Session Buddy

Session Buddy supports the representation of links and tabs in a variety of text formats that can be used to import collections, add links to collections, or open many tabs at once.

A format can also be selected when exporting collections.

Importing, adding links, and opening tabs

You can import, add links to collections, or open tabs in any of the formats listed below.

The format is automatically detected when text is pasted or a file is dropped. It’s always a good idea to check the detected format before proceeding with the import or add. If Session Buddy is unable to detect the format or guesses it incorrectly, select the desired format from the Format dropdown.

Free-form

When Free-form is selected, Session Buddy attempts to extract URLs from arbitrary text using pattern matching.

Free-form is technically not a format, as it represents text lacking any particular formatting rules.

When format detection is turned on but no known format matches the supplied text, format selection defaults to Free-form.

URLs

A flat list of URLs.

Every non-blank line must be a valid URL.

Blank lines are ignored.

Example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=dog+breeds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd
https://www.google.com/search?q=Labrador+Retriever
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Golden+Retriever

Title/URL pairs

A flat list of URLs with titles.

Each title/URL pair must be a non-blank title followed by a valid URL on the next line.

Each pair must be separated by at least one blank line.

Example:

dog breeds - Google Search
https://www.google.com/search?q=dog+breeds

German Shepherd - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd

Golden Retriever - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Golden+Retriever

Groups of URLs

A flat list of URLs.

A non-blank line must be a valid URL.

A contiguous list of URLs defines a group (ie, a folder or window). A blank line creates a new group.

Example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Golden+Retriever

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_cat
https://www.google.com/search?q=British+Shorthair
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ragdoll+kitten

Named groups of URLs

Similar to Groups of URLs, but every contiguous list of URLs must be preceded by a group name.

A group name must be separated from the previous group by a blank line and followed by a blank line.

Example:

Dogs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Golden+Retriever

Cats

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_cat
https://www.google.com/search?q=British+Shorthair
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ragdoll+kitten

Named groups of title/URL pairs

Like Named groups of URLs, but each group is a list of blank-line-separated title/URL pairs.

Example:

Dogs

German Shepherd - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd

Golden Retriever - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Golden+Retriever

Cats

Siamese cat - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_cat

British Shorthair - Google Search
https://www.google.com/search?q=British+Shorthair

Ragdoll kitten - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ragdoll+kitten

Indented groups of URLs

A hierarchy of one of the following:

collection names, folder names, and URLs
folder names and URLs

Top level items, which may be either collection names or folder names, must not be indented (ie, have no leading whitespace).

Each nested level of the hierarchy must be indented accordingly with leading whitespace. An individual indent can be any combination of space or tab, but the characters used for indents must be consistent. For example, if folder names are indented by two spaces, URLs must be indented by four spaces.

Blank lines are ignored, but collection names and folder names are conventionally preceded and followed by a blank line for readability.

Empty collections or folders are not allowed.

Example:

Furry pets

  Dogs

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd
    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Golden+Retriever

  Cats

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_cat
    https://www.google.com/search?q=British+Shorthair
    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ragdoll+kitten

Reptiles

  Lizards

    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bearded+Dragon
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko

Indented groups of title/URL pairs

Like Indented groups of URLs, but for blank-line-separated title/URL pairs instead of URLs.

Example:

Furry pets

  Dogs

    German Shepherd - Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd

    Golden Retriever - YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Golden+Retriever

  Cats

    Siamese cat - Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_cat

    British Shorthair - Google Search
    https://www.google.com/search?q=British+Shorthair

    Ragdoll kitten - YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ragdoll+kitten

Reptiles

  Lizards

    Bearded Dragon - YouTube
    https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bearded+Dragon

    Gecko - Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko

JSON

JSON in either array or object form:

Array forms:

An array of collection objects
An array of folder objects
An array of link objects

Object forms:

An object with a "collections" property that is an array of collection objects
An object with a "sessions" property that is an array of session objects
An object with a "folders" property that is an array of folder objects
An object with a "windows" property that is an array of window objects
An object with a "links" property that is an array of link objects
An object with a "tabs" property that is an array of tab objects

Note that Session Buddy v4 and v3 backups are compatible with the first two object forms, respectively.

Collection/Session object properties:

"title": optional string. Overridden by the "name" property if present.
"created": optional number representing time in milliseconds that has elapsed since the epoch.
"updated": optional number representing time in milliseconds that has elapsed since the epoch.
"folders" or "windows": array of folder or window objects.

Folder/Window object properties:

"title": optional string. Overridden by the "name" property if present.
"incognito": optional boolean (true/false).
"top": optional number.
"left": optional number.
"width": optional number.
"height": optional number.
"state": optional string. one of: “normal“, “minimized“, “maximized“, or “fullscreen“.
"type": optional string. one of: “normal“, “popup“, “panel“, “app“, or “devtools“.
"links" or "tabs": array of link or tab objects.

Link/Tab object properties:

"url": required string.
"title": optional string.
"favIconUrl": optional string.
"pinned": optional boolean (true/false).
"active": optional boolean (true/false).
"groupId": optional number.

Example:

{
  "collections": [
    {
      "title": "Furry friends",
      "folders": [
        {
          "title": "Dogs",
          "links": [
            {
              "title": "German Shepherd - Wikipedia",
              "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd",
              "favIconUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"
            },
            {
              "title": "Labrador Retriever - Google Search",
              "url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=Labrador+Retriever",
              "favIconUrl": "https://www.google.com/favicon.ico"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "Cats",
          "state": "normal",
          "links": [
            {
              "title": "Ragdoll kitten - YouTube",
              "url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ragdoll+kitten"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "title": "Reptiles",
      "folders": [
        {
          "title": "Snakes",
          "state": "maximized",
          "incognito": true,
          "links": [
            {
              "title": "Boa constrictor - Wikipedia",
              "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boa_constrictor",
              "pinned": true
            },
            {
              "title": "Ball python - Wikipedia",
              "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_python",
              "favIconUrl": "https://en.wikipedia.org/static/favicon/wikipedia.ico"
            },
            {
              "title": "Garter Snake - YouTube",
              "url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Garter+Snake",
              "favIconUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/ee47b5e0/img/logos/favicon_32x32.png"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "title": "Lizards",
          "top": 25,
          "left": 50,
          "width": 1034,
          "height": 560,
          "links": [
            {
              "title": "Bearded Dragon - YouTube",
              "url": "https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bearded+Dragon",
              "favIconUrl": "https://www.youtube.com/s/desktop/ee47b5e0/img/logos/favicon_32x32.png"
            },
            {
              "title": "Gecko - Wikipedia",
              "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

CSV

A CSV representation of links with optional collection and/or folder grouping columns. A header row is required and must include a URL column.

The following columns are recognized. Every column is optional except URL.

Collection or Session: case-sensitive collection name. Cannot be blank.
Folder or Window: case-sensitive folder name. Cannot be blank. This column is required if a Collection or Session column exists.
URL: required.
Title
FavIconURL
Pinned: “true” or “false”.
Active: “true” or “false”.
GroupId: must be a number.

Example:

Collection,Folder,Title,URL
"Furry, adorable",Dogs,German Shepherd - Wikipedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Shepherd
"Furry, adorable",Dogs,Labrador Retriever - Google Search,https://www.google.com/search?q=Labrador+Retriever
"Furry, adorable",Cats,Ragdoll kitten - YouTube,https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ragdoll+kitten
Reptiles,Snakes,Boa constrictor - Wikipedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boa_constrictor
Reptiles,Snakes,Ball python - Wikipedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_python
Reptiles,Snakes,Garter Snake - YouTube,https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Garter+Snake
Reptiles,Lizards,Bearded Dragon - YouTube,https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Bearded+Dragon
Reptiles,Lizards,Gecko - Wikipedia,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gecko

Large files

Adding links/opening tabs

Files larger than 1M are not allowed when adding links to collections or opening tabs.

Importing

Files larger than 1M are allowed when importing, but they must have a .json file extension and contain text conforming to the JSON format.

When a valid large file is dropped into the Import dialog, the file is scanned for collections. This could take a few seconds. Once scanned, you will see a file icon and the filename instead of the file’s contents.

Note that Session Buddy is only able to find collections in large files that contain a JSON object. If the JSON is in array form, no collections will be found.

Customizing the threshold

By default, files are considered large if they exceed 1M.

To customize this threshold based on the memory available on your system, add a localStorage entry with key nxs.experiment.ingest-max-size and a numeric value corresponding to an appropriate size in bytes.

Export

Collections can be exported in any of the following formats:

URLs

A flat list of URLs.

Title/URL pairs

A flat list of URLs with titles, each separated by a blank line.

Missing titles print as “Untitled”.

Indented groups of URLs

A hierarchy of collection titles, folder titles, and URLs.

Folder titles are once-indented with 2 spaces and URLs are twice-indented with 4 spaces.

Missing collection and folder titles show up as “Collection 1”, “Folder 2”, etc.

Indented groups of title/URL pairs

Same as Indented groups of URLs, but with blank-line-separated title/URL pairs instead of URLs.

Missing link titles show up as “Untitled”.

JSON

A pretty-printed JSON object with a "collections" property that is an array of collection objects.

Collection object properties:

"title"
"folders": array of folder objects.

Folder object properties:

"title"
"type": one of: “normal“, “popup“, “panel“, “app“, or “devtools“.
"state": one of: “normal“, “minimized“, “maximized“, or “fullscreen“.
"incognito": boolean (true/false).
"top": number.
"left": number.
"width": number.
"height": number.
"links": array of link objects.

Link object properties:

"title"
"titleOriginal": the original link title if edited in Session Buddy.
"url"
"favIconUrl": the URL of the link’s icon.
"active": boolean (true/false).
"pinned": boolean (true/false).
"groupId": number.

CSV

A CSV representation of links with collection and folder groupings.

Columns included are: Collection, Folder, Title, URL, favIconUrl

Collection values are collection titles (or “Collection 1”, “Collection 2”, etc if untitled).

Folder values are folder titles (or “Folder 1”, “Folder 2”, etc if untitled).

Formats

Importing, adding links, and opening tabs

Free-form

URLs

Title/URL pairs

Groups of URLs

Named groups of URLs

Named groups of title/URL pairs

Indented groups of URLs

Indented groups of title/URL pairs

JSON

CSV

Large files

Adding links/opening tabs

Importing

Customizing the threshold

Export

URLs

Title/URL pairs

Indented groups of URLs

Indented groups of title/URL pairs

JSON

CSV