Using a script to send URL download link to Overcast

macOS
1

One of my favorite Mac tools is cloudyuploader, a tool by Andrew M. that allows you to automate the process of uploading files to Overcast. However, I recently had an new idea for an Overcast automation that I can’t figure out how to create.

Marco (recently?) added the ability to specify the URL of a file you would like to add to Overcast.

Screen Shot 2021-07-11 at 1.55.22 PM

There are many times on my Mac when I have opened a URL that links directly to an audio file, and I want it to be added to Overcast (useful for one-off podcasts episodes, and misc. audio files.) Adding the URL is much more efficient than:

  1. Downloading the file on my Mac.
  2. Immediately reuploading it to Overcast.
  3. Downloading it on my phone.

The URL method just skips straight to step 3.

This begs the question: Is there a way to automate sending URLs to Overcast?

Another way to quickly upload files is through a shell script written by mootcycle. I have tried to modify this shell script to work with a URL rather than a file path, but this is unfortunately beyond my (very basic) shell scripting abilities. Theoretically, it should be easier to send a plain-text URL than an entire file, but I have not succeeded.

In a perfect world, I could be on the audio file’s web page and use a Keyboard Maestro macro to:

  1. Get the current URL
  2. Call a script with the URL as input which…
  3. Sends the file to Overcast

This has to be possible somehow.

2

I don’t have this option, but I don’t subscribe to Overcast. I assume that this option appears when you are logged into your account on the Overcast web site judging from the cropped screenshots.

If that is the case, there’s an authentication hoop to jump through and more than one option for authentication to complicate things further.

I would imagine the round tripping with the script is the least disruptive solution, and podcasts these days are generally relatively small for most user’s bandwidth speeds these days. But, that admittedly is no guarantee that is not an issue for all users.

If that really is not practical, I would consider using Keyboard Maestro to control a browser session where you already logged in.