bash script for Alfred workflow to create a new snippet

insert_snippet.sh

#!/bin/bash

# set qry to the query (argument one)
qry="$1"

# fix SNIP_DB location in case it contains tilde (won't expand in quotes)
SNIP_DB=$( echo $SNIP_DB | sed "s:^~:$HOME:" )

# set the internal delimeter (idlm) to some char(s) that will never be used
idlm=''

# replace user's delimeter w/ ours, but only for the first occurence
qry=${qry/$DLM/$idlm}

# escape single quotes for sqlite3
qry=${qry//\'/\'\'}

# get first field (snippet name/keyword)
name=$(echo "$qry" | awk -F"$idlm" 'NR==1 { print $1 }')

# get second field (snippet keyword)
keyword="$name"

# wipe field 1, print the rest for line one. print everything else
snippet=$(echo "$qry" | awk -F"$idlm"  'NR==1 { $1=""; print $2; } NR>1  { print $0 } ')

# if one of the reqd fields is null, say so and exit
# echod output will get sent to notification at end of workflow 
if [ -z "$name" ] | [ -z "$keyword" ] | [ -z "$snippet" ]; then
    echo "less than three fields"
    exit 1
fi

# turns out the alfred epoch is Sun Dec 31 16:00:01 PST 2000
alf_epoch=978307201

# calc. current alf. ts by subtracting the alf. epoch from unix epoch
ts=$(expr $(date +%s) - $alf_epoch)

# prepare sql
sql="INSERT INTO snippets (name,keyword,snippet,ts) 
     VALUES ('$name','$keyword','$snippet','$ts');"

# execute sql
sqlite3 "$SNIP_DB" << EOF
$sql
EOF