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Ninox automation??

Sorry if this is an obvious question but I've not seen any reference to it in any on the website or in the forums. 

I don't own a copy of Ninox for Mac so cannot tell if automation is supported. I'm looking for a simple & cheap solution to automating a business task driven by letters wrtting in Microsoft Word.

Does Ninox on the Mac support automation using Applescript, Automator or anything else?

For example...

If I had a customer database setup and working. Then in Microsoft Word (or even Pages) be writing a letter to a new customer which had name, address, telephone details etc..

Could I (from Word/Pages) 'click a button' which opens Ninox to the 'New Customer' form and populates all the fields in the form with the information from the letter?

This is a basic example as there is likely to be more forms/tables etc I may want to interact with as part of an automation flow with data in existing or new letters that were being typed.

I need a database to store all the customer information/interaction etc. but the process is driven by letters and don't want to have to keep switching between apps to keep the customer information upto date.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Thanks in advance.

8 replies

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    • Birger_H
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    This is not (yet) possible.

    Birger

    • Ron_RLA720_mscpostpr
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Automation is certainly possible by using the Mac utility, Keyboard Maestro.

    Can populate data fields from one application to another (Word-Ninox) and do actions such as create a new record.

    Anything you can do in Ninox, using keyboard or mouse, can be automated by using Keyboard Maestro.

    I am a just new user of Ninox and already have three automation scripts working in Keyboard Maestro.

    https://www.keyboardmaestro.com/main/

    • blackie
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I am going to try out Keyboard Maestro to import sensor data into Ninox.

    If it works well, I am considering running a Mac Mini 24/7 to log data with Ninox.

    The goal is to have a "Single Pane of Glass" view with Ninox, with near real time updates of enviromental data.

    Are there any performance issues I should consider if going down this route? Like limiting the updates to once every 5-10 minutes?

    • Ron_RLA720_mscpostpr
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Blackie -

    So, you want "near real time updates".

    I've never done that, so not sure.
    But with time frame "5-10 minutes", I think easy to do.

    You will probably need:
       - repeat/loop/subroutine
       - pause/delay timer
       - switch applications (back and forth between your data app and Ninox)
       - multiple clipboards (copy, copy, copy from one app, then paste, paste, paste into Ninox fields)

    Keyboard Maestro ("KM") has all of those functions.

    Performance issues?

    - KM goes as fast as screen and file updates can handle, and Ninox is very fast.

    - Possible problem: when KM action is working, can NOT use that computer for anything else.
         (When KM in "pause/timer mode" computer is available as normal.)

    KM has an excellent technical forum -- similar caliber to this Ninox forum.
    So you can get answers to specific questions (but, like any forum, no guarantees of accuracy).
    URL for KM+forum is above.

    The KM developer is one man, not a team.
    He answers email questions himself; quickly and clearly.
    He won't develop your application, but he recommends ways to use his program for your specific needs.

    Although using Ninox only a few months, I've had excellent results using KM to automate and enhance it.
    I'm available to help others get started in that, too, and we can trade ideas.
    (You are welcome to send private message/email to me.)

    - Ron
    .

    • Fulvio
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I'm just picking up on this thread. I've never used KM but this is really fascinating. Could you give me an example of the kind of automation you are currently executing, to see if it is worth getting to grips with KM. Thanks

    • blackie
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I did purchase KM, but quickly moved to the cloud version of Ninox for things like multiple user roles.

    And then there was the 2.4 release of Ninox.

    https://ninoxdb.de/en/blog/ninox-release-2-4

    If you are using the Ninox cloud version, there is now a REST API, as well as Zapier integration.

     

    https://ninoxdb.de/en/manual/api/rest

     

    https://ninoxdb.de/en/manual/api/zapier

    • Fulvio
    • 5 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    Yes exactly - I'm now using Zapier for a load of automations, was just wondering if I could do anything else/different with KM. I found this thread because I was looking for a way to pause triggers in Ninox - for example, to send an appointment reminder SMS the day before an appointment, but triggered by the creation of the appointment. I know Zapier allows a delay, but that doesn't work here because a) it only allows a one month delay, and b) if the appointment gets cancelled the SMS needs to be clawed back from Zapier, whereas it would be neater for it simply to be deleted within Ninox and never get sent to Zapier in the first place. So in short I need a way of locally delaying triggered actions within Ninox and wondered if KM offered anything like this.

    Thanks!

    • Rijard
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    I have a similar problem. Ninox database with customer information and a MS Word letter template with fillable fields. My solution:

    In Ninox I created a formula field, where i calculate one long string with values separated by any delimiter. I.e. 'Name' + ";" + 'email' + ";" + 'phone' + ";" + 'address'. This string I copy to clipboard (either manually or by button)

    Then I have an extrnal script (Applescript in my case), which gather the string from clipboard, parse the string to particular items and the fill the appropriate fileds.

    Any improvement appreceated.

Content aside

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