6 ms·

Show HN: Bort.io – Web application for website bookmarks and search

105 points by otsaloma 11y ago

otsaloma 11y ago
Hello. Bort is a web application I made for website bookmarks and search. It's fully client-side JavaScript with bookmarks saved in browser's local database (IndexedDB or WebSQL via PouchDB) and synced via a JSON file in user's own Dropbox across both devices and browsers. Any feedback is welcome. In particular, since I don't have a Mac at hand, I'd like to know if it works on Safari, and if so, which version. Unlike other tested browsers, PouchDB uses WebSQL instead of IndexedDB on Safari.
- caio1982 11y ago
  +500 internet points to Bort for providing import & export options out of the box :-)
- dorian-graph 11y ago
  Thank goodness for being client-side! It's a refreshing change almost every other web app.
- Raphael 11y ago
  For navigation within the app, consider using links with URL fragments and listening for the hashChange event. This will allow back and forward navigation, as well as the ability to bookmark or link to a tag.
  - otsaloma 11y ago
    Thanks. I didn't know about this. I'll look into it. Linking to a tag or several tags is already possible though. It's just not obvious since you don't see those URLs in normal use. https://bort.io/about.html#faq-url-tags https://bort.io/about.html#faq-url-tags
- sheenobu 11y ago
  Seems functional in Safari Version 8.0.8 (10600.8.9). I wish it would auto-determine bookmark titles. Unless that is a Safari-only issue, I guess that is due to its client-side nature? Also: Why not remoteStorage.js ? Not that I particularly care for that over dropbox.
  - otsaloma 11y ago
    Thanks for checking Safari. Technically it should be possible to fetch the page and parse the title tag. It's hard to know when to do that if there's an editable URL field. With a browser extension and a "?add=URL" parameter (see the question from g4k) it would work better. I'm not familiar with remoteStorage.js. Dropbox I chose simply because it's popular, many people already have an account and trust them, so it's a low barrier to use something that uses Dropbox.
    - sheenobu 11y ago
      remoteStorage.js is a library for implementing applications similar to yours, where the backend storage is separate from the application provider. The library primarily supports 'remoteStorage' providers but apparently now supports google drive and dropbox experimentally.[1] All the apps using remoteStorage that I've checked out don't seem to have dropbox as an option though, and only some have google drive. [1] https://unhosted.org/adventures/7/Adding-remote-storage-to-unhosted-web-apps.html https://unhosted.org/adventures/7/Adding-remote-storage-to-u...
    - otsaloma 11y ago
      Forgot about CORS regarding those titles, so I guess a bookmarket or browser extension is required that passes the title along with the URL as a parameter. Or like with favicons, a separate service that parses titles.
- aswerty 11y ago
  It looks really well. I've also been building a bookmarking system over the last while, it's not yet released though, so I love to see other stuff in this area coming out.
riskable 11y ago
Very similar to http://bookmarked.us http://bookmarked.us but instead of storing your bookmarks in Evernote it uses Dropbox. I like it.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
desireco42 11y ago
It is really cool. I am now in a bind because I kind of stopped using Dropbox a while back and use BitorrentSync which is pretty much awesome, but I can see how this can't really work with that. Anyhow, really nice effort, congrats!
g4k 11y ago
There don't not seem to be browser extensions for bookmarking yet.
- otsaloma 11y ago
  For adding bookmarks? No, not yet, but I figured if it get's popular I'd add a URL parameter, e.g. "?add=URL", document that, provide a bookmarklet and maybe let others write browser-specific extensions.
  - math 11y ago
    For it to get popular I think a friction-less way of adding bookmarks is a key requirement (I'd very likely use it then - have been looking for something like this)
greggman 11y ago
I'd really like to see an app/extension/browser that just lets me search my history by the content of every page I've ever visited. I feel like I'd find that more useful than bookmarking. If I could add tags and/or an "important mark" to the pages that seems like it would be enough for me as far as bookmarks go and far more useful
- icebraining 11y ago
  Firefox bookmarks have tags, you just need to click twice on the Star and it'll show a dialog where you can insert them. And yes, they are searchable: just type the tag in the Awesome Bar.
- vvpan 11y ago
  It's difficult to build an extension like that, I think, you'd need a search server. If there was an extension that would offload the heavy lifting, say, to my a local installation of elastic search or something like that I'd install it in the blink of an eye. The data would be right there, you could search, organize, backup any way you wished.
  - nl 11y ago
    The problem (of course) is discovery and availability of the search server. A "local" installation is no good for most people, because they use multiple web browsers in across multiple networks. So you do cloud, and then you have to deal with security and authentication and admin etc. Meh :( Sandstorm.io is the last, best hope.
    - gramakri 11y ago
      Cloudron is also attempting to make cloud installations simple - https://cloudron.io https://cloudron.io disclaimer: co-founder of Cloudron
- heliostatic 11y ago
  You might like Fetching (http://fetching.io/ http://fetching.io/). It has a hosted and offline only version, and does full text snapshot/indexing of everything you browse.
Raphael 11y ago
We need more Bort license plates in the gift shop. Repeat, we are sold out of Bort license plates.
- wwarren 11y ago
  Context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K99OWlAWeN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K99OWlAWeN4
- scentedmeat 11y ago
  My project is also named Bort.
rokhayakebe 11y ago
What do you mean by search your bookmarks? Does it index the content and search through it?
- StavrosK 11y ago
  It doesn't seem to, but https://historio.us/ https://historio.us/ does.
- otsaloma 11y ago
  No, not content, just the titles of bookmarks. If you have a lot of bookmarks, it might be faster to use the search box. It's search-as-you-type, e.g. if you have a bookmark titled "Hacker News", you can probably just type "hac" and press Enter.
phantom_oracle 11y ago
How does one use this web application without dropbox? A better UI for bookmarks would be cool. If it truly is client-side only, it won't strain resources to render the static files, so it doesn't really need a dropbox login-barrier.
- nstart 11y ago
  Without a dropbox login, syncing between devices wouldn't be possible (for this app). To sync you need some central storage online (which would probably involve some login) and dropbox has been a good resource for these kinds of applications. Wouldn't mind seeing a google drive integration though.
- otsaloma 11y ago
  Even if you don't use multiple devices or browsers, browser databases are too mysterious for regular users -- too easy to accidentally delete along with history and too difficult maintain up-to-date backups of.
wanda 11y ago
Nice to see someone putting some effort in customising how Bootstrap looks. It's not the flashiest front-end framework but that's half the point of it: it is a solid base that can be made quite pretty if not avant-garde. It depresses me when a fair proportion of websites are too obviously Bootstrap. Looks like a nice app.
mrmondo 11y ago
FYI - Loads a blank (white) pages on iOS 9.1 beta 4
joedavison 11y ago
I own the domain name bookmark.org Contact me by email (in profile) if you'd like to partner in some way.
brianclements 11y ago
I've actually moved all my bookmarks from Firefox to Workflowy recently (and pop it open in the side-bar). That way they live where I actually USE the information: in some type of context in a project. This has forced me to do something with my bookmarks and delete the ones I don't need instead of just store them.
utopianmonk 11y ago
Great work, I really like this. Maybe allow other ways to sync JSON file OneDrive, GoogleDrive etc.?

105 points by otsaloma 11y ago

Hello. Bort is a web application I made for website bookmarks and search. It's fully client-side JavaScript with bookmarks saved in browser's local database (IndexedDB or WebSQL via PouchDB) and synced via a JSON file in user's own Dropbox across both devices and browsers. Any feedback is welcome. In particular, since I don't have a Mac at hand, I'd like to know if it works on Safari, and if so, which version. Unlike other tested browsers, PouchDB uses WebSQL instead of IndexedDB on Safari.

caio1982 11y ago
+500 internet points to Bort for providing import & export options out of the box :-)
dorian-graph 11y ago
Thank goodness for being client-side! It's a refreshing change almost every other web app.
Raphael 11y ago
For navigation within the app, consider using links with URL fragments and listening for the hashChange event. This will allow back and forward navigation, as well as the ability to bookmark or link to a tag.
- otsaloma 11y ago
  Thanks. I didn't know about this. I'll look into it. Linking to a tag or several tags is already possible though. It's just not obvious since you don't see those URLs in normal use. https://bort.io/about.html#faq-url-tags https://bort.io/about.html#faq-url-tags
sheenobu 11y ago
Seems functional in Safari Version 8.0.8 (10600.8.9). I wish it would auto-determine bookmark titles. Unless that is a Safari-only issue, I guess that is due to its client-side nature? Also: Why not remoteStorage.js ? Not that I particularly care for that over dropbox.
- otsaloma 11y ago
  Thanks for checking Safari. Technically it should be possible to fetch the page and parse the title tag. It's hard to know when to do that if there's an editable URL field. With a browser extension and a "?add=URL" parameter (see the question from g4k) it would work better. I'm not familiar with remoteStorage.js. Dropbox I chose simply because it's popular, many people already have an account and trust them, so it's a low barrier to use something that uses Dropbox.
  - sheenobu 11y ago
    remoteStorage.js is a library for implementing applications similar to yours, where the backend storage is separate from the application provider. The library primarily supports 'remoteStorage' providers but apparently now supports google drive and dropbox experimentally.[1] All the apps using remoteStorage that I've checked out don't seem to have dropbox as an option though, and only some have google drive. [1] https://unhosted.org/adventures/7/Adding-remote-storage-to-unhosted-web-apps.html https://unhosted.org/adventures/7/Adding-remote-storage-to-u...
  - otsaloma 11y ago
    Forgot about CORS regarding those titles, so I guess a bookmarket or browser extension is required that passes the title along with the URL as a parameter. Or like with favicons, a separate service that parses titles.
aswerty 11y ago
It looks really well. I've also been building a bookmarking system over the last while, it's not yet released though, so I love to see other stuff in this area coming out.

riskable 11y ago

Very similar to http://bookmarked.us http://bookmarked.us but instead of storing your bookmarks in Evernote it uses Dropbox. I like it.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

desireco42 11y ago

It is really cool. I am now in a bind because I kind of stopped using Dropbox a while back and use BitorrentSync which is pretty much awesome, but I can see how this can't really work with that. Anyhow, really nice effort, congrats!

g4k 11y ago

There don't not seem to be browser extensions for bookmarking yet.

otsaloma 11y ago
For adding bookmarks? No, not yet, but I figured if it get's popular I'd add a URL parameter, e.g. "?add=URL", document that, provide a bookmarklet and maybe let others write browser-specific extensions.
- math 11y ago
  For it to get popular I think a friction-less way of adding bookmarks is a key requirement (I'd very likely use it then - have been looking for something like this)

greggman 11y ago

I'd really like to see an app/extension/browser that just lets me search my history by the content of every page I've ever visited. I feel like I'd find that more useful than bookmarking. If I could add tags and/or an "important mark" to the pages that seems like it would be enough for me as far as bookmarks go and far more useful

icebraining 11y ago
Firefox bookmarks have tags, you just need to click twice on the Star and it'll show a dialog where you can insert them. And yes, they are searchable: just type the tag in the Awesome Bar.
vvpan 11y ago
It's difficult to build an extension like that, I think, you'd need a search server. If there was an extension that would offload the heavy lifting, say, to my a local installation of elastic search or something like that I'd install it in the blink of an eye. The data would be right there, you could search, organize, backup any way you wished.
- nl 11y ago
  The problem (of course) is discovery and availability of the search server. A "local" installation is no good for most people, because they use multiple web browsers in across multiple networks. So you do cloud, and then you have to deal with security and authentication and admin etc. Meh :( Sandstorm.io is the last, best hope.
  - gramakri 11y ago
    Cloudron is also attempting to make cloud installations simple - https://cloudron.io https://cloudron.io disclaimer: co-founder of Cloudron
heliostatic 11y ago
You might like Fetching (http://fetching.io/ http://fetching.io/). It has a hosted and offline only version, and does full text snapshot/indexing of everything you browse.

Raphael 11y ago

We need more Bort license plates in the gift shop. Repeat, we are sold out of Bort license plates.

wwarren 11y ago
Context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K99OWlAWeN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K99OWlAWeN4
scentedmeat 11y ago
My project is also named Bort.

rokhayakebe 11y ago

What do you mean by search your bookmarks? Does it index the content and search through it?

StavrosK 11y ago
It doesn't seem to, but https://historio.us/ https://historio.us/ does.
otsaloma 11y ago
No, not content, just the titles of bookmarks. If you have a lot of bookmarks, it might be faster to use the search box. It's search-as-you-type, e.g. if you have a bookmark titled "Hacker News", you can probably just type "hac" and press Enter.

phantom_oracle 11y ago

How does one use this web application without dropbox? A better UI for bookmarks would be cool. If it truly is client-side only, it won't strain resources to render the static files, so it doesn't really need a dropbox login-barrier.

nstart 11y ago
Without a dropbox login, syncing between devices wouldn't be possible (for this app). To sync you need some central storage online (which would probably involve some login) and dropbox has been a good resource for these kinds of applications. Wouldn't mind seeing a google drive integration though.
otsaloma 11y ago
Even if you don't use multiple devices or browsers, browser databases are too mysterious for regular users -- too easy to accidentally delete along with history and too difficult maintain up-to-date backups of.

wanda 11y ago

Nice to see someone putting some effort in customising how Bootstrap looks. It's not the flashiest front-end framework but that's half the point of it: it is a solid base that can be made quite pretty if not avant-garde. It depresses me when a fair proportion of websites are too obviously Bootstrap. Looks like a nice app.

mrmondo 11y ago

FYI - Loads a blank (white) pages on iOS 9.1 beta 4

joedavison 11y ago

I own the domain name bookmark.org Contact me by email (in profile) if you'd like to partner in some way.

brianclements 11y ago

I've actually moved all my bookmarks from Firefox to Workflowy recently (and pop it open in the side-bar). That way they live where I actually USE the information: in some type of context in a project. This has forced me to do something with my bookmarks and delete the ones I don't need instead of just store them.

utopianmonk 11y ago

Great work, I really like this. Maybe allow other ways to sync JSON file OneDrive, GoogleDrive etc.?