Desktop Profiles

Instantly open groups of apps and websites

Status: ✅ Live ~ there is one impermissble, hard to reproduce bug atm, haven't had time to fix it yet

Demo: 💃 https://youtu.be/CynbOIZtDZo

• Built in Go on a 🍎 Mac, for a Mac
• Works from anywhere 🌍 on your terminal

Currently requires XCode and Go lang

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Table of Contents

❓ How does it work
⬆️ Recent Updates

💾 Install
📣 Commands
🥅 Example

⚠️ Notes
🔮 Future Updates
💥 Errors
🪲 Bugs

📥 Contact Me

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❓ How does it work?

💢 Problem

I got tired of individually clicking through urls and apps to open what I need each time I switch to a new project or task. I also did not want a cluttered desktop with everything open all the time, as this can be a large drain on the computer's resources and my attention span.

🚰 Solution

With this command line tool, easily create and customize profiles (groups) of apps and/or urls and open any of these profiles with one short command.

🍏 Example

1. Create a profile called "read"
2. Add the Books app, your Notes app, and Merriam-Webster's website
3. Anytime you want to read, open the "read" profile and voila, there they are, as you last left them!

🤖 How the program does works

1. First, you download this repository as a folder on your computer.
2. Then, we run the script which stores the paths to the folder inside the program so we can reference/run it from anywhere once installed.
3. Next, the program asks you for the paths to all the application folders you'd like to include.
4. The program saves these locations and goes through them in order and stores the names of all the apps that exist at each of these locations, we assign a code to each app name that corresponds with the path used to get it. This is file is called the appDir or Application Directory.
5. I then use a package which consolidates the golang Open functionality to open an application given a path.
6. I created a program to easily create txt files to store combinations of apps and urls. You must specify whether you are adding apps or urls, then add them, this way the program can tag them as apps or urls.
7. When you run the program for a specific group, the program parses what has been stored and determines if it's an app or a url.
8. If it's an app it locates the app in the appDir, grabs the code assigned to it and uses the corresponding path to open the file.
9. If it's a url we open it immediately using the Go land built in Open library.

⬆️ Recent Updates

latest update: Sept 19, 2020

1. Added a shell script for easy install
2. Stored binary assets globally so program is functional anywhere on the cli

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💾 Install:

First, install XCode from the Mac App Store. Next, you will need to install Go lang. (don't worry it's not hard and won't take long)

Install Go and configure your GOPATH

• Quick instructions
• Detailed instructions

Then, follow the shell script installation steps below, and you're all set!

Shell Script:

Video walkthrough: https://youtu.be/c-Yz02v1Le0

1. Clone this repo and cd into it.

• git clone https://github.com/SamirIngley/Desktop-Profiles.git

2. Run the command bash script.sh, this will prompt you with instructions to enter your paths, do that now.

• You can find your username by typing the command echo $USERNAME in another terminal window
• Watch the video linked just above Step 1 if you're confused about entering your paths for this step
• This will take a minute and you should receive a success message afterward saying your App Directory was created

3. After that, run the bash script bash script.sh one more time.

• This time, you should see the existing profiles listed, and if it's your first time - you'll see "example"
• ❗ Rare Bug: If you are prompted again to enter your paths even after you already did it.
  1. Make sure you are inside the directory when you run the bash script.sh again in step 3.
  2. If you are not in the directory and called desk or bash scripct.sh, 4 additional files were created wherever you ran the command (appsFile.txt, dirFile.txt, profFile.txt, and .env) delete them.
  3. This is a rare bug that I haven't sorted out yet. Delete the app and try again - if you've installed Go and followed all the steps, it should work this time around. :)

SETUP COMPLETE, you're ready to roll! For a full list of commands, checkout the Commands section below Don't forget to make sure your apps are spelled exactly as they're shown in your Applications folders

Any trouble? Refer to the 💥 Errors section and try the "Manual Install" process.

📣 Commands:

💡 You can call commands from anywhere in the terminal!
💡 Use multiple flags together for a better experience :)

❗ If an app does not open, make sure the app name is entered exactly as in the Applications folder that you open it from. ("Zoom" might be "zoom.us", VS Code is "Visual Studio Code")

> List available profiles: desk

> List input options: desk -help

> List profile contents: desk -p {profile name} -l y

> Open a profile: desk -p {profile name}

> Add url(s): desk -p {profile name} -a url

Enter the url, and hit Enter after each one, type "done" when you've finished.

> Add app(s): desk -p {profile name} -a app

Enter the exact app name (ei: VS Code won't work but Visual Studio Code will), and hit Enter after each one, type "done" when you've finished.

> Create a profile (or add to an existing profile): desk -p {profile name} -a app

Type the name of the profile you want to create and the app or url you'd like to add. Replace app with url if you want to add urls. Add each app or url, hit Enter after typing each one, then type done and hit Enter when you're finished.

> Delete from profile: desk -p {profile name} -d url

(Same as adding except use -d instead of -a) or go run desk.go -p profile-name -d url. Replace url with app if you want to add apps. Add each app or url, hit Enter after typing each one, then type done and hit Enter when you're finished.

> Delete profile: desk -p {profile name} -d profile

or go run desk.go -p profile-name -d profile-name (after -d write "profile" or the name of the profile)

🥅 Example:

An example profile has been provided in the profiles/ folder. All your profiles can be found in this folder as well.

To run the example, type: go run desk.go -p example

To add an app (Slack) to the example, type:

desk -p example -a app Then type: Slack And hit Enter.

Type the names of any other apps you'd like in this profile and hit Enter after each one.

Then type: done and hit Enter when you've finished.

You should see a message saying you added an app to your profile. To verify what was added, type: desk -p example -l y and a list should show up of the contents of the example profile.

To add a website (Google) to the example, type:

desk -p example -a url and hit Enter.

Now, type: google.com And hit Enter.

You've now added "google.com" to the profile example. Type the name of any other websites you'd like and hit enter after each one.

And finally: done when you're finished.

You should see a message saying you added a url(s) to your profile. To verify what was added, type: desk -p example -l y and a list should show up of the contents of the example profile.

To delete an app or url, do the same as above for adding, except use the -d flag instead of -a

To delete a profile:

desk -p profile-name -d profile

You should get a confirmation message asking if you're sure you want to delete the profile.

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⚠️ Important Notes

• Only apps that have been "Quit" or have not been opened will be opened

Input:

• No trailing spaces when adding or deleting apps. Must be typed exactly as is in the appDir.txt

• Type anything for yes, type "no" for no, more details can be found about the input by typing the "-help" flag: desk -help (Exception: for -d flag when deleting a profile -> must be the profile name or the word "profile")

• Currently case sensitive - apps must be typed exactly as shown on your pc

• If you're having trouble specifying an app, find it in the appDir.txt file (which is created when you first run go run desk.go) and ignore the number in front of it")

APP DIRECTORY:

• If you added more new apps to your pc, just delete the appDir.txt and .env files and a new ones will be created for you next time you run the program.
• Same applies if you want to add new paths to other Application folders

🔮 Future updates

• currently finds the first app with the specified name regardless of location. Apps with the same will conflict here and only the app specified first will open.
• open specific "file" with "app"
• needs to handle trailing space when deleting apps
• need to be able to close apps and urls too
• DRY for reading profile
• instead of appending to profile, look for blank line!

💥 Errors

If you run into ANY problems with opening apps, you've downloaded new apps, added incorrect paths while setting up, or you move your folder:

• First see if you typed the name of the Application correctly - remember shorthand names are not recognized. For example "VS Code" is not recognized, but "Visual Studio Code" is recognized. Also "Zoom" might be "zoom.us" on your computer. Check your Applications folder
• Next try to find the app in the "appDir.txt" file (ignore the number in front of it). Use Cmd + f to search for it. This file is a collection of all the apps at all the paths you passed in. If it's not there, then you likely haven't passed the path to that app during setup and need to redo this step - see next step for instructions on how to do this. Your profiles will still exist afterwards.

To Redo Setup: It's going to easier to delete the whole folder and go through the installation again, save your profile folder if you want to keep your profiles

From there you'll be prompted to set up your application paths again :) follow the pictures carefully and add any additional paths you want to.

desk command back to WELCOME

• If you are prompted to re enter the paths - you may have missed a step. Try typing Ctrl + c to exit and check the steps, or redo setup.
• Then try running desk again and it should work now. If it doesn't, hit my line - let me know

If you're having issues with the binary file:

• Try typing go run desk.go everywhere instead of desk

Manual Install:

Try these steps if the Shell Script steps do not work.

1. Clone this repo to a location you want.

• git clone https://github.com/SamirIngley/Desktop-Profiles.git
• 🚱 You will run into issues if you move this folder after completing step 3. However, you won't ever need to access this folder. If you do move the folder after this step refer to 💥 Errors

2. cd into it.

3. Run go generate, then go build, next go install, and desk. We repeat these commands in the last step.

• go generate: You should see a success message. This stores your directory paths globally so we can access this program globally

• go build: This will create a binary file (executable) called desk.

• go install: This will install it for you to use globally!

• desk: This will walk you through creating your app directory file. Follow the image and steps below.

• 3 of the most common paths for locations of Applications on Mac are shown there at the bottom between the short lines, like in the picture, copy and paste those -> don't forget to change {USER-NAME} to your computer user name, then type done

4. Last, repeat step 3 after you successfully created the app directory - and you're done!

• If you type in desk you should see the "example" profile. Try opening it with desk -p example or make your own using the other commands in the section below

This was built on a Mac and for a Mac.

Feel free to reach out to me if you run into any issues: samir.ingle7@gmail.com

🪲 Bugs

1. Rare but Fatal: There's a rare bug I'm having trouble reproducing or finding the cause of.. Maybe I unknowingly fixed in with a recent update? Sometimes when desk is called, the generated binary assets are not recognized and you are asked to re-enter the Application locations. At this point one needs to exit the program and re-install to avoid it happening in the future, as well as delete the static assests that get generated inside the folder it was called from. This must be some form of an improper installation.

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Contact:

• samir.ingle7@gmail.com
• https://www.samiringle.com

☕ Buy Me a Coffee! 😄 Venmo @SamirIngle

Acknowledgements:

Open functionality help from: https://github.com/skratchdot/open-golang

https://make-school-courses.github.io/BEW-2.5-Strongly-Typed-Languages/#/Lessons/DocsDeploy