Script Repository

[JoelMayer]

I think with the amount of Scripts scattered across the Forums and multiple Sites it'd be great if Moho had a sort of built in "Asset Browser", like Clip Studio Paint, Adobe stuff or Unity, where i can browse through scripts from within Moho and then install them with one click. That way i could also get a prompt if a script has been updated. Right now it feels kinda clunky. I know it's not the highest thing on the list of priorities but just wanted to put it out there

[Greenlaw]

That would be cool.

Recently, I learned that something like that exists for After Effects and the AeScripts.com website. Their free Plugins Management app is tied to your AeScripts account so it's aware of all your scripts/plugins (free or purchased,) and lets you manage which ones are installed/activated and for which version or versions of Ae you have installed. The app only works with scripts/plugins from the AeScripts website though and doesn't manage or even recognize assets from outside of the AeScripts website.

For Moho, the closest we have is MohoScripts.com which has the option to download an Install Script version of a script which you can use with Moho's built-in Install Script command.

Personally, I prefer to install scripts manually to make sure everything is set up and organized exactly the way I want/need it to be. It only takes a second to do and really isn't a big deal. FYI, installing the MYND tools is what convinced me to manually manage my scripts from now on. I love some of MYND scripts but I really don't need all of them installed all the time, and I really didn't like how it completely reorganized my tools.

To manage which scripts appear and don't appear in Moho, I just use the Open Custom Content Folder command, go to the tools folder and drag any scripts I want to disable by dragging it into a 'disabled' folder. (Moho ignores scripts in a folder here.) Like so...



After moving any scripts in or out of the 'disabled' folder, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+L and Moho will refresh the Tools window. (Quitting and re-launching Moho works too.)

For managing where the tools appear in your Tools window, look at Tool Layout inside Preferences. This feature offers an easy way to group and categorize your tools in the Tools Windows. I use this feature to separate third party tools into sub-categories, which makes it easier to find certain types of tools. Tool Layout makes it easy to make small changes to the Tools Window as you add new plugins, but for major re-organization of scripts it's probably easier to do that by directly editing the _tool_list.txt file.

Anyway, that's what we have right now for managing a large number of scripts in Moho. This system can certainly stand improvements but once your familiar with your options, it works very well. Hopefully there will be a more streamlined system in the future.

Hope this helps.

[JoelMayer]

Hi Greenlaw

I know all the things you said but i'm sure it will be helpful for newcomers for future reference.

And right there is the problem: as a newbie you have no idea about scripts, how they work or what is around. Plus many times it's really checking mohoscripts.com and finding nothing and then somebody remembering a 10 year old mediafire link on the forums. So i think an integrated asset store or whatever would simplify things a lot and devs could still opt in or out if they want to participate. Nobody sais you have to lose the manual way but just a bit of a more convenient and elegant way to also being able to browse available scripts, see when they were last updated and, finally, installing them would be really a good investment for the whole community.

[synthsin75]

None of my scripts are on MohoScripts.com. I prefer to manage my script storage myself...and drive traffic to this forum to find them.
Might not be ideal for some, but just illustrates that you can only make a central repository if scripters are willing to contribute their work to it. For me, that would likely involve monetizing what I currently release for free, as it would take more of my time to manage.

[hayasidist]

there have been attempts to do this (by third parties) over the years. The current "favourite" (https://mohoscripts.com/) is associated with the scripting reference website and is linked in moho's menu dropdown: script / other popular scripts.

One of the key things that any repository needs to do is recognise that some items might not work with the latest moho version and that some scripts have been made redundant because Moho's core functionality has been extended. This is not a call for "old scripts" to be deleted as they're still valuable as reference material and for folk who don't have the newest version of Moho; but it is to say that there needs to be some maintenance of the repository content / indexing information. There can also be functional overlap - scripts that nearly do the same thing - not as such an issue, but just another obfuscation when someone is trying to find a plug-in to do "x". This is particularly the case where scripts are (different) mods of the same base LM_ tool.

So far, none of the repositories perform QA/QC on user-submitted scripts. And, IMO, for a repository to be a trusted source of code that isn't going to crash moho or destroy your work, there needs to be a way to indicate if a script has undergone "strong" validation (either by a trusted and reliable source or by the repository curators).

Some scripts could be seen as just another instance of specific-to-a-project / specific-to-a-studio content. Sure, there are things that might inspire or be more widely reusable - but that's no reason to keep _everything_ in a repository. Who chooses what can or can't be included?

Bottom line for me: properly managing / curating a fully functional repository is a non-trivial task. No one has done it so far. Speaking personally, I have provided scripts to third party repositories, but I also (as Wes) manage my own storage.

That said, a few scripts have been "adopted" by SM / LM over the years, and these are issued along with the core product. IMO, this is a much better route to go: stuff that has proved "universally useful" could be managed by LM (optionally leaving the author, or the community, free to make enhancements etc); stuff that doesn't have a wide uptake or that has not stood the test of time isn't. Even better would be to include the "must have" functionality of the most popular scripts in the core product.

[JoelMayer]

Yeah good point.

What it comes down to and, mind you, this is by NO WAY meant as criticism against you guys who invest all this time to create scripts or anybody but: more often than not i hear on this forum, whenever there's a problem, "Oh there's a script for that in this thread from like 15 years ago!".

Personally, while i love all the work by the community, i also find it a kind of a clunky user experience, if somewhat pretty trivial features can only be accessed over a third party script. Each programmer/designer has his own UX philosophies again so it's almost like learning a completely different tool each time. I think this trips up especially beginners. True, most evergreens are stored on MohoScripts but, almost like with After Effects, i find a lot of scripts kinda almost essential these days. So yeah, i agree, LM should either integrate them in the Scripts sub-menu from the get go or, better yet, adapt them to be fully integrated into Moho and therefore having a nicer user experience that feels less fragmented.

But that's just my hot take/opinion Still glad the scripts are around of course!!

It could also just be my Interaction Design degree speaking and nobody else really cares so

[hayasidist]

totally agree with your UI / UX point... and the resolution for that is design-time QM! Like I said, non-trivial task...

[Greenlaw]

A couple of years ago, I started a spreadsheet to keep track of scripts I've used in Moho. This was handy reference for myself and I thought, "Hey, why don't I add every script out there and share this document with the world." But after a day of working on that project, I decided it was going to be too much of a time-suck for me to maintain and keep updated so I abandoned it.

I still have my spreadsheet but it's gone back to containing only info and notes about scripts I've installed and used personally. And it's probably way out of date already.