Capture From Browser

This is a Web Extension (for Firefox / Chrome / Chromium) that extracts the current page title, url and highlighted text and sends it to a local server. This allows the you to "capture" the content you highlight in a local file.

Ideal for note-taking and saving highlights to a personal file / exobrain.

It includes a (local-only) log of previous requests for your sanity. No more wondering "oh, did I capture that?" and having to open the capture file to check.

Github Repo ↗ Toggle☀

Features

Easily change default port
Markdown toggle (boolean flag sent to backend)
Extract links from selected text
Textbox for additional context
Local log of previous requests (stored in LocalStorage)
Completely Private: local-only, open source (GPLv3)
Cool UI
Keyboard shortcuts
- Ctrl-1 Toggle trim whitespace
- Ctrl-2 Toggle log display
- Ctrl-3 Toggle preview display
- Ctrl-4 Toggle markdown (boolean flag sent to backend)
- Ctrl-5 Port Input
- Ctrl-s Toggle Settings Menu
- Ctrl-Enter Send to server

Extension Screenshot 01

Extension Screenshot 02

Extension Screenshot 03

Installation

Firefox Add-Ons Store

This extension has been accepted to the Firefox Add-Ons Store!!

Firefox Add-Ons Store ↗

Manual Install

Firefox

To test this extension on firefox, follow these steps:

For Firefox: Use Nightly. Toggle xpinstall.signatures.required in about:config. Load manifest.json via about:debugging.

Chrome-based browsers

This extension has not yet been published to the Chrome Web Store. To use it, you need to follow these instructions:

For Chrome/Chromium/Brave: Open chrome://extensions/ and enable "Developer Mode". Click on the "Load unpacked" button and select the manifest.json file.

Default Keybinds

Keybinds can be customized.

Alt+Shift+A Quick Capture

Alt+Shift+Z Capture with Context

Server

The extension POSTs the following JSON to (selected port)/api/capture, which the user should write a server against:

          "source_url": "string",
          "page_title": "string",
          "selection_text": "string",
          "selection_html": "string",
          "context": "string",
          "markdown": boolean,
          "timestamp": "ISO8601"

Included server:

For ease of use, a simple server written in golang is included in the repo (separate from the add-on). This server takes three arguments:

-o File to output to.

-p Port to listen on.

-f Output Format.

In lieu of complicated parsing, we use the syntax that os.Expand understands. Expand replaces ${var} or $var in the string based on the mapping function.

Privacy

This extension collects zero data. It sends data to a local server of your choosing, only when you want it to. It can only access localhost and 127.0.0.1.

Permissions required: activeTab, scripting and storage.