Parsing checklist items (with Workflow)?

#1

I’m interested in using Agenda for meetings and notes but not as a task manager. So… is there a way to take the text of an agenda note and then use Workflow (app) to parse out all the checklist items and import them into a task manager like Things?

I’ve seen some similar workflows but they all divide the tasks by line, and I just want to grab the checklist items (the tasks). Is there a plaintext separator for checklist items? Perhaps if I knew the answer I could construct this myself.

The idea is that I could take notes in a meeting only in Agenda and then quickly get all the checklist items into Things at the end of the meeting.

My Workflow with Agenda, DevonThink and OmniFocus
My Workflow with Agenda, DevonThink and OmniFocus
#2

We haven’t got anything like this at the moment. Did you just try copying and pasting the checklist? Don’t know if Things will automatically split it at new line symbols.

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#3

It gets a little goofy because it puts all of the highlighted text into the notes field of the task, instead of making it the title. It also doesn’t handle multiple lines cleanly as they all end up in one task.

The only thing I’ve found that comes close to what I’m looking for is Federico Viticci’s “Things Parser”. It takes each line of selected and splits it out into its own task. However, there is no way (that I can find) to filter out only the checklist items. It’s a manual solution that isn’t as elegant.

I’m abandoning the idea of automating this. I may just tag notes that have tasks in them and then create a reminder or develop the habit of going back later and putting the checklist items into Things manually.

#4

Are you willing to work on the Mac? If so, this seems like something Keyboard Maestro could automate.

#5

Time for an update.

I’m getting close to a solution! I’ve modified the aforementioned Things Parser to suit my needs. The Workflow now uses regex to find all of the lines that begin with “[]” (the tasks) and sends them into my Things inbox.

To execute, I’ll just copy an entire note as markdown and run the Workflow from the share sheet.

It still needs a bit more work, but I’ll post the Workflow once it’s complete.

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#6

Here’s the completed workflow.

Run it in Agenda (the paid version) by sharing the note as markdown. The workflow goes through the whole note grabbing all checklist items and puts them all in the Things inbox. Additional instructions for adding notes and dates to the task are included in the workflow itself.

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#7

My workflow (described above) stopped working when the app was updated a few days ago. The workflow had been showing in the share sheet but it’s no longer there.

The share sheet now presents very few options for sharing Markdown. I can’t even capture markdown to Drafts which is something I had been able to do before. Trying to share rich text to Drafts also does not work.

Anyone have any ideas on why this might have happened? Anything I can do on my end, @mekentosj?

#8

That’s strange because if anything it allow for more options to share, where previously it was sharing the markdown file we now make available the markdown text. It sounds like Draft only supports files and not (rich or normal) text. I can look into that and specifically send Draft a file instead of text. What about the workflow, was that using Draft as well or the Workflow app? And do you know if it relied on a file too?

#9

Thanks for the response! The workflow did not involve Drafts at all. I had the workflow set to accept all types of input (“anything”). In general, it seems that the latest Agenda update reduced the number of options in the share sheet rather than increasing them.

#10

Update: I’ve made some changes in the upcoming iOS build (currently in testflight) that should restore the behaviour to what it was before specifically for Drafts and Workflow. Let me know if you still hit any issues after it’s out.

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#11

Just got the update from the App Store — it is indeed working as it did before the prior update. Thank you so much for your responsiveness in fixing this issue! :+1:t2:

#12

Glad to hear that!

#13

FYI… This workflow also works with Bear — no modifications needed!

#14

Version 2.1.2 fixed the issue I was having. I tested and verified it was working again.

Version 2.1.3 broke the workflow again. Same issue as before (I tap “Share > Markdown > Run Workflow” but the workflow does not show up and the sharing options are limited)

Could you look into this again? The Workflow is still working in Bear, so I’m 99% sure that this is an issue with Agenda, not on my end.

Thanks!

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#15

Version 2.1.3 broke the workflow again.

That’s odd as I don’t recall changing anything back. What about using one of the other share options like plain text?

#16

In general, the sharing options are limited again (as they were in 2.1.1). Certain apps that I would expect to see in the sharesheet are missing.

The same apps show up in the sharesheet when I share as plaintext and as markdown. Drafts doesn’t appear in either one and some other key apps that I would expect to see are not showing up either (e.g. Notes and Reminders).

Everything was as expected in the 2.1.2 update. 2.1.3 seems to have limited the sharing options once again.

#17

Very odd, will investigate what happened

#18

Just wanted to confirm that I’m seeing the same behavior.