Lorem Ipsum Generator Shortcut?

I’m wondering if anyone has created a Workflow/Shortcut version of this website: http://generator.lorem-ipsum.info

Basically a quick way to generate that placeholder text with some variables it asks you based on how much text you need to work with.

Brett Terpstra has done this in Textexpander, I don’t know of anyone doing it in Workflow/Shortcuts

As I discovered when I posted my Keyboard Maestro Macro for doing this, there’s an API! So we should be able to use it:

https://loripsum.net/

I finally had some time to check out the forums again. And to test my new Shortcuts skills I decided to implement the full API for loripsum.net :slight_smile:

Did some quick tests, and it seems to work:

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/a901fe19c8314b18a706258438b9b39d

It basically asks you all the options that the API supports and copies the resulting lipsum text to your clipboard. (Just change the last action to something else if you’d like to do something else with it.)

Feedback is, of course, appreciated!

BTW, for anyone looking into some kind of API… This one’s really simple, since you just need to call a URL with the options you want.

E.g. https://loripsum.net/api/5/decorate/code means “5 paragraphs of lorem ipsum with decoration (bold/italics) and some code (<pre/>) blocks”

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This is awesome! Thanks for sharing!

Very cool! Added to the list!

Here’s an alternative approach based on the one you provided. It uses more in the way of magic variables, adds in the option to include links, swaps out the “Don’t care” paragraph length option for a random choice and makes use of dictionaries over lists providing more meaningful descriptions and I think also the removal of loop. It might sound like a lot, but fundamentally this is very similar and very much based on your original.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/7689c36ae1204cd48970dcb101bff07e

I think what most people want most of the time is to just grab some plain boilerplate text, something as simple as this would probably suffice and requires no interaction in terms of option selection.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/e73162adcaff40c9a3d5c4fe41730274

Those working with web content might want something similar but using a variety of HTML output.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/e94f2d506f8e4d669d1f0b22f3ce5754

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Thanks! :slight_smile:

It uses more in the way of magic variables,

I’m not sure if it’s just the “old-school” programmer in me, but I really have trouble getting used to magic variables. It’s not that I don’t understand them, but it just goes against my instinct or something. Really have to force myself to use them.

adds in the option to include links,

I’m 100% sure I had that one during testing. Oops. :wink:

swaps out the “Don’t care” paragraph length option for a random choice

Part of the reason I tried to make this optional was to demonstrate the API: you can just skip a parameter like that. But I guess that’s clear from all the other parameters too…

and makes use of dictionaries over lists providing more meaningful descriptions and I think also the removal of loop.

Yeah, makes a lot more sense! :slight_smile:

It might sound like a lot, but fundamentally this is very similar and very much based on your original.

Building on top of each other’s work is exactly the kind of thing a community like this is great for, isn’t it?

Thanks for the improvements, good learning experience for me!

I had trouble with them too until I realised they’re objects - and you can get any property of that object without creating a function (get variable get property of variable, set variable) - maybe that will help you too!

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I had never thought of it that way. Yes, that makes total sense!

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