Options missing from Alfred menu

[pixelgeek]

I recently started using an IRC client on my Mac. I guess I didn't feel 'old school' enough using the terminal.

 

The app's name is Colloquy and it has started to interfere with one of my Alfred Workflows when I try to activate it.

 

So if I activate Alfred and type `co` it will show both options (see first image). The keyword for the Workflow is `col`. When I type `col` the entry for the Workflow disappears (second image). 

 

Aside from renaming the Workflow, is there a way to stop this from happening? Or is it a bug?

 

 

[vitor]

Seems like the workflow activated, rather. Aren’t those the options at the bottom?

[pixelgeek]

20 hours ago, vitor said:

Seems like the workflow activated, rather. Aren’t those the options at the bottom?

 

It wasn't ever selected though. I type the 'l' character and the 'Create...' Workflow disappears. 

[vitor]

It doesn’t need to be selected, it fires when you type the keyword. Otherwise you’d have to be pressing ↩ all the time instead of typing naturally. For example, for my MTG Card Search workflow I open Alfred and type mtg phyrexian (mtg, [space], phyrexian), not mtg↩phyrexian which would break the flow. That also allows navigating up through results (Alfred Preferences → Advanced → History [x] Store typed query) or copying a full command and pasting into Alfred. If you had to ↩ every time, a ton of useful interactions would not be possible.

[pixelgeek]

So in this particular instance, how does the user tell the difference between it working and it just disappearing?

 

Update: I went back and ran it again and neither the Placeholder Title or Subtext shows when this runs.  When I type in a space the rest of the results clear out but I still don't have any feedback that the Workflow did what it was supposed to. 

 

Is there something I can do to force Alfred to clear the results and display the Placeholders? 

Edited June 27, 2023 by pixelgeek

[vitor]

7 hours ago, pixelgeek said:

So in this particular instance, how does the user tell the difference between it working and it just disappearing?

It didn’t disappear, the results are right there. Ignore them if it’s not what you want or type a space to focus on it and filter further.

 

7 hours ago, pixelgeek said:

neither the Placeholder Title or Subtext shows when this runs.

They are placeholders. They hold the place until the workflow runs. Once that happens, showing them would be clutter.

 

7 hours ago, pixelgeek said:

but I still don't have any feedback that the Workflow did what it was supposed to.

The feedback is the results showing up.

 

7 hours ago, pixelgeek said:

Is there something I can do to force Alfred to clear the results and display the Placeholders? 

If you’re concerned that your workflow is firing too soon, make the keyword longer. The only reason to have a shorter keyword is faster access; if don’t want that, make it more explicit. You can still ↩ on a partial Script Filter keyword and Alfred will fill it.

[Andrew]

To further clarify, if you press ↩ on a script filter placeholder, Alfred will autocomplete, then make the results you see unique to that Script Filter (show no unrelated results).

[Andrew]

@pixelgeek I just took a look at your workflow from here: https://github.com/lolbat/Alfred-Workflow-Create-Obsidian-Link/releases/tag/v1.3.2

 

By configuring the Script Filter to be "Argument Optional", the script filter is run immediately on keyword match (i.e. col), and replaced with the results from your script filter. This is what I'm seeing in both your screenshots, so Alfred and your Script Filter is working as intended.

 

Seeing other results is also absolutely necessary in this instance, as e.g. if you wanted to launch Color Picker in one instance, then 'col' has to give you that result too.

 

You have a few options to focus down your results to your specific workflow.

1. Have a more complex keyword which doesn't show other results, usually an interesting prefix helps (even shared across workflows, e.g. §col), which gives more uniqueness to Script Filter results.
2. Press ↩ on the Script Filter when it's at the top, i.e. when 'co' is typed. This will make your workflow unique within Alfred's results, and in this case, show you the results of your Script Filter.
3. Add a Hotkey Trigger, or a Keyword Input (set to no arg), connected to your Script Filter. This essentially bootstraps Alfred into a different mode specifically for your workflow (you'll notice the Script Filter (or workflow icon) on the right hand side of the window instead of the Alfred icon.

Does this help clarify a few things?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[pixelgeek]

20 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Add a Hotkey Trigger, or a Keyword Input (set to no arg), connected to your Script Filter. This essentially bootstraps Alfred into a different mode specifically for your workflow (you'll notice the Script Filter (or workflow icon) on the right hand side of the window instead of the Alfred icon.

 

I actually had it set like that initially but it was suggested to me that this was not an effective way to build the workflow.

 

21 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Does this help clarify a few things?

 

I did change the keyword to something more distinct but I think that I am going to go back and add a keyword to initialise the Workflow as I liked the way that it seemed to present the data when I was using it. 

 

23 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Seeing other results is also absolutely necessary in this instance, as e.g. if you wanted to launch Color Picker in one instance, then 'col' has to give you that result too.

 

I totally understand that. 

 

As a user, what is I see happening is that Alfred is running my Workflow and feeding in results without telling me that it is running my Workflow. Since I still see other potential actions in the window it is slightly confusing. 

 

I suspect that this is why I had a Keyword Input to activate the Script Filter initially. 

 

I mentioned the Placeholder text earlier as it struck me that Alfred would at least present me with something to indicate that it was working on my Workflow.

 

The Workflow currently uses the keyword `obCol` which I will change as I don't want to stop over the keywords in the Screaming Obsidian Workflow. It appears to run much differently from my perspective

 

If I type `obC` it shows the Workflow as the only option. But I still need to hit return to run it or type the entire keyword. Once the Keyword is entered it runs and shows results. 

 

This is the exact same thing that is happening when I had the `col` keyword but the difference is that to the user they only see the data they expect to see. Nothing else.

 

I understand that there is an assumption that you can just keep typing and Alfred changes the results it shows but from a user perspective there is reinforced action of using the return key to activate things. If a user doesn't normally type out all of the keyword but just types enough for it to show and then selects it with a return to "activate it" then they will assume that this is how the app works. The prominent appearance of the return symbol in the result list will serve to reinforce that. 

 

So from one use case, having the Workflow run without having to select it and hit return is not standard. 

 

I hope that makes sense. 

 

 

 

 

[Andrew]

@pixelgeek the beauty of Alfred is that you can configure him to work as you'd like, and in this case, as you prefer to activate your workflow before it runs, you've found that adding a Keyword before the filter works great.

 

It's worth noting that Alfred's standard paradigm is, and has always been, keyword[space]argument (without return in between), even down to the default functions such as file search, dictionary lookup. In the case of your workflow (with your script filter set to Alfred filters results), I could type col p↩ to quickly select the Python result much in the same way I can type find d↩ to reveal my Desktop in Finder. It's because of this that the suggestion was made to remove the Keyword object on submitting to the Gallery.

 

Having said that, there is absolutely nothing wrong in how you want to use Alfred, he's there to do what you need, and I appreciate your preference outlined here 

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[pixelgeek]

2 minutes ago, Andrew said:

Having said that, there is absolutely nothing wrong in how you want to use Alfred, he's there to do what you need, and I appreciate your preference outlined here

 

Its not really a preference. Its just how I have been using it. 🙂

 

I was hoping to explain what the confusion was and expand on the use case that was leading to it. It is a bit of an edge case and it is easy to avoid.

 

That said, looking at the second screenshot I posted I think you will agree that there is a lot of room there for a new user (or someone with their own odd usage pattern) to assume that the Workflow isn't running.

 

As I mentioned, I have changed the Keyword and that solves all of the problems. I doubt that many people will run into a similar issue. 

 

Thanks