Sometimes when I run a search and open up a dozen or more pages, I want to
use that search result in a USENET posting where I just want all the URLs.
Normally I manually laboriously cut and paste into a text file.

Subject title 1
[URL]
Subject title 2
[URL]
Subject title 3
[URL]
....

I thought I had a bright idea of saving time by using the bookmarks.html
file which I could save all the open tabs into and convert to text.

I don't normally use bookmarks so it will contain just the current tabs.
I right click any tab > Select All Tabs > Bookmark Tabs

That should save all the tabs into the bookmarks file.
Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Application Basics > Profile Folder > Open Folder = %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
I was surprised there is no longer a bookmarks.html file there.
Just the bookmarksbackups folder and the places.sqlite file.

Googling, the first hit was an online tool to convert the session file.
https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html
But that will contain the entire history to weed through.
And it requires closing all the open tabs (which could lose data if
something goes wrong and you can't get them all back when they are open).

I just want the bookmarks in a text file. Not the history.

Googling, the next few hits are complicated scripts running session
add ons and python converters from the sqlite format to Excel.

Example.
sqlite3 -csv -header places.sqlite "select
datetime(moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as
datum, moz_places.url, moz_places.title from moz_places, moz_historyvisits
where moz_places.id = moz_historyvisits.place_id and moz_places.title like
'%' order by datum" |
convertfrom-csv | select -last 3 | fl

That's too much for something that should be very simple.
Is there something simpler to convert places.sqlite > places.txt?

On 3/8/2023 10:47 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
> Sometimes when I run a search and open up a dozen or more pages, I want
> to use that search result in a USENET posting where I just want all the
> URLs.
> Normally I manually laboriously cut and paste into a text file.
>
> Subject title 1
> [URL]
> Subject title 2
> [URL]
> Subject title 3
> [URL]
> ...
>
> I thought I had a bright idea of saving time by using the bookmarks.html
> file which I could save all the open tabs into and convert to text.
>
> I don't normally use bookmarks so it will contain just the current tabs.
> I right click any tab > Select All Tabs > Bookmark Tabs
>
> That should save all the tabs into the bookmarks file.
> Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Application Basics > Profile
> Folder > Open Folder = %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
> I was surprised there is no longer a bookmarks.html file there.
> Just the bookmarksbackups folder and the places.sqlite file.
>
> Googling, the first hit was an online tool to convert the session file.
> https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html
> But that will contain the entire history to weed through.
> And it requires closing all the open tabs (which could lose data if
> something goes wrong and you can't get them all back when they are open).
>
> I just want the bookmarks in a text file. Not the history.
>
> Googling, the next few hits are complicated scripts running session add
> ons and python converters from the sqlite format to Excel.
> Example.
> sqlite3 -csv -header places.sqlite "select
> datetime(moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime')
> as datum, moz_places.url, moz_places.title from moz_places,
> moz_historyvisits where moz_places.id = moz_historyvisits.place_id and
> moz_places.title like '%' order by datum" |
>  convertfrom-csv | select -last 3 | fl
>
> That's too much for something that should be very simple.
> Is there something simpler to convert places.sqlite > places.txt?

What about export bookmarks as html?

On 3/8/2023 10:47 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
> Sometimes when I run a search and open up a dozen or more pages, I want to use that search result in a USENET posting where I just want all the URLs.
> Normally I manually laboriously cut and paste into a text file.
>
> Subject title 1
> [URL]
> Subject title 2
> [URL]
> Subject title 3
> [URL]
> ...
>
> I thought I had a bright idea of saving time by using the bookmarks.html file which I could save all the open tabs into and convert to text.
>
> I don't normally use bookmarks so it will contain just the current tabs.
> I right click any tab > Select All Tabs > Bookmark Tabs
>
> That should save all the tabs into the bookmarks file.
> Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Application Basics > Profile Folder > Open Folder = %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
> I was surprised there is no longer a bookmarks.html file there.
> Just the bookmarksbackups folder and the places.sqlite file.
>
> Googling, the first hit was an online tool to convert the session file.
> https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html
> But that will contain the entire history to weed through.
> And it requires closing all the open tabs (which could lose data if
> something goes wrong and you can't get them all back when they are open).
>
> I just want the bookmarks in a text file. Not the history.
>
> Googling, the next few hits are complicated scripts running session add ons and python converters from the sqlite format to Excel.
> Example.
> sqlite3 -csv -header places.sqlite "select datetime(moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as datum, moz_places.url, moz_places.title from moz_places, moz_historyvisits where moz_places.id = moz_historyvisits.place_id and moz_places.title like '%' order by datum" |
>  convertfrom-csv | select -last 3 | fl
>
> That's too much for something that should be very simple.
> Is there something simpler to convert places.sqlite > places.txt?

Firefox should have an Export Bookmarks function.
This is THE easiest way to get bookmarks.

*******

You can dump the raw database if you want. No selectors applied at all,
means everything it has got is in here.

sqlite3 places.sqlite .dump > places.txt

The 242 value, stitches these two together. moz_places is where a single visit went to.
That gives the URL. The bookmark has a matching text description. These
are "tables" which share an "index value".

INSERT INTO moz_places VALUES(242,'http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/gentoo/releases/amd64/20160704/',
'Index of /pub/gentoo/releases/amd64/20160704',
'ude.notecnirp.htam.rorrim.',1,0,0,20,1645368201088000,
'2odbob4OBKf3',1,125509967514132,NULL,NULL);

INSERT INTO moz_bookmarks VALUES(39,1,242,2,9,'Index of /pub/gentoo/releases/amd64/20160704',
NULL,NULL,1645370731176000,1645370731176000,'N6bMacL4T_dk',1,1);

But then, that's not fit for human consumption, as no selectors
were applied and a lot of edits (scripts) will be required. And it looks
like I haven't located the table with the Favicon in it.

In Windows 10, you can run the bash shell, and load up sqlite browser
in bash shell (WSLg graphically enabled version). Microsoft makes a
claim that there is a WSLg version in the Microsoft Store now, that
works in Windows 10. But what is in the browser, is no better than the
text I just showed you.

*******

But you're also missing the bookmarkbackups folder. This is lz4 compressed.
The file is in .json format.

bookmarks-2023-03-07_49_FAAABBBCCCDDDEEEFa-3jA==.jsonlz4

I wrote my own decompressor. It's just a wrapper for the lz4.c that
comes in the Firefox source tarball. While github has a version too,
the identifier in the header of this file is different.

gcc -c lz4.c # lz4.c, lz4.h, likely in Firefox source tarball.
gcc -c unmoz.c
gcc -o unmoz.exe lz4.o unmoz.o

unmoz.exe test.jsonlz4 output.json.txt

This is not as convenient as a Bookmark Export. The format is nice,
but not ready for some purpose. You can notice a pointer to a Favicon
is in this entry.

{
"guid": "1ixB6N11arNd",
"title": "GitHub - yt-dlp/yt-dlp: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and fixes",
"index": 1,
"dateAdded": 1650167819095000, <=== there's a converter to make dates...
"lastModified": 1650167819095000,
"id": 18,
"typeCode": 1,
"iconUri": "https://github.githubassets.com/favicons/favicon.svg",
"type": "text/x-moz-place",
"uri": "https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#release-files" <=== The bookmark URL
}

My biggest concern about browsers, is that they are LOSING bookmarks.
Every time I do one of these posts, I find an extraordinarily low
number of bookmarks. Like there's an expiry date.

Paul

On 08/03/23 15:47, Dean Hoffman wrote:

> I just want the bookmarks in a text file. Not the history.

What I do is Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks -> Import and Backup ->
Export Bookmarks to HTML. OK, it isn't a straightforward text file,
because it displays the page titles, with a link to the URL, and if you
View Source you will see a lot more than the basic URL is there.
However, if you copy that data to a plain text file and run a quick edit
on it, deleting everything including and after {?utm_medium}, and then
including and after {/"} (ignoring the braces, which I am using purely
as delimiters), this should get you pretty close to what you need.
--
Molly Mockford
Nature loves variety. Unfortunately, society hates it. (Milton Diamond
Ph.D.)
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)

On 08/03/23 18:11, Molly Mockford wrote:
> On 08/03/23 15:47, Dean Hoffman wrote:
>
>> I just want the bookmarks in a text file. Not the history.
>
> What I do is Bookmarks -> Manage Bookmarks -> Import and Backup ->
> Export Bookmarks to HTML. OK, it isn't a straightforward text file,
> because it displays the page titles, with a link to the URL, and if you
> View Source you will see a lot more than the basic URL is there.
> However, if you copy that data to a plain text file and run a quick edit
> on it, deleting everything including and after {?utm_medium}, and then
> including and after {/"} (ignoring the braces, which I am using purely
> as delimiters), this should get you pretty close to what you need.

Of course, one only sees mistakes after posting! I should have said
'after {/"}', not 'including and after {/"}'. Sorry!
--
Molly Mockford
Nature loves variety. Unfortunately, society hates it. (Milton Diamond
Ph.D.)
(My Reply-To address *is* valid, though may not remain so for ever.)

On 3/8/23 10:47, this is what Dean Hoffman wrote:
> Sometimes when I run a search and open up a dozen or more pages, I want to use that search result in a USENET posting
> where I just want all the URLs.
> Normally I manually laboriously cut and paste into a text file.
>
> Subject title 1
> [URL]
> Subject title 2
> [URL]
> Subject title 3
> [URL]
> ...
>
> I thought I had a bright idea of saving time by using the bookmarks.html file which I could save all the open tabs into
> and convert to text.
>
> I don't normally use bookmarks so it will contain just the current tabs.
> I right click any tab > Select All Tabs > Bookmark Tabs
>
> That should save all the tabs into the bookmarks file.
> Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Application Basics > Profile Folder > Open Folder =
> %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
> I was surprised there is no longer a bookmarks.html file there.
> Just the bookmarksbackups folder and the places.sqlite file.
>
> Googling, the first hit was an online tool to convert the session file.
> https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html
> But that will contain the entire history to weed through.
> And it requires closing all the open tabs (which could lose data if
> something goes wrong and you can't get them all back when they are open).
>
> I just want the bookmarks in a text file. Not the history.
>
> Googling, the next few hits are complicated scripts running session add ons and python converters from the sqlite format
> to Excel.
> Example.
> sqlite3 -csv -header places.sqlite "select datetime(moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as
> datum, moz_places.url, moz_places.title from moz_places, moz_historyvisits where moz_places.id =
> moz_historyvisits.place_id and moz_places.title like '%' order by datum" |
>  convertfrom-csv | select -last 3 | fl
>
> That's too much for something that should be very simple.
> Is there something simpler to convert places.sqlite > places.txt?
browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML in about:config set it to true.
When you close Firefox every time it will export to bookmarks.html in your profile folder.
It's great if you want to import into Edge/Chrome etc.
--
Al

On Mar 08, 2023, Dean Hoffman wrote
(in article<news:tuaala$g5l3$1@paganini.bofh.team>):

> I thought I had a bright idea of saving time by using the bookmarks.html
> file which I could save all the open tabs into and convert to text.

What I used to do is snapshot so it's all of what you want, but done wrong.
Bookmarks > Search Bookmarks > WINDOWS+PRINTSCREEN

What I do now only gets half of what you want, but that half is done right.
Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks > CONTROL+A CONTROL+C
WINDOWS+R > notepad.exe > CONTROL + V

Every URL is text but you have to OCR the image to get all titles in text.

Ron, the humblest guy in town.

On Wed, 8 Mar 2023 09:47:04 -0600, in alt.comp.os.windows-10, Dean
Hoffman wrote:

>That's too much for something that should be very simple.
>Is there something simpler to convert places.sqlite > places.txt?

CTRL+SHIFT+O

This will open the bookmarks manager.

In bookmarks manager:

Import and Backup -> Export Bookmarks to HTML...

--
Zag

No one ever said on their deathbed, 'Gee, I wish I had
spent more time alone with my computer.' ~Dan(i) Bunten

On 3/8/2023 10:47 AM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
> Sometimes when I run a search and open up a dozen or more pages, I want
> to use that search result in a USENET posting where I just want all the
> URLs.
> Normally I manually laboriously cut and paste into a text file.
>
> Subject title 1
> [URL]
> Subject title 2
> [URL]
> Subject title 3
> [URL]
> ...
>
> I thought I had a bright idea of saving time by using the bookmarks.html
> file which I could save all the open tabs into and convert to text.
>
> I don't normally use bookmarks so it will contain just the current tabs.
> I right click any tab > Select All Tabs > Bookmark Tabs
>
> That should save all the tabs into the bookmarks file.
> Help > More Troubleshooting Information > Application Basics > Profile
> Folder > Open Folder = %APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\
> I was surprised there is no longer a bookmarks.html file there.
> Just the bookmarksbackups folder and the places.sqlite file.
>
> Googling, the first hit was an online tool to convert the session file.
> https://www.jeffersonscher.com/ffu/scrounger.html
> But that will contain the entire history to weed through.
> And it requires closing all the open tabs (which could lose data if
> something goes wrong and you can't get them all back when they are open).
>
> I just want the bookmarks in a text file. Not the history.
>
> Googling, the next few hits are complicated scripts running session add
> ons and python converters from the sqlite format to Excel.
> Example.
> sqlite3 -csv -header places.sqlite "select
> datetime(moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime')
> as datum, moz_places.url, moz_places.title from moz_places,
> moz_historyvisits where moz_places.id = moz_historyvisits.place_id and
> moz_places.title like '%' order by datum" |
>  convertfrom-csv | select -last 3 | fl
>
> That's too much for something that should be very simple.
> Is there something simpler to convert places.sqlite > places.txt?
add extension "Email Tabs" then use its option "Copy Links to Clipboard"

On 2023-03-08 15:31:04 +0000, Zaghadka said:

> Import and Backup -> Export Bookmarks to HTML

Is there a subsequent HTML to TEXT conversion out there?

On 3/9/2023 10:56 AM, gtr wrote:
> On 2023-03-08 15:31:04 +0000, Zaghadka said:
>
>> Import and Backup -> Export Bookmarks to HTML
>
> Is there a subsequent HTML to TEXT conversion out there?

A classical answer would be "why, open the HTML with
a browser, and save as Text". But I doubt the result
visually would be all that useful :-) It needs some
newlines inserted for proper formatting.

This is an example of one entry, saved as text. The title
can arbitrarily switch to a new line. The URL is in <> brackets.

GitHub - yt-dlp/yt-dlp: A youtube-dl fork with additional features and
fixes <https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp#release-files>

Paul

On 3/8/2023 11:47 PM, Dean Hoffman wrote:
> Sometimes when I run a search and open up a dozen or more pages, I want to
> use that search result in a USENET posting where I just want all the URLs.
> Normally I manually laboriously cut and paste into a text file.
>
> Googling, the next few hits are complicated scripts running session
> add ons and python converters from the sqlite format to Excel.
>
> Example.
> sqlite3 -csv -header places.sqlite "select
> datetime(moz_historyvisits.visit_date/1000000, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as
> datum, moz_places.url, moz_places.title from moz_places, moz_historyvisits
> where moz_places.id = moz_historyvisits.place_id and moz_places.title like
> '%' order by datum" |
> convertfrom-csv | select -last 3 | fl
>
> That's too much for something that should be very simple.
> Is there something simpler to convert places.sqlite > places.txt?

Try searching for "sqlite" in the add-on page... basically, it's a
database dump.