Adobe Creative SDK

Posted on October 7, 2014 | 5 comments

There has been a lot of announcements at Adobe MAX 2014. I have been busy working closely with the Adobe Creative SDK. I helped Threadless create their brand new Threadless Make iPad application that leverages the Adobe Creative SDK. The Creative SDK was made publicly available just yesterday. There are a other applications that worked with the beta SDK and have launched in the App Store. Here are few of them:

Flowboard
Fabrika App
Concepts: Smarter Sketching
Rhonna Designs
Storehouse – Visual Storytelling
Snapwire

What is the Creative SDK?

The Creative SDK is a rich set of iOS components creating a new era of connected creativity and a seamless workflow between your mobile applications and Adobe Tools and Creative Cloud services, reaching millions of new users.

Hows does a developer get the Creative SDK?

A developer can get the Creative SDK by going to http://creativesdk.com and signing in with their Adobe ID then download the iOS frameworks.

sdkdownloads

You see in the picture above what the download page looks like. The main frameworks of the Creative SDK are in the iOS section under “Download iOS”. The “Device Extensions” under that button is are classes to support 3rd party input devices (Wacom, Fifty Three) under one API and UI experience in connection with Adobe’s Ink and Slide hardware. The Android section is an early build of the SDK for Android. And finally the far right section is a sample application that can be downloaded, hooked up to the Creative SDK and run to see it all work, full of code samples to started from.

How easy is it to use?

The Creative SDK is made up of components and low level API calls. It is still in the beginning it will continue to grow to support mobile, desktop and web. But for now the first version is focused on iOS with pre-built components to make it easy to integrate with. Here is a quick code sample and the result of what you get in objective-C:

AdobeUXAssetBrowserOptions testOptions = 0;
testOptions |= EnablePSDLayerExtraction;

//    testOptions |= EnableMultiSelect;
//    testOptions |= ShowMultiSelectOnPopup;
//    testOptions |= ShowGridViewOnPopup;
//    testOptions |= SortAlphabeticallyOnPopup;


[[AdobeUXAssetBrowser sharedBrowser] popupFileBrowserWithParent: self
                                                    withOptions: testOptions
                                                     withFilter: nil
                                                 withFilterType: AdobeUXAssetBrowserFilterTypeUnspecified
                                                      onSuccess: ^(NSArray *itemSelections)
 {
     AdobeSelectionAsset *itemSelection = [itemSelections lastObject];
     AdobeAsset* item = (AdobeAsset *)itemSelection.selectedItem;
     if ( IsAdobeAssetFile(item) )
     {
         AdobeAssetFile* file = (AdobeAssetFile *)item;
         
         [file getRenditionWithType: AdobeAssetFileRenditionTypePNG
                           withSize: CGSizeMake(1200,1200)
                       withPriority: NSOperationQueuePriorityNormal
                         onProgress: ^(double fractionCompleted) {
                         }
                       onCompletion: ^(NSData *data, BOOL fromCache) {
                           // [UIImage imageWithData: data] withName:file.href];                           }
                     onCancellation:^ { }
                        onError:^(NSError *error) { }];
     }
 }
    onError:^(NSError *error) {}];

The code above launches the file browser component which looks like the following image in an iPad application:

filebrowser

Conclusion

Go check out the existing applications that have integrated the Creative SDK. Then download the Creative SDK for yourself and get started leveraging the power of the Adobe Creative Cloud.

  • http://concepts.tophatch.com/ Concepts: Smarter Sketching

    We loved working with you, Renaun! The SDK enables an incredible jump in productivity and workflow, and we’re grateful to have been a part of the launch team. Great work!!!

  • http://www.simplediagrams.com Daniel McQuillen

    Hi Renaun,

    Do you know if the SDK will at some point be made available to AIR developers publishing desktop apps for OSX and Windows?

    Thanks!

    • renaun

      The SDK will come to Desktop and Web, someone will have to write and ANE around the SDK to get it to work with AIR.

  • http://www.simplediagrams.com Daniel McQuillen

    Awesome! Do you know what kind of time frame to expect for the desktop SDK?

    • renaun

      No dates at the moment but it’s on the roadmap

      Sent from a device