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diff --git a/src/b/2022-07-organizing-qutebrowser-hyperlinks.md b/src/b/2022-07-organizing-qutebrowser-hyperlinks.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a1a3cd --- /dev/null +++ b/src/b/2022-07-organizing-qutebrowser-hyperlinks.md @@ -0,0 +1,128 @@ +title: Organizing qutebrowser hyperlinks +date: 2022-07-18 + +## Actual state + +Qutebrowser offers two strategies for saving an hyperlink [^1]: + +- `bookmark`: a link relates to a title (without any format constraint). +- `quickmark`: a link relates to a tag (which must be unique). + +I have always used the bookmark strategy, but it lacks a propper +quality-of-life update for sorting and formatting entries. + +## Intended workflow + +I have decided to pick the following workflow: + +1. Do not use the quickmark strategy. +2. Store hyperlinks as bookmarks. +3. Format the bookmarks titles, but allow duplicates. +4. Sort the bookmarks per title. +5. Show the same ui of quickmark-add when adding a new bookmark. + +A bookmark entry in `.config/qutebrowser/bookmarks/urls` would then look like +this: + +``` +[hyperlink] [tag+1] [tag+2] ... [tag+n] + +https://beej.us/guide/bgnet/html/ +network +soft +wiki +http://cat-v.org/ +wiki +https://why-vi.rocks/ +wiki +``` + +While (1) and (2) are purely related to human behaviors, (3), (4) and (5) +requires the implementation of logic on qutebrowser side, which does not exist +on the upstream (yet). + +I originally produced multiple hacky scripts for sorting and formatting my +bookmark file, but ended up doing Python injection from the qutebrowser +configuration file. Thanks to the functions injection, the sorting and +formatting operations are hooked to the `bookmark-add` keybind. + + + +## Implementation + +1. Sort the tags of each bookmark entries, then sort the bookmarks entries by + their title: + + ``` + from os import path + from io import SEEK_SET + + from qutebrowser.browser.urlmarks import UrlMarkManager + + + def sort_bookmarks(url_filepath: str) -> None: + file = open(url_filepath, 'r+') + marks = ( + (link, sorted(tags.split())) for link, tags in + (line.split(maxsplit=1) for line in file.readlines()) + ) + lines = ( + f'{link} {" ".join(tags)}' for link, tags in + sorted(marks, key=lambda mark: mark[1]) + ) + file.seek(SEEK_SET) + file.writelines('\n'.join(lines)) + file.close() +``` + +2. Hook the sort function when an new entry is added to the url file (Note: I + wanted to reuse the original `UrlMarkManager.save` method and extend it, but + pythonic shenanigans forced me to copy/paste two loc from the source code): + + + ``` + def urlmarkmanager_save(manager: UrlMarkManager, configdir: str) -> None: + """Override Qutebrowser builtin method for saving bookmarks.""" + manager._lineparser.data = [' '.join(tpl) for tpl in manager.marks.items()] + manager._lineparser.save() + sort_bookmarks(path.join(configdir, 'bookmarks/urls')) + + from qutebrowser.browser.urlmarks import UrlMarkManager + + UrlMarkManager.save = ( + lambda manager: urlmarkmanager_save(manager, config.configdir) + ) + ``` + +3. Hook the save function with an homemade pop-up, that appears when adding a + new bookmark entry: + + ``` + from qutebrowser.api import cmdutils + + @cmdutils.register() + def bookmark_save(url: QUrl): + """Save the current page as a bookmark.""" + manager = objreg.get('bookmark-manager') + tags = message.ask( + title="Add bookmark:", + mode=PromptMode.text, + url=url.toString(QUrl.RemovePassword | QUrl.FullyEncoded), + text=( + "Please enter bookmark tags for<br/><b>" + f"{html.escape(url.toDisplayString())}</b>" + ), + ) + + if not tags: + return + + try: + manager.add(url, tags) + except UrlAlreadyExistsError: + message.warning("Bookmark already exists.") + ``` + +Now all my bookmark entries are sorted by their titles automatically, and it +looks way better when I preview them! + + + +(Next step: integrate a fuzzy-finder for searching bookmarks) + +[^1]: https://github.com/qutebrowser/qutebrowser/issues/882 |