Albert plugin feature requests

[ManuelSchneid3r]

This is the place to post plugin feature requests. I.e. features that are not part of the core app. They are valid but optional and their realisation depends on their need and volunteers of the community.

These kind of issues cluttered the issue tracker of the core project. This list separates these kind of issues while keeping the core project clean, keeps track of issues of this particular type and provides a way to express the need in the community unsing votes.

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Plotinus extension #1109

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Baloo search extension #1112

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Qutebrowser bookmarks extension #1110

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Remmina connections extension #1108

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Tracker search extension

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Spotlight search extension

[ManuelSchneid3r]

X11 Window switcher extension #1299

[jgg1971]

Firefox plugin. #1382

I've seen that the Firefox plugin has been removed, but I have seen no explanation for this. And I miss it very much. Is there a chance it'll be back sometime in the future?

[ManuelSchneid3r]

The Firefox plugin has been a user contribution. It has no maintainer atm and is not compatible with the current API. Personally I use chromium only and maintain the according plugin. Unfortunately I have no time to maintain plugins I don't use. So we depend on contributions.

[thob]

access to Kagi's FastGPT similar to this Alfred workflow https://github.com/david-ros/fastgpt-alfred-workflow

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Generic networking plugin that provides stuff like interface up/down, wifi, Bluetooth, VPN and such.

[martinengelke]

I made a new suggestions which just aims for wifi and is maybe faster to implement (step by step)

[HarshNarayanJha]

We already have VPN built in. I have a Wi-Fi one. Making a Bluetooth one soon

#1484

[martinengelke]

Bluetooth is already included in Albert and working pretty well. I use it daily to connect my earbuds.

[HarshNarayanJha]

It does? I don't use bluetooth that much so I didn't know

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Rich text support #1225

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Multiline Display #1074

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Add customizable shortcut for applications #1404

[ManuelSchneid3r]

'Switch User' option #1381

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Show favicon.ico icons in bookmarks icons #1330

[Glint-Eye]

It would be great if there was a shortcut in addition to tab autocompletion. One that reduces the autocompletion to the closest parent folder. Something like this:

I'm looking for the file "A.pdf" with the folder path "/sentence/word/letter/A.pdf".
On tab autocompletion i get the full folder path for "A.pdf". Now i would like to navigate to the parent folder "letter". I'd suggest by using Shift + Tab autocompletion could complete to the closest parent folder path. So from "/sentence/word/letter/A.pdf" to "/sentence/word/letter/" and then "/sentence/word/" and so on
This way you could quickly browse through folders in both directions: down and up.

[ManuelSchneid3r]

Well this would have to be implemented in the core. All plugins would be able to define a semantic for this key combination. Besided the one for the files plugin i cant think of usecases/semantics that make sense for any other plugins. Then again you could simply use alt/ctrl+backspace to remove the part of the path you dont want.
generally I keep a close eye on changes to the core api. dont want to overengineer things that introduce a lot of changes. especially since i strive for a stable core api in near future such that we can finally move to 1.0. I dont think theres such a strong need for this feature that justifies this rather huge change. ill keep this post such that people can vote on it.

[martinengelke]

WiFi plugin

• same functionality like Bluetooth.

Since I am relying on a 4G Hotspot instead of a stationary WiFi network and it is often disconnecting, would be nice to have a wifi command which suggests nearby networks, just like the bt one, which is very nice for disconnecting/connecting my headphones!

[martinengelke]

clipboard plugin enhancement:

instead of copying a filename like

example.txt

into a clipboard if selected a file NOT a name of the file during editing the filename itself in e.g. finder do this:

file:///path/to/example.txt

Be aware of empty spaces

file:///path/to/example\ with\ spaces.txt

which may does the trick to directly paste it somewhere else.

You can do it optional via alt-key?

Edit: You wonder why? copying like 10 or more files out of different locations could be quite handy with that.

[martinengelke]

Add a Calendar plugin to add new calendar events:

Input could be e. g.:

cal event at 14 on 21 dur 1 h
cal event at 14 tomorrow alarm 0 m 10 h 5 days 1 month 1 year
cal event at 14 on 21/04 alarm 1 d 5 days
cal event today
cal event tomorrow
cal event at 15 on 28/03/13 dur 4 days
cal event on 25 every year
cal event at 15 every monday
cal event every month
cal event at 15 on 28 in Museum alarm 10 d 2 months
cal event at 11pm on 23
cal event at 10 pm today dur 2 h
cal event at 9pm tomorrow alarm 5 days
cal event at 11 am tomorrow
cal event at 11 tomorrow
cal event at 15 on friday
cal event at 14 on mon
cal event at 2pm on saturday
cal event at 2pm on sat every day

(There is an Alfred workflow existing, but I don't know if it is useful for somebody, I do not own Alfred: Alfred Calendar Extension)

[martinengelke]

Would be also fine to be more specific, since we already have a time plugin which covers date formats:
-> cal event 2024-12-24 0900UTC Buy Christmas Presents
-> cal event 2024-12-24 2000-2100UTC Switch to Santa-Mode

etc.

I would highly appreciate that.

[martinengelke]

There is an option to perform a AppleScript in Background which is just parsing your clipboard to the calendar app. unfortunately there is no API and therefor the calendar.app has to be opened. ;/

on run
set the clipboard to "{query}" as text
tell application "Calendar" to activate
delay 0.5
tell application "System Events"
    keystroke "n" using {command down}
    keystroke "v" using {command down}
    keystroke return
    delay 0.5
    key code 48
	key code 125
end tell

  return "{query}"
end run

[martinengelke]

Or since I love URL schemes:

Use ekEvent.calendarItemIdentifier, (not the ekEvent.eventIdentifier)
Date format: yyyyMMdd'T'HHmmss'Z'
Create URL: ical://ekevent/(date)/(eventIdentifier)?method=show&options=more

RayCast Extension

[martinengelke]

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/AppleApplications/Conceptual/CalendarScriptingGuide/Calendar-CreateanEvent.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40016646-CH94-SW3

[Dopairym]

I would like to see a Drag and drop option, like when i search for a file and find it i can drag it from the results and drop it where i want as copy

[Iss-in]

Improve timer plugin

As of now, i find timer plugin lacking in 2 areas

query format

• current query format is [[h:]m:]s which is very cumbersome to type and not intuitive at all. it can be converted into format [1h2m3s] [name]
  ie. 1h3s, 20m, 1h2m

recurring alert

• once timer is timed out, a notification should be sent at recurring interval until its stopped by user by clicking it.

i would love to implement it myself, but dont have skills for it, hope someone can pick it up :)

[Iss-in]

I recieve too many of them, and at the same time due to work purposes, i can't ignore them all anyways. So timeout is best of both worlds

Another reason is KdeConnect, which when sync with desktop,. floods with notification at once, like more than 10 at a time, closing them all manually is a hassle.

A recurring toggle can be added with default being off, won't be any issue ig

[ManuelSchneid3r]

So I recommend to post an issue at KDE connect and disable the default. If you use USB a lot I can recommend syncthing anyway. I don't have the time and don't want to workaround failures of other apps. Which notification server are you using?

[HarshNarayanJha]

I have a default-timeout set, (to 5 seconds) and albert timer notification stays for me. Also, removing it from within albert does not remove the notification for some reason. I use mako, and here is my config,

Config

anchor=top-right font=Inter Medium 12 background-color=#3434349A text-color=#EFEFEF width=450 height=600 max-history=20 max-visible=5 margin=20,20,20 padding=15 border-size=3 border-color=#121212FF border-radius=10 default-timeout=5000 group-by=summary on-button-middle=dismiss --no-history #on-notify=exec canberra-gtk-play -i message on-button-right=exec makoctl menu rofi -dmenu 'Select action: ' icons=1 icon-path=/usr/share/icons/hicolor markup=1 actions=1

#format=%a ⏵ %s\n%b
format=%a\n%s\n\n%b
ignore-timeout=0
sort=-time

[grouped]
format=%s\n\n%b

[urgency=normal]
background-color=#3434349A

[urgency=high]
border-color=#FF4444
background-color=#FF444455
text-color=#EFEFEF
default-timeout=10000

[mode=do-not-disturb]
invisible=1
on-notify=none

[mode=silent]
on-notify=none

makoctl reload // Load last config

makoctl restore // Load last notify

[Iss-in]

@ManuelSchneid3r swaync

Also KdeConnect is just one of the reason I'm recommending this change. Most notification servers have a timeout for normal priority notifications anyway

@HarshNarayanJha wont it mean your timeout isnt working xd

I guess i can look for alternate ways to do so, like changing priority of notifications or making a python replica of this extension if you dont feel like engaging this anymore

[HarshNarayanJha]

@quack-o The timeout does work for other notifications, like if I use notify-send, but if I specify a custom timeout from the sending side, mako does respect that (means it overrides my 5 secs).

It is because of this option (looked up the docs): ignore-timeout=0
It basically does not ignore the timeout set by the sender, and the default is 1, I guess

Look for a similar option in swaync, or try running this test notify-send "Hello" -t 20000 and check if it stays for 20 secs or not

[martinengelke]

I am sorting my dot files right now and there was coming an idea in order to get all my files in one place:

Could we fall back to the XDG standard, even if Apple isn't really respecting it.
I just created a config file ~/.config/albert/config but it wasn't used at all.

Heres some similar discussion you might want to look at:
Discussion

[martinengelke]

Some people might prefer it and for them it's a benefit.

We can handle it like Ghostty.org does it actually:

We use the apple standard as long as the user does not decide to explicitly create a ~/.config/albert/config file.

I would like to save my dotfiles all at one place.

[ManuelSchneid3r]

One solution for you would be to hardlink the config file. The mentioned fallback mechanism is probably not really feasible because not only the core app but also the plugins put files there. So getting a consensus is probably tricky.

[martinengelke]

One solution for you would be to hardlink the config file.

That's what I am actually doing :) as well as the caches.

Ok no problem, maybe there will coming some changes in the future, as longs as my workaround is working I am fine with it.

[Iss-in]

If it helps, i keep my all configs in a single folder, ~/dotfiles and everything is symlinked from it to places. really helps in maintaining and installing on another place

[martinengelke]

@quack-o As long as you know where the symlinks have to go :P
Thats why I asked for having a fallback solution if somebody decides to create this folder manually. The app can recognise/scan and just prefer that over the macOS one. It's more easy to maintain for the user in case some breaking structural change inside app construction.