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Alfred 2.7.2 beta build (mid-development testing)


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Hello amazing Alfred users!

 

During this current dev cycle, I've made quite a significant change to the way Alfred focuses / activates, which means Alfred no longer takes 'active' from the currently focused app in OS X (i.e. the current app doesn't dim down while Alfred is visible).

 

This fixes quite a number of quirks which have been getting incrementally more intrusive, especially for multi-screen setups, with every OS X release... The primary issue being where focus returns to the incorrect window when Alfred is shown then hidden. It also fixes rare weird launch behaviour, and windows flicking when they shouldn't.

 

As this fix affects quite a few parts of Alfred such as the Clipboard History (pasting), Quick Look and Large Type, I'd like to release this beta build for people who are up for helping me verify that this doesn't break anything before doing a pre-release and real release.

 

Grab the build from: build removed as now pre-release

 

There are quite a few other fixes in this build so far, so I've updated the change log here:

 

https://www.alfredapp.com/changelog/

 

No need to specifically test anything, just use the build as normal and let me know how you get on!

 

Cheers,

Andrew :)

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Hi Andrew,

Just reporting back on something odd. I installed the Beta at work, it synced with Dropbox OK. When I got home I forgot that I had upgraded to a Beta but started noticing some issues, the custom terminal scripts had gone missing, and my default "launch alfred" hotkey had changed back to the default.

Just thought I should give you a heads up.

Cheers,
Stuart
 
[update]
 
After a full system restart, this seems to have resolved the issue and the preferences have now loaded correctly.
Edited by stuartcryan
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As this is concerned with Alfred’s focus, I was hoping this issue would be solved. It’s not, however. Is the fix planned for the final release?

 

This is a bit of a tough one as OS X is pulling focus and Alfred can't differentiate between that being a user action or OS X action. I have some ideas to work around this in the future though (but it involves a bit of an overhaul)

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So far so good. But, just this week I have noticed that the Alfred debugger does not always show the output of a Script Filter. I have not figured out way or when it does or doesn't. I have just seen some inconsistencies with both normal distribution version and this version. I will keep an eye on it and let you know when I figure out more.

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I really like the new behavior from Alfred and it works well so far. But now I noticed, that it has some conflict with Karabiner.

 

I have Karabiner for mapping hjkl to arrow keys in Finder. Karabiner uses the app's bundle identifier to determine which app has focus. Since Alfred doesn't fire this UI event anymore, the keys are still mapped when I change to Alfred. Is it possible to change this behavior without taking the app's focus? For example: If I'm clicking on the Wifi icon in the menu bar, then it fires the bundle identifier event and my active window still has focus.

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I really like the new behavior from Alfred and it works well so far. But now I noticed, that it has some conflict with Karabiner.

 

I have Karabiner for mapping hjkl to arrow keys in Finder. Karabiner uses the app's bundle identifier to determine which app has focus. Since Alfred doesn't fire this UI event anymore, the keys are still mapped when I change to Alfred. Is it possible to change this behavior without taking the app's focus? For example: If I'm clicking on the Wifi icon in the menu bar, then it fires the bundle identifier event and my active window still has focus.

 

Unfortunately, these two things are mutually exclusive... If Alfred is to work without taking focus from OS X, then he will no longer be seen as the "active app" in the same way as Spotlight works.

 

What happens if you click the Alfred hat in the menu bar?

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I've updated Karabiner to support Alfred 2.7.2 at Karabiner 10.7.4. (the latest beta version)

 

How to upgrade to the latest beta version:
 
 
How it works:
 
Karabiner treats a window that has the following attributes as Alfred.
 
* kCGWindowOwnerName = "Alfred 2"

kCGWindowLayer = 27

 

Karabiner has a timer to scan on screen windows by each 500ms.

If the Alfred window is on screen (== in CGWindowListCreateDescriptionFromArray),

Karabiner treats Alfred as the current focused app.

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OK, here's something I found out today. OS X 10.10.5 (14F27) running Alfred v2.7.2 (394)

 

tester1.png
 

That is Safari 8.0.8 (10600.8.9) in final of 10.10.5 with a drop menu from the favorites bar covering Alfred.  Safari is active and I invoked Alfed but it doesn't quite get top layer.

Edited by RodgerWW
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OK, here's something I found out today. OS X 10.10.5 (14F27) running Alfred v2.7.2 (394)

 

That is Safari 8.0.8 (10600.8.9) in final of 10.10.5 with a drop menu from the favorites bar covering Alfred.  Safari is active and I invoked Alfed but it doesn't quite get top layer.

 

Hmm this isn't something I can fix as the menu level needs to be in front of Alfred, otherwise when you bring up the text menu in Alfred's text field, it would be behind.

 

Spotlight seems to be doing something which hides the menu in Safari, let me look into it!

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I've updated Karabiner to support Alfred 2.7.2 at Karabiner 10.7.4. (the latest beta version)

 

How to upgrade to the latest beta version:
 
 
How it works:
 
Karabiner treats a window that has the following attributes as Alfred.
 
* kCGWindowOwnerName = "Alfred 2"

* kCGWindowLayer = 27

 

Karabiner has a timer to scan on screen windows by each 500ms.

If the Alfred window is on screen (== in CGWindowListCreateDescriptionFromArray),

Karabiner treats Alfred as the current focused app.

 

It works perfectly, thank you :)

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