Feature Request: Browser extension to submit either all history or certain URLs to a given ArchiveBox instance

[adamwolf]

Hi folks!

After adding the little bookmarklet, I'd like to add another extension. Once the API is closer, would you rather see an Android/iOS "share to" app extension, or a Chrome extension to quickly submit an URL to your ArchiveBox?

(Of course, if these are both things you don't like, just let me know! :)

[pirate]

Yeah for sure, that would be great! We can easily expose an /add endpoint for those. I don't have any Android/iOS app dev experience, so that's definitely something we could use help with.

[pirate]

Copying @CodingSpiderFox's message from duplicate ticket here:

Type

• General question or discussion
• Propose a brand new feature
• Request modification of existing behavior or design

What is the problem that your feature request solves

I don't want to manually type the URLs in my shell or run the export script regularly because I tend to for get it and I also want to save my pages right away. Also, I want Archivebox running on my NAS and not on my local computer.

Describe the ideal specific solution you'd want, and whether it fits into any broader scope of changes

I want to have a plugin for at least Firefox and Chrome where I can

• configure the URL of my archivebox on my local network and my credentials for my archivebox
• have two modes:
• a) it logs every URL I visited automatically to my archivebox and archivebox saves it right away
• b) a button in the addons toolbar that I can click which submits the current open URL in the current tab (only the current tab) to my archivebox and archivebox saves it right away

How badly do you want this new feature?

• It's an urgent deal-breaker, I can't live without it
• It's important to add it in the near-mid term future
• It would be nice to have eventually

---

• I'm willing to contribute dev time / money to fix this issue
• I like ArchiveBox so far / would recommend it to a friend
• I've had a lot of difficulty getting ArchiveBox set up

[adamwolf]

Hi! I haven't followed this project as closely as I have in the past, but I keep seeing it in headlines... good work!

Is there an /add or equivalent API endpoint? No worries if not... I'm a little overbooked with billable work at the moment but if there isn't one yet, is there a particular ticket that tracks that? I could subscribe to that so I know when to get started on this.

[pirate]

There is an /add endpoint now, but it's the one used by the UI so it requires a CSRF token which is a pain for API-style usage. No ticket for fixing that yet, but I'll be sure to post back here once I stabilize that endpoint more.

I'm also a bit swamped with my day job right now, but I haven't forgotten about this.

[adamwolf]

No problem! Do not rush to implement this for my sake! :) Thanks for all your work.

[pirate]

Ideally a browser extension for ArchiveBox should be releasable cross-platform with minimal effort on the packaging side (ideally like something equivalent to FPM in the Debian packaging world).

Some of my research so far:

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Build_a_cross_browser_extension
• https://medium.com/swlh/bootstrapping-complex-chrome-firefox-edge-extensions-with-create-react-app-667be8df35d7
• https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/04/browser-extension-edge-chrome-firefox-opera-brave-vivaldi/
• ⭐ https://github.com/EmailThis/extension-boilerplate https://www.emailthis.me/open-source/extension-boilerplate
• https://extensionizr.com/
• https://project-awesome.org/bfred-it/Awesome-WebExtensions
• ⭐ https://github.com/dkthehuman/extension-starter-kit

So far this seems like the best place to get started: https://www.emailthis.me/open-source/extension-boilerplate
Their sample extension is quite close to what the ArchiveBox extension UI would need.

If anyone wants to take a crack at this, PRs are welcome! In theory an extension that submits a POST to http://<user configurable archivebox host>/add? could be accomplished in <200 LOC.

[voarsh2]

This extension would be great.
Also, as well as submitting urls with a click, it might make it easy to have an automatic submission (if that's an option and turned on), to submit browser history.