Add a note while creating a task

Thanks to @bogdal, the workflow now includes the ability to add a note when creating a task. After writing out your task title, use two forward slashes to begin writing a note:

Fixes 100% CPU Python process [may require manual update]

This release includes a fix for #147 where the background update check would often hang at 100% CPU. The workflow continues to function but the problem could severely impact battery life and performance of other processes.

This problem started or at least became more common with macOS 10.12.4. Unfortunately since the update check is hanging most people will not automatically see the update prompt. The workaround was within the Alfred-Workflow library that many workflows use... so be sure to check your other workflows for manual updates!

Python 2.6 fix and better Wunderlist API error messages

Changelog

This update contains the following changes from the previous version:

• #138 Fixed script errors in Python 2.6
  • Problem introduced in 0.6.1
  • The UNICODE flag was added to regular expressions to fix some issues with accented characters, but the way the flag was added was not compatible with Python 2.6
  • Patterns are now precompiled with the appropriate flags to avoid specifying the flags on every use
• #136 Networking error messages are now more explicit
  • alfred-workflow was showing errors as XML, my pull request to fix this is still pending
  • The Wunderlist API was down for 36 hours, thanks to everyone who reported issues during this time
• Fixed error on initial sync if that sync was triggered from due or upcoming
  • I noticed that logging out and back in could cause the due and upcoming screens to toss an error during the first sync

Alfred 3 improvements and fix for certain accented words

Changelog

This update contains the following changes from the previous version:

• #135 accented letters were treated as word boundaries when looking for keywords like r and due
  • As discussed in #135, there may be similar cases affecting date phrases via parsedatetime
  • As a contributor to parsedatetime I will be working on fixing these over the next few months
• #134 Alfred 3 was not relaunched after toggling preferences like Show completed tasks on searches
• #133 Alfred 3 users will now see release notes in Alfred for each update
  • The workflow description, version, and homepage shown in Alfred have been corrected as well

Search, browse, and complete tasks

Just over 60 of you helped to test out the preview releases for this version over the past 6 months. I appreciate all of the feedback and bug reports and hope that you have enjoyed using the workflow. I rely on it every day and even more heavily now with the addition of task searching and completion.

Changes since 0.5.4

New command format

In 0.5.4, commands were in the format wl:pref. The colon was required and the entire command had to be spelled out. The old format still works but the workflow now uses a hyphen rather than a colon to facilitate going back to the main screen with alt+delete which stops at the hyphen.

Commands also operate on partial matches, so rather than typing wl-upcoming or selecting Upcoming on the welcome screen you can type as little as wl-up or even wlu.

Search and browse tasks

The workflow now syncs all of your Wunderlist tasks, allowing them to be searched and browsed. The Due and Upcoming screens allow you to find tasks based on due date and the Search screen can be used to search across all lists or browse individual lists and hashtags.

You will occasionally notice a delay when visiting the wl-due and wl-upcoming screens because the workflow syncs before showing the results. Unfortunately the Wunderlist API has become very slow so even a single request to check whether the root revision has changed takes over half a second. Otherwise the sync has been massively optimized to ensure that it does not take much longer to sync all of your tasks than it did in previous versions to sync just your lists.

Complete tasks

The search and browse screens provide access to individual tasks. You can complete a task, delete it, or view the full task in the Wunderlist desktop app.

Other changes

• #103 Default list preference: choose a list other than Inbox as your default or default to the most recently used list
• Notifications when the first sync is complete or when the due/upcoming screen is waiting on a sync
• The database schema has been updated so your cached data will be discarded and a full sync initiated the first time you run the workflow
• #109 Standalone _wl-reset and _wl-full-reset commands for debugging
• Fixed incorrect display of the reminder date
• #111 Space after wl for entering a task is now optional since it was weird in hotkey to have to type a space
• #127 Fixes an error for Australian users when entering a task with a reminder

Changes since 0.6.0-beta.6

• #130 Removed "Let's discuss this screen" prompts
• #95 List title is now matched in addition to the task title when searching
• Reversed search result order to avoid showing completed tasks first
• Small performance improvements
• Bug fixes
  • Number of times overdue was not displayed
  • Number of times overdue, once displayed, did not consider the recurrence count (e.g. 3 months calculated as 1 month)
  • Reminders were displayed with the due date and reminder time in some cases rather than the reminder date
  • Was not possible to browse lists that are substrings of other lists (e.g. wl-search work: would show the Work and Workouts lists, now shows tasks for Work)

Alfred Compatibility

Version 0.6.0 is compatible with Alfred 2 and 3.

Alfred 2 will continue to be supported at least through the next major release. There are some Alfred 3 features that would make task completion and editing more convenient so I will need to evaluate whether I can take advantage of those or not and whether it would still be necessary at that time to support Alfred 2.

Upcoming tasks

This is a preview of new features based on syncing your tasks to the workflow, including searching, editing tasks, and showing what is due today and upcoming. Please post important feedback as GitHub issues or contribute to the existing discussions linked in the workflow.

Install workflow

This update, which should hopefully be the last major prerelease before 0.6.0 stable, introduces some new features and further improves the sync process.

New in this version

Upcoming tasks

View upcoming tasks at wl-upcoming. It's kind of like the Week smart list in Wunderlist with the option to choose the duration that you prefer to look ahead (1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 days, whatever...). Like any other screen you can get there by typing as little as wlu:

Browse or type to search your upcoming tasks. This screen can show upcoming tasks for any number of days with a few sensible defaults. Maybe there is someone out there who needs to see exactly 11 days ahead.

Some day I will make a spare Wunderlist account so that you don't need to look at all my mundane tasks. That day has not yet come.

Due and Upcoming screens sync before showing results

The due and upcoming screens will now sync (or wait for the already-running sync) before showing results to make sure that everything is up-to-date. A notification is displayed if there is something to sync so that you're not waiting around too long without any feedback.

Wunderlist API has become slow

Every request to the Wunderlist API takes 600ms which is painful when I'm just retrieving the Root revision to see if anything has changed. Seems there is some overhead in Wunderlist's authorization on each request because I can load 3000 tasks from a list in just over 800ms...

I fixed a few remaining issues with syncing and improved concurrency to get better performance despite the 600ms delay.

Command shorthand

Commands like wl:list and wl:pref have been changed to wl-list and wl-pref to allow Alt+delete to return you to the welcome screen (any non-word character is fine, I just chose - for its word breaking properties). Furthermore, these commands can be triggered with as little as the first letter. wld will get you to the wl-due screen and wls will get you to wl-search. For this reason, I want to keep any top-level commands as first-letter-distinct as possible.

Search and browse tasks

The wl-search command allows you to search tasks by keyword or browse by list. To seach within a list, use the same wl-search My List: some query syntax as when entering a task. A few other features related to this page are being discussed over here.

Default search view

Filter lists

View a list

Search within a list

Search across all lists

Browse tasks by hashtag

Due today

The wl-due command shows tasks that are due or overdue, similar to the Today list in Wunderlist. By default it hoists any recurring tasks that are multiple times overdue to the top, but you can change the sort order. Sadly, I have quite a few tasks that are multiple times overdue, so this features is mostly to keep me motivated but I hope others find it useful as well.

This view is searchable as well, just type to filter the results by keyword.

Task editing

The wl-task command (not something you would type manually but linked by search results) allows you to view and edit a specific task. The task can be opened in Wunderlist from this screen to view or edit any fields that are not yet supported in the workflow. There is a discussion here.

Task sync

The task sync that runs in the background should not take more than 30 seconds for the initial sync and around 10 seconds thereafter when changes are detected. There is still some optimization to be done, but if you find that changes are not pulled in after a minute or so please let me know. I do not expect syncing to work perfectly at this point in time, but I have not noticed any issues.

A sync is triggered any time the workflow runs provided that it has been at least 2 seconds since the last sync, or after any change like creating or editing a task. The Wunderlist API provides a "root revision" that makes it very fast to check whether anything has changed, so unless something has changed each sync is just one quick network request.

Default list

There is an option in wl-pref to set a list other than Inbox as the default when entering tasks. This will save keystrokes when entering a large number of tasks into a list or when a custom list is preferred over Inbox. You can also elect to use the previously-used list to facilitate entry of multiple tasks in the same list.

Not yet implemented

• View upcoming tasks
  • This would be an option on the welcome screen taking you to wl-upcoming
  • Option to view tasks in the next week or month
• Task editing features (discussion)

Changelog

This update contains the following changes from the previous version:

• Adds Upcoming screen
• Blocks Due and Upcoming screens until the sync completes to avoid outdated tasks
• Fixes sync bugs and improves sync performance

The following features are new since version 0.5.3:

• Adds task browsing and searching
• Adds commands to see tasks that are due or upcoming
• Adds task completion and deletion
• New command syntax applies matching to allow, for example, the wl-search command to be triggered with just wls
• Adds standalone reset commands for debugging
• Adds "open in Wunderlist" for editing fields that are not supported in the workflow

Bug fixes

This is a preview of new features based on syncing your tasks to the workflow, including searching, editing tasks, and showing what is due today. Please post important feedback as GitHub issues or contribute to the existing discussions linked in the workflow.

Install workflow

So the last release with "task syncing fixes" actually ended up breaking sync worse than before due to an errant tab character. Fortunately the logging added in the last version helped to uncover the problem, which was that Tasks and Reminders were never actually updated. Please run _wl-reset after installing to resync with Wunderlist since each list may contain outdated tasks.

This update also fixes the login help screen, removes the Shift modifier, and resolves an error seen by Australians on the Preferences screen and when entering a task with a reminder.

Changelog

This update contains the following changes from the previous version:

• Fixes tasks and reminders never updating
• Removes the shift modifier to avoid annoying subtitle changes while typing #125
• Fixes login help screen where the localhost authorization URL can be pasted manually, as discussed in #126
• Fixes #127 error message for Australian users on preferences screen and when entering a task with a reminder

The following features are new since version 0.5.3:

• Adds task browsing and searching
• Adds command to see tasks that are due
• Adds task completion and deletion
• New command syntax applies matching to allow, for example, the wl-search command to be triggered with just wls
• Adds standalone reset commands for debugging
• Adds "open in Wunderlist" for editing fields that are not supported in the workflow

Task syncing fixes

This is a preview of new features based on syncing your tasks to the workflow, including searching, editing tasks, and showing what is due today. Please post important feedback as GitHub issues or contribute to the existing discussions linked in the workflow.

Install workflow

This update is an attempt to fix task syncing issues. Over time some tasks would become outdated, most notably on the wl-due screen, due to issues during the sync. The lists were updated despite the error with tasks, so this problem would continue until another change was made within the list and it was re-synced. This update should resolve those issues by fixing a few bugs and reining in threading within the sync process. As a result, the sync may be slightly slower and is now transactional so that none of the data displayed in the workflow will be updated until the sync is complete (previously when timed right you could see tasks filling out in wl-s).

There are a few other bug fixes but the primary focus here is on syncing. If you notice tasks that are stuck after updating the workflow please type _wl-reset in Alfred to clear the data that may have become corrupted from previous 0.6.0 releases.

Changelog

This update contains the following changes from the previous version:

• Fixes #98 where tasks in some lists get out-of-date (hopefully). This was particularly obvious on the wl-due screen where some lists would have outdated tasks. There were several facets to this problem including database errors due to threading, data handling errors, and the ability for a list version to get updated even if its tasks failed to sync, which were exposed by improving the logging during a sync.
• Removes the requirement for a space after wl when entering a task so that task entry makes more sense when used with a hotkey. See #111
• Fixes #115 where the hashtag prompt was not appearing on task entry when the hashtag immediately follows the colon in a list designation (e.g. "shopping:#")
• Fixes #119, mishandling a bit of oddball syntax wl- some task
• Fixes #124 where the reset commands did not work in Alfred 3.

The following features are new since version 0.5.3:

• Adds task browsing and searching
• Adds command to see tasks that are due
• Adds task completion and deletion
• New command syntax applies matching to allow, for example, the wl-search command to be triggered with just wls
• Adds standalone reset commands for debugging
• Adds "open in Wunderlist" for editing fields that are not supported in the workflow

Hashtag browsing and open tasks in Wunderlist

This is a preview of new features based on syncing your tasks to the workflow, including searching, editing tasks, and showing what is due today. Please post important feedback as GitHub issues or contribute to the existing discussions linked in the workflow.

Install workflow

This update adds the ability to open a task in Wunderlist for full editing and fixes a few task entry bugs. While some basic editing will be supported within the workflow in a later version, this option bridges the gap to make it easy to view and edit all of the task info. Just find a task through the wl-due or wl-search screens then click through to Wunderlist. Thanks to @sollymay for the suggestion!

You can also open Wunderlist after adding a task by holding down the Alt key when you create your task in the workflow. The Wunderlist desktop app will open immediately after creating the task. It takes a second or two for Wunderlist to fidget with its UI so that the task can be displayed, but this is at least more convenient than adding a task and manually finding it later to edit fields that the workflow does not yet support.

If anyone does not use the desktop app please speak up! It would be fairly easy to add a preference to open Wunderlist in the browser instead of the desktop app.

Finally, the search screen now includes a convenient way to browse your hashtags.

Changelog

This update contains the following changes from the previous version:

• Added "open in Wunderlist" for editing fields that are not supported in the workflow
  • Appears on the task editing screen to allow you to view or edit the task
  • Press Alt when creating a task to then open it in Wunderlist
• Added an option on the search screen to browse by hashtag
• Added a notification when the first sync is complete (after logging in or reset)
• #116 Fixed inability to set both a due date and reminder time in a recurrence phrase, for example, "every monday at noon."
• #118 Fixed display of incorrect date for reminders, was always showing due date (reminder dates were set correctly just displayed wrong)
• #117 Fixed script error for reminders without an explicit due date
• Sort hashtags alphabetically

The following features are new since version 0.5.3:

• Adds task searching and editing
• Adds command to see tasks that are due
• Adds task completion and deletion
• New command syntax applies matching to allow the wl-search command to be triggered with just wls
• Adds standalone reset commands for debugging
• Adds "open in Wunderlist" for editing fields that are not supported in the workflow