Search through 2500+ mind maps and curated study plans with Alfred

[nikivi]

What do you mean by recursion? I can't recurse on anything as I have to by hand specify the exact url to pass the filter. Or am I missing something? It is just so messy. 

I really really wish there would be an easier way and I am certain there is one as @deanishe has many times shown. I mean in the worst case I can do this but I can't even search on 'notes' of objects thus I can't keep track of what I have added or what I have left.  

 

And since my mind map is very large, I will have 1000's of objects where with each new object, the performance drops significantly.

Edited May 8, 2017 by nikivi

[deanishe]

6 hours ago, nikivi said:

What do you mean by recursion?

 

He means much the same as the way browsing your bookmark folders works in the Safari workflow I gave you.

 

6 hours ago, nikivi said:

And since my mind map is very large, I will have 1000's of objects where with each new object, the performance drops significantly.

 

No you wouldn't. This is exactly the issue @dfay's suggestion would avoid. You call exactly the same function/Script Filter, but with a subset of the data, and the a subset of those data etc.

 

Aren't you studying computer science? Do you not know what recursion is?

 

[dfay]

Basically it looks like you're trying to reinvent the wiki, and honestly I think you'd do much better to use an off-the-shelf solution like WIkidot, where all this infrastructure is taken care of for you and you can concentrate on content. Wikidot has a decent API & it would be pretty easy to build a workflow that queries it.  Or you could use mediawiki & adapt the existing Wikipedia workflows.

Edited May 9, 2017 by dfay

[nikivi]

2 hours ago, dfay said:

Basically it looks like you're trying to reinvent the wiki, and honestly I think you'd do much better to use an off-the-shelf solution like WIkidot, where all this infrastructure is taken care of for you and you can concentrate on content. Wikidot has a decent API & it would be pretty easy to build a workflow that queries it.  Or you could use mediawiki & adapt the existing Wikipedia workflows.

 

The biggest problems I find with wikis is discoverability. These mind maps are mostly a bookmark manager of mine that I think would be useful for others too. I don't really hold content there (like wikis do), I only host links (and connect them with arrows). Plus I try to create a 'guided' way people can get any information they want. That is I try to show what the most efficient path for learning a topic is.

 

Google is a black box in that you have to know what you want to ask. This mind map actually lets users explore and see how everything connects on the grand scheme of things. At least that's the plan.

[nikivi]

I have updated the workflow with @vitor's OneUpdater. I hope it works. I also added 'reddit' subreddit search in the 'inside' search filter. It is quite fast and I will add more subreddits later. 

 

14 hours ago, deanishe said:

Aren't you studying computer science? Do you not know what recursion is?

 

I do know what recursion is. It's just that I can't figure out how to apply it in this case. I will try again though and see how I can work this out. Don't need to be mean.

[deanishe]

27 minutes ago, nikivi said:

It's just that I can't figure out how to apply it in this case.

 

Most mindmaps are basically trees. Every branch is a subtree. 

 

Instead of "flattening" the tree with a filter per level, you call the same filter on each subtree.

 

Your whole collection of mindmaps can be considered a single, large tree.

 

Look how the Safari workflow I sent you browses your tree of bookmarks.

[dfay]

Just remember the immortal (actually three week old) words of Jason Snell, "nobody grades you on the scaffolding."  From reading this thread, it really looks like you had an idea that worked with a few files but which cannot be made to scale.  Why struggle with it when there are ready-made tools that can be easily adapted to do what you want?  Have you looked at DevonThink?

[nikivi]

46 minutes ago, dfay said:

Just remember the immortal (actually three week old) words of Jason Snell, "nobody grades you on the scaffolding."  From reading this thread, it really looks like you had an idea that worked with a few files but which cannot be made to scale.  Why struggle with it when there are ready-made tools that can be easily adapted to do what you want?  Have you looked at DevonThink?

I have looked into DevonThink. For me mind maps are a lot more elegant way of transcribing information. I can both find and open any mind from ~ 3000 of them in a second. I can also index search for all mind maps in the collection : 

 

 

 

Thus I have a full digital library of links and notes. The fact that I can share it is pretty amazing too as I actually love using the web version of these mind maps. And I actually use this workflow quite often thus I will improve on it more in time.

 

 

46 minutes ago, dfay said:

it really looks like you had an idea that worked with a few files but which cannot be made to scale.

 

And I disagree with you in that this idea cannot scale. I find that it scales extremely well because if mind map gets to be too large, I can break it down into smaller pieces, all well connected. Fun fact: originally it was all a big giant mind map.

 

I only wish that more people did get to take a look at this and pointed out the inaccuracies in how the content is structured and connected. I am certain there are many as I sadly do not have expertise on all of the things.

 

This project also elegantly solved a big problem of mine with bookmarks. I have a lot of bookmarks saved in safari. This is just one folder from it : 

 

 

 

I even had to find a way to quickly jump to the folder I needed so I developed a 'prefixing' method which I use for everything now : 

 

 

 

But finding and retrieving information from these folders is quite a pain even with fast alfred workflow. With these mind maps I can actually structure links in a way that 'makes sense' (at least for me). Plus I hope it would save time for other people in finding interesting information as most people bookmark very similar things.

 

But already there is insane value that this project brings. Once I figure out how to recurse well through the entirety of the mind map with help of @deanishe's workflow. It would be pretty sweet.

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2017 by nikivi

[nikivi]

Also there is some interest in this idea after all.

Edited May 10, 2017 by nikivi

[nikivi]

I decided to focus on the search engine.  

 

It is available for all after all. Not sure if I still need the workflow with this.

Edited May 13, 2017 by nikivi

[nikivi]

I have really minimised this workflow. Now there are only two list filters. One that allows you to jump to any of the 300+ mind maps from Learn Anything and one for going inside certain mind maps. Most notably books, courses, research papers and my personal bookmark list (which I will transfer soon).

 

The speed of opening any mind map is instant too. We are also soon releasing our own mind map render for our search engine that will allow for much faster mind map render times and an always present search bar. I really think it will be incredible.

 

Here is the download for the workflow. ?

 

Big big thank you to @vitor and @deanishe without whom this workflow would not have existed in its current form. ?

 

I am also attempting to release my first workflow with actual code in it although I am not too successful in that regard.

 

Edited May 26, 2017 by nikivi

[deanishe]

7 hours ago, nikivi said:

I am also attempting to release my first workflow with actual code in it although I am not too successful in that regard.

 

You'll need to update the URL to my library, as I've renamed the server to git.deanishe.net now I'm using Gitea, not Gogs:

 

https://git.deanishe.net/deanishe/awgo

[nikivi]

Updated workflow to use OneUpdater ?

 

Download it here.