87729 - Bookmarks must be edited with a text editor, not Composer

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(CCK Graveyard :: CCK-General, defect)

Description

[blee]

Filing as a reminder for doc team.

Need to revise "Guide to Customization" to reflect that customizers need to use 
Notepad or other text editor, *NOT* Composer, in order to customize 
bookmarks.html. The bookmarks.html depends upon a special doctype that Composer 
and potentially other html editors modify.

Comment 1

[rubydoo123]

what is this special doctype that you refer to? And what is the fear -- that we 
will modify the doctype or try to correct html coding erros?

Comment 2

[blee]

It seems to use DTD (Document Type Definitions) format. Once content is edited 
with Composer, syntax (DT tags, etc.) is modified quite a bit. At a glance, the 
modified syntax looked incorrect. As a result, CCK custom shell doesn't 
recognize this.

Comment 3

[rubydoo123]

can you gove a more concrete example of the alteration? Also, what kind of 
format should it be? They are not web based?

Comment 4

[bobj]

This is not a composer bug.  Although it would be a really nice enhancement
if Composer dealt with this.  This is the header of the bookmarks.html file:

   <!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>
   <!-- This is an automatically generated file.
   It will be read and overwritten.
   Do Not Edit! -->
   <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
   <TITLE>Bookmarks</TITLE>

This has been like this for a very long time prior to Mozilla and NS6.
I believe the reason for the special doctype is that bookmarks.html only
allows a subset of HTML.  E.g., you could not add tables or other type
of markup.

Users should not edit bookmarks.html.

But for anyone (not just CCK users) who want to distribute a modified default
set of bookmarks, they must edit defaults/profile/bookmarks.html.

The simplest change would be for Composer to not rewrite the doctype for this
special case.  Maybe a dialog could be popped up warning something like
"this is a special bookmarks file and only description type lists elements
should be used".

Kristi, you might want to add the above info to the docs about bookmarks.html
editing restrictions.

Comment 5

[rubydoo123]

well, in the context that you explained, unless you have a legitimate DTD to go
along with your doctype, then the doctype is really bogus. If you are afraid of
tables, etc, getting added, inserting that doctype will not prevent anyone from
adding them in notepad either. Not to add extra work on anyone -- if at all
possible, it would be outstanding if the HTML that is used be correct (in
regards to the 4.01 DTD) and if the 4.01 doctype is dropped in, it wouldn't
matter, as long as it is correct HTML.

Comment 6

[bobj]

beppe,
This bug is remind us to document the current (odd) behavior for folks
who customize the browser.  If you want this file changed, you should log
a bug against bookmarks.

Comment 7

[rubydoo123]

hey -- sorry, I was just trying to understand.

Comment 8

[bobj]

No problem, it's just one of these "hysterical" features which has had a
long life :-)

Comment 9

[Kristi Fredrickson]

Marking Fixed.

Added this text to the Creating Custom Bookmarks section:

" 6. ... Note: To edit the bookmarks file, be sure to use a plain text editor, 
such as BBEdit or Notepad, not a WYSIWYG-style HTML editor such as Composer." 

Current draft with this information is at http://Syndicate/docs/client/infodsgn/
CCKDocs/chap04.html

Comment 10

[blee]

Marking Verified.