Apple Shortcuts Support

Apple Shortcuts is an application each iPhone, iPad or macOS computer is enabled with. Shortcuts provides a means to extract small pieces of functionality (called App-Actions) from installed applications and combine with a little bit of drag & drop coding to make your own customized actions. Lokate supports a number of App-Actions as documented below. If you are new to Apple Shortcuts, read up on how they work here.

Apple Shortcuts are typically accessible within the Shortcuts application. However, it is possible to extend the reach of a shortcut by making it available as an App Icon directly on the Home Screen. This feature provides an excellent avenue to seamlessly integrate Lokate's functionality tailored to your specific requirements, essentially treating it as its own standalone application.

As an illustration, consider a scenario where you need to convert location formats. By utilizing the "Convert lat/lon to USNG coordinate" action, you have the ability to construct a shortcut that takes a lat/lon formatted coordination and converts it to USNG format. This shortcut can prompt for the input coordinates or extract them from the clipboard, subsequently converting them to USNG format. This streamlined process allows you to efficiently utilize the converted information in other applications or easily share it with your team members.

App Privacy Privilege

Many App-Actions within Lokate seamlessly integrate with your Apple device settings, requiring no additional adjustments. However, when extracting and transferring data from Lokate to a third-party application, such as Numbers, it is essential to ensure proper configuration of privacy settings.

Typically, setting up these privacy configurations is part of the initial execution of the shortcut employing these App-Actions. Nevertheless, there may be instances where this process does not execute as expected, leading to persistent pop-ups requesting access to the third-party app.

In such cases, navigate to the information button (i) located at the bottom of the affected shortcut. Subsequently, tap on the "privacy" button at the top and select "Reset Privacy." Following this step, rerun the shortcut, and respond to any privacy requests in accordance with your preferences. This should enable your shortcuts to operate seamlessly without further interruptions.

Lokate App-Actions

The following are all currently supported Lokate App-Actions. To see these in the Shortcuts application type “Lokate” in the “Search fro apps and actions” search box.

Convert lat/lon to USNG coordinate - Takes a coordinate in lat/lon format and converts this to USNG format.

Convert USNG to lat/lon coordinate - Takes a coordinate in USNG format and converts this to lat/lon format.

Current location - Returns the current location in lat/lon or USGN format according to Lokate’s preference settings. Lokate must be running for this action to work.

Get All Log Dates - Returns all the dates for which Lokate has a recorded (training/mission) log.

Get Log with Date - Returns the log data for a specific date. The data returned is in the form of a string dictionary. A string dictionary is a list of field-name : field-value combinations.

Lokate Shortcuts Download

Shortcuts below are examples, you can use them as is or modify to fit your particular needs. Clicking a link below downloads the shortcut and installs it in your iPhone’s Shortcuts app. You can then modify it as well as share it on the Home Screen for instant access.

Show my Current Location. Shows your current location in lat/lon or USGN format

Convert Lat/Lon to USGN. Converts a Lat/Lon formatted coordinate to USGN.

Convert USGN to Lat/Lon. Converts a USGN formatted coordinate to Lat/Lon.

Extract Log Data. This shortcut extracts all the logs captured in Lokate, and extracts these to a Numbers spreadsheet. You will need to customize this shortcut to reflect the specific log fields you have used as well as spreadsheet name, sheet name and table name.