I was messing around with the Exist.IO API over the weekend to see what I could build. I noticed that there was a ‘Pages read’ attribute that I could post to.

Perfect! I then wondered how easily I could build an iOS app that would let me submit that each day (Spoiler: quite a lot of work) however, I remembered that Shortcuts was a thing and decided to see if it was possible to use a shortcut to post to an API.

The answer is yes - I have a home screen icon that asks me how many pages I’ve read and sends it to exist.

Shortcut App - Prompt to enter pages read{:class=“img-fluid”}

Successful Log to Exist.io{:class=“img-fluid”}

To get started with this, you should head over to the Exist.IO developer pages and have a read through.

Firstly, Create a developer client from your account settings within Exist, and make sure it has access to the pages_read attribute. This will give you the information you require to generate the access tokens needed for the Shortcut.

The follow the OAuth2 authentication steps, and create your access token. (I have some Python code that will help do this, but I need to tidy it up before I release it.)

Lastly, You can load the following shortcut on your phone or ipad and paste in your authentication token and that is it!

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/b493d6e88fcf47d293e6cb5cc8ff9224

Exist Dashboard{:class=“img-fluid”}