Trickster 2.1.1 fixes bugs and changes the flag

Jan 14, 2013 | Trickster

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.

Update Trickster through its auto-update feature or download Trickster from our site.

Trickster 2.1 release notes

Nov 27, 2012 | Trickster

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.

Update Trickster through its auto-update feature or download Trickster from our site.

New features

• 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 automation in version 2.1

Nov 26, 2012 | Trickster

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.

The scripts were written with the help of Brett Terpstra and Eugene Gordin.

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.

Trickster 2.0.2 brings Retina support and more features

Jul 25, 2012 | Trickster

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.