SyncPlaces

SyncPlaces synchronises your Firefox bookmarks and passwords across computers using your choice of Web site instead of forcing you to expose your information on a Web site where you have no control over privacy or security. Drupal users have the added advantage of a ready made module for adding synchronisation to their Web site.

Install

Install SyncPlaces from addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/syncplaces/.

Options

To change options, select Bookmarks then SyncPlaces then Options. This should place you in the options page but currently places you in a general page containing an Options button. Select the Options button at the bottom of the SyncPlaces popup. You will see the choice of Server | Options | Advanced. Think of this as the Options page and the choices as Server options | General options | Advanced options.

Send safely

Send safely is an option you must set on when you use more than one computer at the same time. Both computers, by default, will send their updates to override whatever is on the server. You start computers A and B. You create new bookmarks on both A and B. You shut down A then B. A will send the updated bookmarks from A to your server. B will then send an updated bookmark file from B and replace the updates from A.

You switch on the send safely option then use A and B again. On shutdown A reads the current file from the server then merges in the updates from A then writes the merged file to the server. You then shutdown B. B reads the updated file from the server and merges the updates from A with the updates from B then sends everything to the server.

Send safely will solve the multiple update problem if you shut down your computers at slightly different times and update different bookmarks on each computer. Shutting down many computers at exactly the same time could make the reads and updates overlap. If you change the same bookmark on several computers, you will end up with the update from the last computer you shut down.

To change Send safely, select the options page. At the choice between Server | Options | Advanced, choose Options.

You will see the choice of Basic | Automation | General. Send safely is in Basic. Switch on Send safely then select Ok.

XBEL

You can send the updates as HTML, JSON, or XBEL. HTML is a format used by some very old Web browsers. JSON is a general purpose data format in use after HTML and before XBEL. XBEL is the only published standard for transfering bookmarks and is extensible because it is based on XML. Use XBEL.

SyncPlaces still defaults to JSON. Select the options page then Server. You will see the choices Connection | Synchronisation. Choose Synchronisation. You will then see JSON and XBEL as two choices. Choose XBEL then select Ok.