Hey Everyone,
Since we've been discussing what features to add to make the forum experience better, I've been thinking of ways to manifest them.
As a result, I'd appreciate if any computer-savvy members could give me a hand to achieve what I'm trying to do (or to tell me I'm doing it all wrong).:p;)
The first feature I need help with:
What? Automated posts on the forum each time a new THC episode is released, with its title in the thread section (posted under THC+ Episodes).
Why? To be able to have threads for each episodes, so that people can have relevant discussions.
How? Using Shortcuts (previously called Workflow) on iOS. It's a neat app that allows for creating scripts using various resources (including third-party apps), a tool for making tools, if you will.
After tinkering for some time, I put together a simple app that fetches a list of podcast episodes (THC in this case), asks you to select which one and creates a new note with it (and/or can also copy-paste the titles on clipboard)
This is where I come to a halt. I'm not sure how I can then make it to create a thread on the forum with the clipboard.
Notes:
- For whatever reason, the THC+ RSS Feed crashes the Shortcuts app (maybe its the password protection).
Since I didn't bother to find the regular THC RSS Feed (Edit: Found it), I used a shortcut that fetches titles from the Free-version (and thus, maybe, this needs to be in your "podcast", though I'm not 100% sure).
- Although 100% automation would be ideal, I'm also okay to have to click a few buttons to achieve this. The goal is to have a seamless experience, where each episodes are posted on the forum (unlike now, where members have to create on their own).
- I noticed also, the forum has its own RSS Feed, which I was able to make a script to fetch data from. Not exactly sure how useful this would be in this context. Just food for thought. (I wish we could reverse-engineer this to post on the forum via RSS as well)
If you have an iOS device (iPhone/iPad), you can have a try them by following the links below (you need to have Shortcuts installed to open). Also please note, since iOS 13, you need to give permissions to allow third-party shortcuts to run (due to obvious security concerns; you can do so under Settings/Shortcuts)
THC Podcast Viewer link v.2.2(via Shortcuts)
THC Forum RSS viewer link (via Shortcuts)
Last but not least, thank you all for any input.;)
PS: I will be updating the links to the shortcuts with the best versions
So the latest update I've done (v.2.23) is, I think, as far as I can get to my goal.
Basically, when launched, it gets a list of the last 20 episodes. You choose one, it then copies the name of the episode (i.e. to the clipboard), and opens a link to "Post Thread (under THC+ Episodes) and all you need is paste in the title section, write what you want, and "post".
Ideally, it would be fully automatic. However, with this method, it would allow anyone to create a thread (including some of the older ones).
Since it's open-source, feel free to improve upon it.
I think I'm gonna stop here for now, and let me know what you think, or ways it can be improved 😎
Cheers everyone;)
I was playing around with Automator on Mac to see if there was a way to make an auto-posting thing.
I couldn't figure out. But this simple script allowed me to fetch each episodes (and their short description with links) very quickly, into a text file.
If if you change the date value to "Any date" you'll get everything since 2016 neatly into one file.
I've no idea how this could be useful, but I thought I'd post it here (link).
Maybe this can help with tagging?ie, UFO, astrology, magic, water, etc.
PS: I can only think of it being useful if you want to find a returning guest (or a specific one, like say, Ole Dammegard)
