Bugfix for "Blogidate XML well-formedness"
The blogidate XML well-formedness bookmarklet now works for XML that is longer than several kilobytes. Previously, if it found an error in long XML, it wouldn't highlight the error or tell you what line it was on, and gave an error message instead. The fix was to add a Node.normalize() call before trying to extract the text of the error page generated by Firefox.
I primarily use this bookmarklet to help keep my blogs valid, but it also saves me time by catching errors that cause bad rendering in real browsers, such as forgetting to close a <strong>.
Internet Explorer drops support for bookmarklets?
Internet Explorer no longer lets me drag bookmarklets. When did that change? I can drag http: links, but not javascript: links.
(Internet Explorer's support for bookmarklets has declined steadily since IE 5.5. IE 5.5 supported 2083-character bookmarklets. IE 6.0 only supported 508-character bookmarklets. IE 6.0 in XP SP2 only supported 508-character bookmarklets and counted spaces as several characters.)
Bookmarklets in print
My bookmarklets have appeared in print media several times:
- PC Magazine, Fall 2004 Digital Home issue: Security Watch: Revealing Passwords mentions my view passwords bookmarklet.
KMGI focuses on Microsoft products, but we also found a bookmarklet (a piece of JavaScript you save as a browser bookmark) that's more brand-agnostic -- and free. It's called "view passwords" and is available at www.squarefree.com . "View passwords" exposes saved password text in IE, Firefox, Mozilla, and Netscape. The script also reveals hidden text in Opera, but the way that browser executes saved passwords -- by filling in the user name and password, then activating the Submit button -- prevents the bookmarklet from working, except on a very slow page load.
- O'Reilly's Google: The Missing Manual (May 2004) devotes almost two pages to my search and seo bookmarklets.
- PC Magazine (February 2004): Bookmarklets Boost Web Surfing.
- Heise c't (November 2003) has a screenshot of the result of using the "number rows" bookmarklet, if I'm remembering correctly.
- New York Times (August 21, 2003): Fishing for Information? Try Better Bait had a paragraph about the @alltheweb bookmarklet.
I have print copies of all of these except the Feb 2004 PC Magazine article. O'Reilly shipped me a free copy of Google: The Missing Manual, Matti sent me a copy of the issue of Heise magazine from Germany, and I bought the others at bookstores.
Uses for the Flash seek bar
Using the Flash seek bar bookmarklet, I found two hidden segments at the end of Strong Bad e-mail 87: Mile. They can't be reached by the usual method of clicking on things at the end of the cartoon. Burning Horizon has instructions for getting to the first hidden segment but not the second.
The bookmarklet allowed me to read all of the signs in the desert in This Land.
A co-worker pointed out that you can use the bookmarklet to reach minigames in Frank's Adventure 3. You have to pause before using the slider for it to work correctly.
Flash seek bar bookmarklet
I wrote a bookmarklet that adds a seek bar to flash movies. It works in Mozilla and IE. Read the script or grab the bookmarklet.
Experience Google's new look
Google has been testing a new look with a small percent of visitors. I wrote a bookmarklet that lets you make Google show you the new look:
(Drag it to your bookmarks bar, visit google.com, and click on the bookmark.)
It works by changing the ID in your Google cookie to 102c51875a8839e9, the ID of one of the visitors Google randomly selected to test the new look. If your ID is already 102c51875a8839e9, it sets it 0000000000000000 (anonymous), letting you switch between the old and new looks quickly. Since the bookmarklet only changes the ID part of the cookie, it preserves your settings, such as the number of results per page.
Thanks to jcurious for pointing out the Neowin thread in which "poind" posted the ID from his Google cookie.
Update March 28, 2004: Google is now showing the new look by default. The bookmarklet no longer has any visible effect.
Update January 27, 2005: iMilly has created a modified version of this bookmarklet to anonymize your Google cookie.
JavaScript Shell 0.8
I uploaded a new version of the JavaScript Shell today, along with a new version of the shell bookmarklet. In the new version, print() no longer returns its input. I added a new function, pr(), that acts like print() used to.
Flash bookmarklets
The new Flash bookmarklets let you pause, rewind, and fast-forward Flash movies.
They require Scriptable Flash, so they only work in Internet Explorer and Mozilla and only on Windows (Linux: 211218; Mac: 203861).
Blogidate XML well-formedness
In a comment on my previous blog post, Simon Willison writes: "I'm not too keen on popping up a new window with an external validation service. How about an alternative bookmarklet that just validates XML well-formedness (essential for those of us who use XHTML)?"
Try the new blogidate well-formedness bookmarklet. If this bookmarklet finds an error, it turns the textarea red, selects the part of the textarea where the error is, and puts the error message in the status bar (not in a dialog). If it doesn't find an error, it turns the textarea green.
Update Jan 21, 2005: added a normalize() call so the bookmarklet won't fail when the XML is more than a few kilobytes.
Blogidate bookmarklet: 1-click blog post validation
"Blogidate" is a new bookmarklet that lets you validate the HTML in a blog post before posting it. It works in Mozilla but not in IE or Opera. To use it, choose the version that matches your blog's doctype and drag it to your bookmarks toolbar.
- blogidate html4.01 transitional
- blogidate html4.01 strict
- blogidate xhtml1 transitional
- blogidate xhtml1 strict
Here's a textarea so you can test the bookmarklet on this page:
Continue reading "Blogidate bookmarklet: 1-click blog post validation"
