For example when I need to create a new work order I want to choose from a predefined list of clients, enter the scope of work. From there a series of other automatons will take place such as cloning a directory, creating a toggl projects, ect. All of automatons that I want to trigger seem pretty straightforward I just cant find an app to the initial capture. Any advice would be great thanks!
Hi Joey, Welcome to the forum.
Sounds like you’re trying to do this in iOS. If so, the most generic example would be to build something via Shortcuts if you’re familiar with that. You talk about further automations which can definitely be done depending on the scope, and other software you’re expecting to work with.
Are you able to provide more details on your setup and what you’re hoping to accomplish?
For example someone calls me with a request. I want to than choose the client from a list, choose the site from a list if needed, enter a brief description into a title field than another longer description if needed in another field. From there create a toggl project that is named using a SLUG that is built from + “-” + + “-” ideally with spaces replaced by underscores so it might look like Acme-Office-Fix_stuff. From there create a entry in drafts, omnifocus, and if possible clone or create a basic directory structure into icloud drive that looks something like this
Acme-Office-Fix_stuff
├── Invoice
└── Notes
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I don’t know if an app on the App Store that can do what you’re looking for out of the box, especially since you’re trying to kick off automations after with different apps, but a lot of this can be built using Shortcuts.
For the automatic folder creation, you’ll probably need to kick off something more complex like a Scriptable script or use Toolbox Pro since Shortcuts only has access to the /iCloud Drive/Shortcuts folder and I’m going to guess you don’t want things kept in there.
I’ve created a very basic example here to help you get started. You’ll need Data Jar but this should help you get started fairly easily.
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/3fa7ee1746304c488c32713244283a49
Hope this helps
Thanks for the example, is there a form app that can access data jar lists?
Data Jar is designed for Shortcuts use only.
How would you define a “form app”?
Something that would present a “form” containing dropdowns and text fields, once the form is submitted the chosen values would become variables that can be used in other automations.
That sounds like you have some requirement to have all the data entry available at once. Shortcuts will present them individually, in sequence, so based on that response, I’d consider driving it from a Drafts Advanced HTML Preview, and passing on actions to other apps from Drafts either via x-callback-url, or via Shortcuts; note Drafts has an action to call Shortcuts, and you could start in Shortcuts and call out to Drafts for its part, but you risk a time out during data entry. I’d generally go for using Shortcuts for interactions and fallback to x-callback-urls only if/when necessary.
Just be sure to note the point from @motopascyyy on the sandboxing constraints on fully automating iCloud directory access. I’d recommend utilising the bookmarks feature from Toolbox Pro within Shortcuts to build the file/folder structure. But given you’ll probably need to do a bit of JavaScripting on the Drafts side, utilising Scriptable instead shouldn’t stretch things much further I guess.
Hope that helps.
Very helpful thanks, I dont need to have all fields presented at once. Are you saying with Shortcuts I can have a sequence of dialogs that appear? Such as Client Dropdown > Title textbox > Scope of work textbox ?
More a sequence of lists/menus rather than what you might consider a dialog. We’re talking about constraint to what would be one field at a time vs say a web form.
@motopascyyy provided a shortcut above which looks in Data Jar (a persistent data storage app), and presents a list of options that it takes from a dictionary data structure. That’s the whole premise.
Once you’ve made a selection once, you can then follow on with the next question. It could be another dynamically populated list. It could be a text entry field. You can even incorporate branching logic, and pre-population from Data Jar, the clipboard, etc. Rather than someone handing you a form, it is more like someone reading a form out a question at a time and getting your answers.
I think that will work for me, thanks everyone