PopClip Extensions

This document applies to PopClip 2022.12 (4069), which was released on 6 Dec 2022.

See also:

• Changelog
• 7 new features for extensions in PopClip 2022.12 (PopClip Forum)

Check the PopClip Forum to keep up-to date about extensions development, to ask questions, and to help others.

Note: The repo is currently closed for new extension contributions. I am working on a new, improved extension directory that will let people publish extensions to a central directory from their own Github repos. Please bear with me!

Table of Contents

• PopClip Extensions
  • Table of Contents
  • Introduction
    • License
    • Credits
    • Repository Layout & Contributing
    • Extension Signing
    • Debug Output
  • Snippets
    • Snippets Examples
    • Header Snippets
  • Anatomy of a PopClip Extension
    • Types of Actions
    • Filtering
    • The .popclipext package
    • About .popclipextz files
    • The Config file
    • Field names
  • Icons
    • Color handling
    • Text-based icons
    • Examples of symbols and text-based icons
  • The Config file structure
    • About the "Localizable String" type
    • Extension properties
    • Action properties
    • Shortcut actions
    • Service actions
    • URL actions
    • Key Press actions
      • Key Combo String Format
    • AppleScript actions
      • The applescript call dictionary
      • AppleScript format
      • Example plain text AppleScript with placeholder strings
      • Example of calling an AppleScript handler with parameters
      • Using JXA Scripts
    • Shell Script actions
      • Example Shell Script Files
      • Shell Script Testing
    • JavaScript actions
      • The JavaScript Engine
      • Error handling and debugging
      • Asynchronous operations and async/await
      • Network access from JavaScript
      • About TypeScript and .ts files
      • JavaScript testing
      • JavaScript language reference
  • Meanings of particular fields
    • The requirements array
      • Note on side effect of requirements field
    • The before and after strings
    • The app dictionary
    • The options array
    • The icon options dictionary
  • Using Scripts
    • Script Fields
    • Indicating Errors
  • Field name mapping
    • Modifier values

Introduction

PopClip Extensions add extra actions to PopClip.

This repository contains the documentation for making your own extensions (this readme file) as well as the source files for the extensions published on the official PopClip Extensions page.

License

All extension source files are published under the MIT License (see LICENSE.txt) unless noted otherwise in the readme files of individual extensions.

Credits

All the extensions and documentation were created by Nick Moore, except where stated. Individual extension credits are included in a readme file with the extension.

Repository Layout & Contributing

The important folders:

• source - sources for the published extensions (maintained and supported by me)
• source-contrib - folder for user-submitted and experimental extensions
• extensions - signed and zipped .popclipextz files built from the source and source-contrib folders

Note: Pull requests for new extensions are closed (see note above)

Bugfixes and new extension submissions are welcome via pull request. Please note the following:

• New extensions should be submitted as source files in a .popclipext folder inside the source-contrib folder.
• Please do not submit any zipped .popclipextz files.
• By contributing to this repo, you agree that your contribution may be published at PopClip Extensions.
• Submitting an extension does not guarantee publication on the website.
• I may make changes to any extension submitted.

A good place to tell PopClip users about your work is the Show and Tell section in the PopClip forum.

Extension Signing

By default, PopClip will display a warning dialog when you try to install your own extension, because it is not digitally signed.

If you find this gets annoying while you are testing your work, you can turn off the warning. Run the following command at the Terminal, then Quit and restart PopClip:

defaults write com.pilotmoon.popclip LoadUnsignedExtensions -bool YES

Please be aware that PopClip extensions can contain arbitrary executable code. Be careful about the extensions you create, and be wary about loading extensions you get from someone else.

(PopClip will never load unsigned extensions whose identifier has a com.pilotmoon. prefix, which is reserved for 'official' extensions. When basing your own extension off such an extension, you will need to change the identifier.)

Debug Output

To help you when creating extensions, PopClip can be configured to write script output and debug info to be viewed with the Console app. To enable it, run this command in Terminal, then Quit and restart PopClip:

defaults write com.pilotmoon.popclip EnableExtensionDebug -bool YES

Snippets

The simplest way to create and share extensions is by writing a "snippet". You can do this anywhere you like, in any place you can type text.

Here is an example snippet:

#popclip extension to search Emojipedia
name: Emojipedia
icon: search filled E
url: https://emojipedia.org/search/?q=***

When you select the above text, PopClip will offer an "Install Extension" action. Clicking it will install the above extension directly, without any need for config files or a .popclipext folder.

The format of a snippet is a simply a regular PopClip extension config in YAML format, marked with #popclip (or # popclip) at the start. (Note that # denotes a YAML comment. The entire selection including the #popclip line must parse as valid YAML.)

All features of regular extensions can be used, with the limitation that additional files (such as icon files or scripts) cannot be included. Extension snippets can be a maximum of 5000 characters.

If the extension is of type Shortcut, Service, URL, Key Combo or JavaScript (without network entitlement), the extension snippet will install without the usual "unsigned extension" prompt. Shell Script snippets, AppleScript snippets and JavaScript snippets with the network entitlement will still give the unsigned warning.

In snippets, name is a required field. Installing another extension with the same name will overwrite an existing one with the same name, but you can avoid this by specifying a unique identifier field.

Snippets Examples

A Shortcuts example:

# popclip shortcuts example
name: Run My Shortcut
icon: symbol:moon.stars # Apple SF Symbols
macos version: '12.0' # shortcuts only work on Monterey and above!
shortcut name: My Shortcut Name

A Key Press example:

#popclip
name: Key Press Example
key combo: command option J

A Service example -- this time using flow-style YAML markup with braces.

#popclip
{ name: Make Sticky, service name: Make Sticky }

An shell script example (new in PopClip 2022.12):

#popclip shellscript example  
name: Say
shell script: say -v Daniel $POPCLIP_TEXT
interpreter: zsh

A JavaScript example, including multiple actions:

#popclip js + multi action example
name: Markdown Formatting
requirements: [text, paste]
actions:
- title: Markdown Bold # note: actions have a `title`, not a `name`
  icon: circle filled B
  javascript: popclip.pasteText('**' + popclip.input.text + '**')
- title: Markdown Italic
  icon: circle filled I
  javascript: popclip.pasteText('*' + popclip.input.text + '*')  

A more complex Key Combo example with a raw key code and using some more fields:

# popclip extension snippet - more complex example
name: Paste and Enter
icon: square monospaced ↵
requirements: [paste]
before: paste
key combo: 0x24

Header Snippets

New in PopClip 2022.12, you can add a snippet as a comment header to any source code, and PopClip will see the whole thing as a snippet.

When using a header snippet you must specify either the interpreter (for a shell script) or language (for JavaScript or AppleScript). The whole text will then become the shell script file, javascript file or applescript file for the extension, as appropriate.

As an example, consider this "classic" snippet for a JavaScript extension:

#popclip - classic YAML snippet
name: Hello JS
icon: Hi!
javascript: |
  const greeting = 'Hello ' + popclip.input.text
  popclip.showText(greeting)

Now, you can write the same thing like this:

// #popclip - source code with snippet header
// name: Hello JS
// icon: Hi!
// language: javascript
const greeting = 'Hello ' + popclip.input.text
popclip.showText(greeting)

The snippet header should be added using the comment style of the source language, using the same comment prefix on every line. (That is, whatever characters precede #popclip, must also precede the other lines.)

Here is Python example, this time with a compact single line snippet, using braces (YAML flow-style):

# #popclip
# { name: Hello Python, icon: hi, after: show-result, interpreter: python3 }
import os
print('Hello, ' + os.environ['POPCLIP_TEXT'] + '!', end='')

An alternative way to specify a shell script is to put a shebang (#!) line at the top, in which case, the interpreter field is not needed:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
# #popclip
# { name: Hello Python 2, icon: hi, after: show-result }
import os
print('Hello again, ' + os.environ['POPCLIP_TEXT'] + '!', end='')

An AppleScript example:

-- # PopClip LaunchBar example
-- { name: LaunchBar, icon: LB, language: applescript }
tell application "LaunchBar"
  set selection to "{popclip text}"
end tell

Anatomy of a PopClip Extension

Types of Actions

There are seven kinds of actions supported by PopClip extensions.

Filtering

Extensions have access to the following filtering mechanisms, to help prevent actions appearing when they are not useful:

• Filter by matching a regular expression.
• Filter by application (either include or exclude).
• Filter by whether cut, copy or paste is available.
• Filter by whether the text contains a URL, email address or file path.
• Filter by the current values of the extensions's options.

The .popclipext package

A PopClip extension consists of a configuration file called either Config.json, Config.yaml or Config.plist, plus (optional) additional files such as icons and scripts, all contained in a directory whose name ends with .popclipext. Such a directory will be treated as a package by Mac OS X. To view the contents of a package, right click it in Finder and choose 'Show Package Contents'.

If you double-click a .popclipext package, PopClip will attempt to load and install it. PopClip stores its installed extensions in ~/Library/Application Support/PopClip/Extensions/.

Here is an example package structure, the 'Say' extension:

    Say.popclipext                  -- Containing folder
       _Signature.plist             -- Signature (official Pilotmoon extensions only)
       Config.plist                 -- Main configuration file
       say.sh                       -- Script file
       speechicon.png               -- Icon file

About .popclipextz files

For distribution, an extension package folder may be zipped and renamed with the extension .popclipextz. You can examine an existing PopClip extension by renaming it with a .zip extension and unzipping it, to reveal a .popclipext package.

The Config file

Every extension must define a configuration dictionary. This can be provided in a file called either Config.plist, Config.yaml, Config.json, or Config.js.

The Config file must define a single dictionary at its root, which defines the extension. Although the three formats are different, they all can be used to define a dictionary mapping string keys to values. The values can be strings, numbers, booleans, arrays or other dictionaries. (In this documentation the term 'field' is used to refer to a key/value pair in a dictionary.)

The choice of format does not affect the extension functionality in any way, so you can choose whichever format you prefer to work with. (Plist was the original config file format for PopClip extensions for many years, and the JSON and YAML formats were added later.)

Field names

Field names in this document are given in a lowercase form with words separated by spaces, such as required apps. However, PopClip will treat field names in any of the following formats as equivalent:

• Lowercase with spaces: e.g. required apps
• Mixed case with spaces: e.g. Required Apps (this is the original naming format prior to PopClip 2021.11)
• Camel case: e.g. requiredApps
• Pascal case: e.g. RequiredApps
• Snake case: e.g. required_apps
• Kebab case: e.g. required-apps
• Constant case: e.g. REQUIRED_APPS

Rules for transformation are as defined by case-anything, which PopClip uses.

Older versions of PopClip used different names for some fields. Where there is a new name, the old name is also still accepted. A table of old and new is given in Field name mapping.

Icons

Icons may be specified in the icon fields in a few different ways:

• As a filename: <filename>.png or <filename>.svg specifies an image file within the extension package, in either PNG or SVG format. PNG icons should be at least 256 pixels high.

• As a text-based icon: Using a special format, you can instruct PopClip to generate a text-based icon (see below).

• As an Iconify icon: iconify:<iconify identifier>. For example iconify:ion:fish. Iconify provides over 100,000 open source icons. Search for icons at: https://icon-sets.iconify.design/. PopClip needs internet access to retrieve the icon.

• As an SF Symbol: symbol:<symbol name> specifies an Apple SF Symbols identifier, for example symbol:flame. Symbols are only available on macOS 11.0 and above.

• As SVG source code: svg:<svg source>.

Color handling

Images suitable for use as icons will typically be solid black on a transparent background. Opacity can be used for shading.

By default, PopClip renders icons all in the same color, ignoring any color information in the image. However, you can set the preserve color flag in icon options to tell PopClip to keep the original color palette. (Color icons from Iconify will automatically be rendered in color.)

Text-based icons

Text-based icons can up to three characters, on their own or within an enclosing shape. They are specified by space-separated keywords followed by the characters to draw.

The following keywords define an enclosing shape (only one of these should be included):

The following keywords modify the way the text is drawn:

Examples of symbols and text-based icons

Text String	Icon Generated
symbol:flame
symbol:hand.raised
symbol:signpost.right
A or text A
circle 1
circle filled 本
square xyz
square filled !
square filled monospaced ()
search E
search filled monospaced £

As a handy tool, the extension IconPreview.popclipextz in this repo will display the icon for a text string you select.

The Config file structure

About the "Localizable String" type

Fields shown as "Localizable String" may be either a string or a dictionary. If you supply a string, that string is always used. If you supply a dictionary mapping language codes (en, fr, zh-hans, etc.) to a string, PopClip will display the string for the user's preferred language if possible, with fallback to the en string.

Extension properties

The following fields are used at the top level of the configuration to define properties of the extension itself. All fields are optional.

If neither actions nor action is defined, PopClip will look at the top level of the plist for an action definition.

Action properties

The following fields define properties common to all actions. All fields are optional.

Action properties can also be set in the extension properties section. Properties set at the top level will apply to all actions (unless overridden in the individual action )

Additionally, there will be action-specific properties as described in the sections below.

Shortcut actions

In a Shortcut action, PopClip will invoke a Shortcut by name. Shortcuts are only available on macOS 12.0 and above.

A shortcut action is defined by the presence of a shortcut name field, as follows:

The selected text will be sent as input to the service, and any text returned by the shortcut will be available to the after action.

Service actions

In a Service action, PopClip will invoke a named macOS System Service, passing it the selected text.

A service action is defined by the presence of a service name field, as follows:

The name is as shown in the Services menu, for example Add to Deliveries. In some cases, you may need to look into the Info.plist of the application to find the name defined in there under NSServices → NSMenuItem. An example of this is the Make New Sticky Note service which must be called as Make Sticky.

URL actions

In a URL action, PopClip will open a URL in the default browser (or if the current app is a known browser, in the current app). PopClip can open any type of URL, not just web URLs.

A URL action is defined by the presence of a url field, as follows:

You can also put options in the URL, in the same format as for AppleScripts. For example, http://translate.google.com/#auto%7C{popclip option language}%7C{popclip text}.

The string *** will work as a shorthand for {popclip text}.

Key Press actions

In a Key Press action, PopClip will simulate a key press, or sequence of presses, as if it was performed by the user.

A Key Press action is defined by the presence of a key combo or key combos field, as follows:

Key Combo String Format

The string format is a convenient human-readable format that can specify a key and modifiers. It is a space-separated list of zero or more modifiers (the order does not matter), followed by the key to press. The key combo string is not case sensitive.

Some examples:

• command b or command B- Hold command, and press 'b' key
• option shift . - Hold option and shift, and press the dot key
• command space - Hold command, and press space bar
• f1 - The F1 key on its own with no modifiers
• option numpad / - Hold option, press '/' key on numeric keypad
• option 0x4b - 0x4b is the hex numeric code for numeric keypad '/'', equivalent to option numpad /

The key is specified in one of the following ways:

• As a character. For keys which produce a single character. Examples: A, ;, 9.
• As a key name. The following are supported: return, space, delete, escape, left, right, down, up, and f1, f2, etc. to f19.
• As a virtual key code. For more esoteric keys, you can specify the virtual key code numerically. This can be as a decimal number, or a hexadecimal number (starting with 0x). This StackOverflow question will help you find the virtual key codes for all the keys.

The modifiers are specified with the following keywords:

AppleScript actions

An AppleScript action is defined by the presence of either an applescript, applescript file field, with optional applescript call field, as follows:

The applescript call dictionary

The applescript call dictionary lets you call a named handler within the script.

AppleScript format

PopClip can execute an AppleScript supplied either as a plain text script (.applescript file), or as a compiled script (.scpt file, created in the Script Editor app). The ways you can pass values to the script differ depending on the script type (see examples below).

The script may optionally return a string (e.g. return "foo"), and act on it with an after key. For returning errors, see Indicating Errors.

Example plain text AppleScript with placeholder strings

Within a plain text script, you may use {popclip text} as a placeholder for the selected text. PopClip will replace the placeholder with the actual text before executing the script. Other placeholders are also available; see Script Fields.

Here is an example .applescript file with placeholder strings:

tell application "TextEdit"
 activate
 set theDocument to make new document
 set text of theDocument to ("{popclip text} - Clipped from {popclip browser url}")
end tell

Example of calling an AppleScript handler with parameters

Within a compiled script (.scpt), you cannot use placeholder strings. Instead, you need to put your code in a handler and pass values to it.

Here is a same example as above, but this time wrapped in a handler named 'newDocument' that takes two parameters.

on newDocument(theText, theUrl) --this is a handler
  tell application "TextEdit"
    activate
    set theDocument to make new document
    set text of theDocument to (theText & " - Clipped from " & theUrl)
  end tell
end newDocument

And a Config.json file to call this might be:

{
  "name": "TextEdit Clip",
  "applescript file": "example.scpt",
  "applescript call": {    
    "handler": "newDocument",
    "parameters": ["text", "browser url"]
  }
}

Using JXA Scripts

Note that when using a compiled script, these can be be 'JavaScript for Automation' (JXA) scripts instead of AppleScripts. Everything works the same except 'handlers' correspond to top level JXA functions. JXA cannot be used in plain text scripts.

An example of an extension using a JXA script is TaskPaper.

Shell Script actions

A Shell Script action is defined by the presence of either a shell script or shell script file field, as follows:

The shell script file will be executed as follows:

• If an interpreter is specified, then PopClip will call this interpreter with the script file path as argument.
• Otherwise, if the script file has executable permissions set (with chmod +x) and the first line of the file starts with #!, then PopClip will execute the file directly.
• Otherwise, if the extension has a popclip version and it is set to a value less than 4035, or if the script file name ends with .sh, the script will be executed with /bin/sh. (This behaviour is for backward compatibility with existing extensions.)
• If none of the above conditions are met, the extension will fail to load because no interpreter has been specified.

The the current working directory will be set to the package directory. Within the script, access the selected text as $POPCLIP_TEXT, and other variables as described in Script Fields. You can output a string to the standard output and have PopClip act upon it by defining an after key. For returning errors, see Indicating Errors.

Example Shell Script Files

Here is a simple example shell script (this one is for 'Say'):

#!/bin/sh
echo "$POPCLIP_TEXT" | say  # pipe text to 'say' command

A shell script can return a string back to PopClip via stdout. For example:

#!/bin/zsh
echo -n "Hello, ${POPCLIP_TEXT}!"  # echo to stdout, no newline at end

The same in Python:

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import os
print('Hello, ' + os.environ['POPCLIP_TEXT'] + '!', end='')

In Ruby:

#!/usr/bin/env ruby
print 'Hello, ' + ENV['POPCLIP_TEXT'] + ', from Ruby'

Shell Script Testing

While developing a script, you can test it from the command line by setting the required variables in the call. For example:

POPCLIP_TEXT="my test text" POPCLIP_OPTION_FOO="foo" ./myscript

Or export them before calling the script:

export POPCLIP_TEXT="my test text"
export POPCLIP_OPTION_FOO="foo"
./myscript

JavaScript actions

Note: JavaScript extensions are brand new and it will take me some time to document everything fully. The following gives the basics. Please bear with me!

A note on "module-based" extensions: There is a further kind of extension I am calling a module-based extension. In a module-based extension, the extension itself is defined by a JavaScript module. This allows greater flexibility and customization of the extension, at the cost of being more complex to explain and to use. This section describes how JavaScript fits in to the "classic" extension structure, which is the easiest to explain and to use for simple tasks.

A JavaScript action is defined by the presence of either a javascript file field or a javascript field, as follows:

PopClip loads the file (or the string) and evaluates it as if it were wrapped in an async function call. Scripts can by return results by finishing with a return statement. A quick example (Config.yaml):

# popclip (this is exactly how the published Uppercase extension works)
name: Uppercase
icon: square filled AB
javascript: return popclip.input.text.toUpperCase()
after: paste-result

JS scripts have access to PopClip's state and can perform actions, via the properties and methods of the popclip global object. There is draft documentation here: PopClip Extensions JavaScript Reference.

Here is a quick reference for some commonly needed stuff:

• popclip.input.text - the full selected text
• popclip.input.matchedText - the part of the text matching the requirement or regex
• popclip.input.html - the html backing the selection (needs captureHtml field set)
• popclip.input.markdown - the markdownified html (needs captureHtml field set)
• popclip.input.data.urls - array of detected web URLs (similar to POPCLIP_URLS in shell scripts)
• popclip.context.browserUrl and popclip.context.browserTitle - hopefully self-explanatory
• popclip.modifiers.command, popclip.modifiers.option, popclip.modifiers.shift, popclip.modifiers.control - booleans for modifier keys pressed
• popclip.pasteText('string') - paste the string (similar to paste-result)
• popclip.copyText('string') - copy the string (similar to copy-result)
• popclip.showText('string') - show the string (similar to show-result)
• popclip.openUrl() - open a URL, similar to a URL extension
• popclip.pressKey() - presses a key combo, similar to a key press extension
• print() - global debug printing function

The JavaScript Engine

PopClip's JavaScript engine is Apple's JavaScriptCore, which is part of macOS. The available language features and core libraries depend on which version of macOS PopClip is running on. The minimum requirement for PopClip is currently macOS 10.13.6, and scripts can assume it is safe to use all features marked as "Safari 10.1" and below in MDN (example), which corresponds to ES2017 specification. Newer language features may be available on higher versions of macOS.

Error handling and debugging

In general you don't need to worry too much about catching and handling errors. If the script throws an error, PopClip simply shows the shaking-'X'. Debug output can be viewed in the console as described in Debug Output.

Asynchronous operations and async/await

Usually, the JavaScript code will be run synchronously (i.e., as a single code block that PopClip waits to finish). However PopClip provides implementations of XMLHttpRequest and setTimeout, which are asynchronous. If a script uses these, PopClip will show its spinner and wait until the last asynchronous operation has finished. During asynchronous operations, clicking PopClip's spinner will cancel all current operations.

The returned value from the script (if any) is the return value of the last function to complete. For example:

# popclip setTimeout example
name: setTimeout Test
javascript: | 
  setTimeout(() => { 
    return 'bar'
  }, 1000) // 1 second delay
  return 'foo'
after: show-result # result shown will be 'bar', not 'foo'

You can also use the await keyword when calling any function that returns a Promise. Internally, PopClip runs all the code you supply wrapped in an async function call, and resolves any returned promises itself.

As a convenience, PopClip also supplies a global function sleep(delayInMilliseconds) as a promise-based wrapper around setTimeout:

# popclip await example
name: Await Test
javascript: | 
  await sleep(5000) // 5 second delay
  popclip.showText('Boo!')

Network access from JavaScript

PopClip provides its own implementation of XMLHttpRequest (XHR). To use it, you need to include the network entitlement in the entitlements field of the config file.

PopClip is also bundled with the HTTP library axios version 0.26.1, which you can load using const axios = require('axios'). This is a lot easier to use than XHR.

Some limitations to be aware of:

• Due to macOS's App Transport Security, PopClip can only access https URLs. Attempting to access http URLs results in a network error from XHR.
• PopClip's implementation of XHR currently can only download text MIME types. Binary data will fail.

Here's an example extension snippet that downloads a selected URL's contents, and copies it to the clipboard:

# popclip JS network example
name: Download Text
icon: symbol:square.and.arrow.down.fill
requirements: [url]
entitlements: [network]
javascript: |
  const axios = require('axios')
  const response = await axios.get(popclip.input.data.urls[0]) // throws for non-2xx status
  return response.data
after: copy-result

For a more substantial axios example, see for example Instant Translate.

About TypeScript and .ts files

When looking at the extensions in this repo I have made, you will see .ts files. These are TypeScript source code, which compiles down to JavaScript. I prefer to use TS than raw JS as it helps me to write correct code, aided by the TypeScript definitions file popclip.d.ts. The TypeScript configuration I use is in tsconfig.json.

JavaScript testing

PopClip has a 'test harness' mode, which runs JavaScript files in the PopClip environment from the command line. It is useful for running unit tests of your code in PopClip's environment, with the same libraries, globals etc. It is activated by calling PopClip's executable (inside the PopCLip.app package) with the parameter runjs followed by the file name to run.

/Application/PopClip.app/Contents/MacOS/PopClip runjs test.js

Some notes:

• When running in the test harness, the popclip global is not available.
• Scripts can output strings with the global print() function (not console.log()).
• Scripts running in the test harness always have the network access entitlement.

JavaScript language reference

There are loads of JavaScript language references out there, but the one I use and recommend is MDN.

Meanings of particular fields

The requirements array

These are the values supported by the requirements array. Additionally, you can prefix any requirement with ! to negate it.

Note on side effect of requirements field

When using a url, email or path requirement, the text passed to the action will be modified.

• For url requirement, only the matching URL will be passed, and it will be expanded to its full form, with https:// prepended if no scheme is specified. For example, if the selected text is go to apple.com, the text passed to the action will be https://apple.com.
• For email requirement, the only the matching email address will be passed to the action.
• For path requirement, only the matching path will be passed to the action, and it will be standardized form with ~ and .. expanded. For example ~/Documents will be passed as /Users/username/Documents.

In all three cases, actions can assume that their input is a valid web URL, email address or path.

Shell Scripts and AppleScripts can still access the original text in the POPCLIP_FULL_TEXT and {popclip full text} fields. JavaScript actions will find the modified text as popclip.input.matchedText and the full text as popclip.input.text.

The before and after strings

The cut, copy and paste keys can be used as the before string. All the values can be used as the after string.

The app dictionary

The app field is a dictionary with the following stricture:

The options array

Options are presented to the user in a preferences user interface window and are saved in PopClip's preferences on behalf of the extension. Options appear in the UI in the order they appear in the options array. An option dictionary has the following structure.

The icon options dictionary

These icon options can also be placed directly in among the action properties or extension properties with the same effect.

Using Scripts

Script Fields

These strings are available in Shell Script and AppleScript extensions. Where no value is available, the field will be set to an empty string.

Indicating Errors

Scripts may indicate success or failure as follows:

Field name mapping

Some field names were different in older versions of PopClip. Others have alternative allowable forms to avoid confusion when expressed camel case, e.g. appleScriptFile is mapped to applescriptFile.

PopClip applies the following mapping to field names loaded from the config file:

Also, if the field name has the prefix extension or option, it is removed.

Modifier values