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Using Stream Deck with SCRIBE

Because I am doing a lot of work with SCRIBE Online, I find myself trying to come up with solutions to speed up my work.  One solution I came up with is using my Stream Deck to automate some of the commands I type within SCRIBE Online.  Before we go to far let me bring you up to speed on what the Stream Deck is.

The Stream Deck is manufactured by elgato.  It is a small 15 key keyboard that can be customized.  What I like about it is how the keys are clean looking and can be easily changed by the application.  This hardware is marketed towards video editors and game streams (both of which I don't do).   I got it because of the number of keys it has, the ease at which you can update it, and because I didn't want to use macro's on another external keyboard with paper labels stuck on the keys.

I will say that I am not only using the Stream Deck for just SCRIBE, but other applications like Visual Studio, Microsoft Windows shortcut keys, and to launch other applications.  The reason I am pointing it out here is because to use it with SCRIBE I did have to do a little programming as it can't launch bat files like I was hoping.  This meant I reached into my C# tool kit and had to write a few small programs to accomplish what I wanted.

Since SCRIBE Online run's in the browser, I wanted to automate the process of typing out commands like, "IF(ISNULLOREMPTY(entity.attribuate), "TRUE", "FALSE")".  In the past I would have notepad open with that string pasted in it, then I would have to move my mouse over to that, copy it, paste it in the browser and then update it with the proper syntax.  That is easy enough but time consuming when doing this repeatedly.  So now with my Stream Deck I am able to simple press a button and it put that string value on my system clipboard, then I simply press another button and it pastes it where my cursor is.  This means I don't have to type it out and I don't have to leave SCRIBE Online to go over to notepad to copy it.  This saves me a few seconds that can add up over time when working on large integration or migration projects.

Here are the following commands I have built so far into my Stream Deck:

  • IF(ISNULLOREMPTY(),,)
  • IF(AND(),,)
  • IF(OR(),,)
  • CONCATENATE()
  • FORMAT("yyyy-MM-dd",)

Also all of those where just pasted to this thread using the Stream Deck in about 2 seconds.  This is what my SCRIBE folder on the Stream Deck looks like right now:


I will be changing the icons to make them stand out from each other a little more, but wanted to get it up and running really quickly.   The middle row are using small applications that I wrote and published to GitHub for anyone else that might have a Stream Deck and want to do this.  Here is the link to my GitHub project.

Here are some other links you might find interesting:
Amazon to purchase Stream Deck
Open Source .NET Library (Unofficial)
Stream Deck Website

I would be interested to hear if anyone else is using this device and if they have any ideas on how else we could use it for SCRIBE Online.
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Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 28, 2017 at 9:32 AM

    This is awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Markus KonradMay 28, 2019 at 8:28 AM

    Interesting usecase but for test snippets, i would always recommend AutoHotKey :)

    ReplyDelete

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