[v1.21] Sticking Stuff Together with Bubble Gum

v1.21 update

  • Minor update
  • Added Maps as a source for phone numbers in the Phone branch
  • Added alert to Bookmarked URLs branch to align to all the others

Download link below 👇🏻

v1.2 update

  • Added branch for Things, using its show URL scheme query parameter to show a particular project, or else the id parameter to show a built-in list

v1.1 update

  • Added branch for DEVONthink To Go
  • Added branch for Craft (requires choosing the workspace to open when you actually use the URL, but hey, you play the hand you're dealt)
  • Added branches for OmniFocus 4 Beta
  • Added branch for Agenda 13.1 Beta
  • Added comment actions to capture changelog and protips

I was listening my pals Jay Miller, Rosemary Orchard, and David Sparks discuss Hook on a recent episode of the Automators podcast, and got thinking about how often I benefit from linking across resources on my phone/iPad (or would like to benefit from it, if I actually did it more).

Some real examples:

  • Put a phone number in an OmniFocus task
  • Reference an OmniFocus project in an Agenda note
  • Add a location in a Note

And plenty more.

So I got to thinking and assembled a new iOS Shortcut that I call Bubble Gum (because what better way to stick things together than with the stuff you have at hand?).

I really like running this Shortcut from Spotlight on an iPad, so that I can get to it whenever. It lets you search various things you might have and copies links to them to your clipboard for insertion elsewhere. I also use this on my phone set to the Back Tap accessibility move, because I can invoke that from anywhere.

As an aside, iPadOS does this infuriating thing where after running the Shortcut from Spotlight, Spotlight still holds the focus of typing, but ⌘+space will dismiss that (thanks to friends Christopher Lawley and Matthew Cassinelli for saving me from rage deleting my iPad).

Now, it wasn't until I was waaaaaay down the rabbit hole when the realization struck me: you can’t really link to a calendar event or note by url. That made me sad. So instead, I made the desired event or note details be captured in url-encoded JSON, and added that as a parameter in a url to run Bubble Gum later, which would identify the only possible event or note you mean to be referring to, and open it.

This has been enormously useful for me, and I hope it is for you, too! I can see myself adding other branches here and iterating on this, so let me know if there is something else you'd find useful to add!


HeyScottyJ @heyscottyj