gobookmarks

gobookmarks

The purpose of the site is to display a list of links for you to see every time you open your browser. I have tried to move as much of the work into the app as possible with minimal effort but you will need to use github occasionally.

This project is a converstion of a project: goa4web-bookmarks to remove the SQL and replace it with Github. Which itself is extract from goa4web, which is a Go port of a C++ site I made in 2003. Ported using ChatGPT: a4web. It's all been minimally modified and as close to the original as I could get but with the changes I required. I made modifications to this because StartHere my SPA version using modern tech failed because of Github Oauth2 restrictions on SPA sites. You can read more about this here: https://arranubels.substack.com/p/quicklinks

How to use

1. Create a (private or public doesn't matter) repo in github under your user name called: "MyBookmarks"
2. Create 1 file in it called bookmarks.txt Put the following content (or anything you want really):

Category: Search
http://www.google.com.au Google
Category: Wikies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Wikipedia
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ Math World
http://gentoo-wiki.com/Main_Page Gentoo-wiki

Ie: 3. Goto the URL this app is deployed at, your private instance or: https://bookmarks.arran.net.au 4. Enjoy

File format

It's a basic file format. Every command must be on it's own line empty lines are ignored.

Editing

The /edit page allows updating the entire bookmark file. Each category heading on the index page now includes a small pencil icon link that opens /editCategory. This page shows only the selected category text and saves changes back to your bookmarks without touching other sections. Edits check the file's SHA so you'll get an error if it changed while you were editing.

How to setup for yourself

You can run this yourself. There is a docker version available under my github packages. There are also precompiled versions under the releases section of this git repo: https://github.com/arran4/StartHere/releases

Configuration values can be supplied as environment variables, via a JSON configuration file or using command line arguments. Environment variables are the lowest priority, followed by the configuration file and finally command line arguments. If /etc/gobookmarks/gobookmarks.env exists it will be loaded before reading the environment.

You can place these settings in /etc/gobookmarks/gobookmarks.env as KEY=VALUE pairs and the service will load them automatically if the file exists. The release packages do not install this file; create it manually if you want to use environment-based settings.

Use --config <path> or set GOBM_CONFIG_FILE to control which configuration file is loaded.

The --provider command line flag or GBM_PROVIDER environment variable selects which git provider to use. By default the binary includes both GitHub and GitLab support. Use build tags nogithub or nogitlab to exclude either provider when building from source. If you specify an unknown provider the program will exit with an error listing the available options. The --title flag or GBM_TITLE environment variable sets the browser page title. Use --git-server or GIT_SERVER to override the base URL of the git provider (defaults to the provider's public server).

Running gobookmarks --version will print the version information along with the list of compiled-in providers. Use --dump-config to print the final configuration after merging the environment, config file and command line arguments.

Oauth2 setup

Visit: https://github.com/settings/developers

Create an application, call it what ever you like. Set the Callback URL what ever you put in EXTERNAL_URL and add: /oauth2Callback to the end, ie if you entered: http://localhost:8080 it should be: http://localhost:8080/oauth2Callback

Upload logo.png for the logo.

Generate a secret key and use it for the environment variables with the Client Id.

Running as a Service

The release packages include service files for both systemd and FreeBSD rc.d. During installation these files can be copied to your system so the server starts automatically on boot.

When installed from the release packages the service files pass --config /etc/gobookmarks/config.json. An example config file is included in the packages and is installed with permissions 0600 owned by the gobookmarks user. The installation process creates this user automatically and both service files run the daemon as gobookmarks.

Docker

The Docker image continues to work as before. Mount /data if you need persistent storage and pass the same environment variables as listed above. You can also mount a config file and env file:

docker run -v /my/config.json:/etc/gobookmarks/config.json \
           -v /my/gobookmarks.env:/etc/gobookmarks/gobookmarks.env \
           -p 8080:8080 arran4/gobookmarks