Copy text/html when copying tab titles

[iacore]

Description

When selecting "Copy Title" in the context menu of a tab, it should copy text/html too so when it gets pasted in Obsidian (a note taking tool), it gets pasted as a link.

In Firefox History view, when you copy a history item, the clipboard gets populated with this:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><A HREF="https://github.com/mbnuqw/sidebery/issues?q=is%3Aissue%20state%3Aopen%20text%2Fhtml">Issues · mbnuqw/sidebery</A>

On X11, you can see this with xclip -selection clipboard -o -t text/html.

I want to add this feature myself. Please give me pointers.

[JohnVKRDam]

When selecting "Copy Title" in the context menu of a tab, it should copy text/html too so when it gets pasted in Obsidian (a note taking tool), it gets pasted as a link.

Uh, no!? lol 😉

If you want that, it should be an OPTION. Like another option altogether. Something like "Copy Title(s) as HTML". Because I REALLY would not want my copied TEXT objects to become HTML.

Copying Titles is for TEXT and I use that an awful lot 😉

I want to add this feature myself. Please give me pointers.

That's fine, of course, and more power to you 👍, as long as it doesn't get pushed into the main code as a replacement for the existing "Copy Titles" logic.

Just my 2 cents 👍

[mbnuqw]

I don't see anything wrong in having this feature but yeah, it should be opt in. We can add it as a special case for custom copy template. Right now custom templates are structured as Template name:Template. We can add an optional flag (e.g. suffix +html) so the result template for copying titles with text/html data will look like this: Title(s) as HTML:%CT+html.

To implement this we need to update parseCopyTemplates fn (check if the line ends with +html) and add prop withHTML: boolean (or something) to CopyTemplate type.

Then, in Tabs.copy and Bookmarks.copy add logic to forming html text and adding it as the text/html to ClipboardItem if the template has that withHTML prop.

This logic should handle tree structure if Settings.state.copyTreeIndent is set via nested <ul> elements. And if there is only one item to copy we probably shouldn't use list elements, returning just <a>.

And we need to update the note under the copyTemplates setting (in sidebery settings) writing about this suffix.

[iacore]

I didn't know there is "Copy by templates"! I think my idea is to have both plain text and text/html in the clipboard so the application receiving the paste event can decide which one to use. It feels to me that +html is such a syntax hack.

[mbnuqw]

It will allow user to decide what to copy, which is better b/c users usually know better than an app what they want (at least in my case). Sometimes it's really annoying when you want to copy just the text but get a link (or styled text) and you have to delete it recalling the right shortcut for pasting just the text.

As an alternative, we can add a general option to include text/html data in any copy action (if possible), but this will not be as flexible as having an option to granularly configure your copy commands. Or, maybe, add both options for default copying (for title) and +html syntax for templates.

[JohnVKRDam]

to have both plain text and text/html in the clipboard so the application receiving the paste event can decide which one to use

I agree (with @mbnuqw ).

None of the applications I paste in "know" whether or not to paste the html.

Not sure why you would expect the receiving application to solve this. How would an application know what YOU want?? It's generally just going to paste the clipboard as plain text, or, if specific logic exists in the receiving application, paste it as html. But the application NEVER knows what I want. I could be pasting in an application that understands html-pasting, but I still want just the plain text....

I, and I think pretty much everyone that uses this specific option, just want the text. Not to be forced to delete all sorts of rubbish that comes with copying, in what is essentially a TEXT operation.

It's called "Copy Title" for a reason.
"Copy Title" does not imply "Copy Title and a bunch of html" 😉

Just my (second batch of) two cents 👍

[iacore]

Fair point. I'm closing this.

[mbnuqw]

Reopening this, I'll implement it as an optional feature later.

[JohnVKRDam]

Reopening this, I'll implement it as an optional feature later.

Maybe a little off-topic, so you can delete it, of course 😉, but I think that's great!

I honestly felt a little bad for @iacore because it looked like I held a hard-line stance against him, opposing his idea. But in reality I actually like his idea (I don't think I made that as clear as I should have, and I'm sorry for that!). Just not the way he presented it as a drop-in replacement for the existing "Copy Url(s)" code logic. But as a separate, new option, this would definitely be nice to have.

So, I am glad you reopened this, that's all I wanted to say 👍😉 Thanks!