LibreOffice HTML tidy-up app

I’ve written a little RISCOS app that takes an HTML file generated by LibreOffice, and strips out all the extraneous formatting information that you don’t really want – this is supposed to be HyperText Mark-up Language, not a detailed format description! Of course it leaves in your italics, Headings etc.

http://clive.semmens.org.uk/RISCOS/XP1LO2web.html [edited to the new name!]

There’s more information about what exactly it’s doing on that linked page – and a link to download the app.

It’ll probably do a reasonable job of HTML from other word processors or DTP packages, but I’ve not tested it on those. If you send me samples of HTML files from such, I might have a bash at widening its applicability.

Discovered a bug. It’s unlikely to bite you: it only affects files with footnotes, and only a minority of them. Will be fixed later today anyway.

I’m also going to change its name. It will be !XP1LO2web.

Done.

http://clive.semmens.org.uk/RISCOS/XP1LO2web.html is now available, and as far as I know, bug free. Bug reports or upgrade suggestions welcome, I might even act on them…

Bug reports or upgrade suggestions welcome, I might even act on them…

Have you tried it on an export of Firefox bookmarks?
I thought I’d try that and see how much bloat¹ I can remove, but it goes base over apex. I will try and capture a repeatable error message.
I thought I’d edit out the snapshot, and provided I don’t edit/refresh the bookmark in Firefox that should be fine.

¹ What would you call an embedded screenshot that you can only see when you open the bookmark to edit it while on the page that the snapshot came from…

Have you tried it on an export of Firefox bookmarks?

No, it had never occurred to me. I’ll take a look and see whether it’s a feasible prospect at all…the bloat in LibreOffice HTML is entirely understandable: they actually do their best to make your browser display what your word processor would print…plus a bit of “you’ve deleted something here that was in italics, so we’ll delete the text and leave the tags behind, ha!”

My assumption is that most of that was incidental to the content, and you want to leave it to the browser to choose your default font etc. etc.

Whenever I take a look at the HTML source of other people’s web pages, I think to myself, “What the hell package did they use to write all that crap, and what the hell is it all for?” but perhaps if I will write a debloating app I ought to try to work out what I can safely remove.

Needles to say, I actually wrote this app for my own use. I write a lot of text in LibreOffice… – but I thunk perhaps it might be useful to other folk. But I will take a look at Firefox bookmarks, anyway.

Blimey. I’ve taken a look. I’ll take more of a look later, but it’s not looking good…what an INCREDIBLE pile of crap!!!

<!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1> <!-- This is an automatically generated file. It will be read and overwritten. DO NOT EDIT! -->

It isn’t really an html file at all…

That said, I’ve managed to work out what’s going on, more or less. Definitely unwise to try to edit it, but perfectly possible to create a new, far smaller (proper html) file that simply displays a list of links to the sites that are bookmarked. Not sure whether I can make it group them in folders the way FireFox does.

I’m inclined to make it a separate app though, rather than making LO2web do it. Is it worth the (not huge) effort?

Everything in the bookmarks file appears to be meaningful, although some of it may be carrying information that’s of no interest to you. In the case of the LibreOffice html files, I know what information I’m trying to expurgate (formatting that relates to page layout rather than content – and archaeological remnants); in the bookmarks file, it’s not clear to me what to get rid of. The obvious biggie is all the little icons, but I’m inclined to think they might be wanted really.

I’m inclined to make it a separate app though, rather than making LO2web do it.

Possibly best not to pollute what you have, but then

Is it worth the (not huge) effort?

Probably not, unless you wanted to show Mozilla the error of their ways

The obvious biggie is all the little icons, but I’m inclined to think they might be wanted really.

Fripperies. Of course, you’ve seen my comments about the Gravatar stuff on these forums so that comment won’t be a surprise. Links are the thing. Pictures in things should have a clear purpose and contribute additional, required, information.
The favicon stuff is intriguing as it seems to change, after the link is saved, if the site changes that item.
That b****y snapshot is of no use whatsoever – if you can see a way of viewing it when you’re not on the page it depicts do let me know.

Piccies in things for no reason:
My work colleagues have pointed out that this shiny new MS Teams install allows us to put our faces in a little frippery included in every message.
Why?

1. I know what I look like
2. They know what I look like
3. Most of the photos my father ever took feature people other than me, because I was quickly elsewhere. I avoided that, why should I volunteer for this?

Is it worth the (not huge) effort?

Probably not, unless you wanted to show Mozilla the error of their ways

Having said that:

1. The file loads in NetSurf (well done netsurf)
2. The offending bloat is characterised as beginning

ICON="data:image/png;

and ending with a " and space followed by the next useful marker thus:
LAST_CHARSET=

8~) When I’m looking down my bookmarks, I spot the little icon of the thing I’m looking for…however, the “icon” data in the bookmarks file looks like a lot more than is needed to create those little icons. But I’ve not investigated yet whether there’s any way to cut it down a bit. Obviously you could remove the icon data and retrieve the icon from the icon link, but that would make it pretty slow.

ADD_DATE and LAST_MODIFIED could probably go, but they’re not very big – tiny compared with that icon data.

ADD_DATE and LAST_MODIFIED could probably go, but they’re not very big – tiny compared with that icon data.

Those are part of the details in the view of bookmarks when you do a Show All Bookmarks from menu or Ctrl-Sh-B, last modified would update the next time you saved the link (perhaps with additional tags)

Yes the ICON data is the bloat, and totally, totally useless.

Well, I can easily make a little app that clears out that icon data 8~) – I’ll do that, even if you’re actually the only person who wants it! 8~)

I can probably even put it some tiny alternative “icon data” to fool FireFox (and whatever other browser uses Netscape Bookmark files) into accepting the file. We’ll see…

If I could remember the syntax I could probably get AWK to do it.
When I last had a period of using it the regex was no problem, it was just dealing with “AWKward”

It’s a very easy thing to do – when I’m back at the Pi. Just now I’m on a MacBook in the living room, being (relatively) sociable… 8~) …gotta be sociable, it’s my (71st) birthday… 8~)

Fripperies. Of course, you’ve seen my comments about the Gravatar stuff on these forums so that comment won’t be a surprise.

Sorry Authentic Steve, but some of us are more visually based. I have little pictures in the entries of my phone’s address book. The (very!) few times I call anybody, it’s usually by looking for the picture and not reading the words.

I can recognise Clive easily.
David Ruck – not sure what that is, it’s a bit like Caduceus (the medical snake thing) but it is at least distinctive.
Chris Hall is hard to see at that size, but again distinctive.
Dave Symes likewise – some sort of bagpipes? A Sauropod?
Me? Obvious, also, which side of the fence I’m on.

Etc etc.

Pictures good. :-)

I like the little icons in the bookmarks sidebar too, but they really oughtn’t to need quite so much gibberish to produce them…

But I’m perfectly happy to oblige Authentic Steve with an app to clean them out for him – the rest of us don’t have to use it!

🎂 HAPPY BIRTHDAY 🎂

I like the little icons in the bookmarks sidebar too, but they really oughtn’t to need quite so much gibberish to produce them…

They don’t. The ICON_URI element just before is what does that.
The “gibberish” is for the bit you *only see when editing" a bookmark.

ICON_URI="https://opnsense.org/wp-content/themes/OPNsense/assets/ico/xfavicon.png.pagespeed.ic.ox6fDCoOC-.png" ICON="data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAADAAAAAwCAYAAABXAvmHAAAI

The “gibberish” in ICON= is for the bit you only see when editing a bookmark.

Save a bookmark.
Hit ctrl-D to edit and you see a snapshot in the top of the edit panel – that’s what the gibberish is for, but you only see it while editing the bookmark when you open it to edit it, while on the page that’s in the snapshot…

Yes, that level of stupidity

1. How many people edit a bookmark and expect to see a snapshot of what they just partially obscured, rendered in less detail than the page they just obscured?
2. If there are some strange characters around¹ that do want that then why not make it a tick box option for those who want a smaller bookmarks file?

¹ OK, there’s a few million across the pond.

OK, there’s a few million across the pond.

A few million?

By last count, a mite under seventy one million.

By last count, a mite under seventy one million.

Well, I think Trump has more than 71 million, but lots of them have difficulty writing an X.

@Rick it’s meant to be a red dragon, but it’s too small to see on the forum.

Here is a bigger version

It was originally a draw file called BlueDragon, but I filled it with the mica red paint from my RX-8.

it’s meant to be a red dragon, but it’s too small to see on the forum.

But if you squint a bit it looks like a bloke with a pointy beard and long lower lashes looking to his left.

He might have some idiosynchratic moustache hair as well!

So really it’s a failure as an icon!

I’d like to have an icon, but could never get whatever it is to work (some sort of page-making site, I forget).

I’ve got a lovely one of my very handsome dog, one of me as Ché G. , and one of me as me as I was once – but …

I like it, David! My facebook avatar is a dragon, but very different from that one – it’s the head of the dragon in the cover picture of my book, Birgom’s Diary – the dragon is the bowsprit of a little ship that figures prominently in the book.

http://clive.semmens.org.uk/Fiction/Birgom.html

And Thank You Rick! 8~)

Yes, that level of stupidity

That explains it. I wonder what will happen if I expurgate that altogether? We’ll see. Failing that, there are two tricks I can play on it: one is to duplicate the shortest example (which is much shorter than the others); if that doesn’t work I can create a proper HTML file instead of a Netscape Bookmarks file – with just the links, and maybe the wee icons.

Later.

So really it’s a failure as an icon!

Or it could be (at displayed scale) a pair of red lips dribbling blood!