Under review

Create Textastic deep links into a file in Files

6 years ago • updated 6 years ago • 3

Hi,

I would like to use Textastic everywhere for accessing markdown text files which I keep in iCloud Drive or in Dropbox, which are both accessible via Files.

However,I don’t want to have to launch textastic whenever I do this. I want to be able to store URLs referring to particular files in other apps, like OmniFocus, Notes, etc..

Does Textastic have an ability to generate a deep link that refers to a specific file that Textastic can edit through the Files system? If so, then I could just start using these Textastic URLs everywhere.

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Under review

6 years ago

I'm not sure if I understand. After you use the "Open…" command in Textastic to open a file from iCloud Drive or Dropbox, you can use the list of recent files to open the same file again. The list of recent files is basically a list of deep links to previously opened files: https://www.textasticapp.com/v7/manual/managing_files/recent_files.html

You can also directly open Textastic from the Files app:

tap and hold the file you want to open in Textastic
tap "Share"
choose "Copy to Textastic" or "Open in Textastic" (if you see "Copy to Textastic": this is a bug in iOS, it changes to "Open in Textastic" after the first use)

Next time you tap on a file with the same file extension, it will be automatically opened in Textastic.

6 years ago

Hmm, after I re-read your post I think I do understand now.

Currently, you can only use x-callback-url calls to open files stored in "Local Files" or "iCloud" in Textastic - but not files stored in external file providers. See https://www.textasticapp.com/v7/manual/integration_other_apps/x-callback-url.html#open

6 years ago

Okay, I was afraid that was the case.

But can I take this opportunity to suggest that this would be an AMAZING feature? Here's why:

- it would unlock the ability to use Textastic as the universal text editor on an iOS device. In any other app which had a text editor which I didn't want to use, because I didn't want the text to be locked in that app's silo, I could instead just put in a Texttastic URL to the text file in an external file provider

- this would enable workflows with better integration with the Mac, since on a Mac I can use a text editor of my choice to get at synced files on external file providers, and I will often prefer to do this than use, for instance, the text editor embedded in a Reminder's optional note.

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