Workflow for iOS | Hacker News Reader

Workflow for iOS

itunes.apple.com

127 pointshvpandya67 comments

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Ok, I thought it was an Apple product because of the (apple.com)

Frequent error with App Store links.

That could be resolved by clarifying (3rd party app) in the title.

Or "Show HN:"

This is assuming the OP is the creator.

Alternatively, the full domain could be displayed instead of just the root domain, so (itunes.apple.com) would be displayed instead of (apple.com). This appears to be the case for some domains, like Tumblr and Blogspot, but not others.

Downloaded – and then tried to implement the three work workflows I use on my iPhone all the time. (That I can think of off the top of my head).

It succeeded in two of the three cases and on the third it still reduces the number of clicks.

1). Choose a selection of photos (of the kid) and txt them to the grandmas.

2). Take a photo, then open Swarm so I can do a photo check-in without using Swarms photo panel.

3). Reduce brightness to the minimum, set volume to minimum, turn on Do Not Disturb mode. This failed because Workflow has no access to Do Not Disturb. It can act as a brightness/volume preset though.

On the whole I think that’s a fantastic success rate, and I’m already a fan.

I wanted to create a workflow to turn on bluetooth and turn on personal hotspot (and vice versa), but couldn't make it do either step.

I also want a 'weekend mode' workflow which shuts off banners and lock screen notifications for my work email (a poor man's Blackberry 'profile' feature), but I couldn't do that either.

I'm sure I'll find uses for it but I haven't yet. It's undeniably clever and I'll keep playing, but it's not the magic scripting bullet I've been craving.

Edit: I created "loud" and "quiet" volume preset workflows; they're pretty heavy - tap the home screen icon and the phone launches two apps, sets the volume, then leaves you in the workflow editor. Feels clunky for simple stuff like that. I think it's of more use for orchestrating multi-app flows than doing simple tasks like that. It's actually quicker to just press the volume key a few times.

You might be totally unintersted but if you jailbreak your phone you can automate just about anything with Activator (etc).

So far the double app doesn't bother me (we'll see if it gets wearing ) - but staying in Workflow is clunky, so I finished my "Nighttime" workflow with opening safari. There's at least some chance I'll want to do that, and it's certainly better than staying in WorkFlow.

None of the things you mentioned are possible without jailbreaking, but I think workflow's creators are planning to bring extra features like those to it through a jailbroken plugin of some kind.

I don't see it called out in the app's marketing, but one of the neat possibilities of having a separate app on the home screen is that you should be able to launch a workflow through Siri. And I think that's very cool

Unfortunately you actually can't - Siri doesn't include web clips as apps it can launch. We're working on it.

UPDATE: I was able to get siri support by creating a contact called "Workflows" and adding the x-callback-url as a URL for the contact. I can say "Workflows" to Siri and she will show me a list of all my workflows, and I can select the one I want from a list.

The only tricky part was getting the x-callback-url out of the data: URL since the contacts app won't open data: urls. Yay!

PS. I LOVE this app so much. Thank you thank you thank you thank you!

UPDATE 2: I was nearly able to create a workflow to create a contact automatically. Unfortunately the "get contents of url" task doesn't support data URIs.

This is incredibly clever. We have a completely separate, but equally crazy hack that we were thinking of using to implement this. But well done. And so glad you like it :)

Any plans to integrate something like this into the app?

Congrats on the launch! Ari and Conrad (founders) are both Thiel fellows and have been working extremely hard to get this out ever since they won MHacks III this year. Great job!

There's video on the developer's website that provides somewhat of a demo.

https://my.workflow.is

Wow, that background color rips my optic nerves apart. I feel hurt.

It's just blue, what's the problem?

No problem — if you look at nothing than a massive wall of THAT blue all day.

It looks fine on a wide-gamut monitor... Eye piercing on my Cinema Display.

Someone just down-voted me for reporting an experience. That's really encouraging and serves to create an environment conducive to discussions. If you happen to have the right opinion.

In business and in life, it's useful to have a meta process going in your head about the level of the conversation.

You were probably down-voted because people feel that what they did dwarfs the color they chose for their background.

You're kinda hating on something that doesn't matter. :)

Actually, tempodox is entitled to his/her opinion. Just because some people think it's a minor issue, doesn't mean you should downvote it.

IMO this is one of the main problems with HN.

Right, that should be the whole point. Why would I post the same opinion everyone else has? Apart from a nice circle jerk, that would serve no purpose. The whole point of my post is that it differs from any other and offers a yet unseen perspective, whether you like that perspective or not.

Sorry for harming your eyes, we just updated the site!

Oops, did you change the link to point directly to the iTunes Store page? Anyway, that's much less aggressive than a screenful of that creative blue. I would have loved it in small doses in the right places, but it was just too much.

I don't see a video. Where is it?

I'm using Chrome 39.0.2171.71 on Linux x64.

It was on our old site, and isn't on our new one:

New video - https://youtu.be/EKbjMcX-PwQ

Old video - https://youtu.be/fSh6Q0F4d9Q

I missed that when you select 'Actions' to add to a workflow it's actually just the 'suggested' list. Might improve the user experience to let the user know there are much more than what's in that list the first time they go add an action (or maybe that's in the tutorial--but the first thing I wanted to see was the full list to get a sense of what was possible).

Apple delayed this app for almost two months, wonder what the developer had to remove to be accepted.

I see that the app lets workflows create their own apps on the home screen. I wonder if this had something to do with it? My thought is that it's a web app with a scheme to open a specific workflow. I bet Apple didn't like that.

The preview video (linked elsewhere) shows the ability to add an Extension to run a specific workflow using iOS Profiles. I'm pretty sure that functionality isn't present in the released version.

Ahh man, that would make the launch from home screen so much nicer. Bookmarking a data url is clever, but adds a good second to launch time.

The old (profile-based) version had the same restriction, actually! The data URL is the best solution we came up with.

Can you not create a home screen link directly to the app?

<10 minutes of playing around with the workflowFEC418 url scheme>

Well darn, it looks like you can't. That's crummy. I thought I could get clever with `history.pushState`, but that doesn't let you change the URL scheme without a security error. It looks like this is the best way to do it on iOS.

For informational purposes:

The way it lets workflows create apps, is that it creates a data url, that it opens in safari, and l has you bookmark that URL to your home screen. When opened as one of those safari web apps, the javascript on the page auto clicks the only link in the page - one to a URL formated like this: workflow000000://x-callback-url/run-workflow?id=HEX, and bounces you into Workflow

What are the security implications of that? Does that mean that any web page can run a random workflow on your iPad, or are the hex strings so long that it is as good as impossible to guess one, or (way worse) is the hex string an encoding of the steps to run?

I don't have them in front of me right now but the hex is long. I have no clue if they encode something, but I remember thinking "UUID".

The hex in the scheme is one of a list of preconfigured colors for the purpose of theming the launch image. The hex in "id" is indeed a UUID. There is also a "name" parameter.

For all intents and purposes, we removed one thing: the Today View widget.

Lame! If/when you're able to add that back in, Workflow is going to become even more amazing! That would remove quite a bit of friction.

Oh well, pretty interesting app

The workflow I've created let me send the full list of phone numbers or email addresses of a single contact, plus the name, using a plain text SMS

In hope of improving that, I've tried counting the number of items (phones or emails) of the Contact: if 1 then the SMS is create right away, if > 1 then I can select which item(s) I want to send

However if I want to detect the case when the Contact doesn't have email address (for example) I got a error message, not nice at all

It looks like trying to use "Get Email Addresses from Input" --> "Set Variable" --> "Count" does not support an empty list... anyone can help please? :)

Did iOS 8 add something that allowed this app to be created? Tasker has existed on Android for years, so I assume that there had to be a technical limitation as to why a comparable app wasn't created for iOS.

Yes! iOS 8 added App Extensions:

https://developer.apple.com/app-extensions/

What's the over/under on when App Review yanks it from the store?

Workflow guy here - you have nothing to worry about, we've been in contact with App Review for months.

Commenting here for posterity. My money is, unfortunately, on Apple screwing you guys over within the next year. Likely right before they launch a tool of their own that only does a fifth of what Workflow does.

This app is amazing. If you have Pythonista[0] (a somewhat similar app, but with Python scripting) you are in for a pleasant surprise. It's integrated through the URL scheme.

Get both, even if they seem similar. It's like the combination of shell scripting and Automator for Mac, except better than Automator and easier than shell scripting.

This is also featured as an Editor's Choice, which means it doesn't look like it's going away.

[0]: http://omz-software.com/pythonista/

Great functionality goes way beyond IFTTT. Question: why doesn't the list of apps in Open App action include all my apps? Really wanted to include my Harmony Logitech app.

Likely because they can only open apps that implement URL schemes.

Would be awesome if beacons could trigger workflows :)

Very impressive app though. My first workflow was a Share Extension to print stuff to PDF and save it into iCloud Drive.

Downloaded right away! Great for submitting expense report emails and I don't have to push all that data to the IFTTT now.

To develop an app like this one needs to know right interfaces that iOS Developer library offers to control other apps.

Suppose I had this idea, how can I figure out the correct API reference documentation. I tried it with various keyword searches and I couldn't find it. I find this the case on any other platform - Windows, Android, and OSX. I wonder how others solve this problem - finding the right reference among ton of documentation.

Does anything similar exist for Android?

Tasker, for one: http://tasker.dinglisch.net/ You can make apps of tasks and so on, too.

Tasker is the most popular one, but there is one or two that are much more user friendly.

looks very interesting, a local device version of 'if this then that'... i will give it a try.

Yes, but with more DIY options - 'Share Availability' is interesting, which loops through calendar invites on a specified day and grabs start and end times

Was this built in Swift or Obj-C?

Lots and lots of Objective-C

This is not available in Europe (yet?).

I just downloaded it from the UK. Works just fine for me.

UK is not Europe.

Not.. sure.. if.. trolling.. or.. not..

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