#8

It is! You just need to change the Dropbox in the path to iCloud. I’m using a quick capture shortcut with my vault in iCloud Drive. The important thing is that it needs to be added to 1Writer’s iCloud Drive folder and not anywhere else in iCloud Drive. The examples here demonstrate this.

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#9

Yeah, good point.

To reiterate: this can work in iCloud Drive, but only in the 1Writer app folder.

That was a no-go for me! I’m not really sure why…

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#10

The Get File block seems to come hardwired to only work with the shortcuts folder on iCloud Drive. Though I could be, and probably am, screwing something up.

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#11

Right, sorry. I have gone through all this, just forgotten it… I was wrong above, it must be in the Shortcuts folder in iCloud Drive to use the Shortcut as I’ve created it.

As you’ve discovered, Shortcuts’s Get File action sticks only to the Shortcuts folder in iCloud Drive.

In theory, you can use URL schemes in 1Writer to get at files elsewhere in iCloud Drive. However, I just spent 20 minutes fiddling with it (again) and there’s no way to get 1Writer to check if a file exists without throwing an error that breaks the shortcut.

You can still make something work, but the Shortcut would need to be a little more complicated. Specifically you’d need to separate “create daily note” and “open daily note” actions, and you’d need to know whether you’ve already created the note and use the appropriate action. Otherwise it’ll throw an error and you’d need to re run it and choose the right action.

I could build this for you if you’d like, but it isn’t that complicated. The logic in the shortcut remains mostly the same, only you would need a menu for “Create” or “Open” after you select from Yesterday/Today/Tomorrow. The choice of menu would change the URL scheme action you want to use.

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#12

@ryanjamurphy Maybe I’ll just move back into dropbox.

I’ve got to get something working well. I’m hardly at my laptop over the summer which makes using great desktop apps like Obsidian bitter sweet.

I’ve been considering using Roam until the obsidian mobile apps are ready and then moving back. It seems to work on my phone and iPad. But it feels like joining the side of evil.

2 Likes
#13

The limitation of Shortcuts to write in files anywhere outside of Shortcut’s own iCloud folder is what made me get 1Writer. Since I only append to my daily note (which also as a side effect opens it) and my daily note is the first thing I create on my computer in the morning, so it always exists, I didn’t think of the case where it is absent.

I just tried using the same append action in the url-scheme but this time tried for a note that doesn’t exist (tomorrow’s date) and it ended up creating a new note for me. So perhaps, using append instead of create is the solution @ryanjamurphy!

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#14

Awesome. Thanks! I’m going to try to put this together.

#15

@KevinR, looks like @Rishi is your saviour!

Append works. It’s a bit of a hack, so 1Writer will open twice as it “Appends” to the file first (though it is hard-coded not to actually add anything) in order to make sure it exists, then opens it afterwards.

Version 2.0, usable with either 1Writer’s iCloud folder or Dropbox:
https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/7af5632295d445ea9010245d9a0f0280

Note that this still can’t work with arbitrary iCloud Drive folders. 1Writer’s URL schemes can’t operate on those… I have talked to the developer on Twitter about it. ;_;

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#16

Good luck! Here is mine.

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#17

You can ignore my shortcut and just use @ryanjamurphy’s v2. That seems to work quite nicely! Just goes to show that multiple people approaching the same problem from different angles always works wonders.

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#18

Ironically just wrote my own solution to this very conundrum (how to start a daily log on iOS). While I also use shortcuts + 1Writer, I ended up doing a different approach:

Run a shortcut that:

  1. Loads the log template file
  2. Does a bunch of Smart text expansions (e.g. Puts a copy of my calendar from google calendar, adds today’s weather, quote of the day, date, etc)
  3. Copies it into the clipboard
  4. Launches 1Writer

Then in 1Writer I have a JavaScript action that

  1. Creates a new file
  2. Pastes the clipboard

With that, I’m down to just a few button presses:

  1. Run shortcut
  2. Run JavaScript action
  3. Move the daily into the Zettel iCloud directory shared to Obsidian

Given that I have to do #3 anyways, I may just switch to creating the file in shortcuts, use the xcallback to load it in 1 writer and then again handle the move to the right folder in 1Writer to save a button press.

Thanks for the tips!

2 Likes
#19

Interesting. This reminds me of using Day One which automatically added things like location and weather to my daily journal entry as well. Curious about how you’re handling the same on the computer side? Surely, Shortcuts makes it much easier on iOS than anything currently on the Mac. We can do a lot with scripts but it’s more work.

Then in 1Writer I have a JavaScript action that

  1. Creates a new file
  2. Pastes the clipboard

I think you can replace these steps with just using their URL scheme to create a new note which automatically fills the note with the clipboard. Here’s a bit of info from their documentation,

/create

Creates a new document.

### Parameters

* **path** *optional* The path to the folder in which you want to create the document.
* **name** *optional* The name for the document.
* **text** *optional* The content for the document. If not specified, the content of the clipboard will be used.
#20

Thanks for the tip on the url - much better. Now if only the ability to create the doc in another location was there. :frowning:

To that question, the Dropbox solution is good. I already had to make that compromise for a different work flow to use google drive - and now have to deal with sync issues between drive and iCloud. Adding Dropbox seems mind numbing.

I use shortcuts now to take care of all the different forms of notes, and also have them log their creation automatically in the daily notes.

On the PC side, thus far I have left it as mostly manual and not be too rigid in making sure the same template is strictly followed. In the instance of the daily, honestly, thus far I always use and iPhone and iPad to start the day, so hasn’t been an issue.

Basically I’ve found that all my creative, dynamic and quick joy interactions have been on mobile devices - in which case the automatic logging and shortcuts work great.

For dedicated higher level thinking (I call it ZettelTime :slight_smile: I use obsidian, and in this case it’s all about fleshing, linking and tagging. For that I don’t need the automation, beyond writing a python script or two (Which I’m hoping one day I will be able to launch from inside obsidian via an action link - just haven’t figured out how to make that work just yet.)

Thanks Rishi for your feedback - it’s fun to see how similar our setups are.

2 Likes
#21

Sounds great! It is surprising how some of the automation is so much simpler on iOS devices vs PC/Macs.

I’m guessing the reason you’re not using iCloud for your vault is because of being on a PC? I just want to clarify, if not for you then for others, that 1Writer’s URL scheme does have a path parameter to create a note in any location, as long as that location is inside 1Writer’s iCloud folder.

I have another old shortcut which creates a movie journal log (formatted as a table) which I used with Day One and later modified it for Obsidian. I used another method to get those notes in my Films folder in the vault. Since Shortcuts cannot write to files outside of the Shortcuts folder in iCloud, I created a folder called Films for Obsidian in there and setup a folder action on the Mac to move any file found here to the Films folder in Obsidian vault. I certainly wouldn’t depend on something like this to sync the entire vault but for a few notes like this it works quite well and almost instantly.

Now, after seeing your workflow, I think it’s time for me to update it perhaps to directly save it to the Obsidian vault since it resides in 1Writer now.

Thanks for sharing your workflow! If you don’t mind, would you share your shortcut (removing any personal details) for the daily note? It seems like it replicates almost all of Day One’s functionality. Perhaps create a separate thread so it’s more noticeable for everyone.

1 Like
#22

I keep getting an error that it can’t find the folder

/Dropbox

I don’t have the slash in the configuration. So not sure why it is failing for me, maybe something with my Dropbox setup? (Which is standard)’

I also have an underscore in my Vault name, maybe that?

#23

It’s hard to guess without more info, sorry. When you first install the shortcut, does it ask you the two import questions? Those are all you should need to modify in order to set up the shortcut—you shouldn’t edit anything in the shortcut itself!

#24

FWIW, I’ve been struggling with using 1Writer as my Obsidian iPadOS app (until their app is released). For me, the easy part, in this work around is that I do not use 1Writer for anything else. It was easy to create a sub folder in the iPadOS iCloud 1Writer sandboxed “root’ folder. It was also easy to point Obsidian to that sub folder. The problem for me became trying to have the Shortcut app use the 1Writer URL Scheme to access anything OTHER than the Root folder when trying to create a new file (Zettel). I finally accomplished it by setting up the Obsidian sub-folder as the Default folder in the General section of the 1Writer Settings screen (below). From there I didn’t need to use the URL “path” instructions and my Shortcut worked. YMMV!

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#25

How can I change the file name from YYYY-MM-DD.md to YYYYMMDD.md?

My scripting skills are weak…

#26

Which file name? New daily notes in Obsidian? See Preferences → Plugins → Daily Note and remove the dashes in the template note title there.

#27

The Template in Obisdian is set to be without dashes. The Shortcut script creates md files with dashes, which is what I’m trying to change.