Saving per-user or per-document preferences in a Photoshop script

Question

I'm working on a Photoshop script in JavaScript using ExtendScript. My script allows some user input, and I'd like to save it between uses. That is, I'm looking for a way to save a simple string or numeric value under a particular key so that I'll be able to access it on subsequent uses of the script. Simply put, I want to save a preference for my script. How do I do that?

Even better would be to be able to save at least some preferences on a per-document basis. Is that possible? That is, can I store an arbitrary bit of data with a document?

Answer 1

You can use put/get custom options to save preference parameters that persist across Photoshop launches:

const kMyFlag = app.stringIDToTypeID( "myFlag" );
const kMyNumber = app.stringIDToTypeID( "myNumber" );
const kMySettings = "mySettings";

function saveSettings()
{
  var desc = new ActionDescriptor();
  desc.putBoolean(kMyFlag, true);
  desc.putInteger(kMyNumber, 42);

  // "true" means setting persists across Photoshop launches.
  app.putCustomOptions( kMySettings, desc, true );
}

function getSettings()
{
  var desc = app.getCustomOptions( kMySettings );
  return [desc.getBoolean( kMyFlag ), desc.getInteger( kMyNumber )];
}