Creating a Simple Dictionary list to export as json

Shortcuts
1

Shortcuts Newbie. Using shortcuts I am creating various lists and calendars and reminders using the repeat loop.

I would like to capture the results in a json key value pair list

What is the best way to get this going?

– do I use the dictionary to create a json “shell” first before the repeat loop

  • and then in the middle of the repeat loop would I add the particular record data to the Dictionary or something like that?

I tried this:

  • create dictionary with a few key value pairs (as place holders like title and moddate etc)

  • found reminders

  • started repeat loop

  • got values from repeat item

  • NEXT GOAL is to add a new row into the json dictionary with the various reminder fields

  • TRIED THIS NEXT:
    set title (dictionary key) to Title in Dictionary

(thinking it might ADD new record row with the title into the dictionary - but it did not )

  • can you help with the correct way to do this?

Thanks - dave

2

I’m not entirely sure this is what you are trying to accomplish, but the following may help… — jay

3

First of all - thanks you very much jaylevy for your assistance. Your shortcut was helpful.

I guess I didn’t explain myself as well as I should have.

I would like to create a JSON Array with the JSON Objects inside made up of the individual reminders records like:

[
{"Title":"data", "Priority":"data", "List":"data", "Due Date":"data" },
{"Title":"data", "Priority":"data", "List":"data", "Due Date":"data" },
{"Title":"data", "Priority":"data", "List":"data", "Due Date":"data" },
{"Title":"data", "Priority":"data", "List":"data", "Due Date":"data" },
More records - etc...
]

My goal here is to get all these reminders that I want in one big text json array - then I can manage this later in my database…

I hope I have explained this more clearly - thanks Dave

4

See if this gives you an idea of how to populate a set of JSON that can be converted to a dictionary object?

5

Thanks so much - I will give it a try

6

YES YES YES sylumer - that is EXACTLY what I was hoping for - THANK YOU!

7

Thank you so much sylumer for getting me started with this great json shortcut demo. It worked perfectly. From your starter shortcut, I was able to create a full shortcut that could export all the reminder fields based on my record selection criteria.

Next, it created a new Apple note with the full json text. From there, I was able to manually paste it into my database (Filemaker) and parse through all of the json reminder record objects and end up with a full Reminders database back up.

Now, I can safely delete all the old archive reminder tasks.

For me, I have been wanting to do this for quite some time. Thanks to you, it is finally working!

I would be happy to share my shortcut with a forum in case anybody is interested. Can you let me know the process of how I would export and share my shortcut?

Thanks - Dave

1 Like
8

To share a shortcut on the forum.

  1. Open your shortcut.
  2. Duplicate and sanitise any content if required - i.e don’t post any shortcuts with data in that you wouldn’t want to be public knowledge.
  3. Tap on the share button.
  4. Select Copy iCloud Link and wait for the message to say that the link has been copied to the clipboard.
  5. In your forum post paste the link on its own line. The forum will then include a link to the download page for the shortcut.
9

Thanks again for the help. I will get the shortcut up soon.