sballin

I’d chip in

I’m thinking about starting a Patreon that would cover the costs of an apple developer program membership

Just did, and all is well. 
 
Sorry to you and Vitor. I did not realize/remember that this was not a core Alfred feature. OTOH I can't imagine I'm the only "set-and-forget" Alfred user.
 
Thanks for the great workflow!

True, I can add that to the to-do list.

Here's the code for the binary: https://github.com/sballin/alfred-search-notes-app/blob/master/search_notes/main.go
 
Btw, it can't access the content of locked notes, those are encrypted in the database.
 
My approach is focused on delivering results instantly even when searching the full note contents of very large notes databases. I don't think similar performance is possible with python or AppleScript as in @rzagreb's workflow. The issue is that the note contents are stored in compressed protobuf format in the database. So searching the contents requires decompressing each one, unless there's a clever way to decompress them all at once, which would only be possible if they all have the same compression settings—I don't know if that's the case.
 
An older version of my workflow used python: https://github.com/sballin/alfred-search-notes-app/releases/tag/2.2.1, so no unsigned binaries to worry about. But I don't know if it works anymore.

I understand your hesitation, you're right to be cautious with your notes. Unfortunately I don't have a solution at the moment. I can't justify the cost of an Apple developer account when this is the only use I'd have for it, and I don't think all the donations so far would cover even one year. The next best thing I can do is make it open source and provide the option to compile it yourself after reviewing the code. If the Alfred team wants to review it or make their own trusted fork, they're welcome to.

This is an Alfred workflow to find and open Apple/iCloud notes in Notes.app!
Download: [github] Instructions to fix 99% of issues: [github] View additional issues and get help: [github] Support me maintaining this thing and keeping the binary verified: [patreon] Privacy note: this workflow reads your Notes database. It can't read notes that have a password, and the binary is open source with instructions on how to compile it yourself. For extra peace of mind, consider supporting me on Patreon so that the binary can be regularly verified for malicious content by Apple ($99/year Apple Developer Program membership required).
 

This is an Alfred workflow to find and open Apple/iCloud notes in Notes.app!
Download: [github] Instructions to fix 99% of issues: [github] View additional issues and get help: [github] Support me maintaining this thing and keeping the binary verified: [patreon] Privacy note: this workflow reads your Notes database. It can't read notes that have a password, and the binary is open source with instructions on how to compile it yourself. For extra peace of mind, consider supporting me on Patreon so that the binary can be regularly verified for malicious content by Apple ($99/year Apple Developer Program membership required).
 

I decided this should be the default action of alt-enter in the latest version: https://github.com/sballin/alfred-search-notes-app/releases/download/3.6/Search.Notes.alfredworkflow
 
This new version also has the following features:
Show enclosing folder when showing a note Use new note linking format that works on macOS and iOS (macOS >= 14 required) Use new updater script that doesn't require Python 2 (thanks vitorgalvao!) Bug fixes

This is great news, thanks for making this change, this sets my up really well for my 2024 workflow.
Thanks again for the great work.

I decided this should be the default action of alt-enter in the latest version: https://github.com/sballin/alfred-search-notes-app/releases/download/3.6/Search.Notes.alfredworkflow
 
This new version also has the following features:
Show enclosing folder when showing a note Use new note linking format that works on macOS and iOS (macOS >= 14 required) Use new updater script that doesn't require Python 2 (thanks vitorgalvao!) Bug fixes

Glad you like it! What version of the workflow are you using? Can you post the exact result?
 
The newer iOS/macOS Notes apps now have built-in note linking support, so I’m not sure about the future of this feature…

@sballin This workflow changes everything. I'm no longer debating the move from EN to Apple Notes. Thanks so much!

That fixed it!
 
I really appreciate your time and help!

Should fix it if you double click on the block that's called "Create new note" in the workflow diagram and replace the code with this:
on alfred_script(q) try tell application "Notes" -- Create new note from user query tell default account to make new note at default folder with properties {body:"<div><h1>" & q & "</h1></div><div><br></div>"} show first note in default account show first note in default account end tell on error errorMessage number errorNumber display alert "Create Note Error" message (errorNumber as string & ": " & errorMessage & "\n\nInput: " & q) as critical end try end alfred_script

This is an Alfred workflow to find and open Apple/iCloud notes in Notes.app!
Download: [github] Instructions to fix 99% of issues: [github] View additional issues and get help: [github] Support me maintaining this thing and keeping the binary verified: [patreon] Privacy note: this workflow reads your Notes database. It can't read notes that have a password, and the binary is open source with instructions on how to compile it yourself. For extra peace of mind, consider supporting me on Patreon so that the binary can be regularly verified for malicious content by Apple ($99/year Apple Developer Program membership required).
 

This is an Alfred workflow to find and open Apple/iCloud notes in Notes.app!
Download: [github] Instructions to fix 99% of issues: [github] View additional issues and get help: [github] Support me maintaining this thing and keeping the binary verified: [patreon] Privacy note: this workflow reads your Notes database. It can't read notes that have a password, and the binary is open source with instructions on how to compile it yourself. For extra peace of mind, consider supporting me on Patreon so that the binary can be regularly verified for malicious content by Apple ($99/year Apple Developer Program membership required).
 

This is an Alfred workflow to find and open Apple/iCloud notes in Notes.app!
Download: [github] Instructions to fix 99% of issues: [github] View additional issues and get help: [github] Support me maintaining this thing and keeping the binary verified: [patreon] Privacy note: this workflow reads your Notes database. It can't read notes that have a password, and the binary is open source with instructions on how to compile it yourself. For extra peace of mind, consider supporting me on Patreon so that the binary can be regularly verified for malicious content by Apple ($99/year Apple Developer Program membership required).
 

This is great - I hadn't updated in ages so I missed the linking capabilities until now...
 
I love that it can search for Monterey / i(pad)OS 15 hashtags on Big Sur, too.

Weird - it definitely had it before, but it must have gotten unchecked in the upgrade. Problem fixed, thank you for your quick reply!

Do you have "n" set as the keyword for "Opening Files" in Alfred Preferences > Features > File Search?

You could create a new "Run NSAppleScript" action with the following code:
 
on alfred_script(q) tell application "Notes" -- Show user requested note -- Get note id which is first item in q set noteID to text 1 thru ((offset of "?" in q)-1) of q show note id noteID in default account show note id noteID in default account -- Click menu Window -> Float Selected Note tell application "System Events" to tell process "Notes" to click menu item 11 of menu 7 of menu bar 1 end tell end alfred_script  

It works great for me without any issues and without any manual changes to the code. Thanks a LOT! 🙂👍

And I liked the new fallbackCreateNew and fallbackSearchBodies functions -- the second one already made my life easier. 👌

Here is a pre-release version where characters like that should be handled properly: https://github.com/sballin/alfred-search-notes-app/files/6168245/Search.Notes.zip
 
Let me know if you encounter any issues!

You could create a new "Run NSAppleScript" action with the following code:
 
on alfred_script(q) tell application "Notes" -- Show user requested note -- Get note id which is first item in q set noteID to text 1 thru ((offset of "?" in q)-1) of q show note id noteID in default account show note id noteID in default account -- Click menu Window -> Float Selected Note tell application "System Events" to tell process "Notes" to click menu item 11 of menu 7 of menu bar 1 end tell end alfred_script