in progress Slink

[sylumer]

Say if you’re the author or submitting someone else’s workflow.

I am the author of the workflow.

 

Share a link to its thread on the Alfred Forum.

Not aware of any thread.

 

Share a link to its main page (e.g. GitHub).

https://www.thoughtasylum.com/2021/05/21/alfred-workflow-search-link/

 

If it has dependencies, say what those are unless they are explicit in the About or README.

This workflow is for working with the command line utility, SearchLink, so that app is a dependency.

 

Provide screenshots, unless valid ones are in the About or README.

How to use it

From the readme:

Slink is a helper workflow for Brett Terpstra's Search Link services, a small toolset to help you quickly generate Markdown links.

You can download Search Link from its project page on Brett's web site.

https://brettterpstra.com/projects/searchlink/

This helper workflow has two flows that can be triggered:

SEARCH (sl)
-----------
"sl" followed by your Search Link string will trigger the Search Link service against your search string, and copy the resulting Markdown link to the clipboard.

Holding down the CMD key while executing this search will copy the resulting URL to the clipboard.

Holding down the CTRL key while executing this search will open the resulting link in your default web browser. 

CONFIGURE SEARCH LINK (slc)
---------------------------
"slc" will open the Search Link configuration file in the editor of your choice, as specified by the editorpath variable.

CHANGE LOG
----------
1.0.1 : Fixed subtitle wording on sl invocation.
1.0.0 : Initial release.

 

[vitor]

Marking as in progress too while waiting for screenshot.

 

Also, is your theme public?

[vitor]

This one is also using Workflow Environment Variable instead of User Configuration.

[sylumer]

 

I haven't touched this workflow in a while, but in this case I can see a clear benefit in switching the environment variable to a user configuration option instead as the variable is something that should ideally be set up at the start. I'll take a look at reworking this one this week. I might well take the opportunity to give it its own documentation page on my website too and see if I can add a bit more detail in.

[vitor]

Same as the others, the screenshot is missing the shadow.

[sylumer]

Workflow updated to use user configuration rather than environment variables.

 

The workflow has some new features, changes, and a new documentation page - https://www.thoughtasylum.com/alfred/alfred_slink_for_searchlink/

 

Screenshot utilising Alfred default theme.

 

Here's an edited version of the image above that crops it to just the Slink entries for sake of clarity.

The workflow also has a new about this workflow.

 

Slink is a helper workflow for Brett Terpstra's *SearchLink* services, a small toolset to help you quickly generate Markdown links.

You can download Search Link from its project page on Brett's web site.
- https://brettterpstra.com/projects/searchlink/

For details on how to use Slink, read the workflow documentation
- https://thoughtasylum.com/alfred/alfred_slink_for_searchlink/

## Basic Keywords
- `sl` - search; results will be copied to the clipboard and based on user configuration, may be inserted.
- `slc` - search, placing the results on the clipboard.
- `sli` - search, placing the results on the clipboard, and pasting them to the current cursor position.
- `sle` - edit the SearchLink configuration file.

 

 

 

[vitor]

Thank you for the patience, @sylumer. Your workflows are complex and use external tools so they take a while to get to and properly evaluate. I’ve found a few issues with this one.

 

The configuration could be improved. Since there’s no label on the checkbox text (marked Recommended), screen readers won’t read the option. And setting a path to an app shouldn’t be done with a Text Field but with a File Picker set to only allow folders. Like so:

But sle, which uses the editor variable, doesn’t work. Running the full path to an app in a shell followed by a filename doesn’t open it. It needs to either be replaced by an app name and a properly formatted open command, or directly use the Open File Action. With the JSON Utility you can override the app which opens it.

I don’t understand why, on the insert, you’re copying the text then hiding Alfred, then waiting, then faking ⌘V. Why not paste directly from the Copy to Clipboard? That’s exactly what the first checkbox is for.

Considering the original tool this uses, it seems the workflow is missing two important ways of interaction: a Hotkey which acts on the selected text and a Universal Action. Those would seem to be the most convenient and expected ways of generating these links.

[sylumer]

On 5/10/2023 at 6:15 PM, vitor said:

Since there’s no label on the checkbox text (marked Recommended), screen readers won’t read the option.

The way it shows up with the checkbox against the title was logical and in effect was restating. Knowing the label is being used by screen readers and would not otherwise be associated sequentially is useful o know and I will update accordingly.

 

On 5/10/2023 at 6:15 PM, vitor said:

And setting a path to an app shouldn’t be done with a Text Field but with a File Picker set to only allow folders.

I don't think I'd even looked for options like that as this was written long before the new config was available and I was just dealing with text strings. I'll modify to include that for a better experience..

On 5/10/2023 at 6:15 PM, vitor said:

But sle, which uses the editor variable, doesn’t work. Running the full path to an app in a shell followed by a filename doesn’t open it.

It may not work for all setups, but most text editors take a path as their first optional parameter on the command line - it has always worked with my text editors. However, I agree it isn't best practice and I'm happy to modify to use `open` instead.

On 5/10/2023 at 6:15 PM, vitor said:

I don’t understand why, on the insert, you’re copying the text then hiding Alfred, then waiting, then faking ⌘V. Why not paste directly from the Copy to Clipboard? That’s exactly what the first checkbox is for.

When I first created this workflow (several years ago), I experienced problems with Alfred not pasting the content reliably to the foreground app. This was a workaround that seemed to give me reliable results at that time. I realise that things have improved, so I'll review and update accordingly.

On 5/10/2023 at 6:15 PM, vitor said:

Considering the original tool this uses, it seems the workflow is missing two important ways of interaction: a Hotkey which acts on the selected text and a Universal Action. Those would seem to be the most convenient and expected ways of generating these links.

I'll add those in, but most users of SearchLink have probably followed the details for the tool and set up a service and a hot key to trigger. I certainly did, and did so a long time before I created the workflow - hence I had no need to replicate that functionality in Alfred. However, I agree that some people may prefer to control it exclusively from Alfred so I'll take a look at adding those options in.

 

Hopefully that covers all of your points.

[sylumer]

v1.2.0 now available. Details in change log on its home page.

[vitor]

On 5/13/2023 at 11:29 AM, sylumer said:

Knowing the label is being used by screen readers and would not otherwise be associated sequentially is useful o know and I will update accordingly.

 

To clarify, what screen readers read is what’s on the right side. So in the 1.2.0 they’ll just read “Enabled”, which is redundant. Plus, the large left text squishes all options to a tiny area.

 

The new last option is labeled “Custom” with no explanation. Look at it from the perspective of a new user just installing the workflow, what does it mean?

 

That’s food for thought for the next release but won’t hold up sharing in the Gallery. This is now live at https://alfred.app/workflows/sylumer/slink/

 

On 5/13/2023 at 11:29 AM, sylumer said:

most users of SearchLink have probably followed the details for the tool and set up a service and a hot key to trigger.

 

Maybe, but also remember that some people will discover SearchLink because of your Workflow instead of the reverse, so for those it makes a lot of sense to make it available through the Alfred features they’ll already be familiar with.

 

Thank you for the fast fixes! I’ll get to all your other ones in due time. Just to double check (since the guidelines have evolved since first posted): do any of the other ones have auto-update capabilities or binaries in them?

 

Have a great week!