Export Vivaldi Bookmarks

Installation Usage Export Options Review/Debug Options Firefox TAGS

Script export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl exports a Vivaldi Bookmarks file (JSON format) to Firefox HTML export format. It includes properties omitted by Vivaldi's Bookmark Export, including Descriptions, Nicknames, and Bookmark Toolbar attributes. It supports some conventions for deriving Firefox TAGS from Nicknames and Descriptions (see Firefox TAGS below).

Installation

Download export_vivaldi_bookmarks.zip, which contains the script, library, and this document. Unzip the file in a directory of your choice. If the directory is on your PATH, then the script will be easier to invoke.

To run the script you will need a Perl interpreter and libraries. ActivePerl includes everything needed, and is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.

Usage

Synopsis: Exports Vivaldi browser bookmarks to Firefox bookmarks HTML format, including properties omitted by Vivaldi's Bookmark Export (descriptions, nicknames, and Bookmark Toolbar attributes). Usage: [Perl [-S]] export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl [options] <profile>/Bookmarks Options (One or two dashes. Names may be abbreviated): -icons Includes ICONs (in-line data). -uris Includes ICON_URIs (references). -comments Adds HTML comments showing folder/bookmark structure. -preview Adds icons to bookmarks for view in browser (not importable). -quiet Supresses progress messages & notes, but not errors & warnings. -help Prints this usage message. -version Prints version information. -log <file> Logs messages to <file>. -debug [1] Includes debug output (not importable). -debug 2|3 Includes more debug output (not importable). Arguments: <profile>/Bookmarks 'Bookmarks' file (JSON data) in a Vivaldi profile.

Example (Windows):

> set BOOKMARKS="%LOCALAPPDATA%\Vivaldi\User Data\Default\Bookmarks" > perl -S export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl -icons -uris %BOOKMARKS% > exported.html export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl - Reading JSON Bookmarks ... export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl - Reading Favicons Database ... export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl - Writing HTML Bookmarks ... export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl - Exported 13,748 bookmarks and 2,808 folders in 6 seconds. export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl - 5,345 with Icon URIs and 1,923 with Icon Bitmaps. export_vivaldi_bookmarks.pl - 75 with Descriptions and 13 with Tags.

Export Options

Command-line options may be specified using one or two dashes, and may be abbreviated to any unique prefix. For example, -i , --I, --icons, and -IC are all equivalent.

A Vivaldi bookmark may have an in-line icon (data), an icon URI (external reference), both, or neither. Vivaldi stores icon information in the Favicons database in a Vivaldi profile. By default, neither icon is exported to the HTML. After import a web browser typically fills in an icon the first time it opens the page. However, that can be inconvenient if the number of bookmarks is large.

-icons outputs in-line ICON data, which increases HTML file size. Example:
ICON="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSU...OrgMDi1+LAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC"
-uris outputs ICON_URI references. Some URIs may not be useful (for example relative references). Example:
ICON_URI="https://www.w3schools.com/favicon.ico"

In rare cases these options may cause an SQLite database error message. It may be a timing problem, so try again. If the error persists it may be a caching problem, so exit from all Vivaldi profiles and try again. If that doesn't help, the Bookmarks database may be corrupted, or its structure may have changed since this script was written.

Review and Debugging Options

-comments embeds names and some output properties as comments before each element, to help with review and debugging. You can view an indented outline of folders and bookmarks by filtering the HTML to show only lines starting with '<!--'. A web browser should be able to import the resulting HTML, unless its import is confused by blank lines. Here is a sample output HTML fragment with comments ('|' indicates a Description line):

<DT><A HREF="https://www.classicalwcrb.org/#stream/0" ADD_DATE="1611270868" SHORTCUTURL="wcrb" TAGS="WCRB,FM,Radio,PBS">CRB | Classical 99.5</A> <DD>WCRB Classical 99.5 Tags = WCRB, FM, Radio, PBS TV stations are WGBH (2) and WGBX (44)

-preview prepends available icons to each bookmark line. The result can be viewed in a web browser to review the icons and the folder structure. Clicking on an icon opens it in a new tab or window. The HTML is not intended for import.

-debug , -debug 2, and -debug 3 intersperse debugging information into the HTML, such as variable values, JSON structure, and SQLite query results. The result is not valid HTML. it can be viewed using a text editor.

Firefox TAGS

Vivaldi bookmarks do not support TAGS, but you can enter them into the Nickname or Description fields by following some conventions. This script exports most Nicknames as Firefox Keywords (SHORTCUTURL). However, it extracts TAGS from:

A Nickname containing one or more commas, or
A Nickname starting with a string such as TAGS:, tags:, TAGS=, Tags = , ... (case and spaces are ignored), or
A Description line starting such a string (the full Description is exported unchanged).

If both Nickname and Description contain tags, then the output includes all of them.

These conventions are tentative. The script could incorporate other conventions without too much trouble.

Examples:

In Vivaldi Bookmark In Exported HTML --------------------------------------- -------------------------- Nickname: @whrb ➜ SHORTCUTURL="@whrb" Description: Harvard University Radio (No TAGS) Nickname: WBUR, FM, Radio, NPR ➜ TAGS="WBUR,FM,Radio,NPR" Description: Boston University Radio. (No SHORTCUTURL) Nickname: TAGS: WFCR, FM, Radio, NEPM ➜ TAGS="WFCR,FM,Radio,NEPM" Description: Five College Radio (No SHORTCUTURL) Nickname: @wcrb ➜ SHORTCUTURL="@wcrb" Description: WCRB Classical 99.5 Tags = WCRB, FM, Radio, PBS ➜ TAGS="WCRB,FM,Radio,PBS" TV stations are WGBH and WGBX