Import books from Amazon to Goodreads on iOS
A new year has dawned, bringing with it the possibility of being even more efficient. One of the things I did a lot last year, was entering books in Goodreads found in links from Amazon. I did this manually (ouch), searching for the book’s name in the Goodreads website or app.
tl;dr
Inspired by this thread, I created an iOS workflow which takes an Amazon URL from any source, extracts the Amazon ID and searches for the corresponding book on the Goodreads website or app (if installed).
Import this workflow into the Workflow app and use Run Workflow from any app with an Amazon URL, Safari for example.
Prerequisites
Before using this workflow, the Workflow iOS app itself must be installed. Workflow is the iOS equivalent of the macOS Automator app, making it extremely easy to chain actions together creating powerful workflows available by a simple touch.
Workflows can be either available only in the app on iOS or Apple Watch, a today widget or as an action extension (available from the share menu of apps). This workflow is the latter.
The iPad screenshot below shows the entire workflow. I found the regex for extracting the ASIN in this thread. It is not 100% foolproof, but has worked on all URLs I’ve tried as of yet.
The workflow can be imported from the Workflow site.
Usage
- Browse to a book on Amazon in Safari or in any other app
- Make sure Workflow is enabled in the action menu
- Run Workflow
- Choose
Import Book From Amazon To Goodreads - See the book in Goodreads after the workflow has run