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Ability to hide Json warnings when structure changed.

The ability to import Json files into after effects and link to that data has been extremely useful.
However, one gotchya is we need to be able to suppress the warning that results when the structure of the JSON changes.

IE When you have a simple json file that contains

Example 1
{
"test": "what"
}

If you import that json file into a project, then modify the json file to:

Example 2
{
"test": "what",
"adobe": "after effects"
}

You will then get a warning "After Effects warning: The structure of the data file for the layer "test.json" has changed.

This shouldn't really be a problem because we arent changing the data while After Effects is open. However the state/structure of the json seems to store with each individual after effects project instead of the after effects session its self.
What I mean by this is I create a After Effects project with Example 1 json loaded into the project. Then save and close After Effects. If I update the json file to be Example 2, while the After Effects session is closed, then I reopen the After Effects project I saved when the json had the structure of Example 1, it seems to remember that structure and then warns about the change.

This is essentially preventing scripts from continuing until the user hits the OK button. We are attempting to load in JSON data that can change in length and size frequently, so this is a bit of a road block for us.

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Ryan Zukoff shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →

10 comments

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  • victor Pérez commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I am also having the same problem, this is a huge roadblock when it comes to automated workflows.

    If anyone has found a workaround this issue. please let us know.

  • Marcus Round commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I completely agree and this is a very high priority for me personally.

    The JSON functionality is clearly targeted towards automated workflows and this is a huge blocker for that.

  • Jérôme Zecca commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Adding/removing an entry from an Array ALSO triggers the warning.

    And yeah, the fact that this dialog appears when using aerender.exe is a real bother.
    Maybe add a "-continueOnDataStructureChange" argument (to complement the existing "-continueOnMissingFootage"?).

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    It's even worse than that: keeping the exact same data, but changing the order of the keys is enough to trigger the dialog.
    And this even happens when using the aerender command.

    I hope this gets resolved soon

  • Arie Stavchansky commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Also wanted to point out that the "structure" of the JSON includes the data type for a specific property key. So if in one instance, the JSON is a String, and in the next it's a Number, AE will still throw this "JSON has changed" warning.

  • Arie Stavchansky commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Agreed. When AE invalidates linked JSON data, it would be best if there was no modal dialog at all since it is likely that the connected JSON might change frequently.

    In my scripts I've tried using the app.beginSuppressDialogs() and app.endSuppressDialogs() but those JSON warnings do not react to that code.

    Please allow users to silence the "JSON has changed`" error, and just let expressions fail gracefully as they normally do.

    Thanks!

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