photoshop activeDocument - actionscript-3

Question

I am writing a Photoshop plug in in ActionScript 3.
I am having a very confusing and frustrating issue with app.activeDocument. My code works perfectly with Photoshop for Windows but on a Mac I get the "General Photoshop errooccurreded. This Functionality may not be available in this version of Photoshop." error.
To try and get to the root of the issue, I wrote a class just to get the document reference and called it from a test panel. The class call worked perfectly. I then included the same class in my main panel project and it breaks.
This is my class: -
package DocRefGetter
{
import com.adobe.csawlib.photoshop.Photoshop;
import com.adobe.photoshop.*;
public class DocRefPhotoshop
{
public static function getDocRef():Document
{
var app:Application = Photoshop.app;
var thisDoc:Document = app.activeDocument;
//var thisDoc:Document = app.documents.index(0); //Tried this method too
return thisDoc;
}
}
}
For the purpose of posting here, I have simplified things a little, i.e. I have removed things like the "try, catch" statements but essentially this is the code that does not work in the context of my panel. I also tried the equivalent call to JSX code with exactly the same result, worked perfectly for Windows, worked in a test panel on Mac, would not work in my main project on Mac.
As I said, inside a test, this works perfectly. Here is the test mxml code: -
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" historyManagementEnabled="false">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import DocRefGetter.DocRefPhotoshop;
import com.adobe.photoshop.Document;
[Bindable]
private var hostName:String = HostObject.mainExtension;
protected function button1_clickHandler(event:MouseEvent):void
{
var thisDocRef:Document = DocRefPhotoshop.getDocRef();
testLabel.text = String(thisDocRef);
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:VBox height="100%" width="100%" verticalAlign="middle" horizontalAlign="center">
<mx:Button label="Run PS code" click="button1_clickHandler(event)" />
<mx:Label id="testLabel" width="182" text="Label"/>
</mx:VBox>
</mx:Application>
I can't post the main application that it isn't working in as it is extremely large and complicated so what I am asking is has anyone come across a situation before where somehow something is conflicting with this type of document reference? I have been trying to resolve this for over a week now. I have tried many different solutions but nothing has worked. Mac Photoshop just simply doesn't want to see the open document.
Any suggestions are welcome but I am hoping most that someone has come across this exact situation before and has a precise solution.
Many thanks for taking the trouble to take a look at this.

Answer 1

so what I am asking is has anyone come across a situation before where somehow something is conflicting with this type of document reference?
Use one of the following checks:
Is docref null?
Is the document loaded asynchronously?
Is the document large enough to warrant a timeout?
References
Scripting Photoshop: Working with the document model
Adobe Photoshop CS5 Scripting Guide (pdf)
JavaScript development toolkit | Download Adobe ExtendScript Toolkit CC