iNik
11-27-2007, 11:43 AM
I just completed a mad plan to enable me to add tasks to my OmniFocus inbox from anywhere, anytime, even if my Mac is unavailable (which it usually is). This is not for the faint of heart, but it isn't that hard to set up if you're fairly geeky.
What I did was set up a Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/) to capture OmniFocus tasks. I then used Griffin's Proxi application (http://proxi.griffintechnology.com/) to monitor that twitter account. Upon receiving a new tweet, it posts said tweet to OmniFocus.
Here's how:
Go to twitter.com (http://www.twitter.com/) and create a new account for your tasks. (You COULD use your regular Twitter account, if you have one, but that will cause all your new tasks to get sent to all your friends -- probably not ideal.)
You'll probably want to click "protect my updates" in the Settings area. That will ensure that nobody else can twitter to you. (You will NEVER tweet to this account from another twitter account, only from your own, so it's quite safe from other folks sending tasks to you.)
Then install Proxi (http://proxi.griffintechnology.com/), and create a new Twitter Monitor trigger. Set whatever you want in there, I have a filter of "screenname" just in case something goes weird and I get a tweet from another account. Do as you like.
For the action, just set up an AppleScript that says:
Tell Application "OmniFocus" to tell default document
parse tasks with transport text("MESSAGE")
end tell
Note that MESSAGE should be dragged and dropped from the variables pane, and that you must manually enclose it in quotes.
You may also want to add a screen message or growl notification task to alert you that you got a new task. Totally up to you.
From Twitter, you can just post to the "What are you doing?" screen to "tweet," and thereby give Proxi a new task to send to OmniFocus. (Yup, universal web-based task entry.) You can also set up an IM account and/or an SMS interface, so you can set up new tasks via either service.
For even greater fun, sign up for the Jott service (http://www.jott.com/) and add a Twitter link (http://www.jott.com/how-to/jott-links). Now you can phone up OmniFocus to add tasks!
If you want to email into Twitter (especially handy for those of us using Gmail who can't take advantage of scriptable mail rules), try EmailTwitter (http://emailtwitter.com/).
For any and all of these interfaces, the text will be parsed using the same rules as the mail rule or Quicksilver script, so you can direct to > Projects, @Contexts, etc. (SAYING those things to Jott on the phone may be tricky, however)
The best part is that all of this inbox-filling-fun can happen asynchronously from your OmniFocus usage. There's no need to keep your Mac on serving a web interface or anything. As soon as your Mac boots up/wakes up, it'll pull in all the waiting tasks from Twitter.
The potential downside is that all of this stuff is sent plain text and shared with a variety of services. If your tasks have anything sensitive in them, you may want to consider jotting them down in a notebook and entering them later.
What I did was set up a Twitter account (http://www.twitter.com/) to capture OmniFocus tasks. I then used Griffin's Proxi application (http://proxi.griffintechnology.com/) to monitor that twitter account. Upon receiving a new tweet, it posts said tweet to OmniFocus.
Here's how:
Go to twitter.com (http://www.twitter.com/) and create a new account for your tasks. (You COULD use your regular Twitter account, if you have one, but that will cause all your new tasks to get sent to all your friends -- probably not ideal.)
You'll probably want to click "protect my updates" in the Settings area. That will ensure that nobody else can twitter to you. (You will NEVER tweet to this account from another twitter account, only from your own, so it's quite safe from other folks sending tasks to you.)
Then install Proxi (http://proxi.griffintechnology.com/), and create a new Twitter Monitor trigger. Set whatever you want in there, I have a filter of "screenname" just in case something goes weird and I get a tweet from another account. Do as you like.
For the action, just set up an AppleScript that says:
Tell Application "OmniFocus" to tell default document
parse tasks with transport text("MESSAGE")
end tell
Note that MESSAGE should be dragged and dropped from the variables pane, and that you must manually enclose it in quotes.
You may also want to add a screen message or growl notification task to alert you that you got a new task. Totally up to you.
From Twitter, you can just post to the "What are you doing?" screen to "tweet," and thereby give Proxi a new task to send to OmniFocus. (Yup, universal web-based task entry.) You can also set up an IM account and/or an SMS interface, so you can set up new tasks via either service.
For even greater fun, sign up for the Jott service (http://www.jott.com/) and add a Twitter link (http://www.jott.com/how-to/jott-links). Now you can phone up OmniFocus to add tasks!
If you want to email into Twitter (especially handy for those of us using Gmail who can't take advantage of scriptable mail rules), try EmailTwitter (http://emailtwitter.com/).
For any and all of these interfaces, the text will be parsed using the same rules as the mail rule or Quicksilver script, so you can direct to > Projects, @Contexts, etc. (SAYING those things to Jott on the phone may be tricky, however)
The best part is that all of this inbox-filling-fun can happen asynchronously from your OmniFocus usage. There's no need to keep your Mac on serving a web interface or anything. As soon as your Mac boots up/wakes up, it'll pull in all the waiting tasks from Twitter.
The potential downside is that all of this stuff is sent plain text and shared with a variety of services. If your tasks have anything sensitive in them, you may want to consider jotting them down in a notebook and entering them later.