Add well-known and environment variables to Snippets

[Chris Messina]

Maybe I've just been filing a lot of bugs lately, but it would be handy if I could create auto-expansion snippets for well-known and environmental variables, in particular my OS version, i.e. "macOS 10.15.6".

[Dattwood]

I like this idea, if I understand it correctly (see the attached image... am I close?). 

 

aText, the text expander app, has an identical feature to this.

 

In the meantime, perhaps you could create an "advanced snippet"? i.e., in a workflow, do Trigger -> Snippet, attach a Run Script action, insert something like

echo -n $MY_VARIABLE

 ...and then attach a Copy to Clipboard  ("expand immediately") as its output.

[vitor]

11 hours ago, chris said:

auto-expansion snippets for well-known and environmental variables

 

What do you mean by “well-known variables”?

 

Environmental variables, by their own definition, exist within an environment, such as a specific session of your shell. To access them you have to define them, Alfred won’t automatically grab your shell’s startup files and interpret them—it doesn’t do that even for Workflows.

 

7 hours ago, Dattwood said:

create an "advanced snippet"? i.e., in a workflow, do Trigger -> Snippet, attach a Run Script action

 

This is the correct solution. The point of Workflows is that they expand Alfred’s native abilities, that’s the way to achieve what you want.

[Chris Messina]

On 8/4/2020 at 9:41 PM, Dattwood said:

I like this idea, if I understand it correctly (see the attached image... am I close?). 

 

aText, the text expander app, has an identical feature to this.

 

In the meantime, perhaps you could create an "advanced snippet"? i.e., in a workflow, do Trigger -> Snippet, attach a Run Script action, insert something like

echo -n $MY_VARIABLE

 ...and then attach a Copy to Clipboard  ("expand immediately") as its output.

 

Yes, that's about right. I think I was unclear in my terminology... maybe I mean OS-level CONSTANTS rather than "environmental variables". I'm not a developer, but I tinker in code, so clearly I don't always know what I'm doing. 

 

I think @vitor is probably right in that I should setup a workflow for this.. it just feels less convenient to have to bounce back and forth between the snippet editor and workflows to manage/edit my snippets.