Using variables in actions

[AlexGustafsson]

Inspired by this, I'm currently working on a JavaScript to iOS shortcuts transpiler. I've gotten most of the parsing done and I'm now working on the transpiler portion of the project. My intention is to utilize this library since I really appreciate the effort you have put in it and what shape it's taking.

One question comes to mind however, how are variables handled? Most actions on iOS are able to work with either magic variables or actual variables as parameters (not input). How are these or how will these be available through this package?

[xAlien95]

At the moment, you can only use magic variables (action outputs) in strings and it's done via JS template strings and the withVariables tag function: take a look to Minimal Example to see how it works.

// We'll use this later to reference the output of a calculation
let calcId;

// Define our list of actions
const actions = [
  number({
    number: 42,
  }),
  calculate({
    operand: 3,
    operation: '/',
  }, (id) => {
    // We'll use this again in a moment
    calcId = id;
  }),
  showResult({
    /**
     * We can use the result of the calculation in this Shortcuts's input
     * by passing the string to the 'withVariables' tag function
     */
    text: withVariables`Total is ${calcId}!`,
  }),
];

Pull request #8 adds support for actual variables too, but it's not currently merged.
Future releases may slightly change how variables are handled.

[joshfarrant]

Exactly right, thanks @xAlien95.

We’re still pre v1, and there were a few things that I’d not considered when designing the current implementation of variables. Because of this, things might well change in the future. There’s a bit more discussion around this topic in #4.

_{Sent with GitHawk}