Bookmarklets in the iPad

February 8, 2011 | Ian | Comments (3)

In previous posts I’ve mentioned bookmarklets as a means for adding additional functionality to web sites. They are also becoming increasingly common as a way for web services to integrate with other web sites and services. Two of the more notable examples of services that rely heavily on bookmarklets are Instapaper and Evernote. On the iPad they can also be used to overcome certain limitations of Mobile Safari, the browser provided by Apple.

In most desktop browsers, creating a bookmarklet is as easy as dragging a link from a web page to the bookmarks bar. On the iPad the process is a little more complex.

As with many things it’s a process more easily demonstrated than described.Below is a short screencast that walks through the process.


Step 1: Create a regular bookmark (for convenience add it to the bookmarks bar)

Step 2: Copy the link provided by the website (or more precisely the
Javascript that will make up the body of the bookmarklet)

Step 3: Edit the previously created bookmark, substituting the copied
link for the original URL

That’s it! To use the bookmarklet simply tap on it as though it were
any other bookmark.

 

Comments

3 thoughts on “Bookmarklets in the iPad

  1. I’m amazed by this my self, but the whole thing was done on a new Macbook Air.
    Unfortunately Apple hasn’t made publicly available any means of capturing the iPad’s screen. In lieu of the real thing I used the iOS simulator that programmers use to test apps while in development.
    As for software I used iShowU HD Pro for the screen capture and iMovie ’11 for the editing.
    I just got a incredibly nice Blue Yeti microphone which I used to record the voice over. I’m still figuring it out which it why the audio pops occasionally.
    Thanks for the question,
    Ian

    Reply

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