CarlosNZ

The idea was to make one hotkey for everything: move file and get the URL.
Multiple destinations (any folder in Dropbox) would brake it.
Anyway, you can easily change the destination folder or make any change that fits your needs.

Even better you can let applescript do the shell script with administrator privileges ...
 
osascript -e "do shell script \"killall Finder && sudo -A killall -KILL appleeventsd\" with administrator privileges"  
Then you will get a popup asking for your password, this way your password will never be in the clear.

FYI, if anyone else is not keen on having their password stored in a workflow, just change the keyword to require an argument, and change the script to the following:
 
password="{query}" killall Finder && echo "$password" | sudo -S killall -KILL appleeventsd echo "Finder has been relaunched" Then you just type "relaunch yourpassword" each time instead. Voila!

I use this app: http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/pckeyboardhack.html.en
 
Here's the step by step on how to do it: http://brettterpstra.com/2012/12/08/a-useful-caps-lock-key/

I'm actually refining a few bits of this XML today, and adding an item type as file is on the plan. If the file exists, Alfred will standardise the arg (expand and standardise the ~/) and treat it like any other file based result in the default results; i.e. Buffer, Actions, Revel In Finder shortcut etc.
 
My original reasoning for needing this in the XML as it should better support if somebody were to create a NAS search type live search filter returning files.
 
The XML will look something like this:
<item uid="filter.desktop" arg="~/Desktop" valid="YES" autocomplete="Desktop" type="file"> <title>Desktop</title> <subtitle>~/Desktop</subtitle> <icon type="fileicon">~/Desktop</icon> </item> The important part is type="file" on the item. Just for completeness, I'm also going to add type="file:skipcheck" which will skip the file exists check, in case it's on a slow NAS or drive, which could get in the way of results showing quickly if you know the files being returned do already exist.
 
This will be in the next build, after b94

You want to know my dirty little debugging trick I use for shell scripts? I drop in Growl notifications (via growlnotify) when I want to check that the script is going where I want it to (following the right "if" options, etc.) with the variables assigned as expected. I'm sure seasoned programmers would look down their noses at such nonsense, but it works for me, for now.

NOTE: This workflow has not been updated to work with Alfred 3.0 and above, and is known to cause issues. Use at your own risk.
 
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Keep all the miscellaneous crap off your Desktop by sweeping everything into a "DeskDrawer" folder, which is easily accessible from our good friend Alfred.
 
Download DeskDrawer v1.5
[updated 25 March 2014]
 
Okay, the idea is not completely original — I've used apps like DesktopTidy and Unclutter to achieve this, but it's amazing how simple it is to replicate the basic concept with an Alfred workflow.
 

This is your "DeskDrawer" in Alfred (keyword "drawer", default hotkey Shift-Cmd-D). From there you can:
search the list (just start typing) open an item (select it) move it back to your Desktop (option-select) reveal it in DeskDrawer/Finder (cmd-select) browse/open it in Alfred (ctrl-select) for further action. Move item to the Trash (fn-select) [NEW in 1.3] There is a file action, "Move to DeskDrawer" (as well as the  keyword "move") for quickly flicking items into the Drawer. There is also the keyword "sweep" to scoop all your Desktop items into DeskDrawer in one hit. And finally, "deskrestore" will dump the contents of your DeskDrawer back on the Desktop in all its messy glory.
 
You can also undo your last file/folder movement with the "unmove" keyword. [New in v1.5]
 
And now you can protect certain items on your Desktop from being moved during a sweep, with either the File Action "Protect from DeskDrawer Sweep" or the keyword "protect". (Reverse this with the File Action "UnProtect from DeskDrawer Sweep" or keyword "unprotect".) [New in v1.5]
 
And finally, for full documentation, use the keyword "deskdrawer help". [New in v1.5]
 
I don't about the rest of you, but I like to keep my Desktop as clutter-free as possible (unlike my IRL desktop! ), so having this capability in Alfred is great.
 
Let me know what you think, or any bugs you find.
 
Features I'd still like to add:
The ability to "protect" certain files from the "sweep" and "deskrestore" actions. [DONE in v1.5] Be able to specify the location of your DeskDrawer folder. [DONE in v1.2] Any requests?  
UPDATE:  1 April 2013 - v1.3
New action: "fn-select" item to Trash it. Consolidated and tidied up workflow setup panel. Support for Alleyoop auto-updater Minor cosmetic tweaks. UPDATE: 2 April 2013 - v1.4
New keyword: "move" — moves selected items to Drawer (same as the file action, but you just enter it in Alfred's main window — some people seem to prefer this approach.) UPDATE: 25 March 2014 - v1.5
New icon for DeskDrawer folder (to fit in with OS X custom folder look). DeskDrawer is now allowed on the Desktop itself. “Undo” function to reverse the last “Move” to DeskDrawer or Sweep. “Protect” specified Desktop items from being moved to the DeskDrawer during Sweeps. Fix for XML-illegal characters in filenames. More icons. Removed AlleyOop updater support. Default DeskDrawer location is now Home folder. Local documentation (keyword: deskdrawer help) Miscellaneous minor tweaks and fixes.

Hot damn. I just wish this had come along before I bought MailHub!

Alfred actually makes this quite easy for you, you can add a type parameter to the <icon> part of the XML to show file types e.g.
 
<icon type="filetype">public.jpeg</icon>
 
...to show the icon for the UTI. If you want the actual icon for the file, you can use e.g.
 
<icon type="fileicon">~/Desktop</icon> 
 
...to get the actual icon used for the given path.

Spotlight doesn't show these by default. You have to set "System Files" to "are included" in the additional parameters. I assume Alfred's search only includes the default Spotlight search scope, which is probably the sensible thing to do.
 
You can easily set up a "File Filter" workflow to do this search though. The "system files" checkbox is right there:
 

Download. (Or get it in the AlfPT repository)
 
I was just noticing that Alfred 2's snippets allow for current {date} and {time} fields in the pasted output. Nifty, but I would have liked a little more control over the specific format. I was right on the verge of posting this as a feature request when I thought, hang on a sec, that would be really simple to whip up as a workflow. And so I did.
 

 
The default keyword is timedate, and the default hotkey is Ctrl-Shift-D. This brings up a list in Alfred's results with the current date and time presented in a variety of formats. Select one and it gets pasted to your frontmost app.
 
To customise the list of available formats, just enter timedate edit, and the text file will open for you to edit (with a syntax reference included).
 
Hope it proves useful to someone.
 
EDIT: Added screenshot.
 
----
 
Update: 27 January 2013
 
You can now hold down the "option" key when making a selection to suppress auto-pasting the output.
 
----
 
Update: 28 January 2013
 
Now uses recommended working directories for storing config info, so this is the last time an update will overwrite your time/date strings. You can now select where the date/time strings file is stored (Hello Dropbox syncing! ) via a GUI dialog (via Applescript). Update: 30 January 2013
 
Changed the bundleID and workflow name - I've deleted the old version from AlfPT and re-added as a new workflow.

The file is a bit large, but not all that large—unzipping it shouldn't take a fraction of a second. I'm admit I'm puzzled. Let me know how it works on ML, though, and we'll go from there.

Hey folks,
 
I've been chugging away building a new version of my EggTimer extension to take advantage of Alfred 2's new features. And now it's ready for whoever would like to to have a playaround with it and see what they think:
 
EggTimer v2.0
 
 
It will also be available at Tom's Alfred Repo, but I personally haven't had a chance to test that yet, so let me know how it goes for you.
 
Now, it's very much a beta, as there's several things that don't work as well as I'd like yet, but I'm pretty pleased with how the integration with Alfred 2's new live results feedback via the Script Filter is working. My aim is to have a really nicely polished, easy-to-use (no users fiddling with config files) workflow ready to release by the time Alfred 2 goes public, so any comments or suggestions are most welcome.  It's ready! (22 March 2013)
 
I've included a full summary of all the functionality in the documentation included in the download (enter timer help in Alfred), but here's just a quick overview of the features:
Simple timers Auto-repeating timers Alarms (set a specific time) Snooze function Repeat function Recent Timers list (choose one to restart) Full integration into Alfred's results window. Couple of quick caveats:
EggTimer currently requires growlnotify to display notifications when timers finish. This is because the timer process completely decouples from Alfred to run in the background, so it can’t feed back its output to Alfred. I’m working on a solution to use a Notification Centre alert option to make this as seamless as possible to the user.
Currently, running timers won’t restart after a crash or a reboot. I’m working on a solution to this which I aim to have working soon.
Okay, that's about it. Enjoy, and let me know how it works for you.
 
----
 
21 January 2013: Updated to beta 2
 
Changes:
Timers/Alarms now use a “while…” loop to check due time against time of day (instead of just sleeping for a duration). This prevents the problem of timers running late if the computer was put to sleep. (Don't know why I didn't just do this to begin with.) ----
 
24 January 2013: Updated to beta 3
 
Changes:
Now uses recommended working folders for storing timer info and preferences. The main benefit from the user point of view is that future updates won’t overwrite your timers and preferences. Timers and Auto-timers now accept hour:minute input. Syntax is timer HRS:MINS Reminder. Can now stop timers from the timer list using the option-key modifier. Kind of an ugly implementation though, as it will display the same information regardless of whether it’s context-appropriate. Trying to think of a better way to make this work. (Suggestions welcome!) Timers will be restored if they have crashed. This is only partially implemented though, because it’ll only check if you actually run the workflow. It won’t restore them at login yet, which is more important. Working on it. Miscellaneous minor tweaks. ----
 
27 January 2013: Updated to beta 4
 
Changes:
The big one: will now resume timers after restart/re-login. EggTimer adds an entry to the OS X launchd daemon to check for and resume timers at startup. You will be prompted to give permission for this on first launch of EggTimer. New keyword/workflow structure. Check out the workflow config panel to see what’s what. If you’d prefer the old ones (all starting with timer), just change them yourself (eg. repeat -> timer repeat). You’ll note that from the timer list (timers or hotkey Ctrl-T) you can also select to launch a new timer or alarm (courtesy of Alfred’s new Applescript-ability). Now has a “nuke” option (timer nuke) to reset EggTimer back to initial blank config. (Deletes all working folders, cancels running timers, uninstalls startup item.) Fixed bug with “08” and “09” minutes entries when using hrs:mins timer format. More specific icons and other miscellaneous UI tweaks. beta4a
Fixed minor (and embarrassing) regression. ----
 
28 January 2013: Updated to beta4b
 
Changes:
Fixed absolute path reference preventing permission dialog from launching.  
28 January 2013: Updated to beta4c
 
Changes:
Doh! One more pesky absolute path eliminated. There's still a bit of weirdness with resuming timers after a login though, so I'm still trying to figure that out. Maybe answer "no" to installing startup item for now.. beta4d
Okay, the problem was fairly minor (just me being scatterbrained ), so the startup check should work nicely now. Here's hoping! ---
 
22 March 2013: Updated to v2.0 (final)
I've finally integrated proper notifications for the completed timers. It will work with either Growl or Notification Centre, depending on what you have selected in the workflow config. growlnotify is no longer required, and you'll find "EggTimer" as a properly registered application within Growl's preferences (where you can tweak it). Miscellaneous tweaks and tidy-ups (including documentation - timer help to display)

This is very nice Carlos. Great for those that like the pomodoro technique. Just set a 25min timer then a 5min timer for a break. Rinse and repeat
 
This little gem is also going to be in my Arlfred vs. Launchbar Article on Mac.AppStorm

Hey folks,
 
I've been chugging away building a new version of my EggTimer extension to take advantage of Alfred 2's new features. And now it's ready for whoever would like to to have a playaround with it and see what they think:
 
EggTimer v2.0
 
 
It will also be available at Tom's Alfred Repo, but I personally haven't had a chance to test that yet, so let me know how it goes for you.
 
Now, it's very much a beta, as there's several things that don't work as well as I'd like yet, but I'm pretty pleased with how the integration with Alfred 2's new live results feedback via the Script Filter is working. My aim is to have a really nicely polished, easy-to-use (no users fiddling with config files) workflow ready to release by the time Alfred 2 goes public, so any comments or suggestions are most welcome.  It's ready! (22 March 2013)
 
I've included a full summary of all the functionality in the documentation included in the download (enter timer help in Alfred), but here's just a quick overview of the features:
Simple timers Auto-repeating timers Alarms (set a specific time) Snooze function Repeat function Recent Timers list (choose one to restart) Full integration into Alfred's results window. Couple of quick caveats:
EggTimer currently requires growlnotify to display notifications when timers finish. This is because the timer process completely decouples from Alfred to run in the background, so it can’t feed back its output to Alfred. I’m working on a solution to use a Notification Centre alert option to make this as seamless as possible to the user.
Currently, running timers won’t restart after a crash or a reboot. I’m working on a solution to this which I aim to have working soon.
Okay, that's about it. Enjoy, and let me know how it works for you.
 
----
 
21 January 2013: Updated to beta 2
 
Changes:
Timers/Alarms now use a “while…” loop to check due time against time of day (instead of just sleeping for a duration). This prevents the problem of timers running late if the computer was put to sleep. (Don't know why I didn't just do this to begin with.) ----
 
24 January 2013: Updated to beta 3
 
Changes:
Now uses recommended working folders for storing timer info and preferences. The main benefit from the user point of view is that future updates won’t overwrite your timers and preferences. Timers and Auto-timers now accept hour:minute input. Syntax is timer HRS:MINS Reminder. Can now stop timers from the timer list using the option-key modifier. Kind of an ugly implementation though, as it will display the same information regardless of whether it’s context-appropriate. Trying to think of a better way to make this work. (Suggestions welcome!) Timers will be restored if they have crashed. This is only partially implemented though, because it’ll only check if you actually run the workflow. It won’t restore them at login yet, which is more important. Working on it. Miscellaneous minor tweaks. ----
 
27 January 2013: Updated to beta 4
 
Changes:
The big one: will now resume timers after restart/re-login. EggTimer adds an entry to the OS X launchd daemon to check for and resume timers at startup. You will be prompted to give permission for this on first launch of EggTimer. New keyword/workflow structure. Check out the workflow config panel to see what’s what. If you’d prefer the old ones (all starting with timer), just change them yourself (eg. repeat -> timer repeat). You’ll note that from the timer list (timers or hotkey Ctrl-T) you can also select to launch a new timer or alarm (courtesy of Alfred’s new Applescript-ability). Now has a “nuke” option (timer nuke) to reset EggTimer back to initial blank config. (Deletes all working folders, cancels running timers, uninstalls startup item.) Fixed bug with “08” and “09” minutes entries when using hrs:mins timer format. More specific icons and other miscellaneous UI tweaks. beta4a
Fixed minor (and embarrassing) regression. ----
 
28 January 2013: Updated to beta4b
 
Changes:
Fixed absolute path reference preventing permission dialog from launching.  
28 January 2013: Updated to beta4c
 
Changes:
Doh! One more pesky absolute path eliminated. There's still a bit of weirdness with resuming timers after a login though, so I'm still trying to figure that out. Maybe answer "no" to installing startup item for now.. beta4d
Okay, the problem was fairly minor (just me being scatterbrained ), so the startup check should work nicely now. Here's hoping! ---
 
22 March 2013: Updated to v2.0 (final)
I've finally integrated proper notifications for the completed timers. It will work with either Growl or Notification Centre, depending on what you have selected in the workflow config. growlnotify is no longer required, and you'll find "EggTimer" as a properly registered application within Growl's preferences (where you can tweak it). Miscellaneous tweaks and tidy-ups (including documentation - timer help to display)

For me, an ideal way of dealing with this would be to have an extra "action block" in the workflow. Imagine a block you can drag onto the workflow canvas and add any number of key:value pairs that would then be fed into the other blocks.
Of course Andrew would have to weigh in on this with regards to complexity of such an implementation. Otherwise, it shouldn't be too hard to write, as CarlosNZ suggested, an AppleScript boilerplate for requesting some initial user input and saving this in a pliant,Jason, Xmas file in the workflow non-volatile directory.

Wow. Can I also just chime in to say that that Alfred repo workflow is awesome. Finally, the repo is useable to me now. Great job!

It seems awfully clunky to create a new text snippet. Alfred makes a lot of stuff so much quicker, so to have to stop, go to the preferences and manually enter a new piece of text for a saved snippet feels like a drag. I wonder if there couldn't be an easier way of creating snippets on the fly. The simplest way would be to allow you to perform an action on one of your clipboard history entries, to "store as snippet". Or, just a command in Alfred: "snippet <new text clipping>".
 
Heck, this would be a perfect thing for a user-created workflow. I'd do it myself, but that "snippets.alfdb" file is a bit to impenetrable for me (and, I'm assuming, not designed to be messed with externally).

And a cheeky little workflow to go with it.
 
http://cl.ly/MLMP
 
(Keyword: blur)

Nice workflow and it works perfectly. Thanks 

In playing with Custom Contact Actions could I also suggest the addition of supporting multiple custom actions per contact field. 
 
Currently it appears only one custom action per field is possible - eg when I assign my Skype workflow to the phone field, the phone field is no longer an available option when defining a new custom action.
 
Scenarios where this would be very useful:
 
1. Option to select "skype" or "send to iphone" workflows when highlighting a phone number
2. Selection of which email client to use when highlighting an email address (I use 2 email clients to separate business & private email)
 
///sphardy

Nothing terribly complex here, but I think it's pretty awesome we can do this sort of thing with Alfred:
 
Download here (or go to my webpage for Alfred 1 version)
 
Requires Prowl on your iPhone in order to receive the notifications and launch the dialling process.
 
I'm assuming this could easily be modified to work with Android phones as well, but you'll probably have to wait for Boxcar or Prowl to release Android clients. Pushover might do it, but if it's as lame as the iPhone version, it won't auto-handle the "tel://" URL scheme.
 
Love to know if it works okay for others.
 
----
 
 
13 April 2014: Updated to v1.41a
Fixed — inadvertently made incompatible with current public release of Alfred.  
12 April 2014: Updated to v1.41
Bugfix — wasn’t creating storage directory for API key if not already present.  
3 April 2014: Updated to v1.4
Removed Applescript GUI for API key input. Now just uses Alfred interface. Separate keywords in Workflow config. New icons (iOS 7 based).  
25 March 2013: Updated to v1.3
Bug fix: hyphen “-” character was still causing invalid number error. Typos 20 March 2013: Updated to v1.2
GUI for user to enter API key rather than having to edit the code Documentation Better handling of other punctuation characters that might be in a valid phone number (including parentheses, *, # and .

Don't panic! Andrew is on the case: http://www.alfredforum.com/index.php?/topic/337-copy-to-clipboard-output-copies-a-literal-query-when-there-is-no-input-accepted/
 

I know Python is good with JSON and I found it not-too-difficult to get a feel for while I was playing with Sublime Text plugins. I'm not a software guy, really, but it seemed like with aggressive Googling and a little perseverance it was easy enough to figure out. As for your regex question, if it's always going to be a png file, this clumsily but accurately matches just the string you need, according to Patterns:
 
(?<=")http.+png(?=",) But, again, not a software guy, so there's probably a more elegant way.