OmniFocus URL Support -- Community Feedback

[xmas]

Hello OmniFocus Community,

As many of you have requested, we are preparing to deliver on OmniFocus URL support. In case you have no idea what I'm talking about click this link:

omnifocus:

If you have OmniFocus installed, it should have either activated OmniFocus, or launched it if you didn't have it open. Pretty neat! The next step is determining how you want to use OmniFocus URLs, and what we want to support sooner, and what we want to add in later.

Some common use cases will be to have a link to a specific Project or Action in your Focus file that you want to be able to click on to access from another application, or to link inside of Focus. These URLs will most likely look like:
("task" will be either an action or project.)

omnifocus://{task,context,folder}/[id1],[optional-id2]


Note that this URL has support for opening 2 different items, but you will only be able to open one type (2 Actions ok, 1 Action and 1 Context? not supported).

What else do you want?

Here is where you come in. We've considered adding searching support, multiple windows, and perspectives all available from URLs. However, we don't yet have compelling use-cases for these.

If you're interested in using OmniFocus URLs please let us know what the support you would want, and how you plan to use it.

Thanks for your help!

[Ken Case]

These URLs will most likely look like:
("task" will be either an action or project.)

omnifocus://{task,context,folder}/[id1],[optional-id2]

Oh, it occurs to me that this notation uses a little programmer shorthand which might not be obvious to everyone. The stuff in braces denotes "choose one" options, so the three types of URLs we're describing here would actually look something like this:


omnifocus:///task/j6a_IXfVPs1
omnifocus:///context/xy9234zx
omnifocus:///folder/uweog97a


(The other change I made in the above examples was to add an extra slash to those URLs, since the standard form for URLs is scheme://[optional-hostname]/path. We're not going to pay attention to the hostname at the moment, but we do want to reserve that portion of the path to conform to the standard.)

[Ken Case]

One of the things I definitely want to see is the ability to refer to something by its name rather than its id, i.e. I want to be able to refer to "omnifocus:///context/Home" rather than "omnifocus:///context/xy9234zx".

[curt.clifton]

One use case for Perspective URLs would be creating review checklists in OmniOutliner. I could include Perspective URLs in OO that would switch OF to the appropriate perspective. For example, my Morning Review includes looking at three different perspectives: Active Project Review, Urgent Actions, and Important Actions.

[Jottce]

This sounds awesome - I would definitely like the ability to refer to items by name. I don't know how to get to the task id. It would be nice if you could ctrl-click a task (or context, or perspective) and have an item "copy url" -- in addition to the ability to drag-drop an item as a link (with the name showing).

[xmas]

This sounds awesome - I would definitely like the ability to refer to items by name. I don't know how to get to the task id. It would be nice if you could ctrl-click a task (or context, or perspective) and have an item "copy url" -- in addition to the ability to drag-drop an item as a link (with the name showing).

Yes, we will provide a means for you to easily get the URL.

[ksrhee]

This sounds awesome - I would definitely like the ability to refer to items by name. I don't know how to get to the task id. It would be nice if you could ctrl-click a task (or context, or perspective) and have an item "copy url" -- in addition to the ability to drag-drop an item as a link (with the name showing).

I would second this and add the ability to copy url for multi-selected items. Thanks.

[xmas]

You can start plying w/ URLs for projects/actions/folders/contexts now.

There are still a number of issues, but any feedback you have is welcome.

Drag or copy some Focus item to another app that is rich-text enabled to get a URL.

[pjb]

Task link in TextEdit gets me back to a view but does not highlight/identify the task. Also, the task list elements should be fully expanded.

Can you put that URL in the URL field in iCal for synced tasks?

[s1dorner]

I dragged a project to the desktop. I was hoping for a .webloc clipping that I could put in the Finder folder relevant to the project. I was disappointed to get a text clipping with the project name in it.

[Craig]

Dragging an action to the Safari address bar does nothing for me - shouldn't it paste the url? [edit: and copying and pasting puts the action text there, not the URL]

[mtumi]

I really don't get the point of this feature at all.

I would much rather you implemented the ability to use a remote file for omnifocus, by a factor of 1000 or so.

Or maybe you can explain further existing use cases, and I will get it...

[jasong]

The point of the feature is to allow you to drag an item to another application (say, your choice of project-keeper applications), and have a way to get back to that particular item with a click.

[jasong]

I don't like that the link opens a new window rather than displaying in the front-most window.

I know: half the people love this feature... heck, I'm sure half the time *I* want this feature....

[jonmountjoy]

This is great, and even better than something I asked for here:
http://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?t=4968

Additions:
o Make all the events created in iCal include the URL so that you can navigate back to omnifocus. ie. omnifocus:///task/j6a_IXfVPs1 in the URL field of the calendar item

o Introduce another scheme, mail://.., that lets me point to mail items from within omnifocus messages. I find most of my work is generated from mail messages. After I do the work I need to reply to those emails. Which means I have to find them.

[AjBezark]

I really don't get the point of this feature at all.

I would much rather you implemented the ability to use a remote file for omnifocus, by a factor of 1000 or so.

Or maybe you can explain further existing use cases, and I will get it...

Boy, I really agree with mtumi. You guys are wonderful, and we love you; but please keep your eye on the ball. One of the top priorities for OF should be enabling remote access to our data. I want to access my actions from my iPhone; from my laptop on the road; I want my assistant to be able to see and add actions from her computer. The Web Server function is a great start -- can't you get that working first?

[cprueser]

I totally agree here - remote access is top priority. I had severe trouble using my iDisk.

[rayfix]

This is my first feedback post. Apologies if I botch this somehow.

I have noticed problems with URLs that don't contain normal english characters. For example, the main page for Japanese wikipedia is:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/メインページ

but that isn't linked right in OmniFocus.

It gets broken right after wiki/. Fixing this problem is more important to me if you decide build links based on task names. I am sure Japanese users would notice this.

[Joel Davis]

Seems to me that most of the best use cases for this have to do with automated actions rather than dragging and dropping. I'd like to be able to receive an email, quickly create an action from it (hopefully using a shortcut key through Mail Act-On a la Nik's Mail to kGTD script, or through MailTags' "New To Do" button, or a similar mechanism), and easily be able to jump back and fourth between the Action in OF to the iCal to-do and the email in Mail.

I'm not sure if you'd need a new protocol for this, or if you can just add functionality to the existing one, but it would also be nice to be able to click a url to add an action to OF. I picture reading an article on 43 Folders or Lifehacker or wherever and seeing an "Add this action to OmniFocus" link at the bottom. Click it and a new action would be in my inbox. Would also be nice to be able to email an action to a co-worker either as a link in the email, or as an attachment. Although I suppose if the co-worker has OF and syncs with iCal I could just use iCal's "Mail To Do".

[sprugman]

Add this action to OmniFocus

I really like that idea.

[timshadel]

Boy, I really agree with mtumi. You guys are wonderful, and we love you; but please keep your eye on the ball. One of the top priorities for OF should be enabling remote access to our data. I want to access my actions from my iPhone; from my laptop on the road; I want my assistant to be able to see and add actions from her computer. The Web Server function is a great start -- can't you get that working first?

I'll respectfully disagree here. I have an iPhone, and I'd love to get remote access to my data, but I actually think that the omnifocus: scheme provides a much more powerful, much more needed aspect of my information management: permalinks.

I find that if I can leave permalinks to items scattered throughout the mix of tools I need to use everyday, then I'm best able to access my data precisely, and quickly. That's more valuable to me than permanent remote access to my data at the moment.

[timshadel]

One use case for Perspective URLs would be creating review checklists in OmniOutliner. I could include Perspective URLs in OO that would switch OF to the appropriate perspective. For example, my Morning Review includes looking at three different perspectives: Active Project Review, Urgent Actions, and Important Actions.

I agree that this is a great use case. I'd love to see URLs available for Perspectives. I like the concept of URLs as permalinks, and one of the key concepts to REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is that when I access a URL, I'm given some kind of representation of the state of the resource at the time I accessed it. In the context of a permalink, I can then use the URL as a stand-in for that particular state. So if I can setup a Perspective in OF to represent a particular view of the state of my data, then being able to reference that view is really handy. I can leave a link to my favorite perspectives on a personal wiki, in a note in a document I'm reviewing, or wherever.

Linking to both data and state is really useful feature for tight integration with any number of other systems.

[hondaelement]

Hello,

I do like the URL functionality, it does have some benefit. But if we're starting an "I want xyz first!" thread, my vote would be better printing support. :)

If we're not starting an "I want xyz first!" thread I apologize.

[reesd]

One use case for Perspective URLs would be creating review checklists in OmniOutliner. I could include Perspective URLs in OO that would switch OF to the appropriate perspective. For example, my Morning Review includes looking at three different perspectives: Active Project Review, Urgent Actions, and Important Actions.
Yes, and if you consider modes in with perspectives (which I do), they are almost required. If I have the link omnifocus:///task/bYVEhoVkMQX where will the task be opened - Planning or Context mode?
Currently the default is Planning, but that is going to be wrong in many cases.
d

[xmas]

Yes, and if you consider modes in with perspectives (which I do), they are almost required. If I have the link omnifocus:///task/bYVEhoVkMQX where will the task be opened - Planning or Context mode?
Currently the default is Planning, but that is going to be wrong in many cases.
d

You can use the "Reveal in other mode" command in this case.

But your point is a good one that we've thought about.

[OOO]

One use case for Perspective URLs would be creating review checklists in OmniOutliner.

Yes, I would love to do this as well (I have a couple high-level OmniOutliner files that point to my various other files and web sites, to tie all my stuff together).

Would it make sense to encode the mode in the URL?

omnifocus:///perspective/Available/context
omnifocus:///perspective/Available?mode=context
something like that

[Quorcork]

Hi!
This thread is a bit older but the best match i could find. Now, is there a way to link to specific OF perspective?
I'd love to use this for linking from OO3 checklists to specific OF perspectives...
Cheers
Silvan

[Craig]

Hi!
This thread is a bit older but the best match i could find. Now, is there a way to link to specific OF perspective?
I'd love to use this for linking from OO3 checklists to specific OF perspectives...
Cheers
Silvan

Perspectives are saved as files in
~/Library/Application Support/OmniFocus/Perspectives/
so you could link to those from OO.

[Quorcork]

Thanks!
I'll test this soon... :)

[Quorcork]

Works great, yeah!

Now i need a faster machine / speedier OF in order to cut down the coffee time when loading the perspective. ;-)

Cheers