Support Newlines in Default Value for "Text Area" User Configuration

[caleb531]

Hi,

 

Suppose I have a "Text Area"-type User Configuration field that should have one value on each line of the text area. This might make it easier to edit for the user than one long comma-separated string value.

 

However, Alfred 5's current form item for Text Area fields uses a single-line input for the "Default Value" field, meaning you cannot "enter" down and add a new line with the next enumerated default value. Adding `\n` does not seem to work either, as it renders as a literal "\n" when populating the user-specific values (e.g. on workflow install).

 

Is there a workaround for this? Would you consider making this "Default Value" field a proper text area for the "Text Area" user configuration type? I understand that configuration values are exposed as environment variables, however environment variables still certainly allow newlines (tested in both bash and zsh to be sure).

 

Please see my attached screenshots for reference (apologies if they appear huge—blame the Retina display 😅).

 

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2023 by caleb531

[pixelgeek]

Why not just have them as a comma separated value and then use Split Args to turn them into variables and then use Args and Vars to store them as named values?

[vitor]

@caleb531 You can ⌥↩ to insert the newline on the text field. Pasting text with newlines in it also works.

 

@pixelgeek Commas aren’t always suitable for splitting (e.g. you have multiple lines which themselves have commas in them). Split Args can also split on newlines, but that wouldn’t suffice if you need to access the variable and split it yourself in code (e.g. if doing it in a Script Filter which is the entry point to the workflow).

[caleb531]

@vitor ⌥↩ did the trick. Thank you! It's not the most developer-friendly, since it's not clear that the input has multiple lines in it. But the workaround isn't that bad.

 

@vitorThis feature request was mostly inspired by your comment on my workflow submission for the Alfred Gallery, where you suggested that a Text Area would be more user-friendly, and I agree. But to make that work, I would need a straightforward way of supplying a default value (containing multiple lines) to this Text Area field.