JSF File Documentation

Summary

A JSF (JavaScript Fireworks) file is a batch/command script for Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Fireworks: plain JavaScript that automates tasks like resizing, recolouring or batch-processing images inside the editor. It is readable text with no fixed signature, and its MIME type is application/javascript. Adobe discontinued Fireworks in 2013, so only an old Fireworks install runs a .jsf (via Commands › Run Script); any text editor opens it to read or edit. A .jsf URL on a website is a different thing entirely: a JavaServer Faces web page.

Technical details

FeatureValue
Full nameJavaScript Fireworks batch script
File extension.jsf
MIME typeapplication/javascript
Format typePlain-text JavaScript (Fireworks command script)
DeveloperMacromedia, later Adobe (Fireworks)
IntroducedMacromedia Fireworks era (late 1990s–2000s)
Host applicationAdobe Fireworks (discontinued 2013; last release CS6)
EncodingPlain text (readable JavaScript source)
Magic numberNone — identified by JavaScript that targets the fw object
Scripting modelFireworks JSAPI: fw object + document/element DOM
Run viaFireworks Commands › Run Script
Install locationConfiguration › Commands folder
Open standardNo — app-specific scripting API
EditableYes — any text editor (VS Code, Notepad++)
Sibling format.jsfl (Flash/Animate scripting equivalent)
Unrelated meaningJavaServer Faces (Jakarta Faces) served web page URL
Related extensions.jsfl, .js, .json, .png, .jsx
ReferenceAdobe Fireworks — Extending Fireworks (JavaScript)
Syntax at a glance

A Fireworks .jsf is plain UTF-8 JavaScript with no file signature, so it is identified by content rather than magic bytes. It typically opens with // comment notes, then drives Fireworks through the global fw object: fw.getDocumentDOM() returns the active document, and calls such as fw.runCommand() or methods on the document’s elements perform the automation. Ordinary JavaScript, var declarations, for loops, if conditionals, drives the logic. Because it is text, you read or edit it in any editor; you still need Fireworks to run it.

What is a JSF file?

A .jsf file is a Fireworks command script: plain JavaScript that automates work inside Adobe (originally Macromedia) Fireworks, the bitmap-and-vector web-graphics editor. The extension stands for JavaScript Fireworks. Fireworks exposed its features to a scripting layer, and a .jsf holds a sequence of JavaScript statements that drive that layer to do repetitive jobs: resizing, recolouring, exporting, or batch-processing many images at once. Because these scripts are ordinary text, you can read and edit any of them in a text editor, even though running one requires Fireworks.

One fact frames everything about this format: Adobe stopped developing Fireworks in 2013 (announced May 2013; the final release was Fireworks CS6). It is not in the normal Creative Cloud line-up any more, though long-standing subscribers can sometimes still fetch the legacy version through “older apps”. A Fireworks .jsf is therefore a legacy artifact, and there is no modern Adobe application that runs it directly.

The fw object and the Fireworks JavaScript API

A Fireworks script is not free-standing JavaScript; it targets a specific object model that only exists inside Fireworks. The entry point is a global object named fw, which represents the running application. From it a script reaches the open document and everything in it. A typical script looks like ordinary JavaScript wrapped around fw calls:

// resize every open document to 800px wide
var doc = fw.getDocumentDOM();          // the active document (DOM)
var w   = doc.width;
var h   = doc.height;
doc.setDocumentImageSize(
    { x: 800, y: Math.round(h * 800 / w) },  // new pixel size
    { x: 72,  y: 72 },                        // resolution
    true                                       // resample
);
fw.exportDocumentAs(doc, null, exportOptions);

fw.getDocumentDOM() returns the document object model of the active file, and the script then reads and sets properties on that document and its elements, layers, paths, bitmaps, text, to perform edits. fw.runCommand() invokes other installed commands, and other fw.* methods handle files and export. Standard JavaScript, variables, for loops over an array of files, if conditions, supplies the control flow, which is what makes batch processing possible: a loop can walk a folder and apply the same operations to each image.

Installing and running a JSF command

Fireworks discovers command scripts through a configuration folder. A user drops a .jsf into the application’s Configuration › Commands (or Command Panels) folder, and it then appears in the Commands menu. You run one with Commands › Run Script, or, if it was installed as a menu command, by selecting it. On Windows the path sits under the Fireworks program or user configuration directory; on macOS it is inside Macintosh HD › Applications › Adobe Fireworks › Configuration › Commands. Because Fireworks is discontinued, this only works on an old install; on a machine without Fireworks a .jsf is just a text file with no host to execute it.

A closely related extension is .jsfl, the scripting variant for Flash/Animate. It is the same idea, JavaScript automation, but a different host application with a different object model, so a Fireworks .jsf will not run unchanged in Animate. Likewise Photoshop and Illustrator use their own .jsx ExtendScript with entirely different APIs. There is no converter between these: moving a script from one host to another means rewriting it against the target application’s DOM, not converting a file. Renaming a .jsf to .js only changes the association; the code is already JavaScript, but without the Fireworks host it will not do anything useful, though the rename does let generic linters and editors treat it as code.

The other .jsf: JavaServer Faces web pages

The .jsf extension has a second, completely unrelated meaning that regularly confuses people. In Java enterprise web development, JSF stands for JavaServer Faces (now Jakarta Faces), a server-side user-interface framework. A web address ending in .jsf is a mapped request to a Faces page handled by an application server such as Tomcat, WildFly or GlassFish; the actual source files are usually .xhtml or .jsp Facelets. In that context a .jsf is not a document sitting on your disk to open, it is a URL the server resolves to a rendered page. If your .jsf came from a website or a Java project rather than from a graphics workflow, this is the meaning that applies, and there is nothing to download or open in an editor.

References