Microsoft Edge

[JimH]

Any chance support for Microsoft Edge can be added for launching bookmarks? I've longed used this with Safari for work and it looks like there's a chance I'll have to start using Edge. Thanks.

[deanishe]

16 minutes ago, JimH said:

Any chance support for Microsoft Edge can be added for launching bookmarks?

 

I'd say that it's extremely unlikely that Alfred will gain built-in support for Edge unless Edge provides an official API for apps like Alfred to read its bookmarks.

 

You would probably be better served with a workflow instead. Depending on how Chromium-like it is, a workflow like this one might be able to read its bookmarks.

[snsokstan]

Also requesting the bookmark feature works with Microsoft Edge Chromium. It's way better on battery life. I can now use my MacBook Pro and still have access to all my old Chrome extensions along with more time off power.

[Traveler885]

+1 for Edge bookmarks. It's the only web browser I use on MacOS. 

[Tareq]

Came here for Edge support as well. Right now I'm using Edge as my primary browser. 

 

+1 for Edge support.

[vitor]

Before posting, please consider what has already been said:

 

Just asking for the feature doesn’t make it possible. It doesn’t depend only on Alfred, but on Microsoft as well. If you know of such an API or another official method to retrieve Edge’s bookmarks, share it so it can be considered. But just saying “I want this” doesn’t make it closer to a reality. It’s been registered that there’s a desire for this feature, now it needs to established if it’s feasible.

[bubblicious]

On 9/5/2020 at 2:18 AM, vitor said:

Before posting, please consider what has already been said:

 

Just asking for the feature doesn’t make it possible. It doesn’t depend only on Alfred, but on Microsoft as well. If you know of such an API or another official method to retrieve Edge’s bookmarks, share it so it can be considered. But just saying “I want this” doesn’t make it closer to a reality. It’s been registered that there’s a desire for this feature, now it needs to established if it’s feasible.

Per the Edge "Supported APIs" page, it looks like Edge--now built on Chromium--uses the exact same APIs as Chrome. This should make it relatively straight-forward to support searching Edge bookmarks, no? I'd like some guidance on how Alfred is already searching Chrome bookmarks; I'm hoping that supporting Edge will simply be a matter of supplying an alternate location for the bookmarks db.

[deanishe]

1 hour ago, bubblicious said:

This should make it relatively straight-forward to support searching Edge bookmarks, no?

 

In theory, sure, but it's not just a question of how hard it is to implement. Built-in features are basically permanent commitments. The Alfred team can't just drop Edge support again if it starts storing its bookmarks differently to Chromium. That's a big commitment for a browser that's only used by a tiny fraction of Alfred users, especially when you can already use a workflow.

[bubblicious]

On 11/20/2020 at 5:54 PM, deanishe said:

 

In theory, sure, but it's not just a question of how hard it is to implement. Built-in features are basically permanent commitments. The Alfred team can't just drop Edge support again if it starts storing its bookmarks differently to Chromium. That's a big commitment for a browser that's only used by a tiny fraction of Alfred users, especially when you can already use a workflow.

 

First, thank you for providing the link to the Alfred workflow; turns out it already supports Edge. For anyone interested, go check it out.

 

Next, I didn't ask for permanent support. I asked for, "some guidance on how Alfred is already searching Chrome bookmarks" in the hopes that, "supporting Edge will simply be a matter of supplying an alternate location for the bookmarks db." 

 

In previous comments, you had said, 

On 1/21/2020 at 4:27 PM, deanishe said:

I'd say that it's extremely unlikely that Alfred will gain built-in support for Edge unless Edge provides an official API for apps like Alfred to read its bookmarks.

 

All I did was point out that Edge does have an official API and that it's (conveniently) the same one that Chrome uses. If you know how Alfred implements its built-in bookmark search, please share. 

Edited November 23, 2020 by bubblicious

[deanishe]

2 hours ago, bubblicious said:

"supporting Edge will simply be a matter of supplying an alternate location for the bookmarks db." 

 

To what ends if not pointing Alfred at a different browser's bookmarks?

 

2 hours ago, bubblicious said:

All I did was point out that Edge does have an official API

 

Got a link to its docs?

 

2 hours ago, bubblicious said:

it's (conveniently) the same one that Chrome uses

 

Chrome doesn't have a bookmarks API.

 

2 hours ago, bubblicious said:

 If you know how Alfred implements its built-in bookmark search, please share.

 

Last time I checked, it reads the bookmarks from Chrome's on-disk profile data.

 

[186dk]

+1 for edge browser

[Kalaschnik]

On 1/21/2020 at 4:27 PM, deanishe said:

 

I'd say that it's extremely unlikely that Alfred will gain built-in support for Edge unless Edge provides an official API for apps like Alfred to read its bookmarks.

 

You would probably be better served with a workflow instead. Depending on how Chromium-like it is, a workflow like this one might be able to read its bookmarks.

 

Thats completely not true. Chromium-Edge uses the exact same bookmarks file structure and has the same internal workings as in Chromium/Chrome (regarding the bookmark management). I actually authored this functionality for a Windows Launcher application (Flow Launcher) to add Edge support for that software:

https://github.com/Flow-Launcher/Flow.Launcher/pull/121

 

The Code change I did was basically just some string replacements to get the path right (easy PR). Everything else was copy/paste from the existing chrome implementation.

 

The bookmarks file is located at:

Chrome

~/Library/Application\ Support/Google/Chrome/Default

Edge

~/Library/Application\ Support/Microsoft Edge/Default

 

Here you can see the matching folder contents (top is edge), bottom is chrome (along with the highlighted bookmarks file)

 

 

What that means; Alfred could actually support much more browsers (basically all Chromium (web browser) - Wikipedia). The bookmarks structure is in the Chromium project, it is and not something Chrome did uniquely.

 

So, supporting other chromium-based browsers is an easy addition to the code base. Please Alfred, it is time for some search-and-replace-work to add this feature!

 

Thanks ❤️

Edited February 5, 2021 by Kalaschnik

[deanishe]

On 2/5/2021 at 7:06 PM, Kalaschnik said:

Thats completely not true.

 

What's not true?

 

On 2/5/2021 at 7:06 PM, Kalaschnik said:

Chromium-Edge uses the exact same bookmarks file structure and has the same internal workings as in Chromium/Chrome (regarding the bookmark management).

 

That's not the point. As I said earlier:

 

On 11/20/2020 at 5:54 PM, deanishe said:

In theory, sure, but it's not just a question of how hard it is to implement. Built-in features are basically permanent commitments. The Alfred team can't just drop Edge support again if it starts storing its bookmarks differently to Chromium. That's a big commitment for a browser that's only used by a tiny fraction of Alfred users, especially when you can already use a workflow.

 

[Kalaschnik]

Quote

What's not true?

 

This part from your previous post

Quote

unless Edge provides an official API for apps like Alfred to read its bookmarks.

 

Maybe the "it’s not true" was not right wording for this context. Rather I mean your statement is bogus.

- What do you even mean by Edge should provide an API?

- Does Chrome provide an API?

 

Maybe I’m not clear here, the bookmarks file (for all chromium-based browsers) is a plain text file (just open it in an editor and you will see some beautiful JSON). So what API do you expect from any chromium-based browser vendor to offer? It is basically about opening a JSON file and parse the contents. It is already structured data...

 

13 hours ago, deanishe said:

In theory, sure, but it's not just a question of how hard it is to implement. Built-in features are basically permanent commitments. 

...

Yeah thats software development. Plus, I don’t see this as a big commitment. All browsers follow the JSON-bookmarks structure from Chromium. I see this a sustainable move to support a wide range of browser which share the same standardized format to store the bookmarks.

 

13 hours ago, deanishe said:

The Alfred team can't just drop Edge support again if it starts storing its bookmarks differently to Chromium.

Of course they can. Why not. Dropping features due to unexpected third-party behavior is not uncommon.

 

13 hours ago, deanishe said:

That's a big commitment for a browser that's only used by a tiny fraction of Alfred users, especially when you can already use a workflow.

I don’t know about the stats (no doubt that Chrome by far the leading the field). Yet, it would just be a good (moral) move from Alfred to support other browsers that are not Apple or Google (actually looking for some Firefox love here as well). 

[Vero]

I've just checked our site analytics before responding to make sure there hadn't been a significant shift in recent times, and currently, Safari and Chrome represent nearly 95% of Alfred's user base. Both of these browsers provide a reliable way to present bookmarks in the results.

 

If and when Edge, Brave or any browser, takes prevalence on macOS, we will consider supporting it, provided a legitimate, supported way to search bookmarks is available for the browser.

 

6 hours ago, Kalaschnik said:

Of course they can. Why not. Dropping features due to unexpected third-party behavior is not uncommon.

 

Alfred has been around for over 10 years now, and this isn't how we work. We assess features we add to Alfred's core very carefully, so that users can trust Alfred to be reliable, stable and consistent. 

 

For transparency's sake, I'm posting this same answer in the Brave browser thread, as the argument is much the same: We love our users and want to make you happy. As such, it's also our responsibility to make sure that Alfred doesn't become bloated with features that become obsolete due to third-party changes, or are unsuitably niche. 

 

Workflows excel at filling the gap for features that are more fleeting or less stable, as users can continue to evolve their workflows to support changing apps or private APIs that could be taken away at any time.  

 

Cheers,
Vero

[Kalaschnik]

3 minutes ago, Vero said:

If and when Edge, Brave or any browser, takes prevalence on macOS, we will consider supporting it,

Which makes it so hard for smaller, independent projects to attract user (now speaking for Opera, Brave, et al.), when really awesome apps—like Alfred—just don’t care about other browsers (even they share the same implementation!)

 

11 minutes ago, Vero said:

provided a legitimate, supported way to search bookmarks is available for the browser.

Now, I’m actually very curious how you implemented the Chrome bookmarks plugin. Did Google provide you a “supported way” to search bookmarks with one line of code? Maybe I’m all wrong here, and you got some sweet API?

 

16 minutes ago, Vero said:

Alfred has been around for over 10 years now, and this isn't how we work. We assess features we add to Alfred's core very carefully, so that users can trust Alfred to be reliable, stable and consistent. 

I’m using Alfred only since a year, but I guess Alfred had features you needed to drop due to unforeseeable third-party events, even if you evaluated these features carefully before implementing it (which is, tbh, something all software companies do in order to operate sustainably). I mean, what happens if 1Password decides to drop their API support, even if you evaluated adding this feature carefully? Look, I’m sorry, I really don’t want to be a grumpy asshole here. But there are decisions from third-party companies that are not in Alfred’s scope, yet they do affect Alfred. I mean, things can change, and you never can prepare that.

 

Best

Steven

 

 

[Kalaschnik]

2 hours ago, Vero said:

Safari and Chrome represent nearly 95% of Alfred's user base.

I wonder how Alfred measures this? Does Alfred look for what’s the default browser? What browsers are installed on the system?

[deanishe]

41 minutes ago, Kalaschnik said:

I wonder how Alfred measures this?

 

Vero already told you: website stats.

[Kalaschnik]

13 hours ago, deanishe said:

Vero already told you: website stats.

Ah yeah. I would argue this is not a good measure to predict the actual default browser of Alfred users (but this is a different topic).

[niobium]

I would also like to see Edge bookmarks supported.

According to this statistics Edge is the second in popularity with almost 8% market share. Market share has been also growing all the time:

https://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?options=%7B%22filter%22%3A%7B%22%24and%22%3A%5B%7B%22deviceType%22%3A%7B%22%24in%22%3A%5B%22Desktop%2Flaptop%22%5D%7D%7D%5D%7D%2C%22dateLabel%22%3A%22Trend%22%2C%22attributes%22%3A%22share%22%2C%22group%22%3A%22browser%22%2C%22sort%22%3A%7B%22share%22%3A-1%7D%2C%22id%22%3A%22browsersDesktop%22%2C%22dateInterval%22%3A%22Monthly%22%2C%22plotKeys%22%3A%5B%7B%22browser%22%3A%22Edge%22%7D%5D%2C%22segments%22%3A%22-1000%22%7D
 

[deanishe]

4 hours ago, niobium said:

According to this statistics Edge is the second in popularity with almost 8% market share.

 

No, it isn't. Safari is the second most popular browser. The stats you posted include Windows, so they're completely wrong as far as Alfred users go.

[vitor]

With corrected stats filters, Edge is fourth with barely half a percent.

[Morten Brudvik]

I switched from Chrome recently to Edge that I think is by far the best browser on the mac. I use Edge on windows, mac and even iphone. Better performance, uses less memory, ritcher feature set, faster development cycle. Recommend it.

It would be nice if you supported it.

[bubblicious]

IMO, this discussion has become quite silly. Bottom line is that Alfred is probably not going to support Edge, so it's pointless to snipe at each other about browser-usage stats. On the bright side, Alfred does have that wonderful workflow capability, and I've found many built by others to fill various needs. chrome-bookmarks-alfred-workflow | Chrome/Canary/Chromium/Microsoft Edge bookmarks search workflow for Alfred (mdreizin.github.io) is the one I found to customize bookmarks search. I altered the shortcuts so that I get results from Edge with the shortcut-combo I'm used to. I highly recommend it.

 

Beyond that, though I would have liked native support for Edge, I appreciate the cautiousness of the Alfred team in what they add or don't. One thing I have found over the 5+ years of using it is that has rarely ever become unresponsive or slow. It's quite amazing, considering what it does and how it does it. And compared to many other mainstream software packages (I'm looking at you MS Office; and you, too, Mac Mail), it seems to maintain this stability year after year.

 

So, I'm now sorry that I originally contributed to this discuss, and I'll be un-following the topic.

 

Best to all.

[sudopeople]

On 1/21/2020 at 7:01 AM, JimH said:

Any chance support for Microsoft Edge can be added for launching bookmarks?

 

You may be able to find some AppleScript that accesses Edge bookmarks. A lot of Mac applications have AppleScript commands available, but they're often not documented.

 

I'm pretty sure this is how Safari and Chrome bookmarks are accessed under the hood.