Getting a text file with the url of open tabs
I got used to this routine my idle times:
- Open hacker news, SE, other sources on my iphone.
- Open interesting links as new tabs.
- Read for a while.
- Leave tab to remind myself to save it somewhere.
The obvious conclusion is that I found myself hitting the 500 tabs limit pretty easily. The last time I opened them manually in my macbook through iCloud, and then used a nice script to save all links with their name and url in a text file for future parsing.
I'm getting close back again (488 at the time of writing), and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do with the shortcut app that can save me at least the manual opening of 500 tabs.
Disclaimer: I know I should use pocket or Instapaper or whatever, but what I need is a solution for the already opened tabs, not for the future.
Solution 1:
You can do this with AppleScript and iCloud Tabs (synchronizes your Tabs between your iOS device and your Mac). The following code with parse through all of the tabs in all of your Safari windows and write an HTML link for each one on a new line.
-- Set up the initial HTML document
set output to "<!DOCTYPE html>
" & "<html lang=\"en\">
" & " <head>
" & " <meta charset=\"utf-8\">
" & " <title>Safari Tab URLs</title>
" & "</head>
" & "<body>
"
tell application "Safari"
-- Count the number of Windows
set numWindows to number of windows
repeat with w from 1 to numWindows
--Count the number of Tabs
set numTabs to number of tabs in window w
repeat with t from 1 to numTabs
-- Set the Tab Name and URL values
set tabName to name of tab t of window w
set tabURL to URL of tab t of window w
-- Create the Tab link and write the code
set output to output & " <a href=\"" & tabURL & "\">" & tabName & "</a>" & linefeed as string
end repeat
end repeat
end tell
-- Close out the HTML document
set output to output & "</body>
" & "</html>
"
-- Write the entire HTML document to TextEdit
tell application "TextEdit"
activate
make new document
set the text of the front document to output
end tell
Solution 2:
Here's what worked for me just now (iOS 13.6.1). It only copies the URLs, not the page names, but for me that was fine.
- Long tap on the Bookmark button
- Choose "Add Bookmarks for N Tabs"
- Give it a name and save
- Normal tap on the Bookmark button
- Navigate to the folder you just created (under Favorites for me)
- Long tap on the folder and choose "Copy Contents"
- Paste into an email or something to transfer to your computer
- Make sure you get it on your computer
- Long click the tabs button and choose "Close All N Tabs"
- Rejoice