stefwill
c5bd7e38bf
- Rename extension from Shelf to "Read it later" - Add reminder settings: highlight and pin overdue unarchived items - Add auto-delete with a hard safety rule requiring its period to exceed the reminder period - Add cross-device sync via chrome.storage.sync (lightweight per-item metadata, no thumbnails) - Add light/dark/system theme support - Fix list-view Archive/Delete button alignment (card-perf wasn't filling the row) - Add "Worth a second look" spotlight: proactively resurfaces old, forgotten items with automatic backoff so repeatedly-ignored items are shown less often, never permanently
109 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
109 lines
5.0 KiB
Markdown
# Read it later
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A new-tab page that shows everything you've saved to read later, as a
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sortable grid or list. No account, no server — everything lives in your
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browser's local extension storage.
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## How to save something
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- **Click the toolbar icon** — saves the page you're currently on.
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- **Right-click a page** → "Save page for later"
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- **Right-click a link** → "Save link for later" (doesn't need to be open)
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A ✓ briefly appears on the icon to confirm the save.
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## The shelf (new tab page)
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- Toggle between **grid** (cards with thumbnails) and **list** (compact,
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bookshelf-spine style) — top right.
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- **Sort** by newest, oldest, title, or site.
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- **Search** filters by title, domain, or URL as you type.
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- **Archive** tucks an item away without deleting it; "Show archived"
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reveals archived items again.
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- **Delete** removes an item, with a 5-second **Undo**.
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Thumbnails are captured automatically when you save the *current* page
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(a screenshot of what's on screen). Links saved via right-click show a
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favicon instead, since the browser hasn't loaded that page yet.
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## Reminders and auto-delete
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The gear icon opens a settings panel (also home to the light/dark/system
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theme picker) with two optional timers, both off by default:
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- **Remind me after** — items older than this get pinned to the top of the
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shelf and highlighted, so they don't get buried.
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- **Delete unarchived items after** — silently removes items you never
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came back to. Archiving an item takes it out of consideration entirely.
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The delete period must be longer than the reminder period — enforced both
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in the settings panel (an inline error if you try to set it shorter) and as
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a hard rule in the deletion logic itself, so you're always warned before
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anything is removed. Auto-delete runs on an hourly background alarm (so it
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still works even if you never open the new tab page), and again whenever
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the shelf page is open; when the shelf page does the deleting, it shows a
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courtesy toast with an **Undo**.
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## Worth a second look
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Above the shelf, a small strip proactively surfaces 2–3 old, forgotten,
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unarchived items each time you open a new tab — on by default, toggleable
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in the settings panel. Unlike a notification, it doesn't nag: the more
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times an item gets shown without you opening/archiving/deleting it, the
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less often it's picked again (backing off from every few days out to every
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couple of months), so nothing gets shown forever, but nothing gets shown
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*so* rarely that it's effectively forgotten again either. Archiving or
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deleting an item removes it from the strip immediately with no replacement
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until the next refresh — no whack-a-mole.
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"Old enough to matter" uses the same period as the reminder setting above
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when reminders are on, or a 14-day default when they're off. It's fine (and
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expected) for the same item to show up both pinned/highlighted in the main
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shelf *and* in this strip at once — they're not trying to be non-overlapping,
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just two different nudges.
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## Install — Chrome / Edge (unpacked)
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1. Go to `chrome://extensions` (or `edge://extensions`).
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2. Turn on **Developer mode** (top right).
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3. Click **Load unpacked** and select this folder.
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4. Open a new tab — you should see the Read it later page.
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## Install — Firefox (temporary, for testing)
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1. Go to `about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox`.
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2. Click **Load Temporary Add-on…**
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3. Select the `manifest.json` file inside this folder.
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4. Open a new tab. Firefox will ask permission to let the extension
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override the new tab page the first time — allow it.
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> Temporary add-ons in Firefox are removed when you close the browser.
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> For a permanent install, the extension needs to be signed by Mozilla
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> (via [addons.mozilla.org](https://addons.mozilla.org)) or loaded in a
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> [Developer Edition / Nightly build](https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/developer/)
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> with `xpinstall.signatures.required` set to `false`.
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## Syncing across devices
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Read it later keeps full items (including screenshot thumbnails) in
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`chrome.storage.local`, and also mirrors a lightweight copy of each item
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(url, title, domain, favicon, dates, archived state, spotlight backoff
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counters — no images) to
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`chrome.storage.sync`, one entry per item so each stays well under the
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8KB-per-item sync limit. On another device signed into the same browser
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account, opening the shelf pulls those in automatically; thumbnails just
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aren't part of what syncs, so items saved elsewhere show a favicon instead
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until re-saved on that device. Archiving and deleting also sync. This is
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all best-effort — offline, not signed in, or over the (~100KB / 512-item)
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sync quota just means that device keeps working from local storage alone.
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Note: `chrome.storage.sync` needs a stable extension ID to work, which
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only applies to a permanently installed, signed add-on — not a Firefox
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"temporary add-on" loaded via `about:debugging` (see install notes above),
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which won't persist sync identity across restarts.
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## Notes / things you might want to change
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- Icons in `icons/` are placeholders — swap them for your own artwork
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any time; sizes 16/32/48/128 are already wired up in `manifest.json`.
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