Updating the UI component library - the next big project

The UI component library in Bookmark Ninja is 6 years old, it's time to update it to the latest version that has been released in 2021. The update of the UI component library affects both the desktop and mobile UI. Updating the library for the mobile UI is the more complicated task, it requires to rewrite about the 80% of the mobile UI code. The work that has to be done on the desktop UI is less, it affects about the 10% of the code.

What will be the benefits of having an updated UI component library?

It's necessary to update the UI component library in order to keep up with the improvements of the browsers and to minimize the possible incompatibilities.

Also the new UI library includes a lot of improvements and bug fixes that will provide a better user experience:

• The rendering of the UI components is faster.
• Additional UI components are available that we can use in future developments of Bookmark Ninja.
• The new UI component library provides a solution for the "blank page flash at page load" Chrome issue.

What will the new UI look like?

The UI in the desktop browsers will look like the current UI, there won't be noticeable differences, the big change is under the hood. In mobile browsers the UI will be a little bit different. The mobile UI components will be updated in order to be more consistent with the desktop UI, but the mobile specific layouts will be kept. Also the mobile UI will have a nicer, cleaner look than the current one.

When will the new UI library be available in Bookmark Ninja?

Based on the current estimates the integration of the new UI component library will take 2-3 months. The target date is end of February 2022.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Google Chrome issue

In the latest Chrome update (version 96.0.4664.45) on Windows when full page reload happens a blank page shows up for a moment very frequently. Previous Chrome versions didn't have this issue, full page reload happened smoothly without seeing a blank page.

Unfortunately this Chrome issue affects Bookmark Ninja, too. When you switch between the Tabs on the Dashboard or select/deselect the tags on the My Bookmarks page you will see a blank page for a moment before the page is refreshed.

Other browsers work fine. Even Chrome on Mac is ok.

I've reported the issue to Google. Let's hope they will fix it in the next Chrome build.

Improvements in today's update

Improvement #1

From now a page loading progress indicator (a spinning circle) is displayed when a full page reload happens on the My Bookmarks page. Full page reload happens when you change the type of the bookmarks (Catalog/Dashboard/All), change the Tab/Category (if Dashboard is selected), change the order of the bookmarks/tags, select/deselect tags or start a search.

Improvement #2

"Date Updated" has been renamed to "Date Modified" in the bookmark order selection list box on the My Bookmarks page.

Improvement #3

During the import process until now the "Date Modified" values of the bookmarks were set to the date of the import date. From now "Date Modified" is set to the "Date Added" value read from the bookmark file. Of course if any "Date Modified" information is available in the bookmark file (which is very rare) then that value will be set. If neither "Date Added" and nor "Date Modified" is available in the bookmark file then the date of import will be set for both.

Improvement #4

Changed some colors in dark mode to improve readability.

Improvements and bug fixes in today's update

Improvement #1
From now the Tab and Category selection list boxes are not displayed on the My Bookmarks page when "All" or "Catalog" is selected. Until now the list boxes have only been disabled. The Tab and Category selection list boxes are displayed only when "Dashboard" is selected.

Improvement #2
From now "None" is displayed under "Available tags" and "Selected tags" when the tag list is empty.

Improvement #3

The order of the tags under "Selected tags" on the My Bookmarks page have been changed from alphabetical order to the order of the tags have been selected.

Improvement #4

The "Add folder names as tags" checkbox has been removed on the Import page. From now the folder names are always added to the bookmarks as tags during the import process.

Improvement #5

After import is finished “The basics of organizing your imported bookmarks" dialog box is displayed with a few tips.

Improvement #6

Improved the loading speed of the My Bookmarks page when it is invoked by selecting the "My Bookmarks" menu.

Bug fix #1

After moving or deleting multiple selected bookmarks on the My Bookmarks page, if all the bookmarks were selected in the list, the number of selected bookmarks and the number of total bookmarks were not updated in the top left corner.

Bug fix #2

When bookmark files with long file names were uploaded or error messages were displayed on the Import page, the layout of the page sometimes broke.

New feature: Tag order by number of occurrences

Until now the tags under "Available tags" on the My Bookmarks page have been ordered alphabetically. From now you can order the tags by number of their occurrences, too. A Tag order selection list box has been added to the My Bookmarks page where you can select the order of the tags: "Occurrences: high → low" or "A→Z".

The "order by number of occurrences" can be especially useful when you organize your imported bookmarks. The folder names from your old bookmark manager or browser are converted to tags during the import process. Having the tags ordered by number of occurrences makes sure that the top level folder names appear at the beginning of the tag list so it's easier to find the folder names and browse the folders by selecting/deselecting the tags.

The "order by number of occurrences" also gives you a statistical overview about the usage of your tags.

The new "Tag order" selection list box on the My Bookmarks page is available on mobile, too:

Introducing the Bookmark Ninja Referral Program

Recommend Bookmark Ninja to your friends, family, colleagues by sharing your referral link and get FREE months of subscription as a reward.

How does it work?

Every time a purchase is made through your referral link you get 1 free month of subscription as a reward. There's no limit on how many referrals you can make and how many free months of subscription you can get.

For example if you make 3 referrals then it means a 25% discount from your next year's Bookmark Ninja cost. Can you make 12 referrals? Then you can use Bookmark Ninja free of charge for a year!

Users who sign up for the free trial through your referral link will get a 10% discount from their first year's subscription. Make sure to mention this to encourage signing up when you share the link.

Where can I find my referral link?

You can find your referral link on the Referral Program page. To open the Referral Program page click on https://www.bookmarkninja.com/referralprogram or select "User/Referral Program" in the main menu of Bookmark Ninja (on mobile devices tap on the menu icon then select "Referral Program").

On the Referral Program page you can also track the statistics of your referrals.

Who can participate in the Referral Program?

The Referral Program is available for customers who have a valid or expired subscription. Users who are in the trial period can't make referrals.

New feature: "Strict URL match" can be turned off in "Detect already bookmarked pages" and "Find duplicates"

From now "Strict URL match" can be turned off so "http vs https" and "www" will be ignored and the following URL variants will be considered the same:

https://www.bookmarkninja.com
http://www.bookmarkninja.com
https://bookmarkninja.com
http://bookmarkninja.com

If "Strict URL match" is turned on then URLs will be considered the same only if they exactly match each other (this is how it worked until now).

Please check the below blog posts to learn about how the "Strict URL match" switch has been implemented in "Detect already bookmarked pages" and "Find duplicates":

Improved "Detect already bookmarked pages"

Improved "Find and delete duplicates"

Improved "Find and delete duplicates"

A bookmark is considered to be duplicated if it has the same URL as another bookmark. Follow the below steps to find the duplicated bookmarks.

(1) On the My Bookmarks page click on "Find Duplicates" (under the Search field). "Find Duplicates" is available only if "All" is selected (in the top right corner) and no tag is selected (the list under "Selected tags" is empty).

(2) On the "Find Duplicates" dialog box the "Strict URL match" switch is always checked by default. If you uncheck it "http vs https" and "www" will be ignored and the following URL variants will be considered the same:

https://www.bookmarkninja.com

http://www.bookmarkninja.com

https://bookmarkninja.com

http://bookmarkninja.com

If "Strict URL match" is checked then URLs will be considered the same only if they exactly match each other.

(3) Enter a tag that will be added to the duplicated bookmarks. By default the tag is "duplicate".

(4) Select one of the below 2 options:

Add tag only to duplicates
Select this option if you simply want to delete the duplicated bookmarks and don't want to review them.

Add tag to both originals and duplicates
Select this option if you manually want to compare the original bookmarks with their duplicates and want to decide which bookmarks to delete.

(5) Click on the "Find Duplicates button. If you have many bookmarks and duplicates the process may take a while.

Deleting the duplicated bookmarks

If you chose the option "Add tag only to duplicates":

(1) On the My Bookmarks page select the "duplicate" tag (or the one you have specified) in the Available tags list.

(2) Click on "Select All".

(3) Click on "Delete".

If you chose the option "Add tag to both originals and duplicates":

(1) On the My Bookmarks page select the "duplicate" tag (or the one you have specified) in the Available tags list.

(2) Select "Domain: A➔Z" in the Order dropdown list on the right side.

(3) Review the bookmarks, compare the original bookmarks with their duplicates and manually select the bookmarks that you want to delete.

(4) Click on "Delete".

IMPORTANT: Since the "duplicate" tag (or the one you have specified) has been added to the original bookmarks, too, do NOT delete all the bookmarks marked with this tag.

Improved "Detect already bookmarked pages"

When you want to bookmark a web page, this feature detects if the page has already been added to Bookmark Ninja.

Make sure the feature is turned on (by default it is turned off).

(1) Click on "Settings" in the main menu.

(2) Turn the "Detect already bookmarked pages" switch on.

(3) The "Strict URL match" switch will show up. By default this switch is checked. If you uncheck it "http vs https" and "www" will be ignored and the following URL variants will be considered the same:

​https://www.bookmarkninja.com
http://www.bookmarkninja.com
https://bookmarkninja.com
http://bookmarkninja.com

​If "Strict URL match" is checked then URLs will be considered the same only if they exactly match each other.

(4) Load any web page in your browser then click on the "Add to Ninja" bookmarklet or browser extension button.

(5) In the bottom of the Add Bookmark dialog you will see one of the following messages:

• Not bookmarked yet
• Page is already in the Catalog
• Page is already in tab name > category name

Page hasn't been bookmarked yet

Page has already been added to the "Tuscany Italy" category on the "Travel" tab

The feature is available on mobile, too, when you bookmark a page in your mobile browser:

Related blog post: Edit already added bookmark in the "Add Bookmark" dialog box

Improvements and bug fixes in today's update

Improvement #1

The maximum length of the notes that you can add to the bookmarks has been increased from 255 characters to 1000 characters.

Improvement #2

From now the multiple line notes are displayed with line breaks on the My Bookmarks page and in the hover tooltips on the Dashboard (if it is set on the Settings page) and on the shared Tabs. Until now line breaks were ignored and multiple line notes were displayed in one line.

Bug fix #1

There were rare cases when Notes/Description didn't get imported from the html bookmarks file. It mostly happened when users imported bookmarks from older bookmarking services. From now Notes/Description are always imported even if the html bookmarks file was created by an old bookmarking service.

Bug fix #2

There were rare cases when the import process failed because of incorrect date values in the html bookmarks file. From now the import won't fail even if the bookmarks file contains incorrect date values.

Why do bookmarks get duplicated after importing from Google Bookmarks? How to fix it?

The Google Bookmarks free online bookmarking service (it is different than the browser-based bookmarking in Google Chrome and should not be confused with Google Chrome) has been around since 2005. Google Bookmarks will be shut down on September 30, 2021.

Many users started to export their bookmarks from Google Bookmarks and after they imported the bookmarks into another bookmark manager or browser they realized that a lot of bookmarks got duplicated.

Unfortunately it’s a design flaw in Google Bookmarks. When you save a bookmark in Google Bookmarks with multiple tags, Google Bookmarks creates multiple copies of the bookmark: Let’s say you save a bookmark with 3 tags “tag1”, “tag2” and “tag3”. Instead of creating one bookmark with the 3 tags, Google Bookmarks creates 3 folders “tag1”, “tag2” and “tag3” and adds a copy of the bookmark to each of the folders. So when you export the bookmarks, the html bookmarks file contains duplicated bookmarks. And if you import this bookmarks file into another bookmark manager or browser you will get duplicated bookmarks.

Fortunately Bookmark Ninja has the Find/Delete Duplicates Tool that helps you get rid of the duplicated bookmarks quickly. You can either delete all the duplicates with just a few clicks or there is also an option for reviewing the duplicates manually and deciding which ones of the duplicated bookmarks to delete.

Fix for the broken UI layout caused by the latest browser updates

The latest Chrome and Firefox updates broke the layout on the Find Duplicates dialog box. Today's Bookmark Ninja update contains a fix for the problem.

New "Bookmark All Tabs" browser extension

The "Bookmark All Tabs" browser extension has been updated in both the Google Chrome Web Store and the Mozilla Add-Ons Store.

The new version (2.0.0.1) contains a bugfix for the "Request-URI Too Long" error message that occurred sometimes when there was a large number of open tabs in the browser. From now you can bookmark unlimited number of tabs without any problem.

If you have the automatic extension update set in your browser then the extension will be updated automatically if not then please update it manually.

You can learn more about the "Bookmark All Tabs" extension in this blog post.

New feature: Dynamic Tabs Bar

If you have many Tabs on the Dashboard you may have multiple rows of Tabs in the Tabs Bar which takes a lot of space on the screen.

The Dynamic Tabs Bar makes it possible to have a single row Tabs Bar even if you have many Tabs that can only fit in multiple rows. With the new Dynamic Tabs Bar settings you can simply limit the number of Tabs that are displayed in the Tabs Bar. To access the non-visible Tabs you have to click on "More Tabs..." next to the Tab titles. Optionally you can also pin the first X number of Tabs in the Tabs Bar, these Tabs will be always visible, the rest of the Tabs in the Tabs Bar will change dynamically when you select a Tab after clicking on "More Tabs...".

Without the Dynamic Tabs Bar

With the Dynamic Tabs Bar turned on

To turn on the Dynamic Tabs Bar

(1) Select "Settings" in the main menu of Bookmark Ninja.

(2) Under "Dynamic Dashboard Tabs Bar" click on the dropdown listbox next to "Maximum number of Tabs to show" and select the number of Tabs.

(3) Optionally you can pin the first X Tabs: click on the dropdown list next to "Number of pinned Tabs" and select the number of Tabs you want to pin in the Tabs Bar (always the first X Tabs will be pinned).

To select a Tab that is not visible in the Tabs Bar after you turned on the Dynamic Tabs Bar

(1) On the Dashboard click on "More Tabs..." next to the Tab titles in the Tabs Bar.

(2) All your Tab titles will appear, click on the one that you want to open.

(3) The selected Tab will open and you will see again a subset of the Tabs in the Tabs Bar including the selected Tab.

To turn off the Dynamic Tabs Bar

(1) Select "Settings" in the main menu of Bookmark Ninja.

(2) Under "Dynamic Dashboard Tabs Bar" click on the dropdown listbox next to "Maximum number of Tabs to show" and select "Show all Tabs".

The Dynamic Tabs Bar is only available in desktop browser, in mobile browser there is no Tabs Bar.

"Rename tag" context menu has been added to the "Selected tags" list

To rename a tag you have to right mouse click on a tag in the "Available tags" list on the My Bookmarks page and select the "Rename tag" context menu.

From now you can rename a tag in the "Selected tags" list, too, the same way:

In mobile browsers tap and hold on a tag to invoke the context menu.

Related topic: How to rename tags?

Improvement: Sorting the bookmarks by domain on the My Bookmarks page

From now you can sort the bookmark list by the domain name of the bookmarks' URLs. You still have the option to sort the bookmarks by URL but if you want to have the bookmarks with the same domain next to each other in the list then you have to sort them by domain.

In desktop browsers: On the My Bookmarks page click on the Order dropdown list on the right side and select either "Domain: A→Z" or "Domain: Z→A".

In mobile browsers: On the My Bookmarks page click on the "Bookmark list order" dropdown list at the bottom of the page and select either "Domain: A→Z" or "Domain: Z→A".

The sorting by domain option will be necessary for the upcoming improvement for the find duplicates feature.

Why aren't there subcategories on the Dashboard? What if I need them?

I often get the question why there are no subcategories on the Dashboard. I think that the current layout (Tabs and Categories) makes the Dashboard UI very clean which makes it possible to visually quickly find the bookmarks. It's simple and clean. Just Tabs and Categories, no unlimited nested folders which can easily lead to a chaos if you are not careful. Adding an extra level (like subcategories) would sacrifice the clean UI and would have a negative impact on the performance, too.

If you still feel that you need a third level (or even more levels) to organize your bookmarks on the Dashboard then here are 4 workarounds and tips that will help you.

Option 1 - Use more Tabs

Let's say you have a "DIY" tab and you have the categories "Upholstery", "Electrical", "Painting", "Woodwork" on this tab, and you want to add subcategories to these categories. Instead of having one "DIY" tab, create multiple tabs like "DIY - Upholstery", "DIY - Electrical", "DIY - Painting" and "DIY - Woodwork". Then add the subcategories, that you originally wanted to add, as categories to the corresponding tabs.

Also it is recommended to set the same color for all your "DIY - ..." tab captions, so that they will be visually grouped on the tabs bar.

Don't worry about having many tabs on the Dashboard, with the Dynamic Tabs Bar feature you can have as many tabs as you want without having multiple rows of tab captions displayed on the screen.

Additinaly you can also make the tab captions smaller which will make it possible to fit more tab captions in a row.

Option 2 - Use more Categories

If you don't like the idea of adding more tabs (described in Option 1) then simply add the subcategories as standalone categories with the category titles "Upholstery - Subcategory1", "Upholstery - Subcategory2", "Upholstery - Subcategory3" etc. to the "DIY" tab.

It is recommended to set the same color for these category titles in order to visually group them.

If you have many categories on a tab, make sure to keep them collapsed, this will significantly improve the page loading speed.

Option 3 - Use fake subcategory labels

I got this idea from the users. This is kind of a "nasty" solution, but it seems to work.

(1) Add a bookmark to the category (click on the gear icon next to the category name, then select "Add Bookmark").

(2) Enter the subcategory name in the Title like "----------Subcategory Name----------".

(3) Enter "https://www.bookmarkninja.com" in the URL field (it is required to have a valid URL).

(4) Click on "Add".

(5) Change the background color of the "fake subcategory label" bookmark. It will look like a separator and you can drag and drop it to the desired position.

Option 4 - Use tags if you need multiple levels of categorization

If you want to organize your bookmarks with multiple levels of categorization then it is recommended to use tags. You can add as many tags as you want to the bookmarks and you can browse the bookmarks on the My Bookmarks page by selecting and deselecting tags.

New feature: Password protected shared tabs

From now you can optionally set password protection for the shared tabs.

To share a tab with password protection

(1) Open the Dashboard and select the tab that you want to share.

(2) Click on "Tabs" under the tabs bar and select "Share Tab".

(3) Check the "Password protected" checkbox and enter the password.

(4) Click on "Share Tab".

To add password protection to an already shared tab

(1) Open the Dashboard and select the tab that has been shared previously.

(2) Click on "Tabs" under the tabs bar and select "Sharing settings".

(3) Check the "Password protected" checkbox and enter the password.

(4) Click on "Save settings".

To change the password of an already shared, password protected tab

(1) Open the Dashboard and select the tab that has been shared previously with password protection.

(2) Click on "Tabs" under the tabs bar and select "Sharing settings".

(3) Click on "Change password" next to the "Password protected" label and enter the new password.

(4) Click on "Save settings".

To remove the password protection from an already shared, password protected tab

(1) Open the Dashboard and select the tab that has been shared previously with password protection.

(2) Click on "Tabs" under the tabs bar and select "Sharing settings".

(3) Uncheck the "Password protected" checkbox.

(4) Click on "Save settings".

In mobile browsers

Tap on "Turn ON Tab and Category Editor" at the bottom of the Dashboard page then tap on "Share Tab" (or "Sharing settings" if the tab has already been shared) to access the Tab sharing settings.

Opening a password protected tab

When you open a password protected tab for the first time, you will see the below screen:

If you check the "Remember me in this browser" checkbox, next time the tab will open without asking for the password.

If you change the password for a shared tab, users who previously checked the "Remember me in this browser" checkbox will have to re-enter the new password.

Improvements in today's update

• If the bookmark selection contained both Catalog and Dashboard bookmarks on the My Bookmarks page then no "Move" menus were available to select. The "Move" menus appeared only when you had a selection of only Catalog bookmarks or only Dashboard bookmarks. Now you can select "Move to another Category" or "Move to catalog" when you have both Catalog and Dashboard bookmarks selected.
• If you had multiple selected bookmarks on the My Bookmarks page and clicked on "Move to Catalog" then the bookmarks were immediately moved to the Catalog. From now a confirmation message box comes up to avoid accidental moves.

New feature: Custom title and subtitle on the shared tabs

From now you can set a custom title for a shared tab (other than the tab title you have on your Dashboard) and optionally you can also add a subtitle.

To add a custom title or/and subtitle for a shared tab follow the steps below:

(1) On the Dashboard click on "Tabs" under the tabs bar then select "Share Tab" (or "Sharing settings" if the tab has already been shared).

(2) Check the checkboxes next to "Custom title" and "Subtitle" to enable them, then enter a custom title and a subtitle in the text fields. The subtitle can have multiple lines, too.

(3) Click on "Share Tab" (or "Save settings" if you edit an already shared tab's settings).

If "Custom title" is turned off then the title of the shared Tab will be the same as the Tab's name on your Dashboard.

In mobile browsers

Tap on "Turn ON Tab and Category Editor" at the bottom of the Dashboard page then tap on "Share Tab" (or "Sharing settings" if the tab has already been shared) to access the Tab sharing settings.

Related topics:

Sharing Tabs

New Tab share link format

New Tab share link format

From now the automatically generated tab share link will include a harder to guess id. The id won't be just a multiple digit number, rather it will be the combination of random letters and digits like "gpWKX3zE".

Instead of the old format https://www.bookmarkninja.com/share/245687, links like https://www.bookmarkninja.com/share/gpWKX3zE will be used.

Tabs that you have shared previously will be still accessible with the old share links. However if you stop sharing a previously shared tab and you decide to share it again, it will get a share link in the new format.

If you want to migrate your current shared tabs' share links to the new format then simply stop sharing the tabs and share them again. If you migrate any of your shared tabs' share links to the new format, make sure to update the share links where you use them, where you posted them.

You can learn more about tab sharing in the Sharing Tabs blog post.

Server Maintenance

The Bookmark Ninja service will be temporarily unavailable for 2-5 minute periods in the following time frame due to server maintenance:

2:00 am - 4:00 am (ET) January 6th, 2021.

During the maintenance the server configuration will be updated in order to improve the performance of the service.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact us at support@bookmarkninja.com

Today's update contains a bugfix and an improvement

Bugfix

In very rare scenarios program error occurred during updating the notes field of a bookmark. Bug has been fixed.

Improvement

"Scroll to Top" has been added to the bottom of the My Bookmarks page when the user selects the 50 bookmarks per page option.