Is it possible to disable a single workflow object within a given workflow?

[Kelson01]

I'm making a workflow for my commonly used websites & adding action modifiers to them so I can open website, open website in new window & so on. Sometimes I come across something in the workflow I want to disable but leave connected to the rest of the workflow. This is because I'm building multiple individual workflows within this single one and It would make managing it simpler. 

 

I don't know if what I'm doing is even the best way to do it. But so far this is what I've found to work. I use the key combo object so I can more easily tell which workflow it is because having a note on every single one would not speed things up. I also noticed that it seems to open my history faster than an open url object or having the script do it. But I could be imagining it.

 

Am I correct in calling the blocks of a workflow a workflow object? And for the sake of accuracy when describing parts of a workflow that are apart from each other what term should I use to describe it?

 

In short: I want to be able to leave a block attached to a workflow, not have to modify it, and have the workflow ignore that string.

 

Thanks!

 

[deanishe]

2 hours ago, Undertaker01 said:

Am I correct in calling the blocks of a workflow a workflow object?

 

I don't think there's an official term. All the docs talk about Inputs, Utilities, Actions etc. I usually say "workflow element".

 

2 hours ago, Undertaker01 said:

And for the sake of accuracy when describing parts of a workflow that are apart from each other what term should I use to describe it?

 

As a rule, if the workflow you're talking about exists, don't describe it, upload it somewhere and post a link.

 

2 hours ago, Undertaker01 said:

I want to be able to leave a block attached to a workflow, not have to modify it, and have the workflow ignore that string

 

Can't be done. You can disable an entire workflow, but not individual elements within it. To disable an element, you either need to delete its keyword/hotkey or its incoming connections.

[Kelson01]

36 minutes ago, deanishe said:

Can't be done. You can disable an entire workflow, but not individual elements within it. To disable an element, you either need to delete its keyword/hotkey or its incoming connections.

 

Do you think that's something that would be practical to add to Alfred? It may be helpful with experimenting when building workflows.

[deanishe]

It’s not really clear from your first post why being able to disable an element would be useful. You say you want to disable something, but do you need to? What problems does leaving it enabled cause?

[Kelson01]

On 12/29/2021 at 4:12 PM, deanishe said:

It’s not really clear from your first post why being able to disable an element would be useful. You say you want to disable something, but do you need to? What problems does leaving it enabled cause?

 

My use case would be for creating workflows and messing around with different ways of having the workflow run. Instead of deleting the attachment to an object I could disable the block itself. Perhaps I want this feature because I frequently do this in Final Cut Pro when experimenting with versions of an edit. And in the screenshot I wanted to keep that url block attached (disabled) to be able to switch the command + y to the URL if the command + y stops working properly. It would save me time over having to remember that I'd have to use the history URL as an alternative to command + y. It's not that huge of a deal but I've recently been trying to optimize everything, and small optimizations tend to add up. Sorry of my question is a little out there! 

 

Thanks!

[TomBenz]

@vitor Is it possible to disable specific workflow object now especially universal action during workflow development and testing? Any workaround or suggestions to do this?

 

Also how to expand size of universal action block so that longer name is visible? 

[vitor]

1 hour ago, TomBenz said:

Is it possible to disable specific workflow object

 

It is not, but you can change connections between objects (right-click → Disable Connection).

 

1 hour ago, TomBenz said:

especially universal action during workflow development and testing? Any workaround or suggestions to do this?

 

Could you expand on your use case? Why do you want to disable Universal Actions for testing and development? They only show up when invoked so I’m having trouble understanding why they’re posing a problem for you.

 

1 hour ago, TomBenz said:

Also how to expand size of universal action block so that longer name is visible?

 

You mean changing the size of objects? That’s not possible, sizes are fixed.

[Andrew]

1 hour ago, TomBenz said:

 Is it possible to disable specific workflow object now especially universal action during workflow development and testing? Any workaround or suggestions to do this?

 

You can disable connections and add temporary connections to bypass objects like the following screenshot:

 

 

Is this what you were looking for?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[TomBenz]

1 hour ago, vitor said:

 

It is not, but you can change connections between objects (right-click → Disable Connection).

 

 

Could you expand on your use case? Why do you want to disable Universal Actions for testing and development? They only show up when invoked so I’m having trouble understanding why they’re posing a problem for you.

 

 

You mean changing the size of objects? That’s not possible, sizes are fixed.

thanks @vitor.  I managed by removing universal action and adding note to script with name of universal action.

 

My use case

a. Two same keyword with 1. Filter active excel for Table 2. Filter excel for Range.

b. I wrote new one Filter active sheet that works for Table and Range and tested it. It worked well but wanted to disable keywords for item 1 and 2 as I had kept keywords same.

 

The workaround with note worked good for me and I can revert to earlier version if really needed.

 

Good to learn about "you can change connections between objects (right-click → Disable Connection)."

 

Universal action size -- if size is same and fixed, see if longer text in name can be wrapped so that it can be seen. The default icon is currently taking maximum space inside the object.

[TomBenz]

1 hour ago, Andrew said:

 

You can disable connections and add temporary connections to bypass objects like the following screenshot:

 

 

Is this what you were looking for?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

@Andrew thanks. I disconnected and added note to older script object. 

 

Is it possible to extract all universal action or file action name or keywords of workflow in text file for selected workflow? This will be helpful as one can then paste and edit the content to explain the workflow in "About this workflow" 

[FireFingers21]

@TomBenz A lot of workflows use variables created in the Configuration Builder for object keywords. This has the benefit of setting a default keyword while allowing easier user customization; it's all handled from the "Configure Workflow..." menu rather than manually editing each workflow object.

 

In your case, this would let you reuse and programmatically access all the keywords in the workflow since they're stored in variables. If I understand you correctly though, you're not going to be able to use this to dynamically update the Markdown in the "About this workflow" README. In that case, just referencing each keyword as its default value should be easy enough to understand.