How to automate Evernote in Windows 10/11

[AhiyaHiya 1]

I have a workflow that automates Evernote using AppleScript ( http://www.jaimerios.com/?p=1808 )

This is convenient in that every week, I have to set up the same set of Evernote pages, to track what I do for work and personal; doing this process manually was painfully boring and prone to error.

I do most of my work on Windows, so I was hoping that there is some mechanism I can use to accomplish the same workflow: create pages in Evernote and link them together with Evernote page links, to form my weekly work log.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

[gazumped 11,667]

Hi.  There's no shortage of automation tools,  but you'd have to do some research to see which are capable of the setup you require...

Various apps will connect Evernote with other services and vice-versa, so that it's possible to generate a note as a record of a diary entry or a 'to-do' item,  or to start a note in Evernote that will prompt a diary entry or an email to another service.  Including,  but not limited to (and in no particular order)...

• Actiondesk / API Fuse / Chronify / CloudHQ / Filterize / Huginn / IFTTT /  Integromat / LeadsBridge / Microsoft Flow / Piesync / Workato / Zapier
• https://automate.io/
• https://www.cloudhq.net/g_suite
• http://Elastic.io
• https://exalate.com/
• https://integrately.com/
• https://www.integromat.com/en
• https://www.jotform.com/
• https://n8n.io/
• https://parabola.io/ 

Other services like Airtable offer a 'relational database' approach and provide forms that can assist data entry and generate an Evernote note as a record of a meeting or action.

 

[AhiyaHiya 1]

I hadn't considered invoking actions on Evernote using the REST side of things.

I guess this will require more research.

Thanks for your input.

[PinkElephant 8,116]

Just for the record: Scripting on a Mac AFAIK only works with the legacy client, not with v10.

[AhiyaHiya 1]

I'm running on Evernote version 7.14, which indeed is an older client.

I have no plans on upgrading Evernote, or macOS, so I'm fine working with an older client.

 

[PinkElephant 8,116]

With older MacOS: Sometimes necessary, sometimes a personal choice. It takes out the risk that EN legacy may stop one day because of OS updates.

However there is no guarantee that EN  legacy will be around forever. I would prepare my personal Plan B as long as it is still around and working.

Personally I prefer v10 today over legacy, and use my legacy client only scarcely these days.

[eric99 980]

On 2/20/2022 at 7:26 PM, AhiyaHiya said:

I hadn't considered invoking actions on Evernote using the REST side of things.

Can you please elaborate a little bit more about the REST?

[AhiyaHiya 1]

5 hours ago, eric99 said:

Can you please elaborate a little bit more about the REST?

When I was looking to automate Evernote, I was thinking purely from an AppleScript perspective.

I forgot that Evernote has a REST API that developers can use for performing operations, whether through Python, Obj-C, Javascript, etc.

However, I'm going to continue using Evernote legacy. When the time comes where Evernote legacy will be put to rest, I'll get out my learning cap and take on making an app using the REST API.

[ehrt74 240]

11 hours ago, eric99 said:

Can you please elaborate a little bit more about the REST?

To be a little bit picky, the technology is actually thrift, which is nice because you can generate clients from the service definition (okay, there are projects like openapi for rest service definitions, but i've only ever had problems with them). You can find out more here: https://dev.evernote.com/doc/

[eric99 980]

4 hours ago, ehrt74 said:

To be a little bit picky, the technology is actually thrift, which is nice because you can generate clients from the service definition (okay, there are projects like openapi for rest service definitions, but i've only ever had problems with them). You can find out more here: https://dev.evernote.com/doc/

Thanks, I didn't realize that thrift was used underneath, very nice. It seems to be a well described robust interface for EN scripting. Do you have experience with it recently?  Has it been broken by V10 ?

[AhiyaHiya 1]

6 hours ago, ehrt74 said:

To be a little bit picky, the technology is actually thrift, which is nice because you can generate clients from the service definition (okay, there are projects like openapi for rest service definitions, but i've only ever had problems with them). You can find out more here: https://dev.evernote.com/doc/

Taking a look at the docs, I read

Quote

Our Thrift API imposes a higher burden on developers, who need to get all of the transport layer details done and the library dependencies into their app before they can do any testing at all. We’ve tried to help this a bit with the sample code and packaged libraries in our API distribution, but it’s still going to be more work than a simple REST scheme.

Sounds like ... more work...

[eric99 980]

3 hours ago, AhiyaHiya said:

Taking a look at the docs, I read

Sounds like ... more work...

yes, but probably faster because it's a binary protocol. Since EN performance is currently a big topic, it's probably a big advantage compared to REST...