Bookmarks description

[Neustradamus]

Hello all,

I have a request, how it is possible to remove/delete all descriptions of bookmarks and refuse for the future?

Thanks in advance.

[lovemyfoxy]

Where are the descriptions?

[kreemoweet]

The only "Description" I can find is a column so designated in the Library (Show All Bookmarks). To remove it, one would open the Views menu there,
choose the Show Columns sub-menu, and uncheck Description.

[Gingerbread Man]

Hello,

This feature might be removed in the future (bug 1402890).

My advice is to just let it be. It's a convoluted chore to do, you'll lose all tags, and you'll probably also end up with duplicated default folders (like Bookmarks Toolbar and others). But if you really want to, here's how:

1. From the Library (bookmarks manager), create a backup (JSON) of your bookmarks in a safe location, like the desktop.
2. Still from the Library, export your bookmarks (HTML) to the same location.
3. Create a copy of that HTML file.
4. Now you need to remove all lines that start with <DD> from that copy. You can do this with various advanced text editors like Notepad++. Those on Windows can use the following command line utility.
   1. Press the Windows logo key and R together to bring up the Run box. Type in cmd then press Enter.
   2. In the command prompt window that opens, type the following (but replace the folder paths and file name with what you have), then press Enter:

      Code: Select all

      findstr /v "<DD>" "C:\Users\Gingerbread Man\Desktop\bookmarks - Copy.html" > "C:\Users\Gingerbread Man\Desktop\bookmarks-withoutdescriptions.html"

   3. Close the command line window once the modified HTML file has been created.
5. Back in Firefox, type about:support in the location bar, then press Enter. Click the Open Folder button.
6. Exit Firefox.
7. From the File Explorer window that opened earlier, copy the places.sqlite file and move — not copy — the bookmarkbackups folder to the desktop or wherever.
8. Start Firefox again.
9. From the Library (bookmarks manager), delete all your bookmarks.
10. Still in the Library, import the modified HTML file you made.

There's no automatic way to prevent it from being stored that I can think of. You can display the Description field in the bookmarking panel though, so you could at least delete it manually each time. Plop the following at the bottom of your userChrome.css file.

Code: Select all

/* Bookmark This Page panel: show the Description field */
#editBMPanel_descriptionRow {
  visibility: visible !important;
}

1. If you've never heard of that file before, start by typing about:support in the address bar and pressing Enter.
2. Click the Open Folder button.
3. In the File Explorer window that opens, create a new folder called chrome — make sure you get the spelling right and note that the name is case-sensitive.
4. Launch a text editor like Notepad and paste the following in a new file.

   Code: Select all

   @namespace url(http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul);
   /* ^ The above line needs to be there. */
   
   /* This is where you put CSS code that alters the user interface, like the one I posted at the top */

5. Save the file to your desktop as userChrome.css Again, be sure to spell it correctly and note that the file name is case-sensitive.
6. Move the file from the desktop into the chrome folder you created earlier.
7. Restart Firefox for the change to take effect.

[the-edmeister]

As far as the Description goes, there is a pref to get rid of the "wordy" description that show websites foist upon users. I have the pref set in a user.js file that I carry over to all new Profiles.

Code: Select all

// Bookmarks micro summary:
user_pref("browser.microsummary.enabled", false);

Firefox 56.0.1 still accepts that added preference, but I can't say 100% that it still works; I don't add many new bookmarks these days and very few websites seem to use the extended description.

And to clean up my bookmarks years ago right after I stumbled across that pref, I cleared the existing extended descriptions by running a bookmarklet to strip that data from a bookmarks.html file. It was a bookmarklet that I found in this forum around the time that Firefox 3.0 was released, which iirc was when that extended description first made its way into Firefox.

[dickvl]

There used to be this bookmarklet to remove the DD tags from a bookmarks.html file opened in Firefox tab.

Code: Select all

javascript:(function(){var E=document.getElementsByTagName('dd'),L=E.length,i;for(i=L-1;i>=0;i--){E[i].parentNode.removeChild(E[i])}alert('Ready\n\n\Found: '+L);})()

[Gingerbread Man]

Code: Select all

// Bookmarks micro summary:
user_pref("browser.microsummary.enabled", false);

No relation to bookmark descriptions. Microsummaries were removed in Firefox 6.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Microsummaries

[the-edmeister]

Code: Select all

// Bookmarks micro summary:
user_pref("browser.microsummary.enabled", false);

No relation to bookmark descriptions. Microsummaries were removed in Firefox 6.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Microsummaries

Thanks, I guess I missed that change.

Maybe I should review all the prefs that I carry forward in a user.js file which I use with every new Profile; which I started using back in the days of Firefox 0.8 or maybe even Firebird 0.6 or 0.7 ...

[jscher2000]

Maybe I should review all the prefs that I carry forward in a user.js file which I use with every new Profile; which I started using back in the days of Firefox 0.8 or maybe even Firebird 0.6 or 0.7 ...

Wasn't there an add-on that cleaned out the most useless stuff? For example, preferences from extensions you tried one Saturday 6 years ago...

[dickvl]

If you use a user.js file then this file is processed every time you start Firefox.
There are two use cases for a user.js file.
One is to quickly initialize a new profile to specific settings.
This only need to be done and once the prefs have been initialized you can remove this file.
Another use case of user.js is to initialize some important prefs that you change regularly to known settings each time you start Firefox.

[the-edmeister]

Maybe I should review all the prefs that I carry forward in a user.js file which I use with every new Profile; which I started using back in the days of Firefox 0.8 or maybe even Firebird 0.6 or 0.7 ...

Wasn't there an add-on that cleaned out the most useless stuff? For example, preferences from extensions you tried one Saturday 6 years ago...

It wouldn't "clean" a user.js file, would it?

The way I handle "trial extensions" is to back up the Profile before installing a new extension and if it doesn't work as I perceived it would, I just delete the entire extension and slide the backup into place. No muss, no fuss, no cleaning orphaned prefs once the extension is removed.

Honestly, I have been thru my user.js file a few times over the years out of necessity. The user.js file stops being read once Firefox hits an error in the file. The error line plus the following lines just don't make it thru to the prefs.js file. I figured that out with prefs for extensions in a new Profile, when I hadn't yet installed the extension yet. So I have changed to order of the prefs a few times over the years to have prefs that are for specific extensions at the end of the list.

I just wondering why that "microsummary" pref hasn't given me an issue after so many years after it was deprecated considering that I have in the middle of the user.js file, before easily noticeable (if they aren't being read) prefs like "browser.search.openintab";true. If that pref wasn't being read I would spot that 'fault' almost immediately. Whatever, I will miss Chromedit Plus and I am hoping that someone will make a WE version, if that is even possible. The developer of ChromeditPlus quick doing anything with it back in 2015. Sure made it easy to edit and mess with the 3 "user" files, and to sort out what makes it from user.js into the prefs.js file, and to correct issues with same.

[Neustradamus]

Thanks a lot for your replies!

@LoveMyFoxy, @kreemoweet Yes it is; for clean my places.sqlite, I would like to remove all descriptions from the file, so big!

@Gingerbread Man I have a lot of bookmarks and it is a crash problem for Firefox.
I can export but not import (because crash).

@the-edmeister It is not this badly :/

@dickvl I have copied the code in a html file and launch "Ready Found 0", no change in bookmarks :/
We must not specify a file?

@the-edmeister Good point, when we remove extensions, some files are always here.

@jscher2000 It is a very old profile, a solution will be perfect... ^^

[dickvl]

You need to open the saved bookmarks.html file in a tab (File > Open File or drag the file in a tab).
Run the bookmarklet code.
If should display a count of found and removed descriptions.
Save the modified page to a new file (Save Page As).

[Brummelchen]

It is a very old profile, a solution will be perfect

"perfect" solution will be a clean restart*, sorry, but there exist no other solution.

*clean means new profile - that wont touch the current profile.
export bookmarks and import file in new profile. if it still crashes you have invalid characters.
i read that before when people try to import bookmarks.html from opera 12.

Gingerbreads solution should work.

[dickvl]

If this is only about prefs then deleting prefs.js and a possible user.js would fix this, but there are likely a lot of no longer used files that have been replaced by others (for instance: localstore.rdf => xulstore.json; mimeTypes.rdf => handlers.json) or are no longer used at all.
Firefox will stil use these older files to rebuild a database when you would remove the currently used file.