URL queries

So called «bookmark keywords» (i.e. the abbreviated aliases used to make queries easier) are certainly useful. I’ve been using them for years and have come to depend on them, but all of the implementations I’ve used were missing one useful thing or another, and the data can be difficult to import/export between browsers.

Even if it did work as I wish in my preferred browser, separation can be useful, and this tool provides that independence along with the following features:

• multiple placeholders per URL
• per-placeholder control of URL/percent encoding
• alias keys (key to another key)
• key sets (key to multiple keys)
• tolerant interpretation
• use text selection

download

url-query script and example plain text configuration file

basic usage

The url-query script accepts a key and query-text substitution part(s).

url-query key q...

e.g. Search Wikipedia for the phrase ‘robert anton wilson’:

url-query w 'robert anton wilson'

multi-part e.g. Language translation (from, to, text):

url-query tr en fr 'keep it simple'

text selection

The current text selection can be used directly (i.e. no need to copy/paste). Option -s, with one or more keys as arguments, uses the text selection as the query-text (i.e. singular substitution part) for each URL.

url-query -s key...

tolerant interpretation

If there are more query-text parts than placeholders (i.e., extra arguments), the extra parts are taken as a single unit to substitute the last placeholder, after substituting (one to one) for previous placeholders (i.e. quotes are not required, but they can be used as need be).

If query-text is not given, the URL is loaded anyway (but only the base domain is loaded if the URL contains a placeholder).

quoting

Option -q toggles quoting. If the text selection contains spaces, it can be automatically quoted by setting the default value in the script, or by using option -q (which simply toggles the default).

url-query -q key...

print

Option -p prints each URL to standard output instead of opening it.

url-query -p key q...

menu

Option -m prints a list of keys and titles suitable for use with an external menu/selector (such as dmenu, &c.).

bookmarks

Option -b prints an HTML bookmarks file with SHORCUTURL=key for use in a browser (especially one which supports URL shortcuts, e.g. Firefox).

new records

Option -n can be used to add a new record (which is useful because it tests to avoid duplicates, and prompts for a new key if necessary).

url-query -n key name URL-or-key(s)
url-query -n ted 'TED talks' 'https://www.ted.com/search?q=%s'

key bindings

I use global key bindings for the most frequent queries (e.g. search, dictionary, encyclopedia, video, image, map, &c.), and also two which prompt for input (using a GUI input/selector/menu tool like zenity, dmenu, &c.); one calls url-query, the other calls url-query -s.

dependencies

The script uses ksh (because it’s fast and useful) but it also works with bash. External commands are used to print the text selection (e.g. xsel), to open the url(s) (e.g. xdg-open), and to execute awk script. Cheers to the excellent mawk (often even faster than sed)!

related software

Surfraw is a similar tool but it doesn’t do what I want.