caleb531

This is awesome!  Thanks Caleb!

 

I would love to see a mod key (maybe opt) to copy verse or chapter to the clipboard.

I actually did add that functionality at one point. However, the logic was rather complicated and unreliable, so I removed the feature.

Hi there.

 

Great workflow, by the way.

 

But I'm having trouble with the Packal update.

 

Every time I go in to check for updates, your workflow says I have an update pending:

 

3.0.1 => 2.1.4

 

Did you update the version number when you submitted the workflow to Packal?

As far as I can tell, the version number is indeed accurate. A potential solution is to download the latest version of the workflow either from Packal or from GitHub and install the workflow over your current installation.

I actually pushed a new release to GitHub recently, so I'll publish that to Packal later today, and you can give it another try.

EDIT: I pushed the latest release (v3.0.2) to Packal. Let me know if that fixed the issue.

Is it possible to add to 'now playing' or 'play next' instead of making its own playlist? maybe as alternate behaviours (cmd+enter/opt+enter) ?

that would make this way awesome

Unfortunately, AppleScript (the language in which this workflow is written) cannot control the recent Play Next feature in iTunes AFAIK. The only way to queue up multiple songs is to have the internal playlist created for you.

If you desire to queue up many songs before playing, it is probably easiest and best to create a playlist within iTunes and then play that playlist whenever you so desire via this workflow (e.g. playplaylist My Playlist).

Hi everyone. I recently released Play Song v3, which introduces a few important changes which you should be aware of.

Most notably, Play Song v3 removes the play keyword in favor of the playsong keyword. In short, I did this because the play keyword was becoming too ambiguous in name and behavior. However, if you so desire, you are still easily able to rename the playsong keyword to play within the Workflows pane of the Alfred Preferences.

In addition to that major change, Play Song v3 (and the subsequent bugfix release) introduces a number of welcome additions and fixes:

• I have rewritten the sorting algorithm to improve the relevancy of results.
• Improved Play Song to be fully functional across synced Alfred installs on multiple Macs
• Squashed a few small bugs

Download Play Song v3.0.1

Enjoy!

Caleb

Hi, everyone.

I recently released Play Song v2.1, which adds support for playing user playlists via the playplaylist keyword.

Enjoy!

Caleb

worked!

You should also be happy to know that I've integrated Tyilo's fix into the workflow itself, and so the issue of missing results should no longer be present. The new workflow is available for download via the link in this thread's original post.

Enjoy using the workflow!

Caleb

It exists and contains a directory called "caleb531.playsong" which contains some album artworks.

Ah, I didn't realize you posted a corresponding GitHub issue. Will do.

Caleb

 

New features sound great, but not working again:

Starting debug for 'Play Song'

[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: execution error: Finder got an error: AppleEvent handler failed. (-10000)
[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: execution error: Finder got an error: AppleEvent handler failed. (-10000)
[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: execution error: Finder got an error: AppleEvent handler failed. (-10000)
[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: execution error: Finder got an error: AppleEvent handler failed. (-10000)

I have the same problem.

Well, after a quick examination of the code, I can see how that might happen. However, in order to confirm this suspicion, I need your help:

Please tell me if the following path exists on your system. If it does not exist, then please tell me how far deep the path goes for you:

/Users/[YOUR USERNAME]/Library/Caches/com.runningwithcrayons.Alfred-2/Workflow Data/

Thanks,

Caleb

Hello, everyone!

I am pleased to announce the arrival of Play Song v2, a major new release of the workflow. Per popular request, the new release includes the ability to play not only individual songs, but albums, artists, and genres as well. See the README on the project page for details on usage.

Enjoy!

Caleb

Hi, there.

For as long as I can remember, Alfred includes a predefined web search for Google Images. However, the web search no longer reflects Google's current URL structure for image searches, which results in a redirect and a flash of unstyled content.
 

Alfred's Google Images search URL:

https://www.google.com/images?q=alfred

New Google Images search URL:

https://www.google.com/search?q=alfred&tbm=isch

Of course, I am able to create a custom web search with the correct URL. However, I would ideally prefer not to do this (at least I shouldn't need to do this). Regardless, I can't imagine this would be at all difficult to fix internally. Therefore, I do hope you find a moment to tweak this and make Alfred just a little bit better.

Thanks,

Caleb

Totally fixed. Awesome!

Ah, fantastic! I hope you find the workflow easy and convenient. Ironic, though: you reported the bug just as I was working on v2.0 of the workflow, which is going to be so much more awesome.

Enjoy!

Caleb

yes I downloaded the zip and double clicked the workflow file. Did I do something wrong?

No, you did exactly what you should have done. Fortunately, I have discovered the root cause of the issue, and have pushed a fix to GitHub.

Please download the new workflow and let me know if it works for you.

Caleb

 

Not working for me on yosemite:

Starting debug for 'Play Song'

[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: 3726:3743: execution error: The variable artworkFolderName is not defined. (-2753)
[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: 3726:3743: execution error: The variable artworkFolderName is not defined. (-2753)
[ERROR: alfred.workflow.input.scriptfilter] Code 1: 3726:3743: execution error: The variable artworkFolderName is not defined. (-2753)

Did you download the workflow directly from GitHub?

Hi Caleb, 

 

It seems you have done great work, although it is not working for me in Yosemite. When I type play - space -song name, it transfer me to google. Any chance that the workflow got broken with Yosemite?

 

Thank you for your help,

I just downloaded the latest workflow from GitHub and tested it, but everything is working as it should. Note that if you hold down the control key when choosing a song from the list, it will search the song on Google. Perhaps the control key is somehow being held down when you choose a result.

I'm running Yosemite myself and have no issues using my workflow.

-Caleb

Any chance this could be made to quickly play a specific playlist?

That might be possible to implement, though I have no plans for doing so. I'd prefer to keep the app simple by displaying only songs in the suggestions list. I hope you can understand.

-Caleb

any chance this can work over shared libraries? THANKS!

I'm not sure that's possible with AppleScript, and I wouldn't know how to go about adding such a feature.

Sorry,

Caleb

Great workflow, but it doesn't seem to find all songs / artists / albums.

 

For example, if I search for the album "One For The Road" by Ocean Colour Scene, which is correctly tagged in my library as shown:-

 

Then the workflow cannot find it, either by artist or album, and reverts back to the fallback searches:-

Okay, I pushed a new version of the plugin with a potential fix. Let me know if it works for you.

-Caleb

This addon is awesome! One question though. If you search for an album name is there any way to have results sorted by track number instead of alphabetically?

I'm not sure about that. The script internally uses iTunes's search function in AppleScript to find songs matching the given query. Therefore, because iTunes determines the order of its own search results, I cannot sort songs by track number without sacrificing script performance (which is important to me).

-Caleb

Thanks for this Caleb. The addition of podcasts is great. Is there any way that audiobooks could also be activated as well?.

Sure, I will consider adding audiobook support. I will post here if I do.

-Caleb

Maybe I didn't explain myself very good...

 

What I meant is not to play an artist or album.

 

What is mean is that your search, is filtering also by artist and album name (and not only by song name).

 

So for example when I search for Foo Fighters, it shows me all songs from Foo Fighters (even though they have no "Foo Fighters" in their song name).

 

What I think would be nice is to search *only* the song name for whatever string you put. So if for example, there is no song named Foo Fighters, the previous example would return blank (instead of all songs from the band Foo Fighters).

 

Thanks

Hmm, I'm not sure I like the sound of that. I would prefer to get some results as opposed to no results, as long as the results maintain their relevance (in which case, they usually will). Besides, I would imagine that iTunes orders songs with titles matching the query above songs with artists matching the query (if that makes sense).

The goal of the workflow is to make the action of playing an iTunes song as quickly and easily as possible. Therefore, I believe the app should include whichever results are relevant to the search query. Now, I realize that I could make this an option rather than the default behavior, but I would much prefer to preserve the simplicity of the workflow. Given all of the acclaim it has received in the above posts, I believe that it has accomplished its aforementioned goal, and therefore doesn't need any significant additions.

I second that. In addition to "play" perhaps there can be "band" and/or "song" keywords, that they will show a list of songs by the artist or the song you're searching for, and the next step would be as with "play", to play it.

Again, for the reasons listed above, I don't plan of adding such a feature. Even more so, I wouldn't add such a feature because it would require creating multiple "Filter" scripts, with much of the same codebase and a few minor changes. That solution is not very DRY, if you ask me.

-Caleb

When I search for a song, the results are found (and filtered) also by album or artist.

 

Is it possible to separate it?

 

play song "x" - would look for songs named "x" only

play artist "y" - would look for artists named "y" only

play album "z" - would look for albums named "z" only

 

BTW, the best like you said is to have only songs, but I believe also only to search by the song name.

 

It's a great workflow and very useful. Congrats!

No, it's really not possible, AFAIK, AppleScript only lets you play a track, not an artist (nor an album, for that matter).

-Caleb

This is great! Would it also be possible to search for and play artists and albums? I would love that!

Not sure about that. I think with AppleScript, I can only search and play songs, not artists or albums. Either way, I would prefer to have only songs show in the results for the sake of simplicity.

-Caleb

this is great! thanks 

would it be possible to include podcasts?

Sure! I've updated the script with an option (called podcastsIncluded) that will enable the showing of podcasts in the results.

-Caleb

Introduction

With the introduction of Alfred v2.0, the built-in iTunes mini player is now the only way to interact with my iTunes library in Alfred. However, I would prefer to quickly search for and play songs without entering the mini player first. Therefore, I created Play Song—a workflow designed to make playing songs in iTunes extremely quick and convenient.

Download

Download Play Song (latest)

Usage

Play Song enables five keywords which allow you to search for and play songs in your iTunes library.

In order for Play Song to function properly, it requires access to assistive devices. You can enable this for Alfred via the Security & Privacy pane of System Preferences.

Support

If you have a bug to report or a feature to request, please submit an issue on GitHub.

Release Notes

Release notes for the workflow are also available on GitHub.