Workflows: Add QuickLook as an output action, or as a Browser for Open URL action

[theckman]

Hi there!

 

I've been using Alfred for quite a few years, and it's been great. Thank you so much for your hard work, and continuing to work on it to keep it fresh. 

 

At my company we have an internal system that is effectively a glossary of terms, phrases, acronyms, etc. you may see or hear in your day-to-day. It allows users to submit entries that hadn't existed before, and to contribute enhancements to definitions with minimal effort. I'm building out a workflow, using a local tool and Script Filter output, to allow people to search this system and display a set of results in Alfred's search UI.

 

I do provide a QuickLookURL parameter in the JSON, so using cmd + y allows users to quickly see the full definition in the QuickLook. By default if you press Enter I have it set to Open URL to the same view that they see in QuickLook, but that's a pretty jarring experience when you quickly want to understand the definition of something.

 

This has me wanting the QuickLook experience to be the default action, not the Open URL, but that doesn't seem possible. So I wonder if we could add another Action which is "QuickLook" or if we could add QuickLook as a Browser option in the Open URL action?

 

Cheers!

-Tim

[deanishe]

Try /usr/bin/qlmanage -p /path/to/file/to/preview

Edited September 21, 2019 by deanishe

[theckman]

@deanishe I'll play around with it a bit, but it doesn't seem like I could get it to work with a URL. This is specifically for viewing a URL.

[theckman]

@deanishe I could never get this to work for a URL, it seems to want to display a file. I think I'd need to have it work the same way the QuickLook view works when you give the Script Filter a `quicklookurl` JSON value.

[deanishe]

10 minutes ago, theckman said:

it seems to want to display a file

 

It appears so. Apparently, you can preview URLs with Automator. Perhaps you can add the Automator workflow to your Alfred workflow.

 

I think that's probably the right way to go: an Open in Quick Look output is pretty niche, and I'd say it's unlikely to be added to Alfred any time soon.