Advice on structuring my Github repos?

[Chris Messina]

Update: I've finally finished cleaning up my repo and putting each Workflow and Theme into its own top-level directory. I think this will allow me to keep tabs on improvements, issues, and more over time.

 

---

 

So it now seems like I'm going to be sharing/publishing several Alfred Themes and Workflows over time... (woohoo!).

 

So far I've preferred to keep all of my themes and workflows in one master directory (probably because I saw someone else do this) but now I'm thinking (especially with how OneUpdater and @deanishe's Self-updating seem to work) that I should really migrate each theme and workflow into their own repos under my account. 

 

If I'm going to go down this path (with a key motivator being the ability to add auto-updating to my Workflows), are there any other suggestions or recommendations for how I set up my GitHub repos, including handling Releases and Tags?

 

Thanks!

Edited November 27, 2020 by chris
Made the change that I was asking about.

[deanishe]

OneUpdater doesn't care how you structure your repos (Vítor keeps all his workflow in one repo), or even if the workflow is in a repo.

 

My updaters require one workflow per repo and the use of releases. (Except the metadata.json-based one in the Go library.)

 

Your repo structure looks absolutely fine and should work with OneUpdater no problem.

Edited September 12, 2020 by deanishe
An "e"

[nikivi]

I do both, small workflows in one mono repo (https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/small-workflows) updated with OneUpdater. Workflows with more code are updated with deanishe library https://github.com/deanishe/awgo which is the go version of his python library (and shared either in small workflows or as a separate repo).

 

I like this structure as there is too much friction I feel in sharing a small workflow by creating a new github repo every time.

 

One other thing that's useful to know is how to symlink workflows. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[Chris Messina]

Cool, thanks guys. I think I will switch to moving my larger individual "toolkits" and themes into individual repos so there's a clearer separation of issues, releases, and linkability. I'll keep my /alfred-app directory for my GitHub Pages though.

 

@nikivi thanks for your tips and resources...! I still want to learn more about your Web Searches workflow and writing Workflows in GO. Maybe I'll get started on that next week!

[nikivi]

1 hour ago, chris said:

writing Workflows in GO

 

I want to do more screencasting and learning materials around awgo as it's super cool library.

 

@deanisheIs there a doc I can see on how I can make developing workflows with AwGo nicer. I can't run the binary straight away so have to do it through debugger but that has font size that makes it impossible to read. 😞

 

Would be nice if there was some awgo function I can call debug() and it would figure out the weird things for me as I run it inside Alfred workflow. ❤️

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[nikivi]

Ok found https://github.com/deanishe/alfred-booksearch/blob/master/.env

 

But carrying that `.env` around across all repos. Maybe I misunderstand the contents but I wonder if it can be replicated as part of `wf.DebugMode()` call to source this env.

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[deanishe]

54 minutes ago, nikivi said:

I can't run the binary straight away so have to do it through debugger but that has font size that makes it impossible to read.

 

Then open the log file in your editor instead.

 

If you want to be able to run a workflow binary in a shell, then you can modify the the env file from one of my workflows, which sets all the relevant Alfred variables to allow an AwGo binary to run in a shell.

 

I use zsh-autoenv, so that’s how I normally source the env file.

 

47 minutes ago, nikivi said:

the weird things

 

What are "the weird things"?

[nikivi]

3 minutes ago, deanishe said:

the weird things

 

The need for the .env file. I kind of get it but it's not mentioned anywhere in awgo readme. And I do wonder what is your preferred way of developing and looking at debugger logs. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[nikivi]

5 minutes ago, deanishe said:

Then open the log file in your editor instead.

Is there a doc somewhere on how to do it? I remember I had to open Console and find Alfred or something but not sure.

[nikivi]

8 minutes ago, deanishe said:

I use zsh-autoenv, so that’s how I normally source the env file.

Interesting. Curious how it compares to https://github.com/direnv/direnv

[deanishe]

5 minutes ago, nikivi said:

Maybe I misunderstand the contents but I wonder if it can be replicated as part of `wf.DebugMode()` call to source this env.

 

That doesn’t make any sense. If you source a script that exports environment variables in a child process, those variables only exist in the child process.

[nikivi]

I still have the operating systems book open. Will read and come back. I never dealt much with sourcing things to really get what it meant.

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[nikivi]

I just want to have a smooth dev experience of workflows that is just like developing normal go programs.

trying out the .env thing now

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[nikivi]

~/src/extensions/alfred/alfred-my-mind master*
❯ source .env                           
Print: Entry, ":bundleid", Does Not Exist
Print: Entry, ":version", Does Not Exist
Print: Entry, ":name", Does Not Exist
Print: Entry, ":variables:USER_ID", Does Not Exist

[deanishe]

9 minutes ago, nikivi said:

I kind of get it but it's not mentioned anywhere in awgo readme.

 

That isn't an appropriate place to describe my personal preferred method of building workflows.

 

8 minutes ago, nikivi said:

Is there a doc somewhere on how to do it?

 

You're asking me for docs on how to open a file in your editor?

 

11 minutes ago, nikivi said:

open Console and find Alfred or something but not sure.

 

Your editor. Console's font is no bigger than Alfred's debugger's.

[nikivi]

1 minute ago, deanishe said:

You're asking me for docs on how to open a file in your editor?

 

I need the location of the file to open it. Maybe it's obvious 🤔

[nikivi]

It's not anywhere here.

[nikivi]

> appropriate place to describe my personal preferred method of building workflows

 

True. But as a reference to an external place like a wiki entry maybe super beneficial. I plan to do it once I figure this issue out.
 

Don't take any of it as criticism. I just think more generally a screencast of someone developing a Go workflow with AwGo with 'proper' dev enviroment for fast feedback (modd or watchexec thing) will go along way.

 

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[nikivi]

I plan to release such a video once I figure out how to not look at Alfred debugger.

And funny thing is I now there is a way to do it as I did it before, just don't remember how.. Since then I document everything. 

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[deanishe]

4 minutes ago, nikivi said:

I need the location of the file to open it.

 

It's in the workflow's cache directory. Where it's always been.

 

8 minutes ago, nikivi said:

~/src/extensions/alfred/alfred-my-mind master*
❯ source .env                           
Print: Entry, ":bundleid", Does Not Exist
Print: Entry, ":version", Does Not Exist
Print: Entry, ":name", Does Not Exist
Print: Entry, ":variables:USER_ID", Does Not Exist

 

Okay, I'm done. Use your own brain, not mine.

[nikivi]

Just now, deanishe said:

workflow's cache directory

 

Ok I thought so. I'll make some tooling or something to make this process of opening the right thing easier. This whole thing is still unclear to me and you still don't want to share your secrets of developing workflows. You write go code, run `modd` which watches go files and compiles workflow on change. Then you open the debugger in your editor (by going to Finder and opening it from there or you have nicer tooling for it). 

 

1 minute ago, deanishe said:

Okay, I'm done. Use your own brain, not mine

 

Don't be so dismissive. Some people genuinely do ask for help and don't know what's better. I know how to google things and still get stuck.

[nikivi]

In any way, I did ask earnestly and I think the end result will be best to everyone in Alfred community. All I want is to know how to develop workflows in go as I think it's missing. I want to write that doc but don't know yet how..

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[nikivi]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24444705

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi

[nikivi]

Opened this.

 

[nikivi]

Also sorry @chrisfor making a mess of your nice question. Hope everyone has a great weekend. ✨

Edited September 11, 2020 by nikivi