How-to: Using the Bookmarks Macro

The Bookmarks macro inserts into the pages a box that allows any member to store and display a list of bookmarks. This list is personal and there's no way for anybody to see anyone else's list.

The macro call which embeds that box has always been present in default templates, but the box remained invisible while the bookmarks list was empty. Thus, the only way to find it was to be curious and visit the members area. This has just been changed (Mon, Jul 2, 2001), and that's why you may see this new thing in your pages for the first time. If you want to remove it, just remove the <!--#bookmarks--> macro call from your template(s). Of course, alternatively, you can add it to your site by adding this call. See below.

Using the Bookmarks box

This part is for members (non members won't see the Bookmarks box).

The default Bookmarks box has two buttons that read "Edit" and "Add".

• The former will redirect you to the screen, in the members area, where you can edit your bookmarks list (that requires a very basic knowledge of HTML).

• The latter allows you to add, at the bottom of your bookmarks list, a link that points to the current page (the page's title will be used to build the link). If you add a bookmark to a page already linked from the bookmarks list, the previous link will be removed and a new link will be added to the bottom of the list (if you didn't notice that the link was already present, it's likely because the title of the page changed.)

Additional notes:

- Again, this list is personal, based on your membership, so feel free to use it.

- If you're a member of several sites in a same zone, your Bookmarks list will be common to all these sites, allowing you to navigate between them.

- By default, new links (added by clicking on the "Add" button) will be separated (in rendered pages) with a <br> tag (which is rendered as a simple carriage return). If you prefer them to be separated with a blank line, click the "Edit" button, insert a second carriage return between each existing link, and save the changes. The links (including future ones) will then automatically be separated with a blank line.

- Alternatively, site admins can choose to use a HTML list to display the links. In this case, <li> tags will be inserted at rendering time instead of <br> tags. As a member, you cannot control this.

- In both cases, anyway, these tags won't be added into your bookmarks list itself, to keep it easier to edit. So if you edit your Bookmarks list, don't insert such tags yourself. Just separate your links with one or two carriage returns.

Managing the Bookmarks box

This part is for site administrators.

The Bookmark box is inserted into the pages via the <!--#bookmarks--> macro call present in the templates.

The appearance of this box, which used to be based on member preferences, is now defined through a template that can be found at:   /yourSite/admin/conversations/yourSite/preferences$plugin=Bookmarks
(go to your structure editor, click "Preferences" in the left side navigation bar, then click on "Bookmarks", in the same navigation bar.)

By default, bookmark items will be separated with one or two <cr> tags, but as a site admin, you can choose to display the bookmarks as an HTML list instead. To do so, just insert list tags into the template, around the <!--#value--> macro call. You can use <ul>, <ol> and <dl> with any attributes, but make sure you don't forget the corresponding closing tag. Then, <li> tags will be inserted into rendered pages (but not into the bookmark lists themselves, so they'll remain easier to edit). Note that bookmarks will be displayed as HTML list as soon as your template contains list tags, even if you didn't intend them to format the bookmarks list itself.

It might be a good idea to add a help text somewhere in your site, to explain your members how to use the Bookmarks box. View in DG