[比較]
- iOS: Apple’s Shortcuts
- Android: Google’s Action Blocks
Actions
- “Reveal Action” & “Quick Look”
- “Take Screenshot” + “Extract Text from Image” (for OCR)
- Get Dictionary Value → Options: “Value”, “All Keys”, “All Values”
- Often: “Choose from List” + “All Keys”
- Tip: “Choose from List” can also be used for a “Dictionary”!
- Get “Value” for “Chosen Item → Name” from “Dictionary”
- Tip: “Choose from List” can also be used for a “Dictionary”!
- Often: “Choose from List” + “All Keys”
- Get “Item” from List → Options: “First Item”, “Last Item”, *“Random Item”, “Item at Index”, “Items in Range”
- *Get random items from List
- Single: “Get Item from List” → Choose “Random Item”
- Multiple: “Filter Files” → Choose “Random” in “Sort by” → Enable “Limit” → Select the number of random items you want to get
- *Get random items from List
- “Is Charging” v.s “Is Connected to Charger”
- Former: Is the device gaining battery charge?
- Latter: Is the device connected to a charger that at least is slowing down the rate the battery drains?
- For Optimized Battery Charging: being connected to a charger but not charging
- “Add to Variable” → List
- Tip: “Repeat with each item” + “Text” → “Repeat Results” is already a list of “Text”, not need to use “Add to Variable” for each iteration → simplify code!
- How to use Boolean variables?
- Method I: Type = Boolean →
If "myBooleanVar" - Method II: Type = Text →
If "myBooleanVar" is Yes/No
- Method I: Type = Boolean →
- ? “Run Script over SSH”
- ? “Get Contents of URL” → make webhook calls
- “Open X-Callback URL” (= URL_Schemes)
- Allow you to go beyond “Open App” in Shortcuts
- They are helpful in the Shortcuts app when the App itself doesn’t have any Shortcut Actions support available by default
- Tip: If you’d like to run one shortcut from another shortcut, use the
Run Shortcutaction instead of a URL scheme. You should only run shortcuts with a URL if you’re integrating from another app outside of Shortcuts - Run a shortcut using a URL scheme on iPhone or iPad
- Import Shortcut:
shortcuts://import-shortcut/?url=[url]&name=[name]- Parameters:
- url: download url for a
.shortcutfile - name (optional): name for shortcut, defaults to shortcut filename
- silent (optional):
trueto import without opening the shortcut,falseby default to open and display the shortcut to the user
- url: download url for a
- Example:
shortcuts://import-shortcut/?name=Awesome%20Shortcut&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdownloadwebsite.com
- Parameters:
- Open Shortcut:
shortcuts://to launch app to last-used stateshortcuts://create-shortcutto create a new shortcutshortcuts://open-shortcut?name=[name]to open the app to the shortcut of a given name
- Run Shortcut:
shortcuts://run-shortcut- Query parameters:
- name: string name for shortcut
- input (optional): initial input into the shortcut, a text string or the word
clipboardto use the contents of the clipboard
- Example:
shortcuts://run-shortcut/?name=Shortcut%20to%20Run
- Query parameters:
shortcuts://x-callback-url/run-shortcut?name=[name]&x-success=[your-application-url]- Callback URL work with 3 parameters:
x-success— To handle Successful executionx-cancel— To handle interruptions in executionx-error— To handle errors in execution
- Callback URL work with 3 parameters:
- Open the Shortcuts Gallery
shortcuts://gallery
- Search the Shortcuts Gallery
shortcuts://gallery/search?query=[query]
- Import Shortcut:
- Run Shortcut v.s URL Scheme
- Difference
- URL Scheme requires to open the Shortcuts app, while Run Shortcut doesn’t.
- Command-line version of
shortcuts://run-shortcutfrom Terminal (Run Shortcuts from the command line)- Run Shell Script
- Select shell as
bin/bash - Enter the command:
shortcuts run <YOUR_SHORTCUT_NAME>
- Select shell as
- Run Shell Script
- Difference
- List
- Comma-separated text
- Each item is encoded
- Dictionary
- JSON string
“Get Weather Forecast” (↔ “Get Current Weather”)
-
Hourly: Retrieves results for the next 24 hours in a list of 25 items—the first represents the current conditions, followed by the forecasts for the next 24 hours.
-
Daily: Retrieves results for the next 10 days in a list of 10 items.
[比較]
Open X-Callback URL: If your Shortcut has to wait for responseOpen URLs: If your Shortcut doesn’t have to wait for response
Troubleshooting Tips
- Magic variables
- Time limitation: a running shortcut will only stay active for a short period of time (around 3 mins) when you are away from the Shortcuts application
- 如何透過 Siri 呼叫 “Ask for Input” (not just “Dictate Text”) 指令? Add “Dismiss Siri and Continue” in the very beginning
- “Export for Pushcut” Can’t Be Opened: Since iOS 13 any shortcut from an external link is considered “untrusted” by Apple. If you get this error, please go to Settings → Shortcuts and check Allow Untrusted Shortcuts. You only need to do this once.
Use “Get Images from Input” action to get Shortcut icon
Apple’s Uniform Type Identifiers (UTIs)
- A framework used in macOS and iOS for identifying data types and file formats in a standardized and consistent way.
- Strings that uniquely identify types of data.
- Examples
- Public UTIs
public.textpublic.imagepublic.json
- Private UTIs
com.example.myapp.myformatcom.adobe.pdcom.apple.plist=com.apple.property-listcom.apple.shortcuts.action
- Public UTIs
What do iCloud Shortcut share links actually link to?
- It’s a link to a point-in-time snapshot at the time you shared it. Any further changes you make will not be reflected in that link.
- It’s permanent, so make a copy and remove the personal information before sharing.
- It presumably gets uploaded to the generic iCloud server that doesn’t belong to anyone’s account, along with some metadata. Although it’s still tied to your account (and that’s why you’re able to stop sharing at any time), no one sees the account info from the shortcut. You can check the metadata by inserting
/api/records/to the iCloud URL → Change the url part from “icloud.com/shortcuts/<identifier>” to “icloud.com/shortcuts/api/records/<identifier>”, then you could access a dictionary including a download url.
Two ways to set and view binding keyboard hotkeys for Shortcuts
- Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services → Shortcuts
- Shortcuts App on macOS → “Quick Actions” in the sidebar
Dictionaries are a great way of storing multiple pieces of information at once. In Shortcuts, they are converted into JSON plain-text object.