preferences

Preferences object

app.preferences

Description

The Preferences object provides an easy way to manage internal AE preferences, such as you’d find in AE’s Preferences menu. These are saved in the After Effects preference files, and are persistent between application sessions.

Preferences are identified by section and key within the file, and each key name is associated with a value.

In the preferences file, section names are enclosed in brackets and quotation marks, and key names are listing in quotation marks below the sectionname. All values are strings.

You can create new preferences with this object, as well as accessing existing preferences.

As of Version 12/CC, preferences and settings methods now take a third argument to specify the target preferences file if Section/Key is not in “Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs.txt”.

If the third argument is not passed, default value (PREFType.PREF_Type_MACHINE_SPECIFIC) is used and After Effects tries to save/get from the “Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs.txt” preferences file.

PREFType Enum

The third argument is enum PREFType value, one of:

PREF_Type_MACHINE_SPECIFIC: Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs.txt
PREF_Type_MACHINE_INDEPENDENT: Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs-indep-general.txt
PREF_Type_MACHINE_INDEPENDENT_RENDER: Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs-indep-render.txt
PREF_Type_MACHINE_INDEPENDENT_OUTPUT: Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs-indep-output.txt
PREF_Type_MACHINE_INDEPENDENT_COMPOSITION: Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs-indep-composition.txt
PREF_Type_MACHINE_SPECIFIC_TEXT: Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs-text.txt
PREF_Type_MACHINE_SPECIFIC_PAINT: Adobe After Effects $versionNumber.x Prefs-paint.txt

Methods

Preferences.deletePref()

app.preferences.deletePref(sectionName, keyName[, prefType])

Description

Deletes a preference from the preference file.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`sectionName`	String	The name of a preferences section.
`keyName`	String	The key name of the preference.
`prefType`	`PREFType` enum	Optional. Which preference file to use.

Returns

Nothing.

Example

If you have saved a setting named with the key name “trimPrecomps” in a section called “Precomp Cropper”, you can delete the setting by:

app.preferences.deletePref("Settings_Precomp Cropper", "trimPrecomps");

Preferences.getPrefAsBool()

app.preferences.getPrefAsBool(sectionName, keyName[, prefType])

Description

Retrieves a preference value from the preferences file, and parses it as a boolean.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`sectionName`	String	The name of a preferences section.
`keyName`	String	The key name of the preference.
`prefType`	`PREFType` enum	Optional. Which preference file to use.

Returns

Boolean.

Example

To retrieve the value of the Flow Chart “Expand Flowchart Comps by Default” preference:

var expandByDefault = app.preferences.getPrefAsBool("Flowchart Settings", "Expand Flowchart Comps by Default");
alert("The setting is: " + expandByDefault);

To retrieve the value of the main preference “Javascript Debugger Enabled”:

var debuggerEnabled = app.preferences.getPrefAsBool("Main Pref Section v2", "Pref_JAVASCRIPT_DEBUGGER", PREFType.PREF_Type_MACHINE_INDEPENDENT);
alert("The setting is: " + debuggerEnabled);

Preferences.getPrefAsFloat()

app.preferences.getPrefAsFloat(sectionName, keyName[, prefType])

Description

Retrieves a preference value from the preferences file, and parses it as a float.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`sectionName`	String	The name of a preferences section.
`keyName`	String	The key name of the preference.
`prefType`	`PREFType` enum	Optional. Which preference file to use.

Returns

Float.

Preferences.getPrefAsLong()

app.preferences.getPrefAsLong(sectionName, keyName[, prefType])

Description

Retrieves a preference value from the preferences file, and parses it as a long (number).

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`sectionName`	String	The name of a preferences section.
`keyName`	String	The key name of the preference.
`prefType`	`PREFType` enum	Optional. Which preference file to use.

Returns

Long.

Preferences.getPrefAsString()

app.preferences.getPrefAsString(sectionName, keyName[, prefType])

Description

Retrieves a preference value from the preferences file, and parses it as a string.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`sectionName`	String	The name of a preferences section.
`keyName`	String	The key name of the preference.
`prefType`	`PREFType` enum	Optional. Which preference file to use.

Returns

String.

Preferences.havePref()

app.preferences.havePref(sectionName, keyName[, prefType])

Description

Returns true if the specified preference item exists and has a value.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
`sectionName`	String	The name of a preferences section.
`keyName`	String	The key name of the preference.
`prefType`	`PREFType` enum	Optional. Which preference file to use.

Returns

Nothing.