How I see my OmniFocus Tasks on my iPhone
 

I'm no developer and don't know a thing about scripting (as this post will prove!) but I managed to find a little workaround for viewing my task list on my iPhone.

Technically it's just a web page that I can access from any browser, but the main reason I created it was for my iPhone. Of course being a simple web page means there is no way to add to it or check things off as completed; but it's better than being out running errands and forgetting what I meant to do. Here's what I did:

You need OmniFocus (duh), a .Mac account, and iWeb (I used iWeb 1.1.2).

First I created a new site in iWeb called "OmniFocus" with a single "welcome" page (I removed all elements from the page). With the site name selected in the left pane, I opened the inspector and chose the site tab, then selected "Password", checked the box for "Make my published site private," and created a user-name and password. I published the page and then moved on to the next step.

Once the site was published I went to OmniFocus and chose the Perspective I wanted to put on-line. I then clicked on File ->Export. I left the file name of "OmniFocus" and chose "Simple HTML" for the file format. I then expanded the save dialog and unchecked "Hide Extension." Then I chose to save the exported file to: iDisk->Web->Sites->iWeb->OmniFocus.

[OmniFocus remembers your choice of directory, so I made the dialog box small again and now just use the keyboard to get my newest task list on line: (command+alt+E followed by hitting return twice - once to save and again to replace the file).]

That's it.

If you've done all that you just navigate to your OmniFocus site by going to
[url]http://web.mac.com/[/url][I].MACUSERNAME[/I]/iWeb/OmniFocus/OmniFocus.html. Your browser will ask for the username/password you created in iWeb. Bookmark it in Safari and sync to your iPhone and you can now see your tasks on your iPhone!

[B]Notes[/B]: I recommend your chosen perspective be in Context mode and grouped by Context. That way you can easily look at the relevant part of the list depending on where you are. ---- One cool thing is that in your "Calls" context (or where ever you put your phone calls) the iPhone recognizes the phone numbers in your tasks so you can just tap them to make the call - so make sure you include numbers in all your phone call related tasks.

[B]Warning[/B]: I'm sure that the iWeb user/pwd is not the best security and of course it's not a secure page. So you might want to be careful not to have any personal or sensitive info in your tasks.

On that note, if you don't care about securing your task list you can skip the whole iWeb thing and just export your file to iDisk->Web->Sites. Then your URL would be [url]http://web.mac.com/[/url][I].MACUSERNAME[/I]/OmniFocus.html

I hope someone finds this helpful.

This is what I do. I just wish I could find some script or such thing that would automate the process for me.

There does not seem to be the ability to Applescript the export function, otherwise I really like this idea.

[QUOTE=sterling;34278]There does not seem to be the ability to Applescript the export function, otherwise I really like this idea.[/QUOTE]

Try using the "as" parameter to the "save" command to specify a different file type, like this:

[CODE]tell application "OmniFocus" to tell default document
save in "/tmp/OmniFocus-Export.html" as "HTML"
end tell[/CODE]

Hope this helps!

[QUOTE=Ken Case;34288]Try using the "as" parameter to the "save" command to specify a different file type, like this:

[CODE]tell application "OmniFocus" to tell default document
save in "/tmp/OmniFocus-Export.html" as "HTML"
end tell[/CODE]

Hope this helps![/QUOTE]

I had to change the save path to use colons instead of slashes. So to do the .mac export:
[code]tell application "OmniFocus" to tell default document
save in ".macusername:Public:OmniFocus-Export.html" as "HTML"
end tell[/code]
That is, if you want the page to be open to the public.
Now all I need is to set the perspective...

We intend to add more AppleScript support for perspectives, but it was a lower priority than synchronization so we decided it should wait.

I thought you could set a perspective on a window by setting its "perspective name" attribute, but that doesn't seem to be working for me. What does work is to open a perspective file directly:

[CODE]tell application "OmniFocus" to tell default document
open "Disk:Users:kc:Library:Application Support:OmniFocus:Perspectives:Due.ofocus-perspective"
end tell[/CODE]

(Sorry about the slashes in my previous example: those work for me on Leopard, but that must be a new Leopard AppleScript feature.)

Hope this helps!

thanks for this!

I just set it up as an automatic action in Automator that happens every day. That way, I don't have to think about it, and every day my html of my contexts is refreshed.

If anyone's interested, here's what I did in Automator...

1. Launch Application - OmniFocus
2. Watch Me Do - had it record me changing the perspective to context, and exporting it as an html file
3. Get Specified Finder Item - OmniFocus.html
4. Upload files - I use Transmit as an FTP client, and it has Automator actions
5. I saved it as a Plug-in, selected ical alarm, and have it going every day

hope that can help someone else too...