Initially the bookmark tree consists of nothing but a default entry. Click on the symbo in the top panel to open the configuration dialog.

The upper part is for creating, changing and deleting connections. Parameters of the chosen connection can be modified in the center part. The lower part contains inputs for global parameters (sort options, local file etc.). A short description will appear on the screen if you keep the mouse cursor over a control for a while.

JBoom saves the settings by default in the file jboomrc.xml in the user's home directory, or in a different file if you have said so during the installation.

Next you define one or more connections to bookmarks files. You can skip this part if you intend to use jBoom purely locally, that is, without a centralized file.

Presently jBoom supports the following connection types:

• FTP. Enter host, user and path of the remote bookmark file. The password may be entered, too. Note that it will be saved in the configuration file in clear text. If you find that too dangerous, simply leave the input field empty. The password will then not be saved in the file, but prompted from the user instead.
• SSH. In the corresponding dialog you must choose the authorization method: Password or public key. As for the password, see above. If you choose public key authorization, you have to denote the file that contains your private key. Presently only keys in openSSH format are recognized; keys in ssh.com format have to be converted first. This concerns, for example, PuTTY users: Use PuTTYGen to convert your keys.
• HTTP. Here the bookmark file is accessed by two separate URLs. One is for downloading and must be provided. The other is for upload and can be provided optionally. For uploading jBoom appends the bookmarks in XML format to the URL. On the server, a CGI script, servlet or something similar must be installed, that reads and stores the data. If the upload URL is missing, the bookmarks are read-only.
  It is possible that a password is required in the URL's query string. If you don't want it to be included in the config file (in clear text), replace it by the character sequence ${PASSWD}. JBoom will then prompt you for the password and replace the sequence by the password you entered.

Active connection: At most one connection can be made active by checking the corresponding box. This connection will be used for automatic downloading at startup, and to this connection bookmarks will be uploaded at the end if changes have been made. If an active connection is present, the LED in the toolbar shows a green light. Independent of this setting, bookmarks may be downloaded manually at any time from any connection during a jBoom session.

Name from title: If this box is checked, the name of a newly created bookmark will be preset with the page's title. This is what most browsers do. However, as it requires an additional load of the page, it may cause a noticeable delay. Whithout this option, jBoom constructs an initial name from the URL itself.

Local file: Path to a file on the client where a local copy of the bookmarks will be stored. The file doesn't have to exist. Note: If you leave the field empty, no local copy will be created. If there is no active connection, but a local file, the local file takes the role of the active connection. In this case the LED in the toolbar shows an orange light. If there is neither an active connection nor a local file, the LED shows a red light to warn you that your bookmarks can't be saved anywhere.

Command: This field is only present if jBoom has been started as a program. Here you can enter the command that starts a browser with a given URL (or lets a running browser go to the correspondig page). Where a URL is expected in the command string, insert the sequence ${URL} as a place holder. JBoom will replace it by the chosen URL.

Normally, however, this field remains empty. In this case jBoom uses a standard command, depending on the system:

• Windows:

  rundll32 url.dll,FileProtocolHandler ${URL}

• MacOS:

  open ${URL}

• All others:

  open-url ${URL}

Here jBoom expects an executable file open-url on the client side which performs the task and is reachable through the search path ($PATH on Linux). You have to provide the file yourself. For Firefox under Linux you may use the script open-url from the jBoom package as a template. It essentially consists of a single line:

firefox -remote "openURL($1)" 2>/dev/null || firefox "$1"

Depending on your environment, firefox may have to be replaced by an absolute path. Copy this script into a directory which is part of the search path.