Diff.Backup vs. Export Bookmarks? Target folder restore?

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pstover
Posts: 299
Joined: July 29th, 2005, 3:25 am

Diff.Backup vs. Export Bookmarks? Target folder restore?

Post by pstover »

Assume I opened the "Library" with all my bookmarks in Firefox.

Now I have two options for backups:
- Backup (into *.json) file
- Export (into HTML file)

Whats the difference (beside the target file format)?
Does one of the two way store MORE information than the other?

As far as I can see Importing the previous HTML backup stores the imported bookmarks always automatically into the "Bookmarks Menu" entry.
Can I somehow specify a different target (sub)folder like "imported BM")?

Can I somehow replace all my current bookmarks by an import/restore (instead of just adding them to the existing)?

Thank you
Peter
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the-edmeister
Posts: 32249
Joined: February 25th, 2003, 12:51 am
Location: Chicago, IL, USA

Re: Diff.Backup vs. Export Bookmarks? Target folder restore?

Post by the-edmeister »

The JSON format will "replace" all existing bookmarks with those that are in that "backup" file; it overwrites any existing bookmarks.
Whereas, the HTML format will "append" any existing bookmarks with those that are in the HTML file.

There is no control over where the HTML version bookmarks will appear - always in the "Bookmarks Menu", and added to whatever is there already.

(The only real difference in "location" comes with a fresh installation where Firefox will ask ask if you want to "Import from another browser" that you have installed on the computer; then they would appear in a separate folder [like] "From Chrome" or "From Internet Explorer". And that can't be controlled either.)

As far as "more information", unless there has been a recent change that I am unaware of - the JSON backup doesn't contain the Favicon images for the bookmarks, but HTML format does. Plus JSON would include "Tags" if you use that feature; but the HTML "export" doesn't contain that data (a far older format from long before Tags was instituted in Firefox 3.0 back in June 2008).
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Mine has wandered off and I'm out looking for it.
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