Plugin management

The UXP Developer Tool allows you to create plugins from templates and add existing ones to your developer workspace.

Creating a new plugin

You can, of course, create a plugin manually -- but using a template can be the fastest way to get started. To create a plugin from the Developer Tool, follow these steps:

• Click *Create Plugin....
• A "Create Plugin" dialog appears.
• Supply a plugin name in the Plugin Name field.
• Supply a plugin ID in the Plugin Id field. During development you can use any identifier you want (as long as it's unique from any other plugin on your system), but for publication, you'll need one from the Developer Distribution portal.
• Enter the plugin's version in the Plugin Version field.
• From the Host Application field, select Adobe Photoshop.
• Enter 23.0.0 as the minimum version in the Host Application Version field. Earlier versions of Photoshop do not support plugins written with UXP. Of course, if your plugin needs features from a later version of Photoshop, you can enter a higher version here.
• Select one of the templates from the Template field. The "ps-starter" template will provide a simple plugin with no additional frameworks, whereas the "ps-react-starter" will provide a plugin that's based on React.
• Click Select Folder.
• Select where you want the plugin to reside. Note that the plugin files will be created in the folder you select, so if you want the plugin to have its own folder, make sure to create a new folder in this dialog.

Once the plugin files are created, the plugin will show up in the Tool's workspace.

Adding an existing plugin

You're not limited to creating new plugins from the Developer Tool – you can add plugins that you've already started as well.

• Click Add Plugin... (if you've not added any plugins, this will read Add Existing Plugin...)
• A file picker will appear. This picker expects you to pick the manifest.json in your plugin folder.
• Once you close the picker, the plugin will be added to your workspace.

Removing a plugin

If you're building a lot of plugins, you may find that the workspace may be getting cluttered. You can remove a plugin from the workspace by checking the plugin's associated checkbox and clicking Remove Selected (in the upper-right corner).

Last updated 2/23/2023

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