Ask later (Inbox)
Parks a question in the Inbox instead of a modal; the macro waits for any button, on the Mac or the iPhone, whenever you get to it.
Ask question later
Details #
Puts a question with two to four buttons in the Inbox and waits. No panel opens and nothing takes focus. The question shows in the Mac's menu bar (with a badge and its buttons), in the iPhone's Activity tab, and in switchboard inbox. Answer it from any of them, when you like.
When it is answered the macro goes on. If nobody answers in expires (4 hours unless you say otherwise) the default button is used, and the trace says so.
The macro's own timeout does not run while the question waits.
The step leaves these variables:
| Variable | What it holds |
|---|---|
answer | The button that was pressed. |
answeredBy | mac, iphone, cli, or default when the question expired. |
the one named by into | An object: answer, answeredAt and by. |
Parameters #
| Parameter | Type | Required | Values | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
buttons | list of text | Yes | Required. Two to four button titles. | |
default | text | Yes | Required. The button used when nobody answers. Must be one of buttons. | |
question | text | Yes | Required. The text. Supports {{ }} values. | |
expires | any value | How long to wait: 30m, 4h, 2d, or a number of seconds. Default 4h. | ||
into | text | A variable that receives the answer object. |
Every step also accepts label, onFailure, timeout and dryRunSafe.
Examples #
- Every Mon at 09:00
- Ask later: “Archive the 12 newsletters this week?” (Archive / Keep)
- If answer is “Archive”
- Show “Archiving…”
Gotchas #
Dry run. Nothing is asked. The step answers with the
defaultso you can follow the rest of the macro.The Inbox lives in the running engine. If the engine quits, the waiting run ends with it.
Pick a
defaultthat is safe to take: it is what happens when you never answer.Cancelling the run takes its question out of the Inbox.