I posted this in the Photoshop Mac forum:

Custom XMP panels can be written and can attach File Info data in Photoshop, InDesign, Illy, etc. You can find some panels (on a Mac) in HD/Users/your.name/Library/Application Support/Adobe/XMP/Custom File Info Panels   or do a search for some online,

The panels are just text or XML files with a little bit of Adobe's twist on XML applied. You can modify them in TextEdit or BBEdit etc. The developer download for XMP panels gives an example panel that shows you buttons and fields etc. But it's easy enough to add some text fields and then enter data to attach to the file. The part  you should consider is to develop your workflow data ideas and flesh them out well, so you don't end up changing the name of the data later on and rendering your system inoperable or attaching tons of data to a file that becomes unreachable.

Also these panels can show the file info in Bridge but must be configured a certain way. Check this out when you get up to speed:http://blogs.adobe.com/bridge/2006/08/custom_metadata.html  it basically says you have to name your data edit name with "fb" + data name. But this seems to only work with CS3, something has changed with CS4 Bridge.

Here's an example panel:http://www.outbackphoto.com/workflow/wf_83/WorkflowStatus.txt

or http://www.gwg.org/58.92.0.0.1.0.phtml

Chris

Hi Tony

I have been having the same issue and have found that you need to copy your properties.xml file from your custom panel into the 'Custom' folder in

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/XMP/Custom File Info Panels/2.0/custom/

I have included my panel for reference, hope it helps.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<xmp_definitions>

    <xmp_schema prefix='xmp' namespace='http://ns.adobe.com/xap/1.0/' label='$$$/pearson/title=Pearson Education V.4' >

<xmp_property name='Authors' category='external' label='$$$/iptc/core/Contact/Creator=Creator Name:' type='text' xmp_path='Authors'/>

</xmp_schema>

    <xmp_schema prefix='photoshop' namespace='http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/' label='$$$/pearson/title=Pearson Education V.4' >

<xmp_property name='CaptionWriter' category='external' label='$$$/pearson/CollectionTitle=Collection Title:' type='text' xmp_path='CaptionWriter' />

<xmp_property name='AuthorsPosition' category='external' label='$$$/pearson/CollectionID=Collection ID:' type='text' xmp_path='AuthorsPosition' />

<xmp_property name='ModelRelease' category='external' label='$$$/pearson/ModelRelease=Model Release:' type='boolean' xmp_path='modelRelease' />

<xmp_property name='LocationRelease' category='external' label='$$$/pearson/LocationRelease=Location Release:' type='boolean' xmp_path='locationRelease' />

</xmp_schema>

    <xmp_schema prefix='Iptc4xmpCore' namespace='http://iptc.org/std/Iptc4xmpCore/1.0/xmlns/' label='$$$/pearson/title=Pearson Education V.4'>

<xmp_property name='Location' category='external' label='$$$/iptc/core/Image/location=Location:' type='text' xmp_path='Location'/>

<ui:separator/>

</xmp_schema>

    <xmp_schema prefix='photoshop' namespace='http://ns.adobe.com/photoshop/1.0/' label='$$$/pearson/title=Pearson Education V.4' >

<xmp_property name='Headline' category='external' label='$$$/iptc/core/Content/Headline=Caption:' type='text' xmp_path='Headline' />

</xmp_schema>

</xmp_definitions>

Regards

James

Hi Tony,

You need to copy the Generic panel not the Basic Control Panel.  You should find it in the SDK download in tools\Generic.  Copy that whole folder to the panels folder.  Then amend the properties.xml file as required, or leave as is to test it works.

Regards

James

Hi Samy,

There is no link to Fileinfo SDK 4.4 from the http://www.adobe.com/devnet/xmp/ page.

It looks to me like 5.1 is only applicable to CS5.

Can you provide a link to 4.4 so I can work on Custom File info panels for my CS4 products?

Thanks,

Paul.

I had the same problem with CS5 on a mac (blank custom panels in file info) - turns out the files need to be copied into the main/shared Adobe folder, not the one in your user specific file space.

I'm not sure of the exact path on a PC, but instead of:

C:\Documents and Settings\tony\Application Data\Adobe\XMP\Custom File Info Panels\3.0\panels

you probably need to look for something like:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\XMP\Custom File Info Panels\3.0\panels

(On a Mac the files need to be in the main Library, not your user specific Library)

Hope this helps someone... Rob

Hello,

I know this thread is rather old, but I hope some one might read this...

I've read the section about the flash trust file, and I've created one for my test panel's .swf file as and also one for the whole contents of the ../panel/ folder. Neither of those have seemed to work. Is there anything else I have to do? I've quit and relaunched Photoshop after making the .cfg file.

Just to verify, the correct location for the .cfg files is (for a Mac) "/Users/{myUserFolder}/Library/Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#Security/FlashPlayerTrust/", correct?

I'm just getting a blank tab in the File Info dialog. What's worse is that in Photoshop CS5, if I click on my custom panel's tab, I can't switch back to other tabs and see their contents.

Can anybody verify that they've been able to get a Custom XMP File Info Panel to 'work' in CS5... or for that matter CS4 (I went tested and failed with that version).

Many thanks,

-Andrew

Thanks Stefan.

I was able to get the Generic Panel to work in CS5. But not my test panel using the SDK and FlashBuilder. (maybe I need a different flex SDK version?)

Good tip about CS4 compatiblity – we still use CS4 as we're not fully transitioned to CS5 and haven't even thought of upgrading to CS6 yet.

Cheers,

-afm