Showcuts

Welcome to the code behind showcuts.app, a web viewer for the iOS Shortcuts App.

Showcuts turns an iCloud link into a web approximation of the iOS viewer. This takes a few steps, which developers may find interesting:

1. Downloading the shortcut's .plist file (and some metadata) via the iCloud API, as documented by Sharecuts
2. Turning the .plist file into JSON using Python's plistlib library
3. Parsing the shortcut's actions as Python objects
4. Displaying those objects as HTML via Django, with CSS styles that approximate the appearance of Shortcuts on iOS

Characteristics

Other Shortcuts projects and products exist. Showcuts is distinguished by:

• shows individual actions and parameters of shortcuts
• visual similarity to Shortcuts on iOS
• allowing embeds of it's viewer (JS Fiddle)
• supports Shortcuts for iOS 13
• is free and open source (premium tier / a tip jar is planned)

Showcuts does not:

• have a native iOS app (kind of pointless)
• support iOS 12
• allow users to edit Shortcuts (this is planned)
• have an installation / package. I don't think anyone has a use for this code, as far as I know.

Status

Showcuts was in active development from November 2019 - February 2020.

Development slowed as the author entered college, and may have ceased entirely.