The ideal photo upload to Micro.blog for my workflow would start in Drafts, use an Action to select photo(s), generate alt text with AI, upload it/them to Micro.blog, and then paste the Markdown with alt text at the cursor in Drafts.
I currently have two separate actions/shortcuts for doing this.
@jsonbecker Now that Black Ink is on iOS, let’s give @danielpunkass another 10 years for MarsEdit ☺️
@the @ddanielson @jsonbecker @pratik It's not MarsEdit but iA Writer is an excellent option for easy publishing of posts with photos.
@pratik If one is using iA Writer to write a post it's as simple as tapping the Command Keyboard button (onscreen shortcut) which has an option to add a photo to the current document. That brings up the Photos chooser. That will insert the photo. Done. Unfortunately it only allows one photo at a time.
It's possible to then just publish the draft straight to micro.blog and it will bring up the draft ready to edit in browser.
The only downside of this method is that there is no setting for the save location or quality size of the saved image on the local device. It just places a jpeg into the same directory as the text file you are editing.
@pratik Oh, I don't think it's anything like Word Press content blocks. I could be wrong but if it's anything like the iPad it would be just drag and drop from the Finder or Photos app into the document? Or if you want to keep things organized in an images folder or something just type in the path. It looks flexible. On my iPad I use the button shortcut they provide or just type in the Markdown as needed: . I'm surprised they don't offer the similar shortcuts on the Mac but I can't test.
@pratik I've got this exact workflow using a series of shortcuts and one action that kicks off the shortcuts:
Happy to assist in getting it set up too if you try it and want any help.
@jarrod Really? How have I missed this? I’ll look at this tomorrow on the Mac and yup, I’ll reach out for help.
@pratik It’s not something I’ve posted about because I’ve only recently gotten it all working right, and it’s not super polished yet. But it works!
@jarrod Sorry, I'm afraid if you haven't already figured it out, it will be impossible for me to do so 🤷♂️😆
@jarrod Not working. I downloaded the action and the shortcut that the Drafts Action mentions. What other shortcuts does it need since you said, series of shortcuts? Doesn't it need a Micro.blog app token?
@pratik This is the flow:
@jarrod Never mind. The name of the second shortcut in the Drafts Upload Helper was wrong. Pointed it out to the right one and it works now. BTW how important is it to open the image in Preview? Also, > 20 MB images throw up an error.
@pratik Ah, gotcha. Glad it’s working! It’s not important to preview the image, you can delete those steps if you want.
@pratik Is the error coming from Micro.blog or OpenAI, do you know? I can’t say I’ve tried it with a 20 MB file.
@jarrod I should’ve checked the error. I was trying to get it to work. I’ll do that next time. Thanks again.
@jarrod Strangely, the Action is not working from my iMac. It had worked an hour ago on my MBP 😑
Getting the same error as a few people earlier last week:
{"error":{"param":null,"message":"'url' field cannot be empty.","code":null,"type":"invalid_request_error"}}
Or
{"error":{"param":null,"message":"Invalid base64 image_url.","code":null,"type":"invalid_request_error"}}
...for the OpenAI part but strangely, if I run it as a standalone shortcut, it works just fine.
@pratik How strange! I wonder if it works for that image on your MBP? Like, is it the image or the environment that’s causing the error.
@jarrod 🤷🏽♂️ If I choose PNG as an image option, it works! But not if I select JPEG. Anyhoo! Time for bed. I'll try again tomorrow from my MBP and then the iMac.
@jarrod quick update - it worked on the phone last night but now it won’t work anywhere - phone, MBP, or iMac. Same error as I mentioned earlier. Sigh! I guess, I’ll remove everything and start over later in the evening.
@jarrod
- Started over
- Deleted the action, shortcuts, Mb token, OpenAI API key
- Reinstalled all with new token and key first on my iMac.
- First try - uploading a JPG image gave the same error.
- Tried uploading as a PNG and it worked perfectly with the alt text and all 🙌🏽
- Retried JPG and this time it worked but the alt text was for the previous PNG 🫠
- Same alt text with any other image uploaded as JPG.
- Tried with a new image and uploaded PNG and worked perfectly.
Worked as described above also on iPhone. On MBP (work laptop but have admin privileges and had worked last night), the Action throws up an error 😵💫
Potential reasons: I have another OpenAI API key saved as part of Drafts credentials for another AI-related shortcut by FlohGro. It works just fine and always has.
@pratik Wow, that is frustratingly inconsistent. I’ve never gotten that error from OpenAI. I’ll have to do some digging when I’m back at my Mac.
I don’t think the other OpenAI API key would interfere because it doesn’t uses the API in Drafts at all, just in Shortcuts.
@jarrod Thanks. Let me know if you find something. You're right about the OpenAI API key. I was wondering since that's the part that's failing. I'll try to do some digging at my end, too. It's frustrating coz it clearly works when we upload as PNG files but not JPEG. Perhaps something about the encoding, etc., on my computer.
