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Creating 3rd party file formats from inside DevonThink

Published June 30, 2020 | By Don Pedro

With DevonThink as the hub of my document management, I want to create files from inside the app itself. This works great for text related documents .txt, .rtf, .md, but what about .docx, .xlsx, .pptx and the like. Or even a document format to be named later?

The answer is very simple and I’m surprised and perhaps a little disappointed it took me this long to get around to sorting it out.

The process involves making a document of the type you plan to use in the future then making that available to DevonThink as a template.

First, within DevonThink, select Data->New From Template->Open Templates Folder. This will open the Templates.noindex folder.

Next, make a blank document from each application you want to work with in the future. For example, open Writer from within LibreOffice and save a blank document as .docx, then another for .odt. Do the same for Calc as .xlsx and .ods, Presentation and all your other document types. I have this setup for Taskpaper, Scapple, and Mellel as well.

When DevonThink makes a new document, it will copy whatever is in your file to the new document. So, it is indeed a template. If you need to add header text, set up formatting, set a default font, or add instructions, now is the time to do it.

Gather up all your new files and drag them to the location opened when you selected Open Templates Folder.

All done.

Within DevonThink, right click in a location and select, New From Template Or from the menu select Data->New From Template. The documents you just created will be listed. When selected, a new document of that type will be created with the Kind attribute set to that document type.

You can now double-click the document to have it open in the parent application. Or right click, Open With and select the parent application.

Depending on how many file types you want to work with, this should only take a few minutes.

Speculation: Could the new Apple Silicon bring back the Mac Pro 2013?

Published June 29, 2020 | By Don Pedro

This is pure speculation. A total hypothesis. A complete, "What if". But, what if the new Apple Silicon could bring back the Mac Pro 2013, or at least the form factor, as a bridge between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro 2019?

Currently, there is no "Mac." There is an iMac, iMac Pro, Mac mini, and Mac Pro, but not a desktop machine called "Mac." Something that is more powerful than the Mac mini, but not the set your hair on fire specs of the Mac Pro.

For example, a desktop machine that allows both memory and video card upgrades. The Mac Pro form factor would a good choice for it's design and use of space.

So, what if Apple made some tweaks, revamped the video cards, offered a higher ceiling for the ram, upped the internal SSD and re-offered the 2013 model as a "Mac"?

It could easily be an 8-12 core machine, like the final high end 2013 model was. It could support 64-256GB so as to go beyond the mini, but not upset the Pro. It would support the same dual video cards for higher video performance running multiple screens. Cards that could be upgraded, so it has some room to grow, but again, not the same cards as the Pro. And finally, 1TB-4TB internal SSD for storage with enough ports to hook up external drives.

The base Mac Pro doesn't really have enough power to justify the cost. Instead, you are buying all the technology and expandability of the motherboard and ram. Not to mention the massive powerfully, processor upgrades, ports and other upgrade options.

A cylinder Mac would allow ram and video upgrades, the processor would stay static, except through some incremental upgrades.

There is a lot of room to work with from the (2500 price point of kitted out Mac mini that can't be upgraded and the )6000 of a Mac Pro, that already needs to be upgraded.

I would love to buy a machine like that. I want to get a new machine, but I really don't want a Mac mini, yet I don't really need a Mac Pro. The size of the 2013 Mac Pro would be a great form factor to work with. It's compact but can still deliver plenty of power, especially with the refinements that have been made over the years.

I'm really excited over the possibilities of Apple Silicon, and I'd really like to see a "Mac" come onto the market.

Creating and Restoring Syntax Highlighting in Katalon Studio

Published June 26, 2020 | By Don Pedro

While Katalon Studio comes with some formatting and syntax highlighting, it’s very beneficial to set up your own. The time investment will be worth it later when you can focus in on your code based on it’s color without having to read each and every line.

Katalon has two areas where you can set formatting options. Both are under Preferences.

The first is under General > Appearance > Colors and Fonts.

This handles the main font style, color and size of the editor window.

The other, related to syntax highlighting is located under: Java > Editor > Syntax Coloring

You will then have Java, JavaDocs, and Comments.

Java contains most of the options you will be interested in and you will see an example of your syntax highlighting in the Preview window.

Once this is set, it’s awesome, however, when you upgrade Katalon, those formatting options will be overwritten. This is not awesome.

But, it’s easily handled by making a copy of the files and restoring them after the upgrade.

The files for syntax highlighting can be found in:

/Applications/Katalon Studio.app/Contents/MacOS/config/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings

In there, you will find files by the name of:

com.kms.katalon.application.prefs
org.eclipse.jdt.ui.prefs
org.eclipse.ui.workbench.prefs
Etc.

I copy the entire directory and store it on my iCloud Drive. After upgrading, I copy the files back to the same location, overwriting what’s already there.

Keep in mind, you will need to start Katalon Studio at least once after the upgrade to create the correct folder structure and write the new files. I have noticed they don’t exists if you go straight in after upgrading.

You should now be able to set up your syntax highlighting and keep it between upgrades.

Setting up a secondary keyboard for macros

Published June 24, 2020 | By Don Pedro

After setting up several keyboard shortcuts within Alfred and Keyboard Maestro, it became clear that I was putting together some bizarre key combinations and odd hand gestures to make sure I wasn’t interfering with other applications. Then it occurred to me, don’t video and audio editors have dedicated keyboards for shortcuts? Can the same thing be done for keyboard macros?

The answer is, yes it can. And rather easily too, using a standard keyboard and Karabiner Elements.

You don’t have to buy a specialty keyboard or programmable keypad or anything else. You can use any USB keyboard you have lying around. I have dozens from all the Windows machines I’ve ordered throughout the years.

This also works for a Bluetooth keyboard, so it doesn’t have to be wired.

The easiest way to configure this is install Karabiner Elements and go to the devices tab. Turn off all the other keyboard except the secondary one you plan to use for macros.

Then select the Complex Modifications tab, and enable the option for Caps Lock key to act like “command+control+option+shift”.

And that’s it. If you click into Keyboard Maestro and for the Hotkey Trigger, hold Caps Lock and click another key, it will be seen as Command Control Option Shift + Letter.

Because we disabled the other keyboard in Karabiner, this only works for the secondary keyboard. Pressing Caps Lock and another key on your main keyboard behaves the way you could expect. It toggles the uppercase of the letter.

This works for the standard letter keys, numbers, the number pad and the Home, End, PgUp, PgDn, etc.

You should now have 50-80 macros keys to program depending on keyboard.

keyboard-maestro-test

Katalon regression project is complete

Published June 22, 2020 | By Don Pedro

Good news! My QA automation project is now complete. Well, complete in the sense that I have a full test suite to run against QA and Production. No code project is ever really complete and there is plenty more for me to work on. But, at this point, I have a fully functional project with 30 tests that cover a majority of the functionality.

I recently finished the regression suite with all the tests running together. Small adjustments were needed due to some small timing issue, and a few leftover hardcoded values I missed on my previous pass.

A few initialization scripts were also written to setup and retrieve data before the test fully got underway. The suite also did it's trial by fire, by being used in a Production smoke test for our last deployment.

I'm obviously not going to let it run completely unsupervised, but it did very well. It checked all the data points it was supposed to and verified all the elements I was concerned with. By that measure it was extremely successful.

The next step is to keep writing and refining tests. Currently, there are no "create" tests, meaning nothing new is added to the system using this code. That will be changed for a few items as we moved forward. The next big step will be to make a complete "transaction" and verify all the information on that page.

There are several smaller tests that can be added, which will be quick to write since all the framework is in place and most of the functionality is a copy and paste of work already completed.

Like previous tests I've done, I will be getting with our product owners to see what other kinds of tests would be worthwhile. What bugs or issues are we seeing that could be detected with code? Is there something customer repeatedly do or an area that needs additional coverage/attention?

At this point, the project is working well and has uncovered a few bugs and logic flaws. When you step through the site one page at a time, one item at a time, and dig into options you normally gloss over, some issues are bound to come to light. Doing this sort of work is a great way to get reacquainted with all aspects of a site.

Sans Pantalones

You've got to admire his commitment to failure.

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Creating 3rd party file formats from inside DevonThink

Other articles of interest:

Speculation: Could the new Apple Silicon bring back the Mac Pro 2013?

Other articles of interest:

Creating and Restoring Syntax Highlighting in Katalon Studio

Other articles of interest:

Setting up a secondary keyboard for macros

Other articles of interest:

Katalon regression project is complete

Other articles of interest:

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