Bookmarklets Installation

DEVONthink To Go
1

I see references to these in the 3.8.1 update notes. I don’t understand how to install in a mobile browser, however. The posts I read are very dated…

2

Since 3.8.1 doesn’t run on mobile devices, how would installing a 3.8.1 bookmarklet in a mobile browser help you? Where is the captured content going to go?

3

Coincidently (probably?) the most recent version of DEVONthink ToGo for iOS is 3.8.1 and this mention of Formatted Note Bookmarklet is the first “new” item mentioned in the release notes. Frankly, I don’t know what it’s about.

4

Ah ha! A clue!

1 Like
5

it is for the URL handler as far as I know, so you can use it with x-callback for instance. There is now a new URL handler called createformatednote for shortcuts

Best,
Steffi

6

The note release is a bit confusing too.

It lost me after “But instead of…”

Bookmarklets are, technically, bookmarks that you add to, e.g., your browser’s bookmarks bar. But instead of opening a web page they open DEVONthink (To Go) with as much data that they can get from the viewed page which, in turn, creates a new document with it.

7

A bookmark takes you to the bookmarked page. A bookmarklet (attempts to) captures the current page and uses it to make a new document in DTTG.

8

That’s narrowing it down a bit too much. A bookmarklet is a JavaScript script that does whatever its programmer tells it to do. In the case of DT, that might be capturing the current page. But you could, for example, write a bookmarklet that removes all images from the current page or masks all swear words or whatever.

9

To use the bookmarklet from Safari iOS, when the page you want to get is open, tap in the url field and it opens the favorites and you can scroll and select it. (I had to ask ChatGPT how to do it).

The bookmarklet can be added from Safari macOS.

1 Like
10
11

I know what a bookmarklet is. its basically scripts. But the release notes still confuses me, I dont know how DTTG is related to this and thats what the OP is asking too

but I think the below post makes it clear on how are they related

12

it is not confusing actually: a bookmarklet is java script and can be added to HTML.

  1. Start Safari new tab
  2. copy/past code to the URL in Safari
  3. Save as favourites

Once done - you can browse to the website you want in DTTG press on the URL to see your favourites and press on the favourite created in step 3. Then the website will be placed into a formatted note in DTTG (Global inbox)

Code is:

javascript:window.location='x-devonthink://createFormattedNote?title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+'&location='+encodeURIComponent(window.location)+'&source='+encodeURIComponent(document.documentElement.outerHTML);

Hope that helps
Best,
Steffi

2 Likes
13

Today DevonTechnologies sent out their latest newsletter in which the bookmarklet is mentioned again and advised over the share extension for iOS devices… so I gave it another try. Findings:

  1. Safari on mobile doesn’t show the bookmarklets on the linked Extras page.

  2. Firefox does when requesting the Desktop site.

  3. Copying the script and add it manually to Safari doesn’t run the script, so I first bookmarked the Extras page. After that I manually modified the URL part of the bookmark.

  4. After visiting a random website I’ve openend my bookmarks / favorites and clicked the bookmarklet. It asks to open DTTG as expected.

  5. The clipper / new item window is opened… all fields blank… it doesn’t clip the visited website at all.

What am I doing wrong? And how could DT make this one work a bit simpler and smoother installation experience?

I’m not exactly a newbie when it comes to working with computers, mobile devices or understanding web technology, but from a user perspective this process does make any sense to me.

Regards,
Maik

14

You can (in general) copy the code of a bookmarklet and paste it into the bookmark section of you browser. If you then open that bookmarklet like you’d open a bookmark, it is executed.
A bookmarklet is never executed n without being told to open by the user. Is just JavaScript code.

15

It does now :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
16

Thanks for fixing that one in such a short notice :blush::+1:t2:

Some points of attention:

The bookmarks panel should be selected to successfully drag (hold) and drop (tap with other finger to open the panel) it into the bookmarks and not the favorites panel. The latter doesn’t seem to work.

Clip as Web Archive and Selection seem to work just fine. The PDF (one page) results in an error ‘unknown URL parameters’ within DTTG.

17

I did, but that didn’t work. Maybe because I’d added the bookmark directly into my favorites / pinned bookmarks within Safari.