Mac app beta testers

[AntonMeier]

I figured this might be a good place to post this...

I am currently working on a full Flic application for the Mac, which will be very similar to the ones we have on iOS/Android. We will soon be needing some beta testers, so let me know if you are interested. The beta app will be lacking a little "UI polish" and not all actions available, but other than that it "should" be quite solid :)

If there are any particular actions that you would like to see available that might make you more inclined to help out with the testing then let me know.

For now the list currently looks like this:

• Philips Hue
• LIFX
• IFTTT
• Zapier
• Slack
• Sonos
• Xcode (Mac specific)
• Keynote (Mac specific)
• Spotify (Mac specific)
• VLC (Mac specific)
• Fart Generator (of course!)

Most probably Wemo and Chromecast will be added to the beta as well...

[gerwitz]

+1 for Hue and I'd like arbitrary AppleScript triggers.

[tdupre]

I'm up. Could feedback on:

• Zapier
• IFFT
• Slack
• Keynote
• Spotify
• VLC
• Scripts (I used a lot of scripts with HaxWithFlic right now)
• Chromecast

[mlpease]

I'm up for testing. Most interesting to me: Hue, Slack, IFTTT, Zapier, VLC, and general computer operations (sleep/lock screen, eject disks, etc.) I don't use it much but I could also test Keynote.

[butlerm]

Would be great to be included in the testing as well. Any of these would be great: IFTTT Generic Keyboard commands (Mac) Launch/close an application (Mac) Philips Hue SmartThings

On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 7:46 AM mlpease notifications@github.com wrote:

I'm up for testing. Most interesting to me: Hue, Slack, IFTTT, Zapier, VLC, and general computer operations (sleep/lock screen, eject disks, etc.) I don't use it much but I could also test Keynote.

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[asabi]

+1 for the testing program

[wejstal]

I'm in! Two applications I really would appreciate are:

• Plex integration, currently I have a Plex server and the client runs on the Apple TV, however I'm not sure how the communication works, i.e. controlling playback remotely with the flic. Not really thought through.
• SmartThings integration without the need of IFTTT

Right now I'm using the MAC flic app to control Sonos but I found an issue with the current Sonos integration, it doesn't get the current state of the player. This means, if I press the flic for playback and then use the player's control to pause, I will have to press flic twice to play again.

Therefore I use the Sonos http API in combination with the flic mac app: https://github.com/jishi/node-sonos-http-api which really works every time!

[butlerm]

I agree with @wejstal with both Plex and SmartThings integration.
For Plex integration I'm using it on a mac mini so it would just be controlled with keyboard shortcuts.

[samph]

Would also like to help beta test.

Particularly interested in any script execution.

[AntonMeier]

Thank you for the quick response, your feedback is duly noted!

AppleScript should not be too difficult and I’ll take a look at the Keyboard commands as well. Plex is an interesting one, don’t think I’ll be able to implement that right now, but in the future for sure! In case you have any more info on how that is best done then let me know.

I hope to be able to send out beta apps at the latest early next week, but I am aiming for Friday at the moment :)

[AntonMeier]

Ok, here is the first beta (v0.1.7.Beta -Link removed-). I did not have much time to add the actions that were suggested in this thread, but the functionality will of course increase in upcoming versions. Anyhow, the purpose if this beta is to allow you to test out the core functionality and stability of the app. I am well aware that the UI needs some improvements, so don’t pay too much attention to that.

Please do not attempt to connect the same buttons to the FlicMac and the HaxWithFlic app at the same time. In the future we will also add the option assign the app to the status bar so that you don’t have to have the app icon in the application switcher. Minimum OS requirement is unfortunately OSX 10.11 due to some compatibility issues.

[AntonMeier]

Here is (v0.1.8.Beta - Link removed -) Changes:

• Spotify URI
• Wink action
• Chromecast action
• WeMo Action
• App can now be closed and run in the menu bar (like haxWithFlic does)
• "Copy, paste, cut, select, undo" keybord commads now work
• Various bug fixes...

[tdupre]

First feedback, login page is missing a I forgot my password link :)

[AntonMeier]

I will add that for sure! I will soon begin with some UI-rework as well.

[tdupre]

I'm a user experience designer, most of my remarks will be user interface oriented.

Signing out shouldn't be in the main menu (make it top right out of path of work) Signing out is missing a confirmation (do not destroy work without confirmation) Vertical tabs are missing feedback on which one is active (add an active color) Skip setup is broken Tutorial is missing a back button (timed out now i'm stuck) In the providers section, they have check marks, but it should be +, on arrival we just want to add stuff

[AntonMeier]

All your feedback is valid and much of that will change :) Press the "Add Flic" button again to restart the scan.

[tdupre]

Also, right click in top menu is broken, can't quit the app. I'm mostly using Flics for scripts so that's really preventing me from using the new version right now (for the record: 4 flics on Mac : launch screensaver/ launch calc / show paste (clipboard monitor) / take screenshot part screen in clipboard)

[AntonMeier]

What do you mean with right click in the top menu? If you want to close the app just press the "FlicMac" text in the menu bar and select Quit

[tdupre]

Haha, I barely use this feature, I'm used to right click on the menu then quit like so It's also what you had in the previous HaxWithFlic

[AntonMeier]

Ok, I see :)

[AntonMeier]

v0.1.11.Beta (- Link removed -)

Changes:

• Keyboard Maestro action
• Web browser action
• Changes to the UI/UX

(as a UX designer @tdupre, maybe you can comment if we are moving in the right direction?)

Btw, keep in mind that you should never have more than one instance of the app running at any given time (only one flic icon in the status bar). The easiest way is to always make sure to run it from the applications folder.

[AntonMeier]

• Link removed -

Notice: This version is using Apple's Sandboxing security feature which means that if you are updating from an older beta your login session and setting will be lost.

Most notable changes:

• Notification Center Widgets (pretty cool!)
• Internet Request Action
• New color picker
• New welcome screen
• App is Sandboxed (as mentioned)
• more UI changes
• App name is now Flic instead of FlicMac

For the widgets to work you have to run the app from the /Applications folder.

[AntonMeier]

Hello again,

We have now released a first version of the app to the public. You can check it out on our Product Hunt page page.

One warning though, in case you are upgrading from the Beta version, is that the Keyboard Maestro integration has been temporarily removed. This is done since we want to keep the option open to move it to the Mac App Store in the future and unfortunately that integration breaks the Apple's policies. Luckily we have a plan to make a plugin system for the app so that actions like that can be created and distributed separately. This way people would be able to create their own plugins as well.

[wejstal]

So now the new app is available for the public. Does it require internet connection to work for local scripts/apps? Like the sonos app?

[MoritzSkowronski]

Hi,

am I correct that there is no way of running scripts from the official flic app?

[AntonMeier]

As of right now you are correct. However, I have implemented a plugin system that will appear in the next release version of the app. This allows you to create your own plugin-bundle that can trigger your scripts/programs/whatever. Once "installed" the plugins appears in the app as regular actions. Unfortunately no ETA on the release though..

[jonathan-dejong]

So I guess we're using hax-with-flic until then :)

[AntonMeier]

Hello, If anyone is interested in trying out the Mac app version 1.0.6 then that would be appreciated. The app contains a basic version of the "plugin system" to allow for own script execution. Also new in this version is Microsoft Flow and IKEA Tradfri lights. Keyboard Maestro action is also added once again.

It is not very straight forward on how you actually make and install plugins. But for now basically up in the menu bar you can go to "Plugins -> Reload Plugins" and it will automatically load all plugins that lay in the plugin folder. The plugins will then appear in the action list like any other action. The plugin folder can be found through "Plugins -> Show Folder...". A plugin is basically only a folder with a JSON config file along with the scripts that you want to make available. I will attach a sample plugin that you can use for reference. It should be pretty clear how the config file works, but let me know if you have any questions...

Mac App 1.0.6 beta Plugin example

[butlerm]

It would be great if there was an option to have it open in the menu bar only.

[AntonMeier]

close the application and the app will move only to the menu bar (press the red X up in the left corner)

[AntonMeier]

:)

[butlerm]

Yep which works great, but I have it set up as a login item so whenever the computer starts up I have to X out the app window. Just a small inconvenience I've run into.

[AntonMeier]

ah, ok never thought of that.. I might add so that it remembers the setting after a restart... I never restart my computer, always put it in sleep mode.. But I will add a note about that, thanks!

[jonathan-dejong]

Hey @AntonMeier Just to make sure.. I'm supposed to place my plugins straight into the Application Scripts folder? That's where I land when clicking the show folder button. So I'd create a folder there with the required json and my own sh file(s).

[AntonMeier]

Yes exactly! So every plugin would be its own folder inside the Application Scripts folder. So the unzipped example plugin folder should go directly there. Perhaps not the cleanest solution, but it will have to do for now.

[jonathan-dejong]

haha okay! Wouldn't it be pretty simple to just create a new folder like com.shortcutlabs.FlicPlugins (there's already a com.shortcutlabs.FlicMac folder) and load any folders located therein?

It'd maintain a somewhat standard and provide a cleaner way to keep organized.

[AntonMeier]

@jonathan-dejong I actually said the wrong thing! They should be placed in "Application Scripts/com.shortcutlabs.FlicMac". Sorry for the confusion.

[jonathan-dejong]

@AntonMeier ah! Then the action for opening the plugin folder needs to be updated. It currently just opens up the application scripts folder, not the shortcutlabs subfolder.

[AntonMeier]

Strange. For me it actually opens the correct folder. I will take a look at it. Thanks for the info!

[jonathan-dejong]

wait! sorry I doublechecked. It does open the correct folder! It just doesn't scroll down to it in finder so I couldn't see that it was the selected folder. Probably nothing to do with that since it's likely a mac finder behaviour.

[AntonMeier]

Ah, I see what you mean now.. And since the folder is empty the first time you don't notice that it is actually open.. Good catch.