Netscape Bookmarks File Format

The Netscape Bookmarks File Format is used by browsers to export bookamrks as html. Some info about the format here

Basic Structure

The file start with the following text:

<!DOCTYPE NETSCAPE-Bookmark-file-1>
    <!--This is an automatically generated file.
    It will be read and overwritten.
    Do Not Edit! -->
    <Title>Bookmarks</Title>
    <H1>Bookmarks</H1>

However some browser put in the H1 tag a different text, like the translation of "Bookmarks" to the language of the browser

   <DL><p>
   {item}
   {item}
   {item}
   .
   .
   .
   </DL><p>

Even that I couldn't find an example outside of Microsoft's Documentation, some files may have just DL tags, without the p tag.

An item may be a subfolder, shortcut, feed, Web Slice, or icon.

If {item} refers to a subfolder, it is:

<DT><H3 ADD_DATE="{date}">{title}</H3>
    <DL><p>
        {item}
        {item}
        {item}
        .
        .
        .
    </DL><p>

---

Some files may have FOLDED after the <H3, but before ADD_DATE, like an attribute, but without a value. Internet Explorer html exports have it. Most common browsers will add more attributes to the H3 tag, like LAST_MODIFIED={date} and PERSONAL_TOOLBAR_FOLDER="true", if the folder is the bookmark toolbar:

<DT><H3 ADD_DATE="{date}" LAST_MODIFIED="{date}">{title}</H3>

<DT><H3 ADD_DATE="{date}" LAST_MODIFIED="{date}" PERSONAL_TOOLBAR_FOLDER="true">{title}</H3>

If {item} refers to a shortcut, it is:

<DT><A HREF="{url}" ADD_DATE="{date}" LAST_VISIT="{date}" LAST_MODIFIED="{date}">{title}</A>

However, a shortcut tag probably will have more attributes, the most common exported by browsers are:

Chrome

<DT><A HREF="{url}" ADD_DATE="{date}" LAST_MODIFIED="{date}" ICON={icon}>{title}</A>

Firefox

<DT><A HREF="{url}" ADD_DATE="{date}" LAST_MODIFIED="{date}" ICON_URI= "{icon_uri} "ICON={icon}>{title}</A>

{icon_uri} is an url to a favicon URI, normally stored in {domain}/favicon.ico of the shortcut url. For sites that doesn't have this file, fake-favicon-uri:{url} is in place of it, being {url} the same of HREF

Other attributes that are not common: PRIVATE="1" (possibily private shortcut), TAGS=['{tag}, {tag}, ...] (some browser have tag list for bookmarks, however some of these doesn't export them),SHORTCUTURL="{shortcut}" (address bar shortcut keyword, used by Firefox, see #8)

There may be, after the shortcut tag, a DD tag with a comment:

<DD>{comment}

{date} is a decimal integer that represents the number of seconds elapsed since midnight January 1, 1970 ("unix time").

{icon} is an image, commonly a png, encoded in base64 (there may be other, but I've never seen one). It can be a big string of characters, responsible for a big part of the shortcut tag

If {item} refers to a feed, it is:

    FEED="true"
    FEEDURL="href... "

If {item} refers to a Web Slice, it is:

    WEBSLICE="true"
    ISLIVEPREVIEW="true"

    PREVIEWSIZE="w x h"

If {item} refers to an icon, it is:

{item}

ICON_URI="href... "

Note: These last there were never found by me. It's copied and pasted from Microsoft's Documentation

Sources:

Microsoft's Documentation,

Example with DD tag and PRIVATE and TAGS attribute (at the end of the article),

Example with H1 tag with translated,

Example with DD tag and PRIVATE and TAGS attribute,

Example,

Bookmarks html exportation files with Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer 11 and new Edge (this last one is in test\test.html of this repository)