About the Adobe plugin

Find relevant enhancements and functionality of the censhare Adobe plugin.

Introduction

The censhare Adobe (XMLCommand) plugin handles communication between the censhare Client or censhare Render Client and Adobe InDesign, InCopy, and InDesign Server.

Find answers on the Adobe plugin and censhare Clients in the FAQ.

Endnotes support

Currently, censhare does not support Adobe InDesign documents that include endnotes. The Adobe Endnote feature (introduced in InDesign CC 2018) includes significant technical changes. By default, you cannot upload or check-in InDesign and InCopy documents with endnotes in censhare. It is neither possible to place snippets that include endnotes in the Editor for InDesign Documents.

What's new with the censhare Adobe plugin

Find relevant enhancements of the censhare Adobe plugin.

For detailed release information on each version of the XMLCommand plug-in, check the Java-based censhare Tracker support system:
Stored searches | _Downloads | censhare-downloads | PlugIns | Change History.

Plugin versions

XMLCommand plug-in version		New or enhanced functionality
macOS plugin version	Windows plugin version
2.19.1		Adobe 2024
2.18.1		Adobe 2023 support added on Windows X64, macOS X64, macOS ARM64. Adobe 2022 support added on macOS Sonoma.
2.17.1		Adobe 2022 support added on Windows X64, macOS X64, macOS ARM64. Adobe 2021 support added on Windows X64, macOS X64, macOS ARM64. Compatibility with Adobe 2020, Adobe 2019, Adobe 2018.
2.9.4		Supports Adobe versions including Adobe 2021 v16.x in Rosetta mode.
2.9.3		WebSocket support on both macOS and Windows Plugin versions in synch again for macOS and Windows. Available on platforms for all Adobe versions including 2020.
2.9.2	2.8.46	Available on platforms for all Adobe versions including Adobe 2020.
2.9.2	2.8.46	Available on platforms for all Adobe versions including 2020. macOS Catalina and macOS Mojave: 2.9.1 or above is required to be used with censhare versions 20.9.2, 2019.3.2, and as of 2020.1.1.
2.9.1	2.8.45	First Windows plugin version for Adobe 2020.
2.9.1	2.8.44	Bugfix with AppNap on macOS for WebSocket support
2.9.0	2.8.44	WebSocket support added as a communication protocol WebSocket protocol besides AppleEvent (on macOS) or COM (on Windows) is added for communication of the plugin between censhare and Adobe. This does not affect your data. You can use your data as before. WebSocket is now preconfigured as the default communication protocol. Previously available protocols are used as a fall-back. Note: A temporary split of plugin versions depending on the operating system for technical reasons. 2.9.x version series on macOS. 2.8.x version series on Windows. You are allowed to use mixed plugin versions until we meet the version parity in a couple of months again. Use the combinations listed in the rows above in this table.
2.8.44		Last common compatible version with both macOS and Windows for a transitional period.
2.8.34		Improved content-lock support The Content Lock setting of the original text frame passes to each copy of the text frame. If users copy text frames that have content locks, the new text frames retain the locks. If users copy text frames that do not have content locks, the new text frames are unlocked. Users can change the Content Lock setting afterwards. In previous plug-in versions, copied text frames were automatically locked.
2.8.33		Enhanced type-on-a-path selection When used with censhare version 2017.4 or higher, the creation of InCopy text stories from InDesign frames that include Type-on-a-path was enhanced. Users can select multiple Adobe InDesign text frames (with or without Type-on-a-path) and create an Adobe InCopy asset with one or more text stories.
2.8.32		Performance fix for censhare Render Client New IP configuration parameters for the Render Client can point the XMLCommand plugin to the loopback address. This setting can boost the performance of the Render Client on some Windows installations. Some Installations of the Render Client on Windows without a VFS render slowly. Use of more than one network interface can further impact rendering performance. The source of the problem is a security check for the internal HTTP server that only accepts requests from the loopback address (127.0.0.1). Use of the local loopback address bypasses the security check.
2.8.29		Support for Type-on-a-path Adds support for Adobe InDesign frames that include Type-on-a-path.
2.8.26		Support for snippets Adds support for Adobe InDesign Snippet files (.IDMS).

Adobe InDesign plugin 2023 known issue on macOS

The new Adobe InDesign plugin 2023 is fully functional. However, you need to be aware of its unusual behaviour on macOS. Windows users are not affected.

We provide workaround instructions for different use cases. Two use cases represent two different user roles – end user and admin – but suggest that both users work with the InDesign desktop application.

InDesign Server 2023

InDesign Server 2023 works perfectly with the censhare Render-Client and does not require any workaround.

End user setup: InDesign desktop and censhare Client

Setup description

You use InDesign desktop to edit InDesign documents on your local machine. For this, you access documents in the censhare Client, open them, and proceed in the InDesign application.

Starting to work

Please run the Adobe InDesign application before you open any InDesign documents from your censhare Client. Then, in the censhare Client, use the dropdown menu on the asset to open it (right-click → … → Open with → Adobe InDesign). You‘ll see a progress bar in your censhare Client. Now, please switch to the Adobe InDesign application manually by clicking on its window. The document will be opened normally.

Editing ID documents

The plugin works normally as long as the InDesign window remains in the foreground. As soon as you send it to the background, the plugin may stop working. It helps if you bring the InDesign application back to the foreground.

Admin user setup: InDesign desktop and censhare RenderClient

Setup description

You have an InDesign desktop application installed on one machine that is then accessed by users through the censhare Web client. As an admin, you are responsible for enabling end users work. In this case, the plugin connects the censhare Render Client (installed on the same machine) and the InDesign application.

Working with ID2023 non-interactively

The plugin may stop running after the InDesign application was sent to the background even once. We found out that it helps to clear the InDesign cache. We developed a bash script that takes care of clearing the InDesign cache safely and keeps all preferences that you applied during your last working session.

Clearing the cache by running the script before (re)starting InDesign is mandatory.

However, you should never run the script while using/running the InDesign application. If it is already running, stop it before using the script, run the script, and only then run the InDesign application again.

The script is called clean-indesign-cache.sh . It is delivered as a part of the dmg archive available on our Download Portal. When you unpack the archive, you will see two plugins and the aforementioned bash script. Plugins need to be moved to the Applications → Adobe InDesign 2023 → Plug-ins folder as usual. The bash script can be moved somewhere else but not in this folder. You can start it any time:

by clicking on it or
by calling it from your CLI tool

The script can also be used for other non-interactive working modes when no physical user does anything actively in InDesign.

How to find your distributable on censhare download portal

Adobe plugins are available on our download portal. The easiest way to find what you need is to use the All Plugin Versions filter.

The name of any downloadable archive contains a year that corresponds to the Adobe version you have. Select values in the filter with a suitable year and then download the proper archive from the list.

An example of how to find 2023 plugins for macOS with the Apple/ARM chip:

Some plugins have more than one version. We always recommend to take the highest one.