Multiple keywords to trigger the same script filter?

[luckman212]

I saw this has been asked a few times before (e.g. here) but there wasn't a clear answer.

Since Alfred 4 is coming soon, I would like to throw this into the pot to see if it might be possible.

 

My brain is getting old. It's hard to remember all the different keywords and hotkeys I've set up. To aid myself I like to be able to use multiple keywords to trigger the same workflow step.

 

Example, I have a workflow for connecting Bluetooth devices, that I trigger using `bt`

instead of just "bt" I'd like to add a few more keywords, e.g. "blue", "connect", "audio" etc.

 

I know I can duplicate the script filter opject and connect its Output to the same step—it's a poor man's workaround, but it'd be cleaner and better to allow multiple keywords, such as this:

 

[lycopodiopsida]

I would also say, that allowing search with the name of the workflow would be a better solution. I can memorise maybe 5-6 workflows I use on the regular basis, but I have no chance to remember abbreviations for the rest of them. Launchbar makes it right - I can assign abbreviations, but I will always find them also via the usual "fuzzy search"-like entry. Since Alfred these days relies so much on workflows, we need a better way to find them. 

[luckman212]

I saw Alfred4 is out today (first release!) but I didn't see anything like this in the release notes. Maybe 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 😉

Edited January 30, 2021 by luckman212

[lycopodiopsida]

There is kind of search now in Alfred 4 - with "?" keyword you can find workflows too, but it will not show you the keywords and if you activate workflows found, it will just open them in the workflow editor. You can user this workflow instead as a workaround for now: http://www.packal.org/workflow/alfred-keyword-help and hope that at some point we don't have to rely solely on keywords

 

As an idea - it would already help, if search in workflow names could be configured as one of the default fallbacks. 

 

 

[luckman212]

Related suggestion: https://www.alfredforum.com/topic/13777-keyword-aliases/

 

[lynxlinius]

Did this ever happen?

On 5/19/2019 at 1:44 PM, luckman212 said:

I saw this has been asked a few times before (e.g. here) but there wasn't a clear answer.

Since Alfred 4 is coming soon, I would like to throw this into the pot to see if it might be possible.

 

My brain is getting old. It's hard to remember all the different keywords and hotkeys I've set up. To aid myself I like to be able to use multiple keywords to trigger the same workflow step.

 

Example, I have a workflow for connecting Bluetooth devices, that I trigger using `bt`

instead of just "bt" I'd like to add a few more keywords, e.g. "blue", "connect", "audio" etc.

 

I know I can duplicate the script filter opject and connect its Output to the same step—it's a poor man's workaround, but it'd be cleaner and better to allow multiple keywords, such as this:

 

 

[vitor]

6 hours ago, lynxlinius said:

Did this ever happen?

 

No. As far as I’m aware, there’re no plans for it.

Edited August 13, 2020 by vitor

[evdev]

I'm surprised there isn't more demand for this feature, I constantly find myself typing different keyword triggers when I want to perform the same action. For the same reason, I also set up multiple duplicate search engines in my browsers that use slightly different keyword variations but all point to the same custom URL query (like ama, amz, amzn that all perform the same custom Amazon.com search when typed in omnibox and Tab key is pressed)

 

When I'm in a moment of mental flow and I suddenly want to check for X on site Y, I want to do so the quickest way possible with the minimum effort/resistance. Same goes for the terminal, once I find myself using a command more frequently, I set a few minimum-character aliases for it like dk, dock, dkr (all aliasing docker) which allows my brain multiple neural pathways for it to be correct in the midst of focusing on a more complex task. I find that it helps my flow state significantly because there's less chance of mental disruption especially when recalling newly created aliases/keywords where the brain's connections aren't very strong yet and will still require more intensive memory lookups during your typing thought process.

 

All that aside, does anyone have any workarounds for this with Alfred workflows other than duplicating them and setting different keywords? Would be nice to have more low level access to Alfred's triggers but in lieu of that I wonder if a meta-workflow workflow could be worth experimenting on. If it would allow one to set a number of aliases for any of a user's currently installed workflows it could be potentially useful.

[Chris Messina]

+1 for this request. I felt the exact same need (in my case, I have several workflows that allow me to quickly access my messages... so I really want to use "message", "dms", and "send", etc as aliases for several searches/workflows). 

[Vero]

4 hours ago, chris said:

so I really want to use "message", "dms", and "send", etc as aliases for several searches/workflows). 

 

The immediate solution is to create a few keyword objects to connect into your workflow. Duplicate your main keyword object then change the keyword, and connect it to the same workflow

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Chris Messina]

6 hours ago, Vero said:

 

The immediate solution is to create a few keyword objects to connect into your workflow. Duplicate your main keyword object then change the keyword, and connect it to the same workflow

 

Cheers,
Vero

 

Right, but this would mean duplicating those keywords in each of the workflows in which I want to use these keywords, right?

 

I think that's probably fine, it's just a little inefficient since I'm creating workflow toolkits for several services with similar features (Twitter, Instagram, etc) and will need to sync/update these synonyms across all of the toolkits.

[dfay]

Why wouldn’t you put them all in one workflow per service?  Alternately use BBEdit or the like and do a multifile search of the plists?

[Chris Messina]

2 hours ago, dfay said:

Why wouldn’t you put them all in one workflow per service?

 

Yes, that's what I've decided I'll do:

 

 

 

 

Quote

Alternately use BBEdit or the like and do a multifile search of the plists?

 

Yes, I'll likely end up doing that too, once I standardize on the synonyms. 

 

What I would prefer would be to edit one of those keyword objects and just add synonyms or aliases directly, just to keep the Workflow layout cleaner. 

[luckman212]

On 10/12/2020 at 10:24 PM, chris said:

What I would prefer would be to edit one of those keyword objects and just add synonyms or aliases directly, just to keep the Workflow layout cleaner. 

Yep that would be pretty useful! I like the concept of 'alias' since that is already a familiar term for macOS users.

Something like this would look nice:

 

[Chris Messina]

21 minutes ago, luckman212 said:

Something like this would look nice:

 

 

Love it!

[luckman212]

@Vero Happy new year 🎉

 

Do you think there's any shot at this request making it to the drawing board?

[llityslife]

On 10/22/2020 at 4:25 AM, luckman212 said:

Yep that would be pretty useful! I like the concept of 'alias' since that is already a familiar term for macOS users.

Something like this would look nice:

 

How to set this "alias", I cannot find this feature.

[Chris Messina]

6 minutes ago, llityslife said:

How to set this "alias", I cannot find this feature.

 

It doesn't exist. You'll have to create multiple keywords and link each of them manually.

[luckman212]

@Andrew @Vero Any chance this feature will be considered for Alfred 5? (I just bought my license today but haven't downloaded yet...)

[luckman212]

Since this hasn't made it into Alfred 5 (yet!) I came up with a workaround, which is a custom Script Filter workflow that uses multiple "match" keywords and then fires the original object using the ExternalTrigger / URL Handler action. It's clunky but "it works" for now... If anyone wants to see how this is done, I can publish a template to GitHub if I get a bit of time.

[vitor]

Could be a nice post for the Advanced Tips & Tricks subforum.

[luckman212]

Alright. I'm going to work on it a bit, I have some ideas on how to make it more modular and user-friendly. Once it's ready I'll post it up.

[lcht]

On 11/19/2022 at 8:47 AM, luckman212 said:

Alright. I'm going to work on it a bit, I have some ideas on how to make it more modular and user-friendly. Once it's ready I'll post it up.

did you every post this up? I'm curious how you made it work as I'm looking to do something similar. thanks! :]

[Daylighter]

On 5/19/2019 at 7:44 PM, luckman212 said:

I saw this has been asked a few times before (e.g. on bigwinwall.com/us/) but there wasn't a clear answer.

Since Alfred 4 is coming soon, I would like to throw this into the pot to see if it might be possible.

 

My brain is getting old. It's hard to remember all the different keywords and hotkeys I've set up. To aid myself I like to be able to use multiple keywords to trigger the same workflow step.

 

Example, I have a workflow for connecting Bluetooth devices, that I trigger using `bt`

instead of just "bt" I'd like to add a few more keywords, e.g. "blue", "connect", "audio" etc.

 

I know I can duplicate the script filter opject and connect its Output to the same step—it's a poor man's workaround, but it'd be cleaner and better to allow multiple keywords, such as this:

 

 

Great idea. I was thinking about something like this also and I'm glad you're trying to realize it. Keep up the good work and I'll be happy if you post the result ✌️

Edited February 7, 2023 by Daylighter

[vitor]

Starting from Alfred 5.1 (currently in pre-release), multiple keywords are supported.