Descriptor.json

Prerequisites

Before reading this article, you should be familiar with:

• Typefi workflows, workflow plug-ins, and workflow actions. Typefi workflows are made up of one or more workflow actions, which perform a single task (such as exporting a PDF). Workflow actions are packaged inside workflow plug-ins. A workflow plug-in is a Java (Apache Tomcat) webapp.
• The Typefi 8 Server API. The Typefi Server 8 API is based on the REST (Representational State Transfer) web service architecture. All access is via HTTP, and JSON is used for all data transfer.

GET /descriptor

Each workflow plug-in implements the following endpoint: GET /descriptor.

This endpoint returns JSON that describes all the actions (and their user interfaces) offered by the plug-in.

Access descriptor.json

To access descriptor.json for a specific workflow plug-in:

1. Sign in to your Typefi server web interface → https://demos.typefi.com
2. Go to Actions and select an action for the desired plug-in → https://demos.typefi.com/actions
3. Copy the URL → https://demos.typefi.com/actions/typefi-plugin-id/Create InDesign document
4. Remove the '/actions' segment from the URL and replace the trailing action name (for example, 'Create InDesign document') with the string 'descriptor' → https://demos.typefi.com/typefi-plugin-id/descriptor

Example

This is an example descriptor.json file for a demo plug-in:

For each action input, the user interface control is determined by the input type. The following servlet returns the contents of this file:

Descriptor.json reference

displayName

The display name of the workflow plug-in.

description

A short description of the plug-in.

developers

The names of the developers who developed the plug-in.

vendor

The name of the vendor who developed the plug-in.

namespace

The scope of the workflow plug-in code.

descriptorVersion

The version of the descriptor.json file. We increment descriptorVersion when we modify the definition of plug-in properties.

minServerVersion

The minimum version of Typefi Server required with the plug-in.

actions

An object representing each action in the plug-in. Each action contains the following attributes:

• type: An abbreviation for the workflow action type. For example, cxml-to-indd is an abbreviation for Create InDesign document, which converts a Content XML file to an Adobe InDesign file.
• uiVersion: Required. The action version number. We increment uiVerison when we modify the definition of action-type properties. For more information, see How workflow actions are updated. To access descriptor.json for all uiVersions of a specific plug-in:
  1. Sign in to your Typefi server web interface → https://demos.typefi.com
  2. Go to Actions and select an action for the desired plug-in → https://demos.typefi.com/actions
  3. Copy the URL → https://demos.typefi.com/actions/typefi-plugin-id/Create InDesign document
  4. Remove the '/actions' segment from the URL and replace the trailing action name (for example, 'Create InDesign document') with the string 'descriptor'. → https://demos.typefi.com/typefi-plugin-id/descriptor
  5. Add the string '?returnAllActions=true' → https://demos.typefi.com/typefi-plugin-id/descriptor?returnAllActions=true
• displayName: The display name of the action.
• inputs: Each input field in the action. inputs is an array representing each input field and contains the following key:value pairs:
  • name: The name of the input field.
  • label: The user interface label of the input field.
  • type: The type of input accepted.
  • value: The default value for the input.
  • extension: The expected file type extension of the input.
  • required: Specifies whether the input field is required.

See also

• How are workflow actions updated?
• Typefi 8 Server API documentation