Using Alfred to enforce file naming conventions?

[Felciano]

Hi --

 

I'm a long time Text Expander user that has fallen in love with Alfred, and am wondering if I can do everything I need with the latter. One thing I'm still struggling with is how to implement a system to enforce consistent filen aming conventions. Basically I need a system to help me stay disciplined about naming basic PDFs (home and business records) using a convention like

 

YYYY-MM-DD - <vendor> - <account> - <purpose>

So my bills would end up being something like

2018-01-15 - ATT - XX5555 - confirmation of invoice payment.pdf

I've done this in text expander by creating a snippet that launches a dialog that pre-computes some of the above (like the correctly formatted date) and then gives me drop-down menus to select the vendor, account and transaction type/purpose. An example of this strategy, with screenshots, is nicely written up here.

 

A key benefit is that you can trigger it with a single snippet, and the finish it with 2-3 clicks. I originally tried creating individual snippets for each type of file (e.g. "ATTConfirmInv") but there were too many combinations of vendors and transaction types to remember. This model works well for us. So I'm looking for something that can apply to a breadth of different naming conventions but be triggered by a single keyword, plus some additional user data entry.

 

As far as I can tell, Alfred doesn't have a framework for creating interactive UIs like this. Is there an alternate approach that anyone has worked through that could provide a similar result? I have not explored Alfred workflows yet, so if there is a path using that capability, I'd appreciate some pointers.

 

Thanks in advance!

Ramon

[vitor]

It is indeed possible, with a mix of Snippet Triggers (to start the Workflow), multiple List Filter Input (for the repetitive information that does not change), Argument and Variables Utility (to save the information), Run Script Action (to get the date into your preferred format, though that could be accomplished in other ways), Keyword Input (to get the changing “purpose” text), and Copy to Clipboard Output (to paste the text).

 

It may seem complex, but it’s a logical chain connection. Here it is in action:

 

 

And here’s the Workflow.

 

[Felciano]

Hi @vitor thank you for your reply. Unfortunately i only just saw it and I think your link to the workflow may have expired -- would you re-post please?

 

Thanks,

 

Ramon

[vitor]

Here. I had to remake it from scratch; please download it soon.

[Felciano]

Fantastic! Thank you @vitor!!