jBoom

Browser independent online bookmarks

Bernd Eggink, monoped@users.sourceforge.net	German version
	SourceForge project page

This is an older version of jBoom. For the latest, see here

Short description

jBoom is a Java program for remote storage and management of browser bookmarks. It allows accessing a central set of bookmarks from any system connected to the internet. JBoom is browser and system independent, not bound to a dedicated server, and doesn't require a special web service. The only preconditions are:

There is a remote system to which which the user has read and write access via FTP, SSH, or HTTP.
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) Version 1.5 or higher is installed (1.4 will not work!).

The bookmarks are kept in an XML file on the remote system. A local copy can be stored on the client. The program may be started from the client or over the internet from a HTTP server.

Bookmark entries consist of an arbitrary name, a URL and an optional comment (description, user name, account number etc.). They are organized in folders, where every folder contains an arbitrary amount of bookmarks and subfolders. The graphical user interface displays this structure as a tree with expandable and collapsable nodes. A double click on an entry or pressing the enter key shows the correspondig page in the browser. Additionally a linear search over names and/or URLs is possible. New entries can be created manually or taken from the browser using the system clipboard, existing ones can be modified, deleted, moved or sorted easily.

For FTP connections, jBoom uses classes from the ftpbean package, for SSH connections classes from the Ganymed project (extracted using autojar).

License: jBoom is licensed under the GPL, Ganymed under a BSD-like License.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

Users changing systems and/or browsers frequently have access to a single set of bookmarks.
JBoom is not a browser extension, it has to be started separately. Therefore the browser won't hang on startup in case of an unreachable server.
Several jBoom files can be joined; inserted files appear as separate branches in the bookmark tree. Those branches can be updated or deleted by a single mouse click.
Installation is easy and requires nothing but a FTP or SSH connection.

Cons:

A JRE installation is required.
The program must be started in addition to the browser, which takes some time.
Creation of bookmarks cannot be done directly, either manual input or the clipboard has to be used.

Variants

Normally jBoom is started as a standalone program. This requires a browser that can be "remote controlled" by an external command. Such a browser is present in the following situations:

Always under MS Windows and MacOS. JBoom controls the respective standard browser.
Under Linux and other systems if Mozilla/Firefox is used.

It probably works under other system / browser combinations as well (any hints are appreciated!). The program may be started either locally or over the internet from a server.

If remote control isn't possible, jBoom can still be used as a browser applet. This, however, causes some constraints, as it requires certain browser settings (see Usage as applet).

The remote bookmark file may be accessed via FTP, SSH or HTTP. Connecting via HTTP allows read-only-bookmarks to be realized, as well as using jBoom as a webservice front-end.

Thanks to...

Jana Eggink for helping me with the English translation.
André Grunow for testing.

We are looking for translations of the program texts into other languages. Your help is very much appreciated, please mail me for details.