Alfred 4.1 Is Now in Pre-Release

[Vero]

A few moments ago, we popped Alfred 4.1 on the pre-release channel. It's a big release with lots of tasty stuff for you to sink your teeth into.

 

• New workflow objects for integrating with files and the File Buffer
• Shared Hotkeys for workflows
• Embedded Snippets
• Contact Actions
• Built-in File Search Troubleshooting from the Help preferences
• And loads more!

 

Take a look at the Update tab for a complete change log, as there's a lot in this release, which is free to all Alfred 4 Powerpack license holders. 

 

We'd love to get your help in testing out the new features before the general release! To get started, launch Alfred's preferences to the Update tab, choose the "pre-releases" option and grab the latest build

 

Cheers,

Vero

[Alan He]

I can't see pre-releases option

 

wher

 

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by Alan He

[Tsunami]

3 hours ago, Alan He said:

I can't see pre-releases option

 

Change the dropdown at the bottom to "pre-releases".

Edited June 22, 2020 by Tsunami

[krusnof]

Any way to download this directly as to test in Big Sur? Alfred 4.0.9 won't open in new beta.

[Chris Messina]

Day--mhn... !

 

Alfred 4.1 Pre-release

Build 1163, Monday 22nd June 2020

Workflow Changes

• Workflow editor rendering tweaks to significantly improve the UI performance with very large and complex workflows

• Updated Workflow Objects

• Hotkey Trigger

• The same hotkey combination can now be shared across multiple triggers matching different conditions

• Added navigation to related hotkeys on the contextual popup menu for a hotkey trigger in the workflow editor

• Prioritisation of shared hotkey to run, with the following priority:

• In Focus match takes highest priority, e.g. Hotkey only when Safari in focus

• Not in Focus takes secondary priority, e.g. Hotkey only when Spotify not in focus

• Falls back to hotkey with no app specific focus configured

• Hints shown in orange if a shared hotkey combination is in use

• Hotkey Trigger object key combo background changes

• Subtext under the hotkey field updates with warning

• Show subtle grey background behind application icons on Hotkey Object in workflow editor where hotkey focus mode is set to "don't have focus" 

• Copy and Paste of object (or object configuration) now also retains the hotkey combo

• Note that this will naturally create a conflict which you will have to manually resolve

• Script Filter Input

• Fix Run Behaviour sheet "Reset to Defaults" button to also reset the "Argument" section

• Copy to Clipboard Output

• Fixed to now correctly use clipboardtextrtf property from passed-in JSON config

• Reorganise internal logic to enable plain text clipboard output to be derived from passed-in RTF from JSON config

• Only save either clipboardtext or clipboardtextrtf into the configuration

• Fixes automatic {cursor} positioning with mismatching rtf / plain text

• Arg / Var Utility

• Fix the Arg/Var Utility to correctly pass through array of strings if argument is set to {query}, e.g. a list of files

• New Workflow Objects

• File Buffer Action

• Added new workflow action to interact with Alfred's File Buffer

• Action in Alfred Action

• Added new workflow action to show Alfred's actions panel for the passed in file

• File Utility

• Tests if file exists and outputs on one of two outputs accordingly

• Option to also output the UTI for the file as a variable

• This could be useful for subsequent branching using a Conditional

• New Workflow Object Inbound Configuration

• Access using the "Inbound Configuration..." popup menu for the selected object

• External trigger identifiers can now be directly set on external objects

• Conflicts are now checked between the External Trigger object, and any external identifiers set

• You now have control over how a downstream input object presents its results between Direct and Keyword modes

• Direct mode is the previous behaviour, where the input icon is placed to the right hand side and you see no keyword

• Keyword mode places the input into Alfred's default results and sets it as unique (same as pressing return on a placeholder)

• Workflow objects represent the presence of an external identifier with small hint on object input in Workflow editor

• Double click the hint for faster subsequent access to the inbound configuration

• The icon for both External Trigger and Call External have been tweaked to match the new hint

• Fix internal variable types in workflow editor framework

• Added "Filter Workflows by..." on the popup menu for workflow objects in the canvas for hotkeys and keywords

• Makes it easier to find workflows with similar hotkeys and keywords

• Standardise how an array of arguments is shown in the workflow debugger

• Improve various subtexts throughout the workflow object configuration sheets

Snippets and Clipboard

• Snippets can now embed other snippets using the {snippets:} placeholder

• Placeholder works in all expected places, for example, the Copy to Clipboard workflow output object

• Note that nesting is only one level deep

• Added a "Copy Placeholder" on the popup menu for a selected snippet to copy the relevant {snippet:} placeholder

• Improve text placeholder framework

• Improved processing efficiency by deriving plain text content from already-processed rich text content where applicable

• more consistent behaviour between clipboard objects

• Fixes issue where the snip keyword wasn't correctly processing rich text placeholders

• Fix Snippet keyword to correctly respect the "Auto-paste on Return" option

• Option to ignore org.nspasteboard.AutoGeneratedType in the Clipboard History Advanced preferences, enabled by default

Contacts

• Multiple Contact Actions can now be configured with modifier keys

• Contact Actions editor sheet now correctly shows "Add" or "Save" button instead of just "Add"

• Set the Add / Save button shortcut to be ⌘S

• Action text at bottom of Contact Viewer now updates on mod key change to provide action hint

• Improve the "type to search" in the Contacts Viewer

• You can now press up and down to select the previous or next match for the typed filter

1Password

• Added alternative ⌘↩︎ action to open the selected 1Password bookmark in 1Password instead of Open and Fill

Troubleshooting

• Start process of adding interactive troubleshooting built into Alfred's Help preferences to aid fixing common issues

• Also add help links to key troubleshooting help pages

• Troubleshooting is written to a Report file, for easy emailing and subsequent support

• File Search

• Run a number of diagnostic checks on a dragged in file to work out why it isn't being found

General fixes and improvements

• Fix Alfred using (and consuming) up/down key events when IME panel is showing (e.g. Pinyin selection panel)

• Note that this fix is more of a "workaround" to a lack of Public API to officially support this

• Recognise full width space U+3000 as an activator for Alfred's quick file search mode

• Show Base32 decoded data wherever dyn.a UTI types are seen, to give better idea of content

• Fix making selected result unique in Alfred's default results if input is configured to be "no space"

• Alfred was immediately disassociating the unique result due to incorrect logic

• Fix Music feature description text in Catalina to correctly say Music.app instead of iTunes

• Fix Dark / Light mode appearance of descriptive text in macOS Rebuild Metadata sheet

• Make the snip keyword's subtext more succinct for Copy or Paste text, showing more of the snippet content

• Fully resolve [local] symlinks and aliases when using Quick Look, to see the file contents instead of the file icon

• Fix twitter web search icon colour

• File Buffer Improvements

• Show "x+ items" to top left of Buffer when the number of visible items exceeds the available visible space

• Correctly re-draw the buffer when additional items are added and removed beyond the visible window width

• Add a - button to delete selected custom web searches in the Web Search preferences

• Show version number for Application bundles in preview panels (e.g. file system navigation, action panel)

• Improve VoiceOver accessibility for hotkey fields, now correctly reads newly inputted hotkey

[Alan He]

I got it,Thank you!

[Terminal]

@Andrew @Vero Loving this release, especially embedded snippets. Any chance that embedded snippets will include snippet workflow triggers? That would help expand them to be more advanced. Also any hopes in getting snippets to allow regex patterns for snippet workflows? That would allow really advance snippets. Such as `dt.s.` could expand to the current date, or `d.s+7d` would expand to the date in 7 days,.

 

A snippet regex trigger would look like `dt.([smlf])([+-])?(\d+)?([dwmy])?\.` which would allow any of those to trigger the snippet. KM supports this and is what I currently use.

[Starkiller]

Hey,

I love Alfred. So i was happy to read you could modify contacts. But how can I add or save or modify contacts? Or am I getting something wrong?
All the best.

Uli

[deanishe]

49 minutes ago, Starkiller said:

Or am I getting something wrong?

 

Slightly. You can’t modify contacts, you can modify contact actions, i.e. what happens when you action a specific field (email, phone no. etc.).