Show HN: LinkAce – Self-hosted, FOSS bookmark archive | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: LinkAce – Self-hosted, FOSS bookmark archive

linkace.org

227 pointsKovah68 comments

This looks like a cool project. Here's a bit of feedback / thoughts I'm having related to a similar project, Archivy [0].

The problem I have with these type of solutions is basically the time it takes to just quickly bookmark. Browsers bookmarks are built-in, and do this pretty well - it's just one button next to the search bar.

Solutions like these are a bit more limited as they aren't embedded into your browser UI, so you have to open a new website and paste the link in. This mere effort adds a layer of complexity which can kind of turn the user off to bookmarking.

I wonder how this issue can be solved, in my project and yours... Maybe browser extensions can provide a more native experience with less "content to bookmark" time spent.

Sync is another way to kind of counteract this -> people use normal browser bookmarks or whatever they prefer - and then there are options to sync them to your software for better organization / whatever your functionality is.

However, hand-coding all of these integrations is difficult and that's why building a framework of plugins [1] so users can work and distribute these integrations themselves, is in my opinion, essential.

[0]: https://archivy.github.io [1]: https://archivy.github.io/plugins

Thank you so much for the input! Indeed, the process of bookmarking can be improved a lot. Browser extensions could be a proper solution, but I wanted to publish the app without having to build the extensions for various browsers. That's why there is a bookmarklet. Will take a look into the plugins, maybe they can help making this easier.

+1 to the Bookmarklet, it's what I use now for another service and it's simple and works (and can be hotkeyed in most browsers); I suspect the GP did not find the docs with the bookmarklet option as it's on the User Settings page, not the Links page: https://www.linkace.org/docs/v1/configuration/user-settings/

bookmarklets are great, specially for a first version. I actually would usually prefer a bookmarklet if it wasn't for a lack of keyboard shortcut.

I use raindrop.io and notion, and before seeing the shortcuts, I didn't use them much. It was also kind of the reason why all my previous tentatives to use a cloud bookmark service didn't go well.

The second reason is how accessible it is to click on a bookmark. On the browser you have the bookmarks bar, so at least for your top bookmarks, there's no way to beat it. But for everything else, as long as I can setup the page as my new tab page - or the extension having a shortcut to open the full page - it's also great

I made a thing like this for myself for fun, and I created a bookmarklet and hooked it up to Twilio so I can text URLs to automatically add links. Not sharing my project on here since it doesn't have authentication haha.

Make it PWA and give it a sharing capability.

Check how Unmark does it. https://github.com/cdevroe/unmark

> Solutions like these are a bit more limited as they aren't embedded into your browser UI, so you have to open a new website and paste the link in. This mere effort adds a layer of complexity which can kind of turn the user off to bookmarking.

That assumes the main goal is quantity of bookmarks. That you want to lower the cost of bookmarking as close to zero as possible. As someone that has been using bookmarks in the browser since the very early days of the WWW, I can't endorse that system for most bookmarks. The more important thing is to make it easy to add metadata, store the links, and then query/browse the information. A low-resistance system is simply opening the link in a new tab, and then when you decide it's time to clean up your tabs, you store them inside a system that holds the metadata necessary to make use of those links in the future. Everything is secondary to getting the metadata right.

I developed a solution which worked pretty well and monitored my clipoard. When I Ctrl-X the url from the browser and then clicked on "new bookmark" link on my app, it magically appear. You can also develop a small bookmarklet to do the same trick. It was called http://daitanmarks.sourceforge.net/

I do something similar.

I have a small script on my mac that loops running pbpaste. If the result changes and contains a youtube URL it will do a youtube-dl to a directory

Later I just view that directory and press space bar on the interesting videos to view them.

Awesome! https://archivebox.io/ should be mentioned in this context too.

> The problem I have with these type of solutions is basically the time it takes to just quickly bookmark.

This is a significant issue. I've been thinking of making my own bookmark storage/sorting thing as others didn't quite match my exact needs/preferences. But a key problem that I have, which I don't think I'm unique in, is that I'm often too lazy to even bookmark - I just open things in new tabs and leave them there until I get around to going back or forget the relevance and close a pile of windows/tabs to save memory...

You could maybe try the OneTab firefox extension

Wallabag [0] may do what you require, with regard to having a browser extension to reduce friction when saving something. There's a bit of friction in getting the browser extension set up, but once you do so, it's there as a status bar button - click to save. Simple! On mobile, it becomes a "share destination" for iOS or Android.

[0] https://github.com/wallabag

normally you could also just create a bookmarklet and create a window for management within the page (all pages, where you can do bookmarks sensibly should support that)

> The problem I have with these type of solutions is basically the time it takes to just quickly bookmark.

You can write a browser extension to do this relatively easily. Mine is maybe ~200 lines of ES6 with login, bookmark-on-click, and ability to update with description + tags after.

Both Pocket and Pinboard have similar solutions.

For iOS/Android you can write a share extension.

I might also try a Bookmarklet that uses JS to send the page info over.

Edit: Looks like this is already included in ops solution.

I like bookmarklets because they are nice and simple, maintenance is much easier than a bunch of extensions, and extensions don't work in some browsers (i.e. mobile).

My solution is to use browser bookmarks as my inbox and my own yaml-based tool for archiving links only. For me, only a few links are actually worth keeping long-term.

There's also a similar project buku (https://github.com/jarun/buku). I've been using buku for a while given its mature ecosystem around decoupled search-and-viz server, fantastic browser extension, easy browser importing, rich meta-information management et al. The buku server ideally would make sense to be local, and there enters LinkAce.

Although I believe LinkAce has slightly different goals than buku, more around preservability and portability :)

Buku is great, but the browser extension still feels barebones (unless I've missed anything). I'm particularly bugged by the complete lack of auto-completion. E.g. when I tag a new bookmark as #devel, I would like to be offered suggestions for additional tags, based on my existing bookmarks. Possible suggestions to #devel would be #documentation, #api reference, #python, #javascript, #c etc. Similar for searching using tags. Moreover, auto-completion suggestions would save you from having to define and remember personal tagging conventions. E.g. shall I use #recipe or #recipes? Is it #open source or #open-source?

I'm also missing the option to somehow create bookmarklets based on tags, so I can replace static bookmark folders in the browser.

I believe these features would also be relevant for LinkAce (if not already implemented). For Buku, adding the functionality is in my backburner project list.

> After you saved a link, it will automatically saved by the Internet Archive. A reliable backup without maintenance.~

The wayback machine does require maintenance, by the good people who work at archive.org. Might be a nice touch to included a Donate link here instead of implying it's somehow magic.

Alternatively, add an option into linkace to archive the page locally?

That's the approach https://archivy.github.io takes.

I thought a lot about this when I started working on the app. I decided against it because the Internet Archive has the proper tools, expertise, infrastructure and is - hopefully - a long term archive for websites. Maybe an alternative local backup is added in some future version, but I have no plans for it currently.

There is a donation link in the LinkAce settings for the archive, but making it more prominent is a good idea. I actually donate on a regular base and hope others will do too.

Edit: added a link to the features page.

This looks pretty cool. I'm a bookmarks nerd. I love collecting and organizing web resources in a useful way and returning to blogs with good content, or a website with nice design or accessibility features.

I try to keep my bookmarks page up to date: https://l-o-o-s-e-d.net/bookmarks

I wrote a quick script to parse the convenient json export from Firefox into collapsible divs for easier browsing.

Having something self-hosted would give me a little more confidence in the long-term lifespan of my collection and its formatting.

Tbh I’d expect any browser plugins to break much much sooner than they are ever going to remove or make breaking changes to bookmark exports. Especially export bookmarks as HTML. Pretty sure that the HTML format that browsers export bookmark as has stayed pretty much the same since the days of Netscape Navigator.

I'm exactly the same! I wrote a script [0] to convert the firefox json to a markdown file which I filter and put on my website [1]

[0]: https://github.com/Uzay-G/garret [1]: https://www.uzpg.me/attic.html

Haha, awesome. I'll have to sift through this later!

https://github.com/wallabag/wallabag Self-hostable PHP application allowing you to not miss any content anymore. Click, save and read it when you can. It extracts content so that you can read it when you have time.

ref: https://linuxfr.org/news/quatre-annees-de-wallabag-it

Wallabag is closer to Pocket than LinkAce.

Wallabag also offers annotation, search on content and saving pay-walled content (with an account).

To me, content search is the killer feature and was the first thing I looked for when looking at LinkAce.

This looks nice based on my quick look at the demo and the feature list. Seems to be a well-polished project with a good design and documentation. The feature list says it does support notes (an important thing) but I don't see any other information about it or see any notes on the links in the demo. Would be nice to see how that works.

Oh yes, I created a reminder to extend the documentation about notes. Here's a quick summary: they are used to store additional text for a link (whatever it might be) and can be added / edited from the link detail page, e.g. https://demo.linkace.org/links/87. Although I do not use them a lot I think they can be used to add more context or details about a link without using the description. Like more details about why you added the link, how to find more details on that said link, and so on. I think this might become more powerful and useful when support for multiple users is ready. Notes can then be used like a low-level comment system.

Does it sync with [insert my browser of choice]? (Not a lazy question, I did look at the website but found no clues - it seems that it does have an API though)

No, sync is not available. Browser bookmarks are actually not the same as the bookmarks I keep in LinkAce, therefore I do not need any sync feature. You can read a bit more on the about page how the app is positioned. https://www.linkace.org/about/

> I use browser bookmarks for regularly accessed sites and have a separate application that takes care of all those links I would like to “keep in mind” but don’t want to pollute my browser bookmarks with

I strongly feel like it could be both. You created something that does one thing (I assume) really well. Adding sync may sound like too much on top but we already are living in a world of isolated data islands, it may be a good idea to start building bridges.

Maybe sync browser bookmarks in, mark them with a special tag, and only sync those out.

> Browser bookmarks are actually not the same as the bookmarks I keep in LinkAce

You are not alone, I currently use Diigo with the same needs; the Diigo bookmark list is massive, unwieldy, goes back decades - the in-browser bookmarks are slimmmed down to just what I use commonly. What we really need is a new RFC "LinkDav" which follows in the footsteps of CardDav, CalDav and WebDav to round out our data portability lives. Want to try your hand at writing a RFC? :-)

On the Import docs section it just says "...in the HTML format" - there's a Chrome, Firefox and IE version of HTML Export from Diigo, it would be helpful to understand which one would be the best for import to LinkAce: https://www.diigo.com/tools/export

There is a standard already, called OPML that is already used in every RSS reader to store a list of feeds. Being XML behind, I'm sure it can be adapted to contain everything related to a bookmarking service; it's not a complete format like CalDAV and friends, but it looks like a solid base to build on.

OPML (I am familiar) could be used as a basis yep, but it's a file format which is more akin to vCard, vCal and iCal - CalDav, CardDav and WebDav are the transport(?) layers (API layers, operational layers, call them what you will) which sit on top of the file format standards providing the interoperability.

One of my goals for 2021 is to record every indie blog post I read (most are found here on HN).

Bookmark managers are nice, but I needed additional metadata, and in a useable format for later display and analysis, so I ended up automating commits to a CSV file on GitHub[1], with a simple web UI for submissions.

The REST API in LinkAce looks like a good alternative though.

[1] https://github.com/franky47/post.francoisbest.com

I don't know why I didn't think of this approach before. This is amazing! A good project for Show HN imo.

There's another project that's probably more popular on the french-speaking internet: shaarli (https://shaarli.readthedocs.io/en/master/). Same as LinkAce, it has custom text, tags, full-text search and thus can work as your own micro-blogging/blogging/pastebin tool.

I'm looking for a solution in this space and I feel like none are really there although I could probably make it work:

- I want input to be absurdly simple. The standard bookmarks are perfect, as is a simple bookmarklet but I want the same ease of use from my mobile

- I want the content to be easily cacheable on my mobile so I can read it later while offline, if possible in a more readable rendering

- I want the content of the link to be archived in a reliable way; Archive.org is a good way because there's a chance that the link is public anyway so it is of potential value to everyone

- I want to have some liberty around the link, like the possibility of adding text with a little formatting and the possibility to have no link, just text, to act like its own article. Full-text search on everything is also important

I think 2) is the most contraining requirement because it requires more mobile-specific development (probably an app), the rest can be worked around with many solutions already.

The single most important feature I want of a bookmark manager is auto-tagging. Every-time I add a bookmark it should discover the subject it is relevant to and add tags automatically (and let me modify them when and I how I see fit, of course). Del.icio.us used to do this back in the days. Pocket premium is the only service I know which can do this today.

Can LinkAce do this? I don't mind this being done with help of a 3-rd arty service.

This looks promising. An extension or bookmark let is critical for adoption as it’s the easiest way to get bookmarks into the system.

I would recommend trying out www.diigo.net to see how well their bookmarklet and extension works. It really is a game changer to get many more links into the system, combined with the ability to annotate individual sentences.

I'm using ArchiveBox [1]. What does this solve that ArchiveBox doesn't?

[1] https://archivebox.io/

Self-hosting apps seem like the way we're going to go in the future. I do like the use or Archive.org to help the end user, and the rest of us at the same time.

I really prefer hosting applications on my own, instead of using any third-party service. Sure, the freedom comes at great costs (maintenance, updates,...), but I am willing to spend my time instead of taking the risk for my data and "critical personal infrastructure". The only downside is, and maybe ever will be, that self hosting is nothing for the casual user.

What's really needed is an internet that connects everyone, where we can all just run our own applications, like it once was.

If we get the OS security issue pounded out by adopting multilevel security, we could get back to actually freely using our computers.

I'm waiting until I can deploy Free Pascal programs under Genode, or if it ever surfaces, GNU Hurd.

This is pretty much exactly what Urbit is.

One of my daydreams is a common self hosting specification and server that abstracts AWS, Google Cloud and Azure and hosts apps in one click. For example, myflickrr.com/common-host.json can specify Docker images for web and workers, provision them to AWS ElasticBeanStalk, set up scheduled tasks, create a S3 bucket, share a relational DB, set up logs and alarms, provision wildcard emails and captcha with *.mysite.com etc.

I feel like a part of what you want can be attained with yunohost (https://yunohost.org/#/): it's like a "web services distribution" where packages are complete applications.

Just had a quick look around the demo account. Feels snappy. One thing I'm missing (maybe it's the mobile UI layout) is a search.

I'm using pinboard.in for years and the search (either by tag or by URL/description) is by far the most useful to find anything later on. Nobody wants to click through dozens of pages of tags to find the one you're looking for :)

I really thought that the search icon to the left of the settings is clear enough for users to recognize. Did you recognize it as something else?

I also don't see a search icon. Android + Chrome.

You have to log in to see the search icon.

Ah, yes. As wogong pointed out, search is only available for logged-in users. I updated the documentation accordingly.

I wrote Pegao last year to save and publish my own links organized in lists so that it would serve as a blog of links for others who might be looking for information on a topic and I released it as open source. This is the link to my profile https://pegao.co/@zakokor

These days I just mull over ideas long enough to see them built as opensource.

This one, is nice! Long live LinkAce.

I'm hoping there's a way turning off auto-archiving using archive.org? Seems to defeat the purpose of self-hosting to some extent, and I'd really prefer hosting my own archive, which would allow for interesting search possibilities.

You can turn off archiving to the Internet Archive, but there is n local archive solution available yet.

Looks great!! I’m about to host this project on my raspberry pi

I love the UI very clean and simple

By quickly browsing the demo, I think that it could be nice to be able to fold and unfold the links in a list. Like that Lists would play the role of quickly accessible bookmark folder which is a nice feature.

I wrote a self-hosted link tool that I can add links from the command-line.

I am curious if there is a good Python library for archiving the entire page, including assets?

Great looking project, are there any real life (i.e. non-demo) public instances running?

Feel free to browse my own instance, which has guest mode enabled. :) https://bookmarks.kovah.de/