A bookmarklet is an applet, a small computer application, stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page. The term is a portmanteau of the terms bookmark and applet. An applet is a software component that runs in the context of another program, for example a web browser. ... // Uniform Resource Locator (URL) formerly known as Universal Resource Locator, is a technical, Web-related term used in two distinct meanings: In popular usage and many technical documents, it is a synonym for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI); Strictly, the idea of a uniform syntax for global identifiers of network-retrievable... An example of a Web browser (Mozilla Firefox) A web browser is a software application that enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music and other information typically located on a Web page at a website on the World Wide Web or a local area network. ... // A hyperlink, is a reference or navigation element in a document to another section of the same document or to another document that may be on a (different) website. ... A screenshot of a web page. ... A portmanteau (IPA: ) is a word or morpheme that fuses two or more words or word parts to give a combined or loaded meaning. ...

Whether bookmarklet utilities are stored as bookmarks or hyperlinks, they are designed to add one-click functionality to a browser or web page. When clicked, a bookmarklet performs some function, one of a wide variety such as a search query or data extraction. Usually the applet is a JavaScript program. Utility software or software utilities are the software programs that function like full application software but at a smaller scale or for a particular purpose. ... A bookmarklet is an applet, a small computer application, stored as the URL of a bookmark in a web browser or as a hyperlink on a web page. ... JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. ... A computer program is a collection of instructions that describe a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. ...

Concept

Web browsers use URIs for the href attribute of the <A> tag and for bookmarks. The first part of the URI, such as http:, file:, or ftp:, specifies the protocol and required form for the rest of the string. Browsers also implement a prefix javascript: that to a parser is just like any other URI. Internally, the browser sees that the protocol is javascript, treats the rest of the string as javascript code which is then executed, and uses the resulting string as the new page. A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), is a compact string of characters used to identify or name a resource. ...

The executing script has access to the current page, which it may inspect and change. If the script returns an undefined type rather than a string, the browser will not load a new page, with the result that the script simply runs against the current page content. This permits in-place font size and color changes, for example, without a page reload.

Usage

Bookmarklets are saved and used as normal bookmarks. As such, they are simple "one-click" tools which add functionality to the browser. For example, they can:

• Modify the appearance of a web page within the browser (e.g., change font size, background color, etc.).
• Extract data from a web page (e.g., hyperlinks, images, text, etc.).
• Query a search engine, with search term(s) provided by previously selected text, or by a dialog box.
• Submit the current page to a link validation service, or translation service.

"Installation of a bookmarklet" is performed by creating a new named bookmark in the toolbar, following the browser's procedure, and pasting the code into the URL destination field. The bookmarklet can then be run by loading the bookmark normally. // A hyperlink, is a reference or navigation element in a document to another section of the same document or to another document that may be on a (different) website. ... Look up image in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In computer programming and formal language theory, (and other branches of mathematics), a string is an ordered sequence of symbols. ... A search engine is an information retrieval system designed to help find information stored on a computer system. ... Example of dialog box from Microsoft Windows Dialog boxes are special windows which are used by computer programs or by the operating system to display information to the user, or to get a response if needed. ... Look up translate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

History

Steve Kangas of www.bookmarklets.com coined the term "bookmarklet," which he started to create based on an idea suggested in the Netscape JavaScript Guide. The term favelet was used early on by Tantek Çelik on 6 September 2001 (personal email). Brendan Eich, who developed JavaScript at Netscape, gave this account of the origin of bookmarklets: Netscape Communications Corporation was the publisher of the Netscape Navigator web browser as well as many other internet and intranet client and server software products. ... Tantek Çelik at the 2006 OReilly Emerging Telephony Conference. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Brendan Eich Brendan Eich (born 1964) is a computer programmer and creator of the JavaScript programming language. ... JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. ...

They were a deliberate feature in this sense: I invented the javascript: URL along with JavaScript in 1995, and intended that javascript: URLs could be used as any other kind of URL, including being bookmark-able.

In particular, I made it possible to generate a new document by loading, e.g. javascript:'hello, world', but also (key for bookmarklets) to run arbitrary script against the DOM of the current document, e.g. javascript:alert(document.links[0].href). The difference is that the latter kind of URL uses an expression that evaluates to the undefined type in JS. I added the void operator to JS before Netscape 2 shipped to make it easy to discard any non-undefined value in a javascript: URL.

—Brendan Eich, email to Simon Willison^[1]

See also

• Greasemonkey
• iMacros

For the slang term referring to a mechanic, see Grease monkey. ... iMacros Logo iMacros is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox web browsers which adds record and replay functionality similar to that found in web testing and form filler software. ...

References

Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 112th day of the year (113th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Resources

• Bookmarklets Home Page
• gibney.org Bookmarklets
• Jesse's Bookmarklets Site

Information

• Bookmarklets Boost Web Surfing, PC Magazine, Tara Calishain, 2004-03-04. Retrieved 2007-08-31.
• Web 2.0 Glossary