Enable passing arguments when opening a program/file

[limacohen]

Maybe I'm missing it but I don't know if it's currently possible to add arguments / launch parameters to a program from Flow Launcher. Same thing should also be possible with other filetypes since many scripts (.ahk, .ps1, .bat, etc) rely on this.

[taooceros]

I feel like you can create a lnk with the argument and put that lnk (or a script) into the program index.

[taooceros]

You can add the wanting suffix here. Script file should work.

[limacohen]

Thank you for your solution but it only works if the arguments are fixed. Sorry if I didn't make myself clear in the first place. The argument(s) I intend to use change all the time, often several times in a row. Example: I run a file called test.ahk that takes an argument and does something with it. I call it with different values all the time, and many times in a row. In other launchers I've used (like Keypirinha or Alfred) you just press Tab or Space and write whatever you want, and it gets passed through to the executable/file.

There are also more common uses than custom scripts. For instance, I also access several client PCs in a day using AnyDesk, and you can pass the PC's ID to connect automatically just by doing "AnyDesk.exe 1234 5678". This number at the end changes all the time of course.

[taooceros]

Ah I get you. Currently there's no way to do this sorry.

We can add it in the future, but probably not the way as you describe since the query is used as searching, so that will be confusing. What about add a context menu item that allows specifying argument?

[limacohen]

We can add it in the future, but probably not the way as you describe since the query is used as searching, so that will be confusing. What about add a context menu item that allows specifying argument?

I understand, but I'm not sure if "the query is used as searching" is really a problem here. As it stands now, if I search for "anydesk" and press Tab, nothing happens. So I could just press Tab at that point, and then put whatever I want and it should be treated as the argument(s) to pass through. Since I already selected the file, the search query is not used anymore.
This is the way Keypirinha handles it right now and it's very clean:

A context menu item is acceptable too, but there are caveats. It's obviously more cumbersome to select, and it wouldn't save the history of the arguments, which would be a useful addition down the road.

[taooceros]

That looks interesting. I will check with others about the implementation proposal.

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[jjw24]

@limacohen how many programs do you use in total with custom arguments?

[limacohen]

Idk if I'm the best use case because I'm a dev but I use them mostly in .bat's and .ahk's.

[jjw24]

Is it a wide range of programs that you use on though? I am trying to assess how applicable this maybe for programs because it would only be a set of them that you would need custom args for right?

[limacohen]

I would say it's a wide range, yeah. Yesterday I came across some project and suddenly I had to pass custom args to their otvdm.exe. That's the kind of flexibility I would expect from such a feature.

[taooceros]

We may need to have a discussion about how to design the ui. The current context menu doesn't allow passing argument, while the query box is only used to search which context menu we want.
Therefore, the simplest way of handling this is to use a pop windows with textbox, but that may be a bit ugly. @onesounds what do you think about the UI/UX design for context menu with argument?

[jjw24]

When we think about UI/UX lets lean towards enabling a plugin to handle this than building this capability into Flow itself.

[gabrieldelaparra]

I have created a sample project using Avalonia NXUI with flowLauncher. At the moment it is just a sample, but I think that it might be easy to adopt: https://github.com/gabrieldelaparra/FlowLauncherNXUI

[jjw24]

Lets convert this issue to discussion as we need more specific design details before proceeding.

[jjw24]

This may be more applicable for Explorer plugin to handle than Program plugin.

[Garulf]

I feel like this is a perfect problem to fix for a plugin. However it feels wrong to have multiple plugins for every program that would require this.

Having the Program plugin accept custom arguments in the context menu is probably the best solution that fits the current design.

[schmic]

Hello,

I found FlowLauncher this morning but not being able to pass arguments is a killer for me.
You asked for examples where this might me useful:

• SSHing into various servers
  • ssh ${1}
  • wezterm ssh ${1}
  • wsl -- ssh ${1}
• Opening VS Code with specific project folders
  • wsl -- code ~/workspace/${1}
• Starting browser with different profiles
• Starting different WSL distributions
  • wsl -d ${1}
• Starting different commands with WSL
  • wsl -- tmuxinator start local-dev ${1}

Hope this helps a bit with the "Why".

[jjw24]

This can be done with the Runner plugin, which allows dynamic params.

[onesounds]

The keyprinha implementation is also a bit odd by my standards.
I thought we could just implement it like cmd,
I've always thought about this, but is it hard to just implement?

for example...

• google.com -p
• anydesk -1234 456

I didn't understand the context menu thing.
Do we really need this argument function in the context menu?

[limacohen]

This will be even more confusing since some arguments already use a - prefix, and some use -- or more. So to do --something you'd have to do ---something or even ---something --something-else, leading to potential mishaps.

[jjw24]

I will take a look at the Runner plugin later to see if it can be/is fitted for this purpose.

[rsyqvthv]

yes, I would like this be implement, as this is one of core function of quick luncher, even in launchy age has the "run" command.

A very obvious usage example is ffmpeg, I would say it can't live without arguments.
and youtube-dl, and imagemagick...

I've test the runner, it's not working in simple way it should be.
as I had make a lots of (50+) bat commands which made handling arguments,
it's like I have to make a links one by one again to flow-launcher.

I think give program plugin abilty to handling the arguments will be the best way.

let the runner merged with shell.

[jjw24]

let the runner merged with shell

Interesting proposal, worth looking into.

[Novack]

Launchy allowed to pass params by pressing tab. It was denoted in the query input field by a special arrow char "►".

This is super useful, and the only way to get it with Flow has been using Plugin Runner, which of course only works for predefined aliases.

[ckolumbus]

I just want to chime in here because this is also a killer feature for me. I'm coming from keypirinha and i have a lot of programs where I want to provide parameters on launch. Like @rsyqvthv said, I don't want to create aliases in the Runner for all of those.

Is there some progress on a usability and/or realization concept? If we could get some agreement on how it should work, I could imagine that we find someone here who might implement it accordingly.

[nousernameavailableanymore]

Same here.
Unfortunately this is no-go for me and I ll stick to keypirinha in the meantime.

(Among other things) I open remote desktop connections by passing parameter "/v host" to mstsc.

[jjw24]

Plugin Runner from flow's store should work for your requirement.

[nousernameavailableanymore]

Valid reply. Thank you.

[kontosa]

As long as the target program is on the PATH*, you already have this capability via the SHELL(>_) plugin.
Maybe this could be highlighted in the docs as a workaround to cater for most console apps that people are launching from Flow?

*Not on the PATH? Add it if you use [X] regularly.

E.g. pic shows examples I've run that launch a CMD console first, then the cmd or cmd with arguments. The console stays open (good) plus you get cmd history in Flow :-)