UXP in Photoshop vs Other Host Applications

This page covers the differences to consider when adapting a UXP plugin built for Premiere, InDesign, or Media Encoder for Photoshop.

Manifest JSON

Manifest versions and structure vary by host application and by how recent your existing plugin is. If you're porting a plugin to Photoshop, check the current structure of the manifest.json file for Photoshop before assuming your existing manifest will work as-is.

Host application API

Every host application exposes a different DOM and API, since each one has a different set of use cases, objects, and properties. Photoshop in particular is a large, complex application with a correspondingly broad API surface.

The Photoshop API grows with each release. When the Photoshop DOM API does not expose an operation you need, you can use batchPlay to access Photoshop objects, properties, and actions. batchPlay is specific to Photoshop and is not a cross-host UXP fallback.