We’re glad to announce the release of Trickster version 2.2, both direct on our site and on the Mac App Store.
The most important change (though not visible) is that Trickster is now sandboxed. For us it means that we can now issue new updates on the Mac App Store. The last release there was a very old version 2.0.1.
The direct version is also sandboxed to make both version similar.
Trickster now requires Max OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) because sandboxing support in 10.7 wasn’t adequate for Trickster’s needs.
This version also brings Finder tags support on 10.9 in custom filters, so you can now base your filter of tag matching.
Here are the full release notes, compared to version 2.1.1:
MAJOR CHANGES:
Sandboxing. Trickster is now totally sandboxed, including the direct version.
What you need to know:
Launching this version should migrate your database into the container.
The application should ask you to re-add all the folders that you watch. It should show a dialog which lists all these folders that you had there in the list to help you add them again. This should only happen once.
Trickster now requires 10.8. Sandboxing on 10.7 is not good enough for Trickster.
Tags support in Mavericks. It’s now possible to create filters based on tags. The filter editor now has a sixth button on the bottom to access the tags filtering. The filter will accept files whose filters contain any of the strings that you enter there. This means that a filter that has two tag entries — “Work” and “Ball” — will match files that have tags such as “Workout”, “Football”, “homework” or “Job”. Just kidding about “Job.”
MINOR CHANGES:
If current view doesn’t contain any files (search or filter), it’ll show a message inside the list area, instead of showing an empty area
Trickster will ask for permissions to access the address book when you click on “subscribe to newsletter”
Trickster will show a popover on first launch to explain where to find the File Tracker Settings
Fix the display of compact mode on 10.9 (the path wasn’t hidden and garbled the display)
Energy efficiency should be improved when there are no files to add/remove/update in the list
Version 2.1.1 of Trickster a number of important bug fixes. It also makes the flags more visible on the dark background by changing their color from crimson to golden yellow.
Fix Trickster reaching 100% CPU usage for users during trial period
Fix number of days for 2 weeks of expiration setting to behave correctly
Don’t show Trickster’s window on launch, if Hide is set in Login Items.
Replaced flag with a yellow one instead of the older crimson-colored one for better contrast.
Version 2.1 focuses on extending Trickster’s usefulness through interoperability with OS X and other applications on your Mac to make it better fit your workflow. It also brings voice-over support. Some bug were fixed as well.
Add Share submenu to the context menu (uses Mountain Lion built-in sharing capabilities, so only works on 10.8 or higher).
Add copy (Cmd-C) support. Selected files will be copied to the clipboard, like from Finder.
Adding files to Evernote from the context menu. You can add files either to the default notebook or to a specific one. Requires Evernote for Mac application to be installed on the machine.
Voice-over accessibility support.
Preference to only track opened files. In this case, modified and created files won’t appear in Trickster.
Support Control-P and Control-N for table navigation.
Automation support
AppleScript commands to get recent entries, selected entries, add files to Trickster and refresh the sort.
Added system-wide Service that allows adding selected files from Finder to Trickster as most recent ones. Even allows adding files by invoking the service on text that includes file paths.
Added a URL scheme (trickster-add-recent://) to add files to Trickster
To learn how to use the automation features and see some examples, read this article on our blog.
Minor changes and fixes:
Don’t remove flagged files when cleaning items, just as favorite items are not removed.
Fixed: flagging a file would add it to any filter with flag set, regardless of other filter settings.
Activate the previous app when Trickster hides main window.
In Filter manager, when a file is dropped, display if the file won’t pass global tracking settings, even if it passes the filter.
Adjust window height to fit the screen, if resolution or display changes.
Trickster, in version 2.1, adds extensive support for AppleScript and other ways to interact with the application. This way you can make it more useful and adapt it to your workflow. Read below if you’re interested to learn how you can benefit from this, including sample scripts.
Adding files to Trickster’s list
With a System Service “Add to Trickster”.
Either select files in Finder or similar apps or select text that contain paths to files and use “Add to Trickster” service.
With custom URL scheme:
Use trickster-add-recent://fullPath to add the file at fullPath to Trickster.
For example, use in the Terminal as:
open trickster-add-recent:///Users/jacob/Dropbox/Public
For another example, click here to add Preview application to Trickster on your Mac.
With AppleScript
Like this:
tell application "Trickster" to add recent "/Users/jacob/Documents/Sample of Xcode.txt"
or even with multiple files, like this:
set fs to {"/Users/jacob/Documents/File 1.txt", "/Users/jacob/Pictures/Picture 1.jpg"}
tell application "Trickster" to add recent fs
The items can also be file objects and not only string paths.
Getting recent items from Trickster using AppleScript
It’s possible to get either the recent items as they’re shown in Trickster or the selected items.
It’s possible to get individual items or the whole list (which might be slow).
There’s a command refresh entries that forces Trickster to sort its recent entries without opening Trickster’s window.
You’ll probably want to use it before getting recent entries.
The list of all recent files (no filters applied) is available in entries elements of application object.
A specific item (in this example, the first one) can be retrieved directly with the following AppleScript command:
get path of entry 1
The selected items are available as selected entries property of the application object.
The path to the first selected file can be retrieved with the following script:
tell application "Trickster"
set se to selected entries
set t to item 1 of se
set p to path of t
end tell
The entry object contains the following properties of the file:
url (file, r/o) : The file object itself. Use it with Finder or in other ways
file name (text, r/o) : File name (without the folder)
flagged (boolean, r/o) : Is the item flagged
path (text, r/o) : Full path to the file as text
folder (text, r/o) : Folder of the file as text
favorite (boolean, r/o) : Is the item marked as favorite? If yes, it appears in the Favorites sidebar
modification date (date, r/o) : Modification date of the entry. Actually, it’s most usually the time that Trickster detected this change.
uti (text, r/o) : UTI of the entry
All of this information is available in the AppleScript dictionary which can be opened with AppleScript Editor.
As a user of LaunchBar I wanted to create a way to send files quickly from Trickster to LaunchBar.
I also use the fabulous Keyboard Maestro, which lets me assign hot keys to call these scripts.
As an alternative to Keyboard Maestro, you could use FastScripts from Red Sweater, if all you need is call AppleScripts.
Script to select the most recent file in LaunchBar:
tell application "Trickster"
refresh entries
set f to get path of entry 1
tell application "Launchbar" to open f
end tell
Script to get selected items in Trickster and put into LauchBar for further processing there:
set sel to selected entries
set paths to {}
repeat with i in sel
set p to path of i
set p to POSIX path of p
copy p to end of paths
end repeat
tell application "LaunchBar"
remain active
open paths
end tell
I assigned both scripts to ⌃⌥Z in Keyboard Maestro. You’re welcome to download them.
I also created a custom search in LaunchBar that uses the special URL scheme to add a file from LaunchBar to Trickster. I called it “Add to Trickster”, and can invoke with at. I suppose similar actions can be performed with Alfred or other launchers.
Another usage pattern that Brett suggested is saving these scripts as files in scripts folder for LaunchBar, thus making them available right from within LaunchBar.
You can also create scripts to copy most recent files to the clipboard, for example.
I hope you find it useful in your workflow.
Maybe you can think of new ways to use Trickster’s automation. If you think something is missing and you want more automation functionality, let us know.
A direct release of Trickster version 2.0.2 is available now. A Mac App Store version is not yet released.
The new version brings full support for the Retina displays on the new MacBook Pros. It also adds a number of new usability features and lots of bug fixes.
Not many people have the Retina Macs yet, but we wanted to delight those who have them and also be ready for future updates to the Mac lineup. Trickster looks gorgeous on the Retina. Sorry, only a portion of the screen can fit the space on the blog.
Full release notes are below the screenshot.
It’s now possible to drop files from Finder or other apps onto the Recent files list to add them to the list.
It’s also possible to drop dragged files on the menu bar icon to add them to the list. From there you can add to Favorites or use Trickster as a temporary “holding area” before dragging them to other applications.
Full support for Retina displays
Return to items list from search with up/down arrows.
Type to search from every part of the window.
Remove items from list with Delete/Backspace
Added Remove commands to the pop-up menu.
Trash files with Command-delete.
Add Trash to pop-up menu.
Accept “.” in manual extensions in filters and index.
Bug fixes
Fixed various crashes
Fixed watching the root path.
Fixed drag and drop support with some apps, such as Skype and Illustrator.
Fixed the creation of excluded files from context menu.
Fixed different window resizing problems and Favorites bar drawing.
Fixed support for Bartender app
You can download Trickster from our site or use the built-in update mechanism to update your copy.
We are glad to announce that we have released a major upgrade to our productivity application Blast. As part of the upgrade we’ve decided to change its name. So please welcome Trickster.
Trickster takes the best ideas of Blast, wraps them in a new shiny package, adds the most requested features from our customers and add some tricks of its own.
Specifically, Trickster improves over Blast with more control over the files and folders that you track, greatly improves performance, adds the much requested ability to quickly find the files by typing their name, all this in an improved, slicker UI. You can get more details about how Trickster improves over Blast here.
You can take a look at the video below to see some of the changes.
