Comments on: An Even Better Bookmarklet

By: Michael J.

Michael J. — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 22:49:11 +0000

Works like a charm – thanks for the quick feedback!

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:37:06 +0000

Hi Michael – I’m hoping to enhance the “Install Bookmarklet” page inside MarsEdit to make this easier, but for the time being you have to edit the source for the bookmarklet (by editing the “address” in your browser).

This is probably best explained by example … but pasting the whole example is ugly. You want to add the parameter to the source of the javascript, near the very end of the “address.” You’ll see that the bookmark currently ends in:

;document.location.href=url;

And you want to sneak your “weblog” parameter in just before that, so that the end looks like this:

;url=url+’&weblog=Red%20Sweater%20Blog’;document.location.href=url;

Substitute whatever blog name you like from your list of Weblogs in MarsEdit.

I know this is still kind of complex but hopefully it helps you figure it out!

Daniel

By: Michael J.

Michael J. — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 21:01:49 +0000

How do I use the &weblog=BlogName feature? I have two blogs, and want to have two bookmarklets – one for each blog. Thanks!

By: Takaaki Kato

Takaaki Kato — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 04:56:21 +0000

I can release a fix without updating MarsEdit itself.

You could do this even without releasing an update if you make a “Install bookmarklets” page on the web. Your users still have to wait for a new version.

Most developers put the bookmarklets in the application bundle.

Also, I wonder how you notitify this to users. Existing users have no way to notice this unless they read release notes.

Anyways, thanks for fixing the issue. ^_^

By: Daniel Jalkut

Daniel Jalkut — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:19:45 +0000

Interesting idea, Will. I’m satisified for the moment I think to “keep it simple,” but that is a technique to keep in mind.

(See you at CocoaHeads tonight!)

By: Will Koffel

Will Koffel — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:16:34 +0000

I’ve written a number of bookmarklets, and often another level of indirection is helpful too. The bookmarklet pulls down a JS snippet from the product site, and executes it. If you did that, no one would have to change to encodeURIComponent, as you could just make the change globally, and everyone would inherit the fix the next time they clicked on it.

(Of course, then you have to keep the JS snippet location alive, which is not a problem except in an instance like the purchase of MarsEdit by RS!)

This technique is also very useful for stats tracking on bookmarklet usage, etc. if you are into that kind of thing (most people in the commercial ad-supported web world are ; most indie-mac-devs are likely not)