Writing Alfred copy/paste scripts in Python

Overview

Writing Alfred copy/paste scripts in Python

This repository shows how to create Alfred scripts in Python. It assumes that you using pyenv for Python version management (although it could be used in other version managers). If you don't have pyenv installed, the instructions in Python: Creating a clean learning environment with pyenv, pyenv-virtualenv & pipX

Our working example will be a script that will convert text in the Mac clipboard to small caps, that is, for example, it will take "Hello World!" and replace it with "ʜᴇʟʟᴏ ᴡᴏʀʟᴅ!"

Set up

  1. Create a directory in which you want to place your Python-based Alfred scripts. I created mine in $HOME/projects/alfred-scripts
  2. Create a clean Python environment for use in the directory, and set the local environment to it. I used alfred-scripts and based it off Python 3.7.2
   $ pyenv virtualenv 3.7.2 alfred-scripts
   $ pyenv local alfred-scripts
  1. Since we are creating scripts that will copy and paste from the Mac's clipboard, install the clipboard package.
   $ pip install clipboard

Writing and testing a script locally

First you need to decide what your text transformation will do. Let's start with something simple: converting text to upper case:

def convert(text):
    return text.upper()

By my own convention, I write this scripts to run in three ways: in test mode, from the command line, and in clipboard mode (which is what we will use for Alfred). So I have a driver that looks like this:

1: action = sys.argv.pop(1) if action == "--test": unittest.main() elif action == "--clipboard": clipboard_main() else: print("Unknown action: {}".format(action)) sys.exit(1) else: main() ">
if __name__ == "__main__":
    if len(sys.argv) > 1:
        action = sys.argv.pop(1)
        if action == "--test":
            unittest.main()
        elif action == "--clipboard":
            clipboard_main()
        else:
            print("Unknown action: {}".format(action))
        sys.exit(1)
    else:
        main()

You can use your own conventions, but this allow me to test the script out from the command line.

The main function is easy enough:

def main():
    sys.stdout.write(convert(sys.stdin.read()))

You can embed unit tests in the script and invoke them using the --test flag as given above:

import unittest

class TestConvert(unittest.TestCase):
    def test_convert(self):
        text = "Hello World!"
        match = "HELLO WORLD!"
        self.assertEqual(convert(text), match)

Once you are satisfied that your conversion routine is working, you can write the simple clipboard main:

def clipboard_main():
    to_convert = clipboard.paste()
    clipboard.copy(convert(to_convert.lower()))

(Note that you are pasting into your program, and copying back into the clipboard).

Creating a Alfred Workflow

Creating the Alfred workflow is relatively simple. Create a new worklfow and name it. Typically, it will have four steps:

  1. A trigger command
  2. Executing ⌘Q to copy text into the clipboard
  3. Running your script
  4. Executing ⌘C to paste text

The script should look like this (I use zsh, but you might need to source a different dot-file):

source $HOME/.zshrc
pyenv activate alfred-scripts
python $HOME/projects/alfred-scripts/upper.py --clipboard

This is what the workflow looks like:

Workflow

I find myself often needing to debug the Alfred script, so it's useful to learn how to use the debugger.

Owner
Will Fitzgerald
Words and numbers
Will Fitzgerald
Hide new MacBook Pro notch with black wallpaper.

Hide new MacBook Pro notch with black wallpaper.

Wang Chao 1 Oct 27, 2021
✨ Un pierre feuille ciseaux totalement fait en Python par moi, et en français.

Pierre Feuille Ciseaux ❗ Un pierre feuille ciseaux totalement fait en Python par moi. 🔮 Avec l'utilisation du module "random", j'ai pu faire un choix

MrGabin 3 Jun 06, 2021
Simple code to generate a password for your account!

Password-Generator Simple code to generate a password for your account! Password Generator for passwords for your accounts or anything else! This code

DEEM 1 Jun 05, 2022
Monte Carlo simulation of 3G rules

mc3g Monte Carlo simulation of 3G rules This project contains the Python code to do simulations of events according to the 3G rule (in German: "Geimpf

Jan Christoph Terasa 4 Nov 01, 2021
Edit SRT files to delay subtitle time-stamps.

subtitle-delay A program written in Python that directly edits SRT file to delay the subtitles. Features: Will throw an error if delaying with negativ

8 Jul 17, 2022
Run functions in parallel easily, with their results typed correctly!

typesafe_parmap pip install pip install typesafe-parmap Run functions in parallel safely with typesafe parmap! GitHub: https://github.com/thejaminato

James Chua 3 Nov 06, 2021
A repository containing several general purpose Python scripts to automate daily and common tasks.

General Purpose Scripts Introduction This repository holds a curated list of Python scripts which aim to help us automate daily and common tasks. You

GDSC RCCIIT 46 Dec 25, 2022
Attempts to crack the compression puzzle.

The Compression Puzzle One lovely Friday we were faced with this nice yet intriguing programming puzzle. One shall write a program that compresses str

Oto Brglez 14 Dec 29, 2022
This code renames subtitle file names to your video files names, so you don't need to rename them manually.

Rename Subtitle This code renames your subtitle file names to your video file names so you don't need to do it manually Note: It only works for series

Mostafa Kazemi 4 Sep 12, 2021
EthTx - Ethereum transactions decoder

EthTx - Ethereum transactions decoder Installation pip install ethtx Requirements The package needs a few external resources, defined in EthTxConfig o

398 Dec 25, 2022
Check subdomains for Open S3 buckets

SuBuket v1.0 Check subdomains for Open S3 buckets Coded by kaiz3n Basically, this tool makes use of another tool (sublist3r) to fetch subdomains, and

kaiz3n 4 Dec 29, 2021
Script for generating Hearthstone card spoilers & checklists

This is a script for generating text spoilers and set checklists for Hearthstone. Installation & Running Python 3.6 or higher is required. Copy/clone

John T. Wodder II 1 Oct 11, 2022
A tool for testing improper put method vulnerability

Putter-CUP A tool for testing improper put method vulnerability Usage :- python3 put.py -f live-subs.txt Result :- The result in txt file "result.txt"

Zahir Tariq 6 Aug 06, 2021
Lock files using python and cmd

Python_Lock_Files Lock files using python and cmd license feel free to do whatever you want to with these files, i dont take any responsibility tho, u

1 Nov 01, 2021
aws ec2.py companion script to generate sshconfigs with auto bastion host discovery

ec2-bastion-sshconfig This script will interate over instances found by ec2.py and if those instances are not publically accessible it will search the

Steve Melo 1 Sep 11, 2022
Simple tool for creating changelogs

Description Simple utility for quickly generating changelogs, assuming your commits are ordered as they should be. This tool will simply log all lates

2 Jan 05, 2022
Python humanize functions

humanize This modest package contains various common humanization utilities, like turning a number into a fuzzy human-readable duration ("3 minutes ag

Jason Moiron 1.6k Jan 01, 2023
Python utilities for writing cross-version compatible libraries

Python utilities for writing cross-version compatible libraries

Tyler M. Kontra 85 Jun 29, 2022
It is a tool that looks for a specific username in social networks

It is a tool that looks for a specific username in social networks

MasterBurnt 6 Oct 07, 2022
Every 2 minutes, check for visa slots at VFS website

vfs-visa-slot-germany Every 2 minutes, check for visa slots at VFS website. If there are any, send a call and a message of the format: Sent from your

12 Dec 15, 2022