Generating Feedback in Workflows

[Tyler Eich]

Question about uid and feedback items order: "Give your results a unique identifier and Alfred will learn which ones you use the most and prioritize them by moving them up in the result list." 

 

I tried to give unique uid for feedback each items. However, after I activated some of the items many times, Alfred does not "prioritize them by moving them up in the result list".

 

If by unique id you mean "DAE8DC59-6844-493D-893F-88A0C3EA6578" or something similar, Alfred will not learn what you want; in fact, this is the current recommended way to disable Alfred's intelligence.

 

If you want Alfred to use his knowledge on your feedback items, you must use something that uniquely identifies it against other scripts.

 

For example, I use 'tylereich.colors {the mode of input} to {the mode  of output}' as the unique id for Colors' feedback items. So if you entered an RGB color and selected the HSL conversion, the unique id of your selection would have been 'tylereich.colors rgb to hsl'. Then, next time you entered an RGB color, the HSL conversion would be the top result.

 

Does this make sense?

[zhaowu]

Are you generating a new unique id each time or are they the same each time you run it?

It is the same each time. something like 'bundle-id:someid' .

[zhaowu]

If by unique id you mean "DAE8DC59-6844-493D-893F-88A0C3EA6578" or something similar, Alfred will not learn what you want; in fact, this is the current recommended way to disable Alfred's intelligence.

 

If you want Alfred to use his knowledge on your feedback items, you must use something that uniquely identifies it against other scripts.

 

For example, I use 'tylereich.colors {the mode of input} to {the mode  of output}' as the unique id for Colors' feedback items. So if you entered an RGB color and selected the HSL conversion, the unique id of your selection would have been 'tylereich.colors rgb to hsl'. Then, next time you entered an RGB color, the HSL conversion would be the top result.

 

Does this make sense?

Thanks for your help! I guess I know what is wrong. The feedback items are not valid. They are for autocompletion.

[Florian]

For a time I have felt that autocompletion items should also be ordered the same way regular items are. 

[zhaowu]

For a time I have felt that autocompletion items should also be ordered the same way regular items are. 

Agree!

[zhaowu]

One more question,

 

Is it possible to feedback multiple times to Alfred? Specifically, output xml items multiple times.

[Tyler Eich]

One more question,

 

Is it possible to feedback multiple times to Alfred? Specifically, output xml items multiple times.

 

No, not yet. It has been requested several times, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were eventually supported.

[jdfwarrior]

One more question,

 

Is it possible to feedback multiple times to Alfred? Specifically, output xml items multiple times.

 

 

No, not yet. It has been requested several times, so I wouldn't be surprised if it were eventually supported.

 

See my new post in this forum about chaining multiple script filters together or reusing a single one. I also provided an example workflow so you can see how it works.

[Tyler Eich]

See my new post in this forum about chaining multiple script filters together or reusing a single one. I also provided an example workflow so you can see how it works.

I had forgotten this! My mind immediately went live feedback, like echoing results as they are processed.

[zhaowu]

I had forgotten this! My mind immediately went live feedback, like echoing results as they are processed.

Actually, live feedback is what I meant. The reason for me is that some script are slow to finish.

[yellowfeather]

Is it possible to inline format titles and subtitles? e.g. <title>In<b>cub</b>us</title> would be formatted as Incubus

 

I'd like to be able to highlight the characters that match a query, similar to http://api.rubyonrails.org/ when you enter a search term.

[woofy31]

Is it possible to inline format titles and subtitles? e.g. <title>In<b>cub</b>us</title> would be formatted as Incubus

 

I'd like to be able to highlight the characters that match a query, similar to http://api.rubyonrails.org/ when you enter a search term.

 

It's currently not possible, but that would definitely be an awesome feature! Alfred devs, this one would really make us "see" the results better

[lilyball]

I really want a way to control the order of the output from my workflow. For the time being I'll go with the suggested idea of using a UUID as the uid, but I really wish just omitting the uid entirely would work.

[lilyball]

What does "Defaults to the script filter extension" mean for icons? If I don't provide an <icon> in my script filter output, the resulting entry always gets the folder icon, even if my workflow has an icon. This holds true even if I give the script filter itself an icon.

[jdfwarrior]

What does "Defaults to the script filter extension" mean for icons? If I don't provide an <icon> in my script filter output, the resulting entry always gets the folder icon, even if my workflow has an icon. This holds true even if I give the script filter itself an icon.

 

Apologies. This appears to be an error in the documentation. If no icon value is specified, it will show a blank icon as the result. If the icon item is not included at all, it will default back to a folder icon. I'll get the documentation corrected. Thanks.

[lilyball]

Apologies. This appears to be an error in the documentation. If no icon value is specified, it will show a blank icon as the result. If the icon item is not included at all, it will default back to a folder icon. I'll get the documentation corrected. Thanks.

 

Folder icon seems like a really weird default. Maybe show the blank document icon? I actually used the filetype public.text for a while to get that, before I got around to making a real icon for my workflow.

[Andrew]

I really want a way to control the order of the output from my workflow. For the time being I'll go with the suggested idea of using a UUID as the uid, but I really wish just omitting the uid entirely would work.

 

This is going to be improved in a future release

[Andrew]

Just a quick note to say that in the next release (after 2.0.2), the item UID attribute will be optional.

 

You only need to populate it if you want Alfred to learn and order your results (an example of this would be something similar to Alfred's open / find keywords where he learns the selected file for latter ordering).

 

If you leave the UID attribute empty, a UUID is used instead which means Alfred won't learn the ordering so always show results in the XML order.

[adayzdone]

If anyone is interested, I have posted an AppleScript handler you can use as a template to generate feedback.

 

http://www.johneday.com/617/generate-feedback-in-alfred-2-workflows

Edited April 10, 2013 by adayzdone

[Vero]

Hi guys - a quick update to let you know this has been improved in v2.0.4 which has just gone to pre-release. I'd be grateful if you could update and have a play

[Carlos-Sz]

Hi guys - a quick update to let you know this has been improved in v2.0.4 which has just gone to pre-release. I'd be grateful if you could update and have a play

 

Quick question: the <item arg=“"> should be removed completely in order to use <arg></arg>? Or Alfred will use <arg></arg> if set and ignore the other (no need to remove the other for good)?

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

[jdfwarrior]

Quick question: the <item arg=“"> should be removed completely in order to use <arg></arg>? Or Alfred will use <arg></arg> if set and ignore the other (no need to remove the other for good)?

 

Thank you.

 

 

That's exactly how it works. Andrew made it backward compatible to prevent it from breaking all previous workflows.

[Carlos-Sz]

That's exactly how it works. Andrew made it backward compatible to prevent it from breaking all previous workflows.

 

Thank you David.

[yegle]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<items>
  <item uid="rdioartist" arg="r96664" valid="yes" autocomplete="Incubus">
    <title>
            Incubus
    </title>
    <subtitle>Artist</subtitle>
    <icon>rdio-artist.png</icon>
  </item>
  <item uid="albumart" arg="/Users/user/Documents/album.jpg" type="file">
    <title>Incubus Album Art</title>
    <subtitle>Album Art for Science</subtitle>
    <icon type="filetype">public.jpeg</icon>
  </item>
</items>

Seems like Alfred2 doesn't handle newline characters correctly. This XML docunement will get one of the title empty. Please confirm.

[lilyball]

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<items>
  <item uid="rdioartist" arg="r96664" valid="yes" autocomplete="Incubus">
    <title>
            Incubus
    </title>
    <subtitle>Artist</subtitle>
    <icon>rdio-artist.png</icon>
  </item>
  <item uid="albumart" arg="/Users/user/Documents/album.jpg" type="file">
    <title>Incubus Album Art</title>
    <subtitle>Album Art for Science</subtitle>
    <icon type="filetype">public.jpeg</icon>
  </item>
</items>

Seems like Alfred2 doesn't handle newline characters correctly. This XML docunement will get one of the title empty. Please confirm.

 

Probably because you have superfluous whitespace in your <title> tag. It starts with a newline, then a bunch of spaces, before the title you actually wanted. You should rewrite it as <title>Incubus</title>.