Make workflow arguments consistent [not possible, pls ignore]

[untidey]

Hotkeys allow for the following arguments: selected text; clipboard contents. Keywords allow for manually typed arguments. Neither allow the selected finder items to be passed to a workflow, one must use the hotkey or keyword assigned as part of the file actions preferences.

 

I propose adding "Selected finder items" as an allowable argument to hotkeys and keywords and adding the selected text and clipboard contents options to keyword arguments.

 

EDIT:

 

 

Seems b100 or b105 has added the ability to pass selected files as arguments to keywords. I think it still makes sense to add these options to keywords, unless there's a technical reason it can't be done?

 

- Selection in OS X

- OS X Clipboard contents

[jdfwarrior]

The only issue with adding that functionality right now is the nasty Apple bug that makes it hard to grab the currently selected Finder items. Right now, there are times where you could open a folder, select an item and try to action it but when Alfred shows, its referencing another item in another location. This is something that Andrew reported to Apple a good while back and has yet to be fixed.

[franzheidl]

In any event you should be able to get these from Applescript.

If you don't want to "waste" a Workflow Module for Applescript, you could run an Applescript as osascript in a bash script returning the paths of the selected item(s) to your shell script.

 

Nonetheless, an option to use these as a target straightaway from Alfred would be nice.

[untidey]

Right now, there are times where you could open a folder, select an item and try to action it but when Alfred shows, its referencing another item in another location.

 

I encountered that last night actually. Not pleasant.

[untidey]

Seems b100 or b105 has added the ability to pass selected files as arguments to keywords. I think it still makes sense to add these options to keywords, unless there's a technical reason it can't be done?

 

- Selection in OS X

- OS X Clipboard contents

[Andrew]

Alfred now uses a significantly more reliable method for getting the selected item in OS X using the pasteboard. This relies on the app you are trying to 'grab' the data from to be active, which is why a keyword wouldn't work as Alfred is the active application.

[untidey]

Thanks for the explanation Andrew. Makes perfect sense now that you mention it.