Diffs

Differences between ScrapBook X and ScrapBook Plus and ScrapBook

Although ScrapBook X 1.12.* is in the alpha status, it's quite stable so far, many issues since 1.11 have been fixed, and the standard version is releasing. Even if new features are beyond requirement, 1.12.* is more recommended for using. The list of differences between 1.11.* and ScrapBook (Plus) can be found here.

The following is a simple introduction of the primary differences of ScrapBook X (1.12.0a36) with ScrapBook Plus (1.9.24.40b3) and ScrapBook (1.5.11), if not otherwise specified.

No more annoying bugs

ScrapBook has been powerful and popular since 10 years ago. However, the long-term accumulation of bugs results in a great distress in using it. Debugging is deemed as the top priority of ScrapBook X, to give you back what ought to be experienced in scrapbooking!

The following is a simple list of issues, which have been repaired in ScrapBook X!

• Page capturing:
  • Some HTML attributes cannot be captured correctly, such as the background, bgcolor, or text attributes of the body or table elements.
  • Some CSS styles cannot be captured correctly, such as a style value containing "content:" or a data URI scheme.
  • The order of the frame pages (frame, iframe) are frequently messed up after captured.
  • The title of the data item is incorrect when a web page on the local device is captured (ScrapBook).
  • "All Links in the Selection", "All Open Tabs in the Window", and "All Local HTMLs in a Directory" do not work as expected in a multiple capture (ScrapBook Plus).
  • Some HTTP error codes, such as 400, 401, 402, and 502, cannot be recognized in an in-depth/multiple capture, which causes an error.
  • "ScrapBook" instead of the webpage title is always shown in the title field in an in-depth/multiple capture (ScrapBook Plus).
  • The Sitemap function doesn't work after an in-depth capture (ScrapBook).
  • Multiple dialogs are prompted in a single call of re-capture.
• Fulltext search:
  • Keywords containing some chars, such as #, %, &, *, =, or +, causes an error of the search engine. (Now they are searched normally.)
  • A keyword using exclusion and quote rule is mis-recognized as a regular expression. For example, a keyword -"1.5" excludes pages containing 125.
  • There is not an adequate notice when there's a syntax error in the regular expression input causing an interruption of the search process.
  • The separator between the "Folder" and the "HTML" (renamed to "File" in ScrapBook X) fields cannot be dragged for adjustment.
  • Frame pages are not indexed properly in certain cases.
• Editor tool:
  • Certain operations are get recorded and cannot be undone, such as editing the content of an inline annotation or a sticky annotation. (Now all edit operations can be undone)
  • A page reload is triggered if "Don't Save" is selected in the "Page is changed. Save changes?" confirm dialog, causing a loss of the current status.
  • Only the last edit operation can be undone. If a second request is given, a confirm of "Save changes?" is prompted, in which a "Don't Save" answer causes a loss of the current status, as above mentioned. (Now edit operations can be undone unlimited times.)
  • Editing pages in multiple tabs causes interference and results a chaos undo history. (Now the undo history is handled properly in each tab.)
  • A source file deletion is caused by an error on saving a page or file. (Now the source is never deleted even if there's an error on saving.)
  • A highlight is sometimes drawn on an incorrect range, or on space areas.
  • An edit or delete causes a partial change on a highlight or an inline annotation consists of multiple HTML elements by creation on a crossing selection range.
  • The sticky annotation is sometimes anchored on an inappropriate HTML element, causing a dislocation after saved and reopened.
  • The web page title of the combined page is the title of the first item being combined instead of the one provided (ScrapBook Plus).
  • The combine wizard, combine-view, or the "Output HTML tree" could result in an error during the output or a chaotic layout when there are special chars (such as &, ", or ') or syntax (such as a double quote pair or a -->) in the titles, links, or stylesheets.
• Others:
  • The proper window caption is never provided by the "Before changing the location folder, you should close the window:" error alert.
  • A correct sorting result is not obtained from the initial run and must be obtained by switching repeatedly in the Import/Export Manager, the "Calculate" dialog, and so on.
  • HTML special chars (such as &, ", and ') or consecutive spaces cannot be rendered properly sometimes by the combine page, combined-view, output HTML tree, or so.
  • Sometimes link indicators are not applied to frame pages, and requires repetitive toggling.
  • Unable to change the ScrapBook directory path until restarting Firefox if a bad path has been previously used.
  • Fixed several potential issues related with the UI or data value of the highlight custimization dialog.

Powerful editor tools

One of the most important changes in ScrapBook X is adding the HTML Editor button in the editor toolbar. When activated, the web page content becomes completely editable, and commands, which and whose corresponding hotkeys are listed in the context menu, for modifying format, inserting links, inserting files, etc, becomes available.

Other improvements of the editor functions include:

• Strengthened the DOM Eraser, which, besides "remove" with left click and "isolate" with right click, can now do "wider", "narrower", "de-width", "black on white", "undo", etc, to kick off the redundant elements with ease, as what HackTheWeb or Aardvark does.
• Added the inner link function: ScrapBook X data items can link to each other easily. Select a link target in the sidebar, run "Attach Inner Link to Selection" in the annotation tools menu in editor toolbar, where the ID of the target item shall show if selected correctly, click "ok", and the link is created.
• Added the HTML annotation function ("Add HTML Annotation after Selection"), which annotates the original text with a text in HTML.
• Replaced the sticky annotation with freenotes, where a text annotation in HTML can be written in.
• Increased the number of the available highlight tools is to 8.
• The highlighter in button mode is no more supported, to prevent some problems. (ScrapBook Plus)
• The eraser tools and the DOM Eraser now deletes all ScrapBook notes, including highlights, annotations, attached links, and so on, rather than deletes only highlights.
• New feature: middle-click on the eraser tool button to delete ScrapBook notes in the selection.
• New feature: view the directory of the current page by clicking on the icon next to the title of the editor or info toolbar.

Evolved to a note-taking and knowledge management software

Another of the most important changes in ScrapBook X is adding the note page, which can be created in the sidebar or the "Manage" windows and automatically enters the HTML edit mode (can be turned off in the preference options). Note pages are extremely useful for clipping, editing, and re-organizing the contents from web pages or elsewhere.

Images or multimedia copied from web pages or applications are usually stored on the web or in a temporary directory, and could be lost easily. A feature "Localize Embedded External Media" is available for note pages to actually save them into the ScrapBook data directory, so that they wouldn't be lost anymore.

Note pages have their template customizable (via the notex_template.html in the ScrapBook directory), are more precisely to be indexed, and are very suitable for taking notes freely.

Besides, some functions useful for knowledge management are added:

• Lock item: for files with special importance or with an intension to have native HTML codes kept, right-clicking on an item in the ScrapBook sidebar and lock it using the property dialog, and they wouldn't be edited or saved by ScrapBook anymore. (You can still open the data directory and edit the source files with other applications)
• Copy item: which is useful for duplicating an item for further processing for different purposes.

Data preservation is more precise

ScrapBook X is committed to optimize the data format to fit the international standard, to have the best compatibility, and to be accessed on any platform.

• More capture detail options:
  • Added a checkbox to determine whether media or fonts be downloaded.
  • Add an option "Link to source for those not to capture": which makes the images, medias, or fonts be embedded and linked to the source rather than be removed if not checked for download.
  • Added an option "Reorganize Styles": which makes the inline, internal, and external stylesheets of the page be saved as original.
  • Added an option "Save with UTF-8 encoding": which, when unchecked, makes the web page be saved using the original encoding.
  • Added an option "Capture as HTML": which captures plain text files, image files, XML files transformed to HTML via an XSLT, etc., be captured as HTML format, for latter editing and taking notes.
• "Download linked files" now supports more file extensions.
• Options in the "In-depth capture" can be input a value more freely.
• The current status and values of the form are no more saved when captured, due to a privacy concern.
• Expanded the file name support: cases and more non-ASCII chars are preserved when a page is captured, and filenames are truncated if they are too long, to prevent problems related with long file names.
• Added the support for subdirectories: the data directory of a data item can now include subdirectories, and no more causes an error on a calculate, a delete, or another ScrapBook operation. This makes copying data files into ScrapBook easier.
• Notes are now differentiated with the source content explicitly: ScrapBook X notes, including highlights, annotations, or attached links are added a data-sb-obj attribute, can be differentiated with the source content clearly, and can be completely removed without leaving anything by "Clear all ScrapBook Notes" in the eraser tools.
• Freenotes and combined pages via the combine wizard are independent of ScrapBook internal stylesheets and can be browsed properly in a platform other than Firefox with ScrapBook.
• Freenotes and combined pages via the combine wizard are independent of ScrapBook internal stylesheets and can be browsed properly in a platform other than Firefox with ScrapBook.
• Minimized the source rewrite during an operation of capture, save, note, combine, export HTML tree, etc., and adjusted the output format to better fit HTML5 standard.
• Improved the user interface of Output HTML tree:
  • Added a button to expand/collapse all items.
  • Added the links to the source url of all data items.
  • Added the title of the separators.
  • A fixed link URL with hash is available for linking to the current browsed page in the framed index.

Data finding is easier

ScrapBook X improved the fulltext search engine and the manage interface, making data finding easier.

• The fulltext search engine now indexes and searches bookmarks and plain-text-like files.
• The fulltext search engine now excludes separators from the search result.
• The fulltext search result are now sortable.
• Reworked "List View", which lists all data items (excluding folders) in the "Manage" window, and can be sorted.
• ScrapBook X now records the creation and modification dates. It's easy to find "recently added", "recently modified", etc., items by taking the advantages of the new List View and the sorting features.

User interface is more humane

ScrapBook X improved the user interface, making it more convenient to use.

• Improved the tooltips and user interface of the main menu button, the toolbar button, the context menu, the editor toolbar, etc. Many error messages are also localized.
• Items added to the sidebar now are placed at a more intuitive place.
• Each item in the combined view now has its height adjusted by it content.
• Operations such as move, delete, etc., in the "Manage" window are no more limited to selecting a single folder.
• The item folder path is now displayed in the "Properties" dialog.
• Folder paths are now separated with a less confusing char.
• Changed the default choice of deleting item to "No", to decrease a risk of mis-deletion.
• "Calculate" now checks and lists missing or redundant folders in the data directory.
• Added "Export folder items", which makes each folder be exported like a normal data item, to preserve its information such as data and comment.
• Removed the status menu and integrated it into the dropdown list in the toolbar button. Removed the "Sitemap" and the "Open Source URL" buttons from it (to prevent a possible misunderstanding and to reduce redundant items, since they are more likely called from elsewhere).
• The preference dialog can now be resized.
• The item property dialog now allows changing the charset. You can change it to match the data content if it's not UTF-8 encoded (more likely happens on txt files), to make sure that the fulltext search engine work correctly for it.
• Added an advanced preference "Show notification on browsing a page having been captured", which makes ScrapBook to prompt an alert if you are browsing a web page that is already captured.
• Added an advanced preference "Automatically output tree as HTML when data is changed", which makes ScrapBook to output the HTML tree on closing the datasource if there's a change in the database.

Other changes

• The namespace of the preferences moved from "scrapbook" to "extensions.scrapbook", to fit the Firefox protocol.