don't try to open urls that are not urls

[shira]

Three or four times a week I run afoul of Alfred's URL search by typing something like:

 

ag.vim 
install.py
config.sh
CSV::Converter

 

etc. etc. Alfred thinks these are all URLs and tries to open them. Could we use a better regex to separate genuine from spurious URLs?

[shira]

Note that I don't want to just turn off the URL-recognition option; sometimes I actually do want to type a URL and open it, and that's useful.

[vitor]

install.py and config.sh are valid URLs, using the TLDs of Paraguay and Saint Helena, respectively. .vim doesn’t appear to be a valid TLD, but since anything can be one, now, there’s a chance it might actually become one. CSV::Converter isn’t detected as a URL, for me.

Point being, I’m not sure what you ask for can be done. You can’t both keep URL detection on and ignore those examples. Unless you require http:// to be typed beforehand, but I doubt most people would want that as a default (might be a toggle, though).

But URL detection should only trigger if you’re typing those words without context (i.e. not looking for files or activating a workflow), so what’s your use case for typing them in that context in the first place? How do they trip you up?

[Andrew]

Vitor is absolutely correct that TLDs are now open ended, so these are valid domains.

 

@shira Have you included file search in your default results? This is a good reason to keep Alfred's default file search behaviour (focused default results, then using the open keyword, or [spacebar] prefix), as this means you'd type [spacebar]install.py to search for that as a file, or install.py to open this as a website.

 

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[Moving to help forum]

[shira]

Fair point ... forgot about Paraguay and St. Helena, not to mention the open-ended TLD problem.

 

"install.py" may not be a good example, as I can't think of when I would want to do an Internet search for that without some other words around it. But take "ag.vim", for instance (a Vim plugin). I might want to Google "ag.vim" and read about it, or find it on Github or something. If I type "ag.vim" in the box, I get no option to search the web for it; I see *only* the "open the typed url" option:

 

 

 

I have to type a second word, e.g. "ag.vim repo", to trigger a web search. So I guess it would suffice to at least keep the "search the web" action available below the "open the typed url" action.

 

 

[vitor]

19 minutes ago, shira said:

I might want to Google "ag.vim" and read about it, or find it on Github or something. If I type "ag.vim" in the box, I get no option to search the web for it; I see *only* the "open the typed url" option:

 

 

I have to type a second word, e.g. "ag.vim repo", to trigger a web search. So I guess it would suffice to at least keep the "search the web" action available below the "open the typed url" action.

 

I recommend @deanishe’s Searchio!, then. Type g ag.vim and you’ll even get other recommendations.

Edited March 10, 2017 by vitor

[Andrew]

@shira under Alfred's Advanced preferences, you can find some default modifiers, so you could make alt+return on a result always search in your top fallback (google by default) regardless of whether it matches something.