HammerSpoon Text Expansion Feature

init.lua

--[[ 
    === HammerText ===
    Based on: https://github.com/Hammerspoon/hammerspoon/issues/1042

    How to "install":
    - Simply copy and paste this code in your "init.lua".

    How to use:
      - Add this init.lua to ~/.hammerspoon/Spoons/HammerText.spoon
      - Add your hotstrings (abbreviations that get expanded) to the "keywords" list following the example format.
      
      ht = hs.loadSpoon("HammerText")
      ht.keywords ={
         nname = "Max Rydahl Andersen",
         xdate = function() return os.date("%B %d, %Y") end,
      }
      ht:start()


   
    Features:
    - Text expansion starts automatically in your init.lua config.
    - Hotstring expands immediately.
    - Word buffer is cleared after pressing one of the "navigational" keys.
      PS: The default keys should give a good enough workflow so I didn't bother including other keys.
          If you'd like to clear the buffer with more keys simply add them to the "navigational keys" conditional.

    Limitations:
    - Can't expand hotstring if it's immediately typed after an expansion. Meaning that typing "..name..name" will result in "My name..name".
      This is intentional since the hotstring could be a part of the expanded string and this could cause a loop.
      In that case you have to type one of the "buffer-clearing" keys that are included in the "navigational keys" conditional (which is very often the case).

--]]

local obj = {}
obj.__index = obj

-- Metadata
obj.name = "HammerText"
obj.version = "1.0"
obj.author = "Multiple Authors"

--- Keychain.logger
--- Variable
--- Logger object used within the Spoon. Can be accessed to set the default log level for the messages coming from the Spoon.
obj.logger = hs.logger.new('HammerText')

--- HammerText.keywords
--- Variable
--- Map of keywords to strings or functions that return a string
--- to be replaced.
obj.keywords = {
  ["..name"] = "My name",
  ["..addr"] = "My address",
}


function expander()
    local word = ""
    local keyMap = require"hs.keycodes".map
    local keyWatcher

    -- create an "event listener" function that will run whenever the event happens
    keyWatcher = hs.eventtap.new({ hs.eventtap.event.types.keyDown }, function(ev)
        local keyCode = ev:getKeyCode()
        local char = ev:getCharacters()
        
        -- if "delete" key is pressed
        if keyCode == keyMap["delete"] then
            if #word > 0 then
                -- remove the last char from a string with support to utf8 characters
                local t = {}
                for _, chars in utf8.codes(word) do table.insert(t, chars) end
                table.remove(t, #t)
                word = utf8.char(table.unpack(t))
                obj.logger.df("Word after deleting:", word)
            end
            return false -- pass the "delete" keystroke on to the application
        end

        -- append char to "word" buffer
        word = word .. char
        obj.logger.df("Word after appending:", word)

        -- if one of these "navigational" keys is pressed
        if keyCode == keyMap["return"]
        or keyCode == keyMap["space"]
        or keyCode == keyMap["up"]
        or keyCode == keyMap["down"]
        or keyCode == keyMap["left"]
        or keyCode == keyMap["right"] then
            word = "" -- clear the buffer
        end

        obj.logger.df("Word to check if hotstring:", word)

        -- finally, if "word" is a hotstring
        local output = obj.keywords[word]
        if type(output) == "function" then -- expand if function
          local _, o = pcall(output)
          if not _ then
            obj.logger.ef("~~ expansion for '" .. what .. "' gave an error of " .. o)
            -- could also set o to nil here so that the expansion doesn't occur below, but I think
            -- seeing the error as the replacement will be a little more obvious that a print to the
            -- console which I may or may not have open at the time...
            -- maybe show an alert with hs.alert instead?
          end
          output = o
        end
        if output then
            for i = 1, utf8.len(word), 1 do hs.eventtap.keyStroke({}, "delete", 0) end -- delete the abbreviation
            hs.eventtap.keyStrokes(output) -- expand the word
            word = "" -- clear the buffer
        end

        return false -- pass the event on to the application
    end):start() -- start the eventtap

    -- return keyWatcher to assign this functionality to the "expander" variable to prevent garbage collection
    return keyWatcher
end

--- HammerText:start()
--- Method
--- Start HammerText
---
--- Parameters:
---  * None
function obj:start()
  print("Heeey! Hammertext is running")
  expander()
end

return obj

Hi I am new to hammerspoon and mac, I am trying to use this feature, can you please help me. Below are the steps I followed

1. Install Hammerspoon and gave it accessibility permission

2. Copied your code and pasted in "init.lua"

3. In '~/.hammerspoon/Spoons' folder created a file "HammerText.spoon" and pasted your code again

4. In HammerText.spoon file at bottom I pasted below code
   ht = hs.loadSpoon("HammerText")
   ht.keywords ={
   nname = "Max Rydahl Andersen",
   xdate = function() return os.date("%B %d, %Y") end,
   }
   ht:start()

5. Reloaded the config, but its not working.

What am I missing, please help me.

Thank you so much for your time and effort! It's really very helpful to me!

What am I missing, please help me.

@srinathv7 seems like you have it all so not much I can suggest

@srinathv7 @maxandersen I've got a working example here if that helps: cweagans/dotfiles@84da84d

I can't make it work perfectly. It seems to be working well but after some time it suddenly stops expanding words. It seems it adds somehow one extra letter and after that it doesn't work again even if I press the navigation hotkeys.

For example, lets say I have:

["xfd"] = "@",

it works well for some time and then suddenly it changes "xfd" for "@d" and stops working.

@clicseo: I am having a similar issue but in my case, it simply stops expanding text after a while. Did you figure out a solution to the problem?

@majjoha I didn't, I simply started using instead the snippets feature from Alfred.

Thanks @cweagans, I got it working by just making that file itself init.lua.
@majjoha I am also having the same issue, after sometime it stops working, so everytime it stops am reloading the config, it works after that, not direct solution but a work around.

I am having the same issue. This seems like a Hammerspoon bug, but I don't know enough about the moving pieces to be able to effectively debug it.

I decided to look for a slightly more stable solution and stumbled upon Espanso which appears to be another great open source solution.

Oh, wow! That looks fantastic!! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much for the tool !
I used it as a base and tweaked it to make short hotstrings detected anywhere in the text.
(I need to use French accents too, so I mapped e1 = é etc. instead of doing a long press on the key)
(c'était super, merci énormément, je peux à présent avoir mes accents où je veux)