Better delicious integration

Great !

Hello Ed, I am using patch 1.2.183 (build 2391 — well, it actually says 1.2.1.2.183 in the footer, but I suppose that is a glitch) and I am sorry to report neither of the issues have been addressed :

1. Delicious is still only accessible by keyboard shortcut and does not appear on the list of actionable links.


2. The dialogue that pops up when pressing the « d » shortcut is still the old, bare bones one, not the one used by the Delicious plugin.

Hello Ed,

ta for pointing out that the link would only appear if I am logged in. I was logged out, as you rightly guessed. However, the reason I didn’t notice this is an inconsistency : Feedly will still display the Delicious dialogue on a « d » press when the user is logged out, but only displays a link action if the user is logged in.

As to the dialogue, my plugin is the official one, current (2.1.018). When I use the « Bookmark This Link with Delicious » item, I get the following dialogue :


When I use the Feedly action link, the dialogue looks like yours :


Could this have to do with the fact I am using the plugin in simple mode (that is, without using a local cache replacing Firefox’s bookmark functions — just the bookmarking menus) ?

(oh, and by the way, Yahoo! rebranded del.icio.us delicious quite a while ago :))

Glad to help :). I got curious myself and tried the bookmarklet provided by Delicious. Guess what : it shows the same dialogue as the plugin does in simple mode. It seems the plugin uses Delicious’ web dialogue when in simple mode, and some kind of built-in dialogue when not.

Comparing, I must say I find the web dialogue, the one you rightly called « fancy », superior (as I found the revamped web interface of Delicious vastly superior to the horrible sidebar the plugin provides in full mode)

Ed, ta for the answer. Actually, I have also been thinking about the whole issue of Delicious integration into Feedly since I started this, too, and have been wondering since : Why is the link to bookmark on Delicious actually dependent on the presence of the plugin and the login state of the user ? I presume the original idea was to take the presence of the plugin as cue the user is actually using Delicious, but as far as I can see, this is a) a fallacy, b) inconsistent with Feedly’s interface and c) not necessary to work.

1. A fallacy because not all Delicious users use the plugin, even if they use Firefox. On the Mac, for instance, there is an excellent little standalone tool called Pukka, which does everything the plugin does, but independently of browsers and with far superior OS integration (Delicious bookmarks are searchable in Spotlight, OS X spellchecking works in the text fields, and more). I, like many OS X users, do rely on Pukka — I would never have installed the Firefox plugin had I not been given the hint this would unlock better Delicious integration in Feedly. Other users might prefer the web interface — as you noted, its add dialogue is in fact vastly superior to the plugin’s.


2. Inconsistent with Feedly’s interface because no comparable function does this. Tweet, Facebook and Calais commands are always present. There is no dependency on some plugin, setting, or login state. They are simply options offered to the user, who is free to ignore them. The only one Feedly goes out of its way to hide is Delicious. Even from users who actually use Delicious, if they are so unlucky not to use its Firefox plugin too (see above). Which, when you take a moment to think about it, does not make much sense, however well intentioned the original design was.


3. Not necessary to work finally, because Delicious works flawlessly without the plugin, even without any additional software ; in fact, Delicious’ own bookmarklet triggers exactly the dialogue depicted in my previous screenshot (it seems all the plugin does in simple mode is call the bookmarklet). I included the bookmarklet code in full below, but it all boils down to calling 'http://delicious.com/save?=url=encoded_page_url&title=encoded_page_title'

Bookmarklet code (by Delicious) :

javascript:(function(){f='http://delicious.com/save?url='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href)+'&title='+encodeURIComponent(document.title)+'&v=5&';a=function(){if(!window.open(f+'noui=1&jump=doclose','deliciousuiv5','location=yes,links=no,scrollbars=no,toolbar=no,width=550,height=550'))location.href=f+'jump=yes'};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent)){setTimeout(a,0)}else{a()}})()


So, when all this is considered, why not redesign Feedly’s delicious interaction to address those issues ? All it would take would be to make « bookmark with delicious » a first class citizen (read : permanent fixture) of the action link list. By default, it would call the save URL like the bookmarklet does (which also takes care of the login issue) ; if the user has installed the plugin, let it call the plugin instead (reusing the current code). I think this would improve a small, but significant chunk of user experience.

Ed, that‘s great news ! I’ll look forward to the next iteration of Feedly Delicious integration.

Didn't even know it would integrate with delicious. Don't use the delicious plugin myself -- mento instead.

Also, the official Firefox Delicious extension is able to add selected text to an item' notes. I would love to see this in Feedly as well, that you basically select text within a feed entry. At the moment when you hit the Delicious button, it should appear in the web interface note box. Would be great if this could be implemented!