Closed Bug 327035 Opened 18 years ago Closed 1 month ago

Support the import of Places "bookmarks" (Firefox 3)

Categories

(Camino Graveyard :: Bookmarks, defect)

Product:
Camino Graveyard
Component:
Bookmarks
Platform:
All
macOS
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: alqahira, Unassigned)

References

(
URL
)

Details

The new Places "bookmarks" format is a database based on sqlLite rather than a flat file, and we should be able to import it when it ships.

This bug is to track our strategy for doing so.

Options include:
1) bundle slqLite and write a converter
2) tell users to "export first" (assuming Fx will export to a standard format)
Per http://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox2/PRD#Bookmarks_and_History it looks like they're *planning* on having the ability to export to a "normal" format.
Places got turned off for 1.8.1, but the HTML exporter has already landed on branch and trunk, so we're not sunk even if we don't get a proper sqlLite importer made.
Assignee: mikepinkerton → nobody
QA Contact: bookmarks
Target Milestone: Camino1.2 → Camino2.0
Summary: Support the import of Places "bookmarks" → Support the import of Places "bookmarks" (Firefox 3)
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
Assignee: nobody → stuart.morgan
Status: ASSIGNED → NEW
Given the HTML export option still exists, I think we can reasonably bump this from the 2.0 list.  It would be great if we could import them natively, but with reasonable website changes, we could be OK leaving this out of 2.0 IMO.
Agreed.
Assignee: stuart.morgan+bugzilla → nobody
Target Milestone: Camino2.0 → ---
The other thing we could do here, instead of working with the raw sqlite file, is read the most-recent fxprofile/bookmarkbackups/bookmarks-date.json file, which provides a more typical hierarchical structure (assuming the user has launched and quit Firefox at least once before importing; backup generation seems to be triggered by quitting).

We'll already have to get some sort of json-based import working if we want to support importing bookmarks from Google Chrome; see bug 537567.

(In reply to comment #5)
> Given the HTML export option still exists, I think we can reasonably bump this
> from the 2.0 list.  It would be great if we could import them natively, but
> with reasonable website changes, we could be OK leaving this out of 2.0 IMO.

As more and more time passes, and we're now three versions into the Places era (yet with Fx still shipping a dummy bookmarks.html file in new profiles, and with Fx2-era files still there for existing profiles, confusing our current importer), I think we need to have some sort of solution here.

Whatever we do in bug 550816 will help with the confusion a little bit, but it still won't make importing bookmarks from current versions of a major browser as simple as importing bookmarks from a FruitCo browser or any number of minor Mac browers.
Flags: camino2.1?
Wevah revealed yesterday that he wrote some parsing/import code for Paparazzi!
(In reply to comment #8)
> Wevah revealed yesterday that he wrote some parsing/import code for Paparazzi!

Except he apparently hasn't shipped it yet :P http://twitter.com/Wevah/status/2360853760315392
We poked Wevah about this on late last week, and he was again amenable to providing said code to us, once he had refreshed his supplies of caffeine-providing beverages or somesuch.
http://www.purposeful.co.uk/software/places2bookmarks/ does a rather sloppy job of putting together a bookmarks.html file, but it does show how to put together the table mapping and ordering, so that you can get an export that matches the native hierarchy. (It doesn't do keywords aka shortcuts, which I presume live in moz_keywords.)

Presumably this makes it slightly easier for someone who has a clue with sqlite/Cocoa to whip up (ha!) import code.

Or, Wevah could still magically appear with his code.
Still like to do this for 2.1.x if Wevah provides the code or someone works up some alternate sqlite-Cocoa jazz.
Flags: camino2.1?
Flags: camino2.1.1?
Flags: camino2.1-
The SQL part would be easy if we could use GTMSQLite (which is what CookieThief uses for Camino cookies). I assume that's still verboten by the license gods though.
(In reply to Stuart Morgan from comment #13)
> I assume that's still verboten by the license gods though.

Yeah; I haven't heard a timeline for when it's going to happen :-( and the last discussion I'd heard, which implied it was close, was several months ago.  (The last change to https://wiki.mozilla.org/MPL_Upgrade was late August.)
I expect before 2.1.2 we'll have the new license, so this could move forward then.
Flags: camino2.1.2?
Flags: camino2.1.1?
Flags: camino2.1.1-
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 1 month ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
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