Help with workflow for DevonThink Pro

I am fairly new to Automator so please be patient with my lack of knowledge generally and of terms. I use extensively the database DevonThink Pro Office, (DTP) and for those who know this app there is a feature that allows you to copy an item link in DTP and then past it in another database, (in my case the genealogical database Reunion 10). When you subsequently click on the link in Reunion 10 the linked item in DTP opens. This is very useful and saves no end of time. The trouble is you can not do it the other way around, i.e. put a link in DTP to an item in Reunion 10. The Automator action ‘Launch Application’ saved as a Service will, of course, launch Reunion 10 from DTP but is there a way of going to a specific item within Reunion 10? I am sorry if this is a bit confused. Thanks for any ideas.

Andrew

Hello.

It is hard to tell not knowing Reuinon, but I do know that this isn’t standard behaviour. I suggest you drop the developers of Reunion a mail. Thanks for the heads up on the Devon Think Database.

Thanks for this. Yes I thought it would be one of those things virtually impossible to do. I have tried both the Reunion people and the DTP people with this one and they have not come up with anything.

Now, if you could script a query into Reuninon, that returned exactly the record you wanted, based on record Id, and you had a field in Reunion, that support data-detectors, then you could have run a script within one record to go to another.

Equally, if you could drag out a link, from one of the records and paste into a rich text document, and you could store rich text in a field within a record within reunion. This functionality is provided by the apps made by Omnigroup (Omnifocus and so on.) Hopefully this will be the defacto standard in the years to come.

I haven’t studied it yet, but maybe this is builit into the opensourced OmniFramework.

Thank TB for your reply. Sounds quite complicated for a novice scripter like me!http://macscripter.net/post.php?tid=40671#

Actually, my point was to provide you with a foundation for some educated “pushy” questions to the makes of Reunion. “But why don’t you provide this and this, either this way or that way.”
:wink:

Another good thing might be to explore the export properties of that application, and see if you can export the data in a format that visualizes the relationships adquately, or export the data to another genealogy database that supports the behaviour you need/want.

You have probably done that up front.

Actually, for genealogy, I’d have a look at VoodooPad, which is a hypertext notebook, and Omnigraffle for providing a genealogy tree. I believe you can add attributes to the “boxes” in the canvas of OmniGraffle, and both Applications supports the kind of links you want.

There is also FreeMind and graphWiz, for creating such trees.

In all cases, you’ll have to think through a supporting structure, but you have already worked with a genealogy database, should you feel adventurous. :slight_smile:

The only place you can easily, and predictably go back again, is within a web-browser, most clicking on protocol-links, is a one way street. Maybe there even exists such databases implemented in javascript for use in a web-browser?

Thanks for your help.