I will try to explain to you how my Workflow for making blog posts from my iPhone works.
I used Apple Workflow to piece together a routine that semi-automatically allows me to make short blog posts with my mobile phone with or without images and including my current location.
It starts with me putting my home address into a street address action so the routine knows where home is.
Next the workflow uses the GPS receiver in the phone to get the current location.
Using the current location, a map URL is pulled from Apple Maps.
With the current location, the driving distance to home is calculated in miles
To prevent distances like 15.8904356778 miles being displayed, the distance is rounded up to the nearest mile - 16 miles, for this example.
If the distance is less than 5 miles, I consider that to be close to home and the routine generates a text that notifies the viewer that I am at home in Cary, NC.
This text infomation is put into a variable called "Location".
Otherwise, if I am more than 5 miles from home, the address of my current location is displayed, my distance in miles from home is diplayed, and a URL to my location on Apple Maps is displayed.
This text information is put into a variable called "Location".
When you start the workflow there is a short delay while the activities above are being carried out by the phone.
Next a menu is diplayed to the user. This lets the user decide whether the blog post will have an image or not, or whether there will be no content with just a position update.
If the menu selection "Image + Content + Location" is selected, the user is taken to the Photo Album to select the image to be uploaded. This image is added to a variable named "Content".
Next the user is prompted for blog content. The box you type or peck the message into is small and encourages short, brief blog entries.
The comments and text entered at the previous input box are added to the variable named "Content".
Next the variable named "Location" is retrieved and the contents of "Location" are added to the variable named "Content".
If the user selected "Content + Location" from the menu, the routine for selecting a photo is skipped and the user is taken directly to the input box where he is prompted to enter the blog text.
This text information is added to a variable named "Content".
Next the variable previously named "Location" is retrieved and the information in that variable is added to "Content".
If the user selected "Location Only" from the menu, the information in the variable named "Location" is assigned to the variable named "Content".
Finally an email message is created that is sent to my Blogger.com account. The subject line of the email message becomes the title of the blog post. I put the current formatted date into the subject line.
The body of the email message contains all of the information that was in the variable named "Content" and the image, if selected, is sent with the email message as an attachment.
A small preview of the message is shown to the user. The user must press the "Send" button to launch the email message.
After the message has been sent, a very small thumbnail of the output is shown to the user.
I know it doesn't seem like it does much, but it allows me to quickly and easily make blog posts from my phone when I am traveling. It is now so easy I can make a blog post daily (or even more often!).
I resisted getting a smart phone for many years, but I have come to love it! It is like having a powerful small computer in your pocket!
