Multiple folder support

[i336]

Hey there!

I just wanted to thank you heaps for this extension. It's virtually exactly what I think Chrome's internal bookmark workflow should be like, but isn't.

The only thing I'd (strongly! :P) recommend is updating the description and/or keywords in the webstore so it's easier to find; I was recommended it on Reddit after I blew up about the insanity of Google's offerings (and the fact I couldn't find anything else).
^{_{Also, FWIW, the name "Better Bookmark" doesn't really do much to belie the extension's awesomeness, btw. =p}}

The one thing I currently keep falling over with this extension right now is that I really, really wish it was multi-tag-centric, instead of single-folder-centric; I keep wanting to describe my bookmarks using at least two keywords.

However, the various other tagging extensions out there are extension-native: if I remove the extension (or my profile is corrupted) even once, my tags are lost. Tag settings also do not sync across computers.

And no other extension is as keyboard-friendly as Better Bookmark.

All is not lost though :D

When you try to "add" a bookmark to more than one folder via CTRL+D, the logic that moves the bookmark - so it only exists once - is in the CTRL+D UI itself. The bookmark API has no restrictions on letting you add the same thing to more than one folder.

One extension that took full advantage of this was Bookmark#. However, the extension was officially deprecated two months ago and reports an error when I try to install it. The developer of that extension appears to have had financial motivation as a major goal (and the code was not openly licensed) so I would likely have hit a spike-infested brick wall using that anyway.

I don't think I'd personally use the extension-search option Bookmark# implemented, at least not immediately. It probably would be an interesting concept to add at some point though.

[roynasser]

My question is similar albeit slightly different... I dont see the need (yet maybe) to add the same bookmark to two bookmark folders, but I would like to add to a sub-folder, or create a subfolder... Right now if I try to create a folder called "Folder1\sub" (folder 1 does exist), but folder sub doesnt get created.... having subfolder management easily would be a godsend :) Great plugin btw!

[i336]

Based on this extension's lack of activity (the last release was pushed to the Store in '13, I think?), I don't think much is going to happen in terms of updates.

Shortly after posting my OP I discovered just how easy it is to build Chrome extensions, and considering the overall simplicity of this extension I figured it would make for a good first project.

I'm thinking of rewriting it from scratch, using a "friendlier" search algorithm (either a new one or using the existing fuzzy search but with more lenient settings), and multiple-folder support. Subfolder support as you describe seems fairly trivial to add, and who knows, it might get me subcategorizing my stuff more effectively too! :D

I'm just completely blocked on how to redo the UI to support multiple folders, and I finally asked for advice on ux.stackexchange. It hasn't had any answers as I write this, hopefully that can change soon :D

Also, the UI for this extension is simple enough, but that said, it's quite basic. Do you have any opinions/thoughts about the styling?

[roynasser]

I hope you get your idea off the ground! dont forget to post here once its ready! :)

[ardcore]

hey,

@i336 , thank you for the kind words, it's great to hear that someone finds the extension useful.

I'll be adding multiple folder/tag support soon. I think the UI will stick to the generic "tag" UI, with comma as a separator.
I do agree with what you said with the name and keywords not really describing the extension's usefulness, but I don't really have a better idea :P

Good luck with your extension, feel free to fork this one if you find it helpful. Also, if you decide to submit PR here instead it'd be very welcome.

@RVN-BR As for subfolders, I was considering it and I'll definitely think about it again, but currently I don't see the clear path of keeping the UI simple and minimalistic and adding subfolders at the same time. However, just supporting "" (or "/") during folder creation seems doable. My only fear is that you'll be the only one using it :D However, it still may be worth doing.

It's true that I don't have very much time to focus on this extension now, but the project is not forgotten and I want to push an update this month. If I fail to do that, feel free to motivate me by posting hate emails and bad poetry here :D

[i336]

I am most pleasantly surprised by this unexpected communication!

It's great to hear this little extension is still kicking along.

I have absolutely no problem with submitting a PR (although I have no idea how and would sooner/more likely PM you a patch XD ducks), but I suspect I may rewrite so much this may prove, well, interesting, to say the least. I've also been trying to work out how to redo the UI, and those efforts are likely to produce something that looks at least passingly different from how Better Bookmark looks now.

[roynasser]

Hi @ardcore Thanks so much for the reply and for considering adding subfolders! :)

There are a couple of ways I look at this, and again I'm sorry for just throwing ideas with no code to help lol...

• Multiple subfolders can exist with the same name, so I could have:
  -Base1
  ---Sub1
  -Base2
  ---Sub1

A search for Sub1 would make it difficult to locate the bkmk correctly... One idea is to show the top levels on the search result, or maybe better even as a tooltip?
So the list would be:

• Sub1 (tooltip: Base1\Sub1)
• Sub1 (tooltip: Base2\Sub1)

And about creating subfolders, I'd suggest something like search or scroll to the desired folder, and having a + next to it? or right click option menu "add below" and then it would ask for a name?

I really hope I'm not the only one to ever use this lol... if I am then maybe its not worth the effort... nonetheless, some wiseman once said: build it and they will come :lol:

Thanks for great project!

PS: I also use another extension called Neater bookmarks has a great interface for navigating bookmarks.. (I use it as default instead of the bookmarks menu), the interface is really cool... and its opensource... maybe a fork of that with search/add bookmark would be the shortest path to the ultimate chrome bookmarking solution? :D

[galakhov]

Hey there, it's a nice & simple extension!

I needed a couple of similar features myself, so I extended the extension a little bit without reading this discussion first. It seems your ideas were quire similar to my thoughts.

Because I've got lots of folders & sub-folders & sub-sub-folders etc., it's hard to identify which folder is a child of which collection. It would be a long process for me to switch from all these folders I've created to tags due to:

• the same names of these folders inside of the other parent folders,
• other bookmark extensions only allow to search for bookmarks (their titles or URLs) and not filter by folders/directories,
• the hierarchical (nested) structure of folders is another concept (similar to collections: see a raindrop.io link below).

I tried the https://raindrop.io free account and they have this concept of (nested) collections, however after the import of a bookmarks.html file you are being notified that: "nested collections only available with PRO account (...) You can click "Continue" and import all your bookmarks and folders, but you will have a flat single-level collections structure!"

That's why I preferred to stay with the default chrome bookmarks first and came up with a couple of ideas to extend the chrome-better-bookmark by @ardcore.

1. The first idea of captions to indicate the full path to the current directory is implemented like this:

The " > " character in a tooltip indicates the next hierarchical level.

`

2. The next missing feature was the ability to create subfolders, as already mentioned above. I tried to keep it as simple as possible and finally implemented it this way:

You can click on one of these radio buttons to mark the parent folder in which you wish to create a new one. That way you can continue to type the name of the new folder in the search input and the previously selected folder will be linked to it as a parent when you click "add new directory in that parent ↗" below.

`
I guess my fork could also be easily extended to multiple folder support (checkboxes instead of radio buttons).

========================================
My fork is heavily optimised for people who likes to stick to the hierarchical folder structure adding new bookmarks: https://github.com/galakhov/chrome-better-bookmark
Try it out and provide some feedback if you like.