BookmarkBridge User Manual

Chapter 3. Using BookmarkBridge

BookmarkBridge has limited support for command line operation. Originally developed for automated regression testing during development, the command line switches can perform bookmark merge operations and accept specifications for configuration files. Future versions of BookmarkBridge will have a richer set of command line options. This feature is meant for advanced users. If you are not comfortable in your operating system's command line environment then you can safely skip this section. Typing bookmarkbridge -h will provide a summary of available options.

Summary: [-b file] [-f file] [-m [-r]] [-t]

The brackets, "[" and "]", surround optional switches. Technically, all command line options in BookmarkBridge are optional.

-b file

Specify bookmark tree file. This is the file BookmarkBridge uses to store information on the bookmarks and folders stored in each browser. Between invocations, a complete copy of the bookmarks and folders are stored in this file so BookmarkBridge knows when an item has been deleted from a browser. This file is typically named bookmarks.xbel.

-f file

Specify configuration file. This file stores BookmarkBridge's configuration options, including the list of browsers and which ones are configured as sources and destinations. This file is typically names bridgeconf.xml.

-m

This options tells BookmarkBridge to perform a bookmark merge then exit. No user interface is shown. In fact, no user interaction is performed at all. If a problem or error occurs during the merge process, an error code of 5 is returned to the operating system's command interpretor.

-r

This option makes sense only when -m is also provided. It tells BookmarkBridge to not save changes to the bookmark tree file, briefly described above with the -b option. If this option is not specified, BookmarkBridge saves the results of the merge to this file, in addition to each browser specified as a destination.

-t

This option is really only for testing purposes. It tells BookmarkBridge to not save dates, such as date of last modification for a bookmark or the date of last visit. Typically, BookmarkBridge saves these dates for each bookmark and folder. These dates, however, interfere with testing.