Using Hook in new Evernote for Mac Desktop App

Just downloaded the new Evernote for Mac Desktop app and was very disappointed that I can no longer Hook EN Notes in the new Desktop. A major part of my daily workflow is copying Evernote Note Links (in markdown) to my Roam Research Database. This was simple and easy in the previous Evernote for Mac Desktop app but the new EN app doesnā€™t appear to support it. Does anyone know of a workaround or how to enable this function in the new EN desktop? As it currently stands I simply canā€™t use the new Evernote Desktop App.

It appears that Evernote 10 does not support AppleScript at this time. The scripting dictionary has been removed. The Hook scripts fail when run in ScriptDebugger.

Too bad :frowning: for us
Katie

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Thanks Katie. Appreciate your advice. Yepā€¦Too bad for us (but I can still use the ā€œolderā€ EN app - so not all is lost). EN 10 now removed from my computer! BTW have provided feedback to EN requesting they reinstate support for Hook integrationā€¦letā€™s see what happens.

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We confirm that AppleScript is not available in Evernote 10. Evernote are aware of this issue of course; and in their view AppleScript is not relevant because not a lot of people use it. Yet the number of people who program in AppleScript is just a fraction of the people who use utilities that are written in AppleScript. Itā€™s as if Apple would say weā€™re deprecating Objective-C because only a small % of our users know how to use it, ignoring the fact that there are thousands of times more people who use apps written in objective-C than actually program in Objective-C.

Hook is not limited to AppleScript for communicating with apps. Hook can use a CLI, JavaScript, whateverā€¦ Users can even fully / programmatically customize interaction between Hook and any other app. As long as data in an app can be linked via automation, Hook can do its job.

We will have a look at their APIs and update Hook accordingly when thereā€™s support for linking.

We recommend getting in touch with Evernote; we offer this email template.. One might also want to link to the current web page in oneā€™s message to them. We here will do the same.

I highly recommend DEVONthink. DEVONtechnologies is obviously firmly committed to macOS, iOS and iPadOS :blush: . DEVONthink has a very active Mac user baseā€“who answer questions and offer utilities. DEVONthink supports several different sync technologies (including iCloud)-- one doesnā€™t need to use Evernoteā€™s servers. Etc. etc. etc.

Hereā€™s a web page of ours on integration with DEVONthink.

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Evernote 10 is an Electron app. I do not know of many (any?) Electron apps that support AppleScript. Electron apps are built on cross-platform web technologies. I assume it would be a deviation from the universal-app philosophy Evernote embraced by choosing Electron for itā€™s major rewrite if the macOS version supported AppleScript.

I donā€™t think weā€™ll see AppleScript again. JS maybe. Evernote historically has not embraced third-party add-ins.

I installed the Evernote Legacy version so that I could use DEVONthink 3 to extract all my Evernote notes into a new database. @LucBā€™s DEVONthink recommendation is good advice.

:woman_mechanic:t2: Katie

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Related: Inkdrop is also an electron app. The developer added a plugin bridge to make Inkdrop linkable: inkdrop-hook-integration - Plugin - Inkdrop. As far as I recall, it took him less than a day to do it. Involves a shell script rather than AppleScript.

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It does appear that Evernote 10 is not fully finished; the company says some significant functionalities will be returned to it. Crossing my fingers that this is true.

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Thanks Katie and @LucB for your very helpful replies. While I have retained access to the previous version of Evernote Desktop (which works), I tend to agree that Evernote is likely heading down a road where this sort of functionality is not going to be supported. And while I acknowledge that contacting Evernote and asking for their support is one way forward, I also tend to believe it will be nothing by a lone voice in the wilderness. I have been thinking of moving to DEVONthink and putting it off. But based on the advice you both offered I may now take the step I have been putting off and abandon Evernote completely in favour of DEVONthink. Once again, thank you both for your response and advice. I really do appreciate it.

I have seen others recommend EagleFiler and Keep It as ā€œalternativesā€ to Evernote. I donā€™t have experience with them so cannot guess at what ā€œalternativeā€ means in each case. I donā€™t know if either of them work with Hook.

Just worth mentioning that there are other, less costly, options beside Evernote and DEVONthink.

Good Luck :four_leaf_clover:
Katie

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I dumped Evernote several years ago in favor of Keepit, (though I also use DevonThink). I use Keepit for PDFs mainly. Easy to get them in there, lots of methods. Syncs across all devices, including Mac and phone/iPad. Supports Hook, has file provider interface on iOS. Files stored are accessible from finder. Allows links to its items to be stored elsewhere.

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recommend EagleFiler and Keep It as ā€œalternativesā€ to Evernote.

they both work with Hook. We wrote help pages and a blog post earlier on EagleFiler integration.

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Evernote just had another update. Maybe this is a good sign, from the release notes: ā€œInternal links can now be independently copied as either evernote:/// (in-app links) or www.evernote.com (shareable web links)ā€

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Hereā€™s a UI scripted version of integration with Evernote 10. Itā€™s the get address script.

set the clipboard to ""


tell application "System Events" to tell process "EverNote"
repeat 50 times -- poll clipboard for ~2.5 seconds
	
	key code 8 using {control down, option down, command down}
	
	delay 0.05
	
		try
			if (the clipboard) is not equal to "" then
				exit repeat
			end if
		end try
		delay 0.05
	end repeat
	
end tell
set myUrl to the clipboard
set myTitle to ""
if myUrl is not missing value and length of myUrl is not 0 then
	
	tell application "Hook"
		try
			set aBookmark to bookmark id myUrl
			
			if aBookmark is not missing value then
				set myTitle to name of aBookmark
			end if
		end try
		if length of myTitle is 0 then
			repeat until length of myTitle is not 0
				
				set myName to display dialog "What is the title of the note?" default answer ""
				set myTitle to text returned of myName
			end repeat
		end if
		return "[" & myTitle & "](" & myUrl & ")"
	end tell
	
end if

If anyone tries it , please let us know and we might include it in Hook.

NB: thereā€™s we donā€™t see a reliable way yet to get the title of a note, nor Hook to New. But you can rename links in Hook. (And it could be that with some elbow grease one could get the title.)

So Evernote users should think long and hard before downgrading to Evernote 10.

Hopefully Evernote will learn from Obsidian and other developers that it is easy to write a wrapper around an electron app to deliver automation to Mac users.

Having said that, as was the case before Evernote 10, in my humble opinion, DEVONthink is preferable to Evernote for most Mac users because, well DEVONthink is committed to macOS and has several major distinctive advantages.

Yep, this works in the new Evernote. I am cross-platform (Android phone) and havenā€™t found any replacement to Evernote yet.

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Hi! You say one can rename links in hook. How can that be done?

Sorry about that, I should have said ā€œin Hook 2.2 you will be able to rename hooksā€. (Iā€™ve become too accustomed to the internal builds).

Waiting for this also!

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Hi @LucB I tried the Evernote get address script you posted above and it doesnā€™t work. In fact Iā€™ve also tried it back in December (also didnā€™t work) but thought that maybe a hook update will resolve the issue. Anyway, Iā€™m on Mac Catalina 10.15.7, Hook Version 2.2.1 (4004), and using Evernote 10.5.7

Thanks for letting us know. Unfortunately, Evernote has basically broken all prior client side automation. Hopefully they will follow through with some APIs we can use.

Even before Hook, DEVONthink and cloud share solutions were IMO a much safer bet than putting loads of one precious information in Evernote; and so many times Evernote has proven this to have been prudent advice.

Still you can paste any Evernote URL into Hookā€™s find tool to get your linked information. And the other side of the hooks work. As long as a URL is valid, you can use it with Hook.

While weā€™re on the subject, we will be releasing an additional set of link tools in Hook :wink:. Very excited about thatā€¦ That will also make Hook work better with the latest Evernote.

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Iā€™ve found this script works great in the new version of Evernote. Whatā€™s not obvious is that, after naming your note, you still need to press Command+C or click Copy Link (or Copy Markdown Link) in Hook in order to actually copy the link.