Can I Open Expand Variable in Open URL Action?

I have this macro :

I will have a link in my clipboard and I wish to open it in my browser. However it seems that I can't expand Current Clipobard in there. What can I do to get around that?

Thank you for any help.

This works :

But still its quite strange I can't expand a variable in Open URL action.

It seems to work as expected for me. Have you tried the new %SystemClipboard% token instead of %CurrentClipboard%?

It should work fine as long as the clipboard contains a valid URL.

It is orange because the clipboard does not currently contain a URL.

Keyboard Maestro color codes are generally:

  • Red: This will not work
  • Orange: This would not work right now, but might work is something external changes.

So, for example, a calculation like " 1 + * & 4 " will show in red - nothing you do will make that work. A calculation like “Some Weird Variable Name + 4” will show in orange. It wont work currently, but if you defined “Some Weird Variable Name” to some number, then all would be well.

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It is still failing for me.

It seems KM does not expand the Keyword.

SystemClipboard will have some string inside and I want to search for that string on Godoc website. But KM does not expand the variable :

I also tried with CurrentClipboard. Doesn't work too. :disappointed:

I can confirm %SystemClipboard% does not work in the Open URL Action,
but, %CurrentClipboard% does work for me.

Try a simple action like with, with a full URL on the Clipboard:

I strongly suspect that the reason the action is failing is because at the time you execute it, the clipboard contains text that is not properly formatted as a URL.

If you are going to do this test, make sure the clipboard has a single alphabetic word copied.

Because if you copy "two words" or "%SystemClipboard%" or pretty much any other real world text, the URL will be invalid.

Good point, Peter.

@nikivi,

Before you use what's on the clipboard, you need to Percent Encode it.
I have a similar Macro that does this, AFTER setting a variable to the clipboard:

It works flawlessly.

@JMichaelTX I have tried your solution and couldn't make the front browser to open the url. Here is my full macro:

Most likely it is not a valid URL.
Display in Window the URL before you try to open it.
If you can't resolve it, post the URL here.

Here it is the modified macro. Opens_A_Random_Url_From_A_File.kmmacros (3.3 KB)

I added the Display Text action. It displays the same url all the time.

The file Je.txt contains the three following urls:

https://github.com/vanila-io/wireflow
https://github.com/vanila-io
https://github.com/

I successfully created a macro with only a New Front Browser Tab with URL “https://github.com/vanila-io/wireflow” action triggered by a keyboard shortcut. When triggered, the url is successfully opened in the front browser.

In your Display Text action, the SGCURL variable has a double underscore in it while in the Set Variable action above it the SGCURL variable has only a single underscore in it. That means you have two different variables which might explain the problem. Same problem with your SGCSEARCHTEXT variable.

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After a few trial, I realised it was easier than I thought and ended with this macro:

In my case I had to drop down to shell script for a opening a url from a variable:

I couldn't get the Open action to work, I also tried with %Variable%OpenURL%.

Hey Felipe,

You should always use the full variable format: %Variable%OpenURL% – otherwise it can be difficult to decipher what is a variable and what is a text-token.

It also helps if you use the correct action for the job:

Open a URL:

image

You used an Open a File Folder or Application action.

image

It's an easy mistake to make.

-Chris

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Thank you for that, it is something I always wondered about.


:flushed:

Hopefully next time I'll pick the correct one.

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