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Show HN: Backtick – A console for bookmarklets and scripts

93 points by JoelBesada 13y ago

xbryanx 13y ago
This is a nice idea and the design is elegant. However, I already use Vimium's "b" key command for this, and it comes with so many other features too.
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  Thanks! Vimium's "b" hotkey is not exactly the same though. Backtick comes with a bunch of bookmarklets already available without you having to save them to your browser first. I'll also keep adding more commands to it as I get suggestions and find more to add. The point is, Backtick allows you to discover new bookmarklets just by searching in the console while Vimium only has those that you've added yourself.
  - Walkman 13y ago
    Please add pineapple bookmarklet: http://pineapple.io/discussion/bookmarklet-released http://pineapple.io/discussion/bookmarklet-released
ps4fanboy 13y ago
I thought this was for bookmark searching, that would have been far more useful.
- shijie 13y ago
  I was hoping the same. I was nearly giddy with excitement, then I tried searching... no dice... re-read the description... ah. I might try making this a reality. It'd be incredibly useful.
  - JoelBesada 13y ago
    I'm sorry to let you down, but what you're describing is not what I have visioned for this. But hey, if you're going to create this on your own, the source code for Backtick is available on GitHub (https://github.com/JoelBesada/Backtick https://github.com/JoelBesada/Backtick) if there's anything you need to know!
    - ps4fanboy 13y ago
      Free software is never a let down.
  - JoelBesada 13y ago
    Oh by the way, as mentioned in another comment, Vimium comes with a tool that probably is exactly what you're looking for. Just press 'b' to search through your bookmarks.
abimaelmartell 13y ago
not working on spanish iMac keyboard...
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  You can change the hotkey from the extension settings.
sushi 13y ago
This is awesome. Quite possibly one of the best solutions I have seen so far to manage bookmarklets.
splatzone 13y ago
Fantastic. I would never have thought of that. Great execution. Is there a repository of bookmarklets that this could hook into?
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  The ones you see on the demo page is what comes with Backtick out of the box. I'm constantly adding more bookmarklets to the default list, just tweet at me at @JoelBesada if you want to suggest anything to be added.
jimmcslim 13y ago
I'm finding that it swallows the first keystroke after `. So `fontBomb results in ontBomb appearing in the popup. Windows; Chrome 30.0.1599.101
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  Are you using Vimium, or some other extension that listens for the ` key? If so, you should be able to fix that problem by either rebinding the Backtick hotkey to something else in the settings, or by unbinding the ` key from the given extension. If you're using Vimium, add "unmap `" to the custom key mappings in the advanced options.
lox 13y ago
I tried creating an "Add to Pinboard" backtick command: https://gist.github.com/lox/7312183 https://gist.github.com/lox/7312183 The script works fine in Chrome's console, but fails as a backtick script. Aside from that, icons served from http show mixed content warnings on https pages. Would be good to require icons are either data uris or https.
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  Ah, thanks for reporting. It seems that having comments in a command messes up the execution, that's obviously something I'm going to fix ASAP. For now, just remove the comments and it should work. You're right about the mixed content thing, I should make sure to use HTTPS urls on all icons. Data URIs would be convenient, but it would make the amount of data that is fetched on first run (to get all default commands) unnecessarily big.
lightyrs 13y ago
This is phenomenal but I feel a lot of people are not understanding its purpose. Perhaps you could better explain what it's really for.
elwell 13y ago
upvote for fontBomb!
k3n 13y ago
Compatibility and UX qualms aside, this is a really fun little project. It'd be fun to bake something like this into your app even, which I'm sure you've considered, but it'd make a nice little poweruser/admin tool, especially for those who prefer keyboard over mouse. For instance, I'm picturing Github with their command-bar backing it.
krrishd 13y ago
for some reason,the only site that backtick is working for me on is the backtick site itself.
MrOrelliOReilly 13y ago
I seriously love this and am already making some commands for personal use :) However is there currently a way to pass parameters to a command? Right now I'm using window.prompt() to get user input. It'd be nice if I could enter something like 'mycommand:parameter1,parameter2'. Maybe an excuse to fork the repo... Great work though! EDIT I had only been using the extension on backtick.io before, but when I use it on other pages the console does not appear. This appears to be a problem with the CSS - when I inspect element on the page I can see that the HTML has rendered. By default opacity is set to 0 on the #console div - setting it to 1 fixes the problem.
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  Adding parameters to commands is something I've got planned for a future release, just need to figure out an elegant way to do that. Have you updated to the latest version of Chrome? I have never run into the problem you're describing.
  - crashandburn4 13y ago
    I'm having a similar problem, except when I'm pressing backtick nothing happens at all, the __backtick__ div stays empty. similarly, it works fine on the backtick website Chrome 29.0.1547.57 on arch linux. EDIT: in the interests of clarity, pressing the backtick the first time injects an empty __backtick__ div into the page nothing further happens. EDIT: Fixed with update to latest chrome. Thanks for the extension, seems great.
  - MrOrelliOReilly 13y ago
    Updating to the latest version of chrome fixed this for me as well! Obviously should have been the first thing I tried
wesley 13y ago
Any chance of this coming to Safari too?
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  Since my time is limited, I try to keep the scope of the project down to something I can handle. This means I'm currently only focusing on Chrome, but if anyone wants to port the extension to other browsers, the source code is available on GitHub for them to fork.
crashandburn4 13y ago
Really like this, I think something that would be really helpful would be a repository website where you can collect any of these commands similar to will bonds package control. Automatic downloading doesn't have to be configured to start with, simply a central searchable place for people to share and find backtick commands. Thanks again.
m-app 13y ago
Cool! Created a Pocket command from the bookmarklet, went really smooth: https://gist.github.com/michielappelman/7319013 https://gist.github.com/michielappelman/7319013
Flenser 13y ago
I use GleeBox to execute the hundreds of bookmarklets I've found and created over the years. http://thegleebox.com/ http://thegleebox.com/

93 points by JoelBesada 13y ago

This is a nice idea and the design is elegant. However, I already use Vimium's "b" key command for this, and it comes with so many other features too.

JoelBesada 13y ago
Thanks! Vimium's "b" hotkey is not exactly the same though. Backtick comes with a bunch of bookmarklets already available without you having to save them to your browser first. I'll also keep adding more commands to it as I get suggestions and find more to add. The point is, Backtick allows you to discover new bookmarklets just by searching in the console while Vimium only has those that you've added yourself.
- Walkman 13y ago
  Please add pineapple bookmarklet: http://pineapple.io/discussion/bookmarklet-released http://pineapple.io/discussion/bookmarklet-released

ps4fanboy 13y ago

I thought this was for bookmark searching, that would have been far more useful.

shijie 13y ago
I was hoping the same. I was nearly giddy with excitement, then I tried searching... no dice... re-read the description... ah. I might try making this a reality. It'd be incredibly useful.
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  I'm sorry to let you down, but what you're describing is not what I have visioned for this. But hey, if you're going to create this on your own, the source code for Backtick is available on GitHub (https://github.com/JoelBesada/Backtick https://github.com/JoelBesada/Backtick) if there's anything you need to know!
  - ps4fanboy 13y ago
    Free software is never a let down.
- JoelBesada 13y ago
  Oh by the way, as mentioned in another comment, Vimium comes with a tool that probably is exactly what you're looking for. Just press 'b' to search through your bookmarks.

abimaelmartell 13y ago

not working on spanish iMac keyboard...

JoelBesada 13y ago
You can change the hotkey from the extension settings.

sushi 13y ago

This is awesome. Quite possibly one of the best solutions I have seen so far to manage bookmarklets.

splatzone 13y ago

Fantastic. I would never have thought of that. Great execution. Is there a repository of bookmarklets that this could hook into?

JoelBesada 13y ago
The ones you see on the demo page is what comes with Backtick out of the box. I'm constantly adding more bookmarklets to the default list, just tweet at me at @JoelBesada if you want to suggest anything to be added.

jimmcslim 13y ago

I'm finding that it swallows the first keystroke after `. So `fontBomb results in ontBomb appearing in the popup. Windows; Chrome 30.0.1599.101

JoelBesada 13y ago
Are you using Vimium, or some other extension that listens for the ` key? If so, you should be able to fix that problem by either rebinding the Backtick hotkey to something else in the settings, or by unbinding the ` key from the given extension. If you're using Vimium, add "unmap `" to the custom key mappings in the advanced options.

lox 13y ago

I tried creating an "Add to Pinboard" backtick command: https://gist.github.com/lox/7312183 https://gist.github.com/lox/7312183 The script works fine in Chrome's console, but fails as a backtick script. Aside from that, icons served from http show mixed content warnings on https pages. Would be good to require icons are either data uris or https.

JoelBesada 13y ago
Ah, thanks for reporting. It seems that having comments in a command messes up the execution, that's obviously something I'm going to fix ASAP. For now, just remove the comments and it should work. You're right about the mixed content thing, I should make sure to use HTTPS urls on all icons. Data URIs would be convenient, but it would make the amount of data that is fetched on first run (to get all default commands) unnecessarily big.

lightyrs 13y ago

This is phenomenal but I feel a lot of people are not understanding its purpose. Perhaps you could better explain what it's really for.

elwell 13y ago

upvote for fontBomb!

k3n 13y ago

Compatibility and UX qualms aside, this is a really fun little project. It'd be fun to bake something like this into your app even, which I'm sure you've considered, but it'd make a nice little poweruser/admin tool, especially for those who prefer keyboard over mouse. For instance, I'm picturing Github with their command-bar backing it.

krrishd 13y ago

for some reason,the only site that backtick is working for me on is the backtick site itself.

MrOrelliOReilly 13y ago

I seriously love this and am already making some commands for personal use :) However is there currently a way to pass parameters to a command? Right now I'm using window.prompt() to get user input. It'd be nice if I could enter something like 'mycommand:parameter1,parameter2'. Maybe an excuse to fork the repo... Great work though! EDIT I had only been using the extension on backtick.io before, but when I use it on other pages the console does not appear. This appears to be a problem with the CSS - when I inspect element on the page I can see that the HTML has rendered. By default opacity is set to 0 on the #console div - setting it to 1 fixes the problem.

JoelBesada 13y ago
Adding parameters to commands is something I've got planned for a future release, just need to figure out an elegant way to do that. Have you updated to the latest version of Chrome? I have never run into the problem you're describing.
- crashandburn4 13y ago
  I'm having a similar problem, except when I'm pressing backtick nothing happens at all, the __backtick__ div stays empty. similarly, it works fine on the backtick website Chrome 29.0.1547.57 on arch linux. EDIT: in the interests of clarity, pressing the backtick the first time injects an empty __backtick__ div into the page nothing further happens. EDIT: Fixed with update to latest chrome. Thanks for the extension, seems great.
- MrOrelliOReilly 13y ago
  Updating to the latest version of chrome fixed this for me as well! Obviously should have been the first thing I tried

wesley 13y ago

Any chance of this coming to Safari too?

JoelBesada 13y ago
Since my time is limited, I try to keep the scope of the project down to something I can handle. This means I'm currently only focusing on Chrome, but if anyone wants to port the extension to other browsers, the source code is available on GitHub for them to fork.

crashandburn4 13y ago

Really like this, I think something that would be really helpful would be a repository website where you can collect any of these commands similar to will bonds package control. Automatic downloading doesn't have to be configured to start with, simply a central searchable place for people to share and find backtick commands. Thanks again.

m-app 13y ago

Cool! Created a Pocket command from the bookmarklet, went really smooth: https://gist.github.com/michielappelman/7319013 https://gist.github.com/michielappelman/7319013

Flenser 13y ago

I use GleeBox to execute the hundreds of bookmarklets I've found and created over the years. http://thegleebox.com/ http://thegleebox.com/