
    4. How to use sound in Adobe Animate
    5. Exporting SVG files
    6. Create video files for use in Animate
    7. How to add a video in Animate
    8. Draw and create objects with Animate
    9. Reshape lines and shapes
    10. Strokes, fills, and gradients with Animate CC
    11. Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
    12. Color Panels in Animate CC
    13. Opening Flash CS6 files with Animate
    14. Work with classic text in Animate
    15. Placing artwork into Animate
    16. Imported bitmaps in Animate
    17. 3D graphics
    18. Working with symbols in Animate
    19. Draw lines & shapes with Adobe Animate
    20. Work with the libraries in Animate
    21. Exporting Sounds
    22. Selecting objects in Animate CC
    23. Working with Illustrator AI files in Animate
    24. Applying blend modes
    25. Arranging objects
    26. Automating tasks with the Commands menu
    27. Multilanguage text
    28. Using camera in Animate
    29. Graphic filters
    30. Sound and ActionScript
    31. Drawing preferences
    32. Drawing with the Pen tool
  7. Platforms
    1. Convert Animate projects to other document type formats
    2. Custom Platform Support
    3. Create and publish HTML5 Canvas documents in Animate
    4. Creating and publishing a WebGL document
    5. How to package applications for AIR for iOS
    6. Publishing AIR for Android applications
    7. Publishing for Adobe AIR for desktop
    8. ActionScript publish settings
    9. Best practices - Organizing ActionScript in an application
    10. How to use ActionScript with Animate
    11. Accessibility in the Animate workspace
    12. Writing and managing scripts
    13. Enabling Support for Custom Platforms
    14. Custom Platform Support Overview
    15. Working with Custom Platform Support Plug-in
    16. Debugging ActionScript 3.0
    17. Enabling Support for Custom Platforms
  8. Exporting and Publishing
    1. How to export files from Animate CC
    2. OAM publishing
    3. Exporting SVG files
    4. Export graphics and videos with Animate
    5. Publishing AS3 documents
    6. Export animations for mobile apps and game engines
    7. Exporting Sounds
    8. Best practices - Tips for creating content for mobile devices
    9. Best practices - Video conventions
    10. Best practices - SWF application authoring guidelines
    11. Best practices - Structuring FLA files
    12. Best Practices to optimize FLA files for Animate
    13. ActionScript publish settings
    14. Specify publish settings for Animate
    15. Exporting projector files
    16. Export Images and Animated GIFs
    17. HTML publishing templates
    18. Working with Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects
    19. Quick share and publish your animations
  9. Troubleshooting
    1. Fixed issues
    2. Known issues

 

This article guides the plug-in developers on how to create Animate plug-ins to support custom platforms using Animate.

To build a custom platform support plug-in, developers require the Custom Platform Support Development Kit. Click here to download.

  1. Choose Animate Custom Platform SDK in Downloads tab
  2. Select 2020 SDK version
  3. Select Cross Platform, and 
  4. Select Animate 20.0 (Latest) option to download. 

Click here to download a sample plug-in and use it as a reference for building a custom support platform support plug-in. 

  1. Choose Animate Custom Platform SDK in Downloads tab.
  2. Select 2020 SDK version
  3. Select Sample Plug-in

A plug-in consists of the following elements:

  • DocType adds a new document type for the custom platform in Animate and controls the authoring features.
  • Publisher allows configuration of the publish settings and publishing the document to the custom platform.

For an overview of the Custom Platform Support feature, see Custom Platform Support. 

Building a Animate custom platform support plug-in

You can develop a custom platform support plug-in using one of the following methods:

  • Create a plug-in using the APIs in the custom platform support development kit.
  • Customize the settings of the sample plug-in included in the development kit to suit your requirements.

Custom Platform Support plug-ins are packaged as .zxp files that can be installed with Animate. You can host the plug-in on the Adobe Add-ons page for users to download and install using the Creative Cloud application or distribute the plug-ins as .zxp packages to install them using the Manage Extensions utility.

Software requirements

A developer needs the following software to build a plug-in using the custom platform support development kit: 

  • Microsoft Windows 10 (1803 and later) or Apple Mac OS 10.13 and later 
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 (for Windows) or XCode 10.1 (for Mac)
  • Animate
  • Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers
  • Adobe Extension Builder 3.0
  • Manage Extensions utility

API reference documentation for plug-in developers

The custom platform support development kit contains the following elements:

  • FCM (Flash Component Model): The header files contained in the development kit define a framework called FCM, which is responsible for plug-in management.
  • DocType: This contains a set of interfaces that helps you to add a new document type to the Animate start page and allows you to enable or disable features for the custom document type.
  • DOM (Document Object Model): This contains a set of interfaces that helps you to access the contents of the animate document in the form of a DOM. 
  • Publisher: This contains a set of interfaces that provides hooks to the publish workflows.

For complete information about the APIs in the custom platform support and examples of how to use them to build your plug-in, see Custom Platform Support API Reference.

Creating a custom platform support plug-in

You can create a custom platform support plug-in as follows:

  1. Download the Custom Platform Support Development Kit.
  2. Extract the contents of the kit to your computer.
  3. Open a new project in VisualStudio or Xcode and include the header files in the development kit to your software development project. To quick-start the creation of your custom platform support plug-in, you can use the following sample plug-in available under the SampleCreateJSPlatform directory as the base code for your plug-in project.

    4.             For example, the SampleCreateJS plug-in files are at                         SampleCreateJSPlatform\Plugin\SampleCreateJS\project\

  4. Make necessary changes for your target platform.
  5. Compile the code to generate a plug-in (.dll or .plug-in). 

Packaging the custom platform support plug-in

You can generate a distributable package of the custom platform support plug-in as follows:

  1. Open the sample Eclipse file or in the Eclipse New Project wizard, create a new Application Extension Project. Provide a name for the project, then click Next.
  2. On the New Adobe Application Extension Project panel, choose Adobe Animate as the target application and click Next.
  3. Change the extensions of the plug-in files that you had created from .dll to .fcm on Windows and from .plug-in to .fcm.plug-in on Mac and add the plug-in files to the project (ExtensionContent/plugins/lib/win for Windows and ExtensionContent/plugins/lib/mac for MAC). 
  4. Configure your extension by modifying the manifest.xml. To open the manifest file, right-click on the extension in project explorer and select Adobe Extension Builder 3 > Bundle Manifest Editor and select the manifest tab in Bundle Manifest Editor present at EclipseProject\.staged-extension\CSXS.
  5. To enable editing the manifest.xml, right-click inside the window and select Open with > XML editor. The two tags that you must concentrate on are: ExtensionList and DispatchInfoList:

    A typical ExtensionList tag looks as below:

<ExtensionList>

        <Extension Id="PluginID" Version="1.0" />

        <Extension Id="PublishSettingsID" Version-"1.0" />

</ExtensionList>

 

This tag contains the list of extensions in the final ZXP package in which each extension has a unique string as its ID. In this case, the .dll or .plugin file created in the previous section is included in an extension. Then, the other extension is used for configuring the Publish Settings UI of the Publisher. In the sample, ExtensionList tag the extension with the extension ID PluginID contains the .dll/.plugin file and the extension with the ID PublishSettingsID configures the publish pettings UI of the publisher.

 

  1. The DispatchInfoList tag contains details about each extension mentioned in the ExtensionList. The following is an example of DispatchInfoList:
<DispatchInfoList>
            <Extension Id="PluginID">
                    <DispatchInfo >
                            <Resources>
                            <MainPath>./plugin/fcm.xml</MainPath>
                            </Resources>
                            <Lifecycle>
                            <AutoVisible>true</AutoVisible>
                            </Lifecycle>
                            <UI>
                                <Type>ModalDialog</Type>
                                <Menu>CreateJS</Menu>
                                <Geometry>
                                     <Size>
                                           <Height>200</Height>
                                           <Width>200</Width>
                                     </Size>
                                 </Geometry>
                             </UI>
                    </DispatchInfo>
        </Extension>
        <Extension Id="PublishSettingsID">
                    <DispatchInfo >
                            <Resources>
                            <MainPath>./index.html</MainPath>
                            </Resources>
                            <Lifecycle>
                                    <AutoVisible>true</AutoVisible>
                            </Lifecycle>
                            <UI>
                                    <Type>ModalDialog</Type>
                                    <Menu>Publish Settings</Menu>
                                    <Geometry>
                                         <Size>
                                                <Height>170</Height>
                                                 <Width>486</Width>
                                          </Size>
                                    </Geometry>
                            </UI>
                    </DispatchInfo>
           </Extension>
</DispatchInfoList>
     
  1. For the extension containing the .dll or the .plugin file, you can ignore all the tags except the MainPath tag. The MainPath tag contains path to the file fcm.xml relative to the ExtensionContent folder. You must rename the .dll file to .fcm and placed inside the win folder beside the fcm.xml. Similarly, if you are working on the Mac environment, rename the .plugin file to .fcm.plugin and place it inside the mac folder beside the fcm.xml.
  2. The HTML extension to configure the publish settings user interface is an HTML extension to Animate. To know more about HTML extensions to Animate, see Creating HTML Extensions.
  3. Ensure that the lower value of the version attribute in the Host tag is 15.1, the minimum (internal) version of Animate with Custom Platform Support.

<ExecutionEnvironment>
<HostList>
<Host Name="FLPR" Version="15.1" />
</HostList>.
.
.
</ExecutionEnvironment>
     
  1. Switch to the Script Explorer view, right-click on your project and choose Export > Adobe Extension Builder 3 > Application Extension. The Export Wizard appears.
  2. You must have a certificate to sign the extension package. Browse to an existing certificate or click Create to create a new certificate.
  3. Click Finish to compile the project. Eclipse generates a plug-in file with .zxp extension, which you can host on the Adobe Add-ons site.

Distributing your custom platform support plug-in

You can distribute the custom platform support plug-in by hosting it on the Adobe Add-ons page and monetize it. Your plug-in package goes through an Adobe review and approval process before it is listed on the page. You can host a plug-in as follows:

  1. Log in to the Adobe Add-ons page using your Adobe user ID and password. 
  2. On the left panel, under Become a producer, click the link Go to the producer portal.
  3. Click the Sign-up button if you are not signed up as a producer.
  4. For detailed instructions on how to sign up as a producer and host your plug-ins, see Getting Started with the Producer Portal.
  5. Complete the following steps in the producer portal workflow as documented in the Getting Started page:
    1. Package your product in a single file.
    2. Enter information about the product and upload the file.
    3. Add marketing assets.
    4. Preview your product.
    5. Submit your product for approval.
  6. After approval, your plug-in is listed under the Animate product category on the Add-ons page. 

 If you are a user who wants to install a plug-in, create a custom platform document, and publish it using Animate, see Working with Custom Platform Support Plug-in.

For complete information about managing Adobe extensions, see Downloading and Installing Extensions.

Feature requests and bug reporting

Fill the following form if you want to send any questions, concerns, product bugs, or feature requests to the Animate product team:

Adobe Feature Requests and Bug Report Form

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