Macro Idea: Get KMMacros File as JSON (Human-readable text)

Questions & Suggestions
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##Macro Idea: Get KMMacros File as JSON (Human-readable text) v0.1

Get KMMacros File as JSON v0.1.kmmacros (9.4 KB)

I just know that this is a really useful idea, I just can't quite figure out how. I'm hoping some of you might be able to figure out its usefulness.

This code converts a .kmmacros file to a JSON string. The result is much more easily read than a plist file.

NOTE: It doesn't have to be a .kmmacros file - it could get the actual source from the KME. I'm just using a .kmmacros file for testing.

There's actually two outputs:

  1. The unfiltered result of converting the plist to JSON.

  2. A filtered and restructured version - just the start of an idea of how we might be able to make the result even more useful.

Here's some of my thoughts:

  1. I can't help but think this would be useful for something like searching for things, possibly even doing find-and-replace actions. So far, it appears I can convert back to a .kmmacros file just fine.

  2. I like to store versions of some of my macros in Git. But comparing them to see what changed is really hard. So I'm thinking that a filtered-down and possibly re-structured version of a JSON string might be a better way to store the macros, at least for comparison's sake.

###Unaltered output:

[
  {
    "Macros": [
      {
        "UID": "C31D958F-F99B-42F8-B4D1-FE14F304E53D",
        "Actions": [
          {
            "Variable": "gkajKmmacrosPath",
            "MacroActionType": "SetVariableToText",
            "Text": "~/Documents/test.kmmacros"
          },
          {
            "TrimResults": true,
            "MacroActionType": "ExecuteJavaScriptForAutomation",
            "TimeOutAbortsMacro": true,
            "Text": "",
            "Path": "",
            "TrimResultsNew": true,
            "IncludeStdErr": true,
            "DisplayKind": "Window",
            "UseText": true
          }
        ],
        "CreationDate": 493203896.805307,
        "ModificationDate": 493204009.599146,
        "Triggers": [],
        "Name": "Get KMMacros File as JSON"
      }
    ],
    "UID": "C913CB41-43FF-4375-99C4-EE925739BE7D",
    "Targeting": {
      "Targeting": "Included",
      "TargetingApps": [
        {
          "NewFile": "/Applications/Keyboard Maestro.app",
          "BundleIdentifier": "com.stairways.keyboardmaestro.editor",
          "Name": "Keyboard Maestro"
        }
      ]
    },
    "Activate": "Normal",
    "CreationDate": 490752742.264982,
    "ToggleMacroUID": "CF50116E-47B9-4929-A637-1B4733232DD3",
    "Name": "KM"
  }
]

###Modified Output:

[
  {
    "name": "KM",
    "uid": "C913CB41-43FF-4375-99C4-EE925739BE7D",
    "macros": [
      {
        "name": "Get KMMacros File as JSON",
        "uid": "C31D958F-F99B-42F8-B4D1-FE14F304E53D",
        "actions": [
          {
            "name": "SetVariableToText",
            "content": {
              "Variable": "gkajKmmacrosPath",
              "MacroActionType": "SetVariableToText",
              "Text": "~/Documents/test.kmmacros"
            }
          },
          {
            "name": "ExecuteJavaScriptForAutomation",
            "content": {
              "TrimResults": true,
              "MacroActionType": "ExecuteJavaScriptForAutomation",
              "TimeOutAbortsMacro": true,
              "Text": "",
              "Path": "",
              "TrimResultsNew": true,
              "IncludeStdErr": true,
              "DisplayKind": "Window",
              "UseText": true
            }
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]

Like I said, by gut says this is useful. I'm just not sure how.

Ideas?

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2

A couple of thoughts here:

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