Chrome bookmarks - Revision history

Jsummers: /* Date format */

2017-07-19T17:02:36Z

‎Date format

Jsummers: Category:JSON based file formats

2017-04-23T16:08:11Z

Category:JSON based file formats

Dan Tobias: /* Date format */

2016-01-21T05:19:40Z

‎Date format

Ma95032: chrome bookmark file and Netscape exported bookmark HTML file date format details

2016-01-20T18:56:32Z

chrome bookmark file and Netscape exported bookmark HTML file date format details

Dan Tobias at 16:11, 16 February 2013

2013-02-16T16:11:04Z

Dan Tobias: /* Date format */

2013-01-13T17:07:34Z

‎Date format

Dan Tobias at 01:23, 8 December 2012

2012-12-08T01:23:51Z

Dan Tobias at 12:58, 7 December 2012

2012-12-07T12:58:48Z

Dan Tobias at 12:52, 7 December 2012

2012-12-07T12:52:29Z

Dan Tobias at 13:32, 1 December 2012

2012-12-01T13:32:50Z

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 The date format consists of huge numbers like 12871673787657328 or 12605573593000000. These examples are taken from an actual bookmark file; the one with six zeroes at the end is a clue that perhaps the time units are some tiny fraction of a second; this is different from the normal [[Unix time|Unix-style timestamps]] that count seconds since 1970.
-In fact, the Chrome bookmark file date format, e.g., the <tt>date_added</tt> field, is in ''microseconds'' since January 1, 1601 (a much earlier epoch than the Unix 1970 date).  See the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, and search for <tt>MicrosecondsToFileTime</tt>.  Sample conversion code can be found on stackoverflow [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19074423/how-to-parse-the-date-added-field-in-chrome-bookmarks-file "How to parse the date_added field in Chrome bookmarks file?"]
+In fact, the Chrome bookmark file date format, e.g., the <tt>date_added</tt> field, is in ''microseconds'' since January 1, 1601 (a much earlier epoch than the Unix 1970 date). Note that this only differs from [[Windows FILETIME]] by a factor of 10. See the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, and search for <tt>MicrosecondsToFileTime</tt>.  Sample conversion code can be found on stackoverflow [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19074423/how-to-parse-the-date-added-field-in-chrome-bookmarks-file "How to parse the date_added field in Chrome bookmarks file?"]
 Please note the internal chrome bookmark file date format differs from the Netscape exported bookmark HTML file date format.  Netscape exported bookmark HTML file dates, e.g., the <tt>ADD_DATE</tt> field, is in ''seconds'' since January 1, 1970.

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:08, 23 April 2017
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	[[Category:Google]]		[[Category:Google]]
		+	[[Category:JSON based file formats]]

@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 == Date format ==
-The date format consists of huge numbers like 12871673787657328 or 12605573593000000. These examples are taken from an actual bookmark file; the one with six zeroes at the end is a clue that perhaps the time units are some tiny fraction of a second. Stripping the zeroes yields 12605573593, still one digit longer than current [[Unix time|Unix-style timestamps]], but stripping the final 3 gets a timestamp that translates to Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:49:19 GMT, which may be the correct timestamp for the bookmark; this means that the timestamps are expressed with seven digits of precision beneath the seconds (in other words, in ten-millionths of a second). Or perhaps the added digits have some other specialized meaning; apparently only Google knows.
+The date format consists of huge numbers like 12871673787657328 or 12605573593000000. These examples are taken from an actual bookmark file; the one with six zeroes at the end is a clue that perhaps the time units are some tiny fraction of a second; this is different from the normal [[Unix time|Unix-style timestamps]] that count seconds since 1970.
-The chrome bookmark file date format, e.g., the <tt>date_added</tt> field, is in ''microseconds'' since January 1, 1601.  See the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, and search for <tt>MicrosecondsToFileTime</tt>.  Sample conversion code can be found on stackoverflow [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19074423/how-to-parse-the-date-added-field-in-chrome-bookmarks-file "How to parse the date_added field in Chrome bookmarks file?"]
+In fact, the Chrome bookmark file date format, e.g., the <tt>date_added</tt> field, is in ''microseconds'' since January 1, 1601 (a much earlier epoch than the Unix 1970 date).  See the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, and search for <tt>MicrosecondsToFileTime</tt>.  Sample conversion code can be found on stackoverflow [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19074423/how-to-parse-the-date-added-field-in-chrome-bookmarks-file "How to parse the date_added field in Chrome bookmarks file?"]
 Please note the internal chrome bookmark file date format differs from the Netscape exported bookmark HTML file date format.  Netscape exported bookmark HTML file dates, e.g., the <tt>ADD_DATE</tt> field, is in ''seconds'' since January 1, 1970.

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:56, 20 January 2016
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	The date format consists of huge numbers like 12871673787657328 or 12605573593000000. These examples are taken from an actual bookmark file; the one with six zeroes at the end is a clue that perhaps the time units are some tiny fraction of a second. Stripping the zeroes yields 12605573593, still one digit longer than current [[Unix time\|Unix-style timestamps]], but stripping the final 3 gets a timestamp that translates to Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:49:19 GMT, which may be the correct timestamp for the bookmark; this means that the timestamps are expressed with seven digits of precision beneath the seconds (in other words, in ten-millionths of a second). Or perhaps the added digits have some other specialized meaning; apparently only Google knows.		The date format consists of huge numbers like 12871673787657328 or 12605573593000000. These examples are taken from an actual bookmark file; the one with six zeroes at the end is a clue that perhaps the time units are some tiny fraction of a second. Stripping the zeroes yields 12605573593, still one digit longer than current [[Unix time\|Unix-style timestamps]], but stripping the final 3 gets a timestamp that translates to Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:49:19 GMT, which may be the correct timestamp for the bookmark; this means that the timestamps are expressed with seven digits of precision beneath the seconds (in other words, in ten-millionths of a second). Or perhaps the added digits have some other specialized meaning; apparently only Google knows.
		+
		+	The chrome bookmark file date format, e.g., the <tt>date_added</tt> field, is in ''microseconds'' since January 1, 1601. See the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, and search for <tt>MicrosecondsToFileTime</tt>. Sample conversion code can be found on stackoverflow [http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19074423/how-to-parse-the-date-added-field-in-chrome-bookmarks-file "How to parse the date_added field in Chrome bookmarks file?"]
		+
		+	Please note the internal chrome bookmark file date format differs from the Netscape exported bookmark HTML file date format. Netscape exported bookmark HTML file dates, e.g., the <tt>ADD_DATE</tt> field, is in ''seconds'' since January 1, 1970.

	== Source code ==		== Source code ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 16:11, 16 February 2013
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	It's possible more info about the format could be gleaned by looking through the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, if that deals with bookmarks the same way as Chrome itself. Try searching on "bookmarks". The code there says that timestamps are milliseconds since the epoch, but as seen above there seem to be way more digits than that.		It's possible more info about the format could be gleaned by looking through the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, if that deals with bookmarks the same way as Chrome itself. Try searching on "bookmarks". The code there says that timestamps are milliseconds since the epoch, but as seen above there seem to be way more digits than that.
		+
		+	[[Category:Google]]

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 Bookmarks in Google Chrome are stored in a file named '''Bookmarks''' (with no extension) in a data directory with a location that is system-specific, but in Windows Vista can be found in the directory '''\Users\''username''\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default'''. A backup copy of the previous version of the file is saved in '''Bookmarks.bak'''.
-The format does not appear to be documented anywhere, but it seems to be a hierarchical structure using lots of curly braces {} and some square brackets [], with the bookmarks stored as a sequence of quoted name and value pairs, one to a line, with a colon followed by a space between the attribute name and value. Attribute names include "date added", "id", "name", "type", and "url". The "id" values are numeric, probably assigned sequentially as bookmarks are added.
+The format does not appear to be documented anywhere, but it is apparently in [[JSON]] format, using a hierarchical structure corresponding to the bookmark folder structure. Attribute names in a bookmark entry include "date added", "id", "name", "type", and "url". The "id" values are numeric, probably assigned sequentially as bookmarks are added.
 == Character set ==
@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 == Source code ==
-It's possible more info about the format could be gleaned by looking through the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, if that deals with bookmarks the same way as Chrome itself.
+It's possible more info about the format could be gleaned by looking through the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, if that deals with bookmarks the same way as Chrome itself. Try searching on "bookmarks". The code there says that timestamps are milliseconds since the epoch, but as seen above there seem to be way more digits than that.

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:58, 7 December 2012
Line 17:		Line 17:

	The date format consists of huge numbers like 12871673787657328 or 12605573593000000. These examples are taken from an actual bookmark file; the one with six zeroes at the end is a clue that perhaps the time units are some tiny fraction of a second. Stripping the zeroes yields 12605573593, still one digit longer than current Unix-style timestamps, but stripping the final 3 gets a timestamp that translates to Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:49:19 GMT, which may be the correct timestamp for the bookmark; this means that the timestamps are expressed with seven digits of precision beneath the seconds (in other words, in ten-millionths of a second). Or perhaps the added digits have some other specialized meaning; apparently only Google knows.		The date format consists of huge numbers like 12871673787657328 or 12605573593000000. These examples are taken from an actual bookmark file; the one with six zeroes at the end is a clue that perhaps the time units are some tiny fraction of a second. Stripping the zeroes yields 12605573593, still one digit longer than current Unix-style timestamps, but stripping the final 3 gets a timestamp that translates to Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:49:19 GMT, which may be the correct timestamp for the bookmark; this means that the timestamps are expressed with seven digits of precision beneath the seconds (in other words, in ten-millionths of a second). Or perhaps the added digits have some other specialized meaning; apparently only Google knows.
		+
		+	== Source code ==
		+
		+	It's possible more info about the format could be gleaned by looking through the open-source [http://dev.chromium.org/Home Chromium] source code, if that deals with bookmarks the same way as Chrome itself.

@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
 |subcat=Web
 |subcat2=Web browser files
 }}