Alfred v2.x workflow for broadband speed

I use Alfred every day under OSX, admittedly primarily as an application launcher. Alfred’s developer touts the ability of the software to ‘create immensely powerful workflows by connecting keywords, hotkeys and actions together to extend Alfred to do amazing things without writing a single line of code’. Of course, if you do write some code, that becomes powerful with a capital ‘P’. I noted Alfred lets you execute PHP scripts, and since I had hacked my way to using a few of these in GeekTool I thought I try repurposing one for use in Alfred. Turns out creating an Alfred workflow it pretty easy, and I was happy with the result of the 5 minute time investment it took to figure this all out. Here is my workflow for reporting the upstream and downstream connection speed of my broadband modem (a SpeedTouch 585v7).

Inputs, Actions, Outputs

Begin by creating a new workflow and entering a description of what it will do, optionally adding a custom icon:

Enter any ‘read me’ details:

We’ll use a keyword (Inputs > Keyword) with no argument to activate the script:

Choose PHP as the language (Actions > Run Script) and paste the script into the box:

The script I’m using here is as follows:

function grmblzfrgginhats ($char) {
	switch ($char) {
		case 'k': return 1/1024;
		case 'G': return 1024;
		default:  return 1;
		}
	}
        
/* Put your IP address in here */
$ch = curl_init('http://192.168.1.254/cgi/b/bb/?be=0&l0=1&l1=-1');
        
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPAUTH, CURLAUTH_BASIC);
        
/* Put your modem username and password in here */
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERPWD, 'username:password!');
$pageHTML = curl_exec($ch);
        
preg_match('|Bandwidth (Up/Down) [kbps/kbps]:</td><td colspan='3'>([0-9,]+) / ([0-9,]+)</td>|', $pageHTML, $bandwidth);

curl_close($ch);
                        
echo '⬆ '.$bandwidth[1].' kbps ⬇ '.$bandwidth[2].' kbps';

Remember to change username:password to your actual username and password—and possibly the IP address of your router.

Now create the notification (Outputs > Post Notification):

At this point we can connect all three elements as a workflow:

Results

Now for the user-facing bits. The script is called in Alfred with the keyword ‘bbs’ like so:

All being well, you get a OS X notification like this:

Download the exported Alfred workflow (7KB)