Siri Shortcuts Tutorial for Non-Programmers - Part 2

In this video, I'll present the second part of my tutorial on Workflow before it became Siri Shortcuts.

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Hi, everyone! This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar channel and in today's video I'll present the second part of my tutorial on Workflow before it became Siri Shortcuts. It didn't change much aside from the rebranding, so the basics are really exactly the same, but I WILL point out some differences as we go along. This is the second video in a three part series, but if you want to know more about what changed with Siri Shortcuts, go back to the first video. Okay -- here's the tutorial — just remember that a Workflow is the same as a Shortcut in today's app.

In the last video, we went over the basics of the Workflow app and automation. We talked about the screen setup, what a workflow is and the three different types of actions: get, transform, and share. In this video, we'll dive a bit more into the nitty gritty areas of inputs, variables, debugging, adding workflow items to your home screen, and automation for the Apple Watch (they eliminated this functionality). Here we go:

Inputs
As we talked about in the last video, each action is kind of like a tiny machine -- taking in an input, doing something to it, and then producing an output. An input can be almost anything. It can be the current date, stuff that is copied to the clipboard like a URL, or a paragraph of text. It could be the output from the previous action -- like a PDF file or edited photo. Or it could be a piece of information that is asked for when the workflow is executed. For example, in this workflow to add a new calendar event, you can see that there is only one action -- the Add Calendar Event action. There is input into this action, but you can see in each of these fields, it is set to "Ask When Run." So, let's go ahead and run it: you can see it is prompting me to fill in the info for event title, start and end date -- so this action is getting it's input from "Ask When Run." Which brings us to

Variables
Variables are pieces of information that you want to use later in the workflow. Sometimes, when you are gathering lots of pieces of information, you can't always pass them directly to the next action as input. In this case, you need to set variables, which prompts the Workflow to store those pieces of data for later use. Then you can call on them later. Let me give you an example. This Workflow is called Estimate Travel Time. It pulls a list of today's events from my calendar that have a location listed, then asks me to choose from this list of events. Once I've chosen the event, it pulls the location. Now -- I can send this info directly to the next action without setting it as a variable, HOWEVER, I'm going to need the piece of data again in another part of the workflow, so I set it as a variable, and I name this variable "Location." I'll use this variable name later to pull it back into the workflow. Setting a variable essentially sets aside this data to be called in later -- kinda like putting it in a word bank. Okay -- let's just continue to walk through this example. The next action uses the location to Get Travel Time from my current location. And then the workflow shares this information with me in the form of an Alert. You can see that it is using the input from the last action in this alert. "It will take you *input* to get there right now." I didn't have to set that as a variable since it is coming directly from the action prior to it. But look the next action is going to need the location of the event again, however, it isn't coming from the action prior. SO -- I needed to Get Variable from the variable bank -- Location and then pass it to the next action, Show Directions (using Google Maps) to that address. So, let me run this workflow for you to give you an idea of how it works (pause). Do you see why I needed to set a variable in this workflow?

So, for variables, the two important functions are Set Variable, which puts that data in the variable bank and Get Variable, which brings it from the variable bank and adds it back into the workflow as an input. You can also just call up these variables within actions. . .

[walkerb]

Always such helpful and professional-looking content. You deserve so many more subscribers. Keep up the great work!

[lexuscarrington]

Excellent video, still trying to really catch this. I understand the overall concept but trying to do it it’s not working.

I want siri to good morning using my name
Tell me the weather for the day
Read my my daily horoscope.

I would love this.

[lane]

Great job! Thank you for your videos. Looking forward to next video. When will it be available?

[shelligeorge]

I have a question that may or may not be related. If I have an I phone which I use the most and a chrome book ( old ) which I use rarely, I need to have a google account, right, and I have a google mini that was a gift. I have double and triple calendar events and my groceries and lists get added to all or none of my lists. Siri won’t communicate with google or not that I know of. What is the best way to simplify 🤔

[_ABDULGHANI]

thank you for this video i like to learn and use shortcuts app and there is another app it's name script it will give you the ability to add javascript to your shortcuts.