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A Client is usually a web browser. More generally, a client is a thing from which a Bookmarkshelf will get bookmarks content during its Import, and to which it will send them during its Export. In the first context, it is referred to as an Import Client and in the second, an Export Client. You add and remove Clients in the Import and Export tables in a Bookmarkshelf’s Settings ▸ Clients tab.
There are actually four types of clients.
Most often, a Client is a locally-installed web browser app, with its bookmarks in your Mac account. Client “Safari” simply means your Safari bookmarks. If you have created multiple Firefox profiles in your Mac account, each Firefox profile is a different Client.
A Client can also be a web-based browser app account. If you have multiple accounts, for example, two Delicious accounts, each will appear as a separate Client in BookMacster.
A Client may also reference the bookmarks of a particular locally-installed web browser app on another Mac account on your network, for example, the Opera bookmarks in account Suzie in server Old Powerbook. This will appear in the popup menu as “Old Powerbook:Suzie:Opera 10”.
Finally, a Client can be a loose file of bookmarks which you accessed using the Choose File (Advanced) menu item. BookMacster tracks this file using the path and file alias mechanism built into Mac OS X.
In order to execute an Import or Export command, BookMacster must somehow access the bookmarks content of the Client that you chose in the popup menu in Settings ▸ Clients.
This section explains how that is done, for each of the different types of Clients.
BookMacster has two methods for importing from and exporting to Locally-installed browser apps (Safari, Firefox, etc.). BookMacster automatically chooses the appropriate method based on current conditions.
The direct file access method is to read from and/or write to the file or files on the disk which the browser app itself uses. Most browser apps only allow this to be done when they are not running in the profile requiring the Import or Export, although some allow reading but not writing. BookMacster is aware of the restrictions of each supported browser app and always checks the current conditions before performing a commanded Import or Export operation. If the desired operation cannot be safely performed without quitting a running browser app, BookMacster presents a dialog asking you if it is OK to quit the app, and then to re-launch it when done.
By contrast, the browser add-on method communicates the import or export through a browser add-on, and only works while a browser app is running. This method is only supported by a few browsers, currently Firefox and Chrome, and only after the appropriate browser add-on has been installed.
When you set a Client on an Other Macintosh User Account, BookMacster accesses the same file it would access normally, except if looks in a different Home Folder. If this Home Folder is on a different Mac, BookMacster will present the usual dialogs necessary to “mount” the filesystem of the other Mac. This is the same as what happens when in Finder when you “browse” and “connect to” a server.
Whether on your Mac or another Mac, authentication may be required. If BookMacster cannot obtain the required credential from your Mac OS X Keychain, it will ask you. However, if one of BookMacster’s Agent’s Workers cannot obtain a required credential or cannot mount a required server for some reason, it will simply fail and try again the next time it is triggered.
In contrast to how BookMacster accesses bookmarks in your Macintosh User Account (explained in the previous section), on other Mactintosh user accounts, only the direct file access method is available. Neither BookMacster nor its Workers check to see if a web browser is running when accessing files on an Other Macintosh User Account, although it does warn you to check. Thus, if you are using this advanced feature, you need to be careful about whether or not web browsers are running in the other account. To be safe, just quit them before importing or exporting.
In order to help identify a Client in the common situation where people have a similarly-named user account on multiple Macs, BookMacster remembers and displays the server name on which the file resides.
The bookmarks of web-based browser apps such as Delicious can be accessed at any time, typically using an “application programming interface” (API). Where available, BookMacster uses such an API. The web apps’ operation “in the cloud” take care of synchronizing changes uploaded and downloaded by BookMacster, although occasionally glitches occur.
Accessing content from a web app requires that BookMacster be able to get a password from your Mac OS X Keychain If you want a BookMacster Agent to be importing from or exporting to a web app, when setting the Client, make sure to check the box that says Keep in my Mac OS X Keychain.
In order to minimize loading on their servers, web apps require that BookMacster maintain a local cache of your bookmarks content. Sometimes a glitch may result in the server telling BookMacster that its local cache is synchronized with their data when in fact it is not. If you are seeing inconsistencies between BookMacster and a web app, you can force BookMacster to re-download all bookmarks content from the server on the next import by emptying BookMacster’s local cache. To do this, in the menu click BookMacster ▸ Empty Cache. The web apps don’t like if you do this too frequently (within minutes) and may temporarily ban your IP address if they feel offended. BookMacster keeps track of this for you, if you are in danger of being banned, usually warns you and refuses to perform the command.
When you set a Client using the Choose File (Advanced). item in the popup menu it the Import or Export table, BookMacster remembers the Macintosh file system’s “alias” so that if you move the file, it cam still be found. Again, no checks or warnings on browser running are made before performing an Import or Export.
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