This macro will only be of interest to RSA Archer users, but it’s pretty useful to me, so I thought I’d share it. The macro asks for the tracking ID of an Archer record and creates a deep link to the record.

In this example, I have the macro configured to create a link to a Finding, so I set the trigger to the string fdl. When that string is typed, the macro asks for the tracking ID of the record, constructs the link and pastes it into the application where I typed the trigger string.

In a deep link, Archer percent-encodes any character that isn’t alphanumeric. But I had trouble getting the Keyboard Maestro variables (since they contain percent signs) to play nicely with the percent-encoded URL. I solved this problem by setting the RecordLink variable to a path that’s not percent-encoded: /GenericContent/Record.aspx?id=%Variable%TrackingID%&moduleId=%Variable%ModuleID%. It contains the tokens for the TrackingID and ModuleID variables.

The Execute Shell Script action uses Python 3 to percent-encode the characters that Archer expects to be percent-encoded. (There are other ways to do this; I just used Python because it’s familiar to me.) You may need to update the path to Python in that action.

Here’s a screenshot of the Keyboard Mastro Editor:

Here it is in action:

You can download the macro here. Change the value of the ArcherURL variable to the URL of your Archer instance. (Don’t include a trailing slash.) Change the value of the ModuleID variable to the ID of the application you want to link to.

Sometime during the mid to late ’90s, I watched an episode of a TV show that I didn’t regularly watch. (Since I can’t even remember the name of the show, I’m guessing that’s the only episode I ever watched.) The only thing I remember about it is that one character gave another character a gift — printed copies of every email they had ever exchanged. Email was regarded as a temporary, passing trend — something that should be preserved on paper.

Now, in 2018, I delete dozens of emails on a daily basis, without a second thought (mainly newsletters, to be fair; I get very few personal emails these days). But ironically, I wish I had printed and saved my earliest emails, particularly the one I received from the CEO of Rickenbacker. In the mid ’90s, email was still was a novelty to most people, and I guess even CEOs received so little of it that personal replies were possible. But I didn’t foresee that I would go through a dozen or more email accounts in my lifetime, losing a little history each time I switched, and it never occurred to me to save or print those emails until I no longer had access to them.

Over several days of subfreezing temperatures, the fountain in the courtyard of my apartment building froze. The falling water wasn’t actually frozen, but it kind of looks that way in the picture.

 

 

A sure sign that I’m getting old: I immediately downloaded Brighter and Bigger after reading this post by Dr. Drang.