OPML Support for Firefox

73 Comments

Due to the upcoming deprecation of XUL-based add-ons, I am stopping development and support for this add-on. E-mail me if you’d to take over development.

OPML Support is an extension for the Mozilla Firefox Web browser that adds OPML import/export functionality to the Firefox Bookmarks manager. OPML is a file type that is widely used to distribute lists of RSS/newsfeeds.

When exporting, you can choose to export your livemarks (feeds), bookmarks, or both. When importing a file, you can choose to import only the livemarks, only the bookmarks, or all of the links listed in the file. You can also choose whether to import/export links in their folder hierarchy.

opml-menu-mac

Install OPML Support for Firefox from Mozilla Add-ons

If you’re having trouble with the extension or would like to see a new feature added, you can e-mail me at cfinke@gmail.com.

Note: watch the OPML Support section of my blog for information on updates to this extension.

73 comments on “OPML Support for Firefox”

  1. Matt says:

    I really like this extension, but was wondering if it was possible to add functionality to export / import selected Bookmarks / Bookmark Folders. This would be a great feature that I’m sure a lot of people would use.

    Thanks,
    -Matt-

    Reply
  3. k says:

    Appeared to install fine but now I’m guessing it doesn’t work with OSX 10.3. Recieving an error message (file size) when I atttempt to upload the file.

    Reply
  5. InfiniteEMF says:

    I know this is a “quick & dirty” approach, but the OPML file is a text file that you could open using any text editor and cull out the feeds you don’t want. MS users could open it in Notepad or WordPad, and just delete the lines containing the sites in which you’ve no interest.

    Yeah, it’s manual labor, at that point, but… Waaaaa. Cry me a river.

    It works and you’ve already got the software to do it; no downloads required.

    — Infinite

    Reply
  7. durtt says:

    desperately looking for an exporter for Partial bookmark (a sub folder anf folllower link

    I try this plugin, this is not the one

    but thanks for your plugins, in general for all the peaople like me

    best regards

    Reply
  11. SillyCone says:

    Doesn’t work anymore (at least under firefox 2.07).
    Tries to download a 4Mb+ file and fails with a -71 error code after a couple of seconds.

    Reply
  12. liberrian says:

    Any plans for an update so it works with the current Firefox version? I’m eager to try the extension (and I’m surprised OPML functionality isn’t built into the live bookmarks to begin with!)
    Thanks!

    Reply

  14. Hey, when will you be putting this update in the official Mozilla Firefox Add-ons directory. Your version there is still at 1.3. I only truly trust extensions from the Add-on directory.

    Reply

  19. The plugin doesnt work with 3.0b5.
    It just crashed the browser.
    I know you don’t list support for this version yet…but thought I’d make sure you know support would be appreciated.
    This is avery useful plugin.

    Reply
  20. Bed Ouine says:

    This bookmark extension does not display (therefore is not available) with Firefox 3.0 iMac version 10.1.5

    Reply
  21. FF 2.0.0.14 User says:

    I use FF 2.0.0.14. I installed OPML Support 1.5 and it appears in my Add-ons list. But there is no way to start it. In the Add-on list the field for OPML Support shows a greyed-out OPTIONS button, and all I can do is either disable it or is greyed out, and all I can do is either disable it or uninstall it.
    How can I start using it?

    Thanks for your efforts

    Reply
  22. FF 2.0.0.14 User says:

    OOPS! Just correcting the text of my post of a few minutes ago.

    I use FF 2.0.0.14. I installed OPML Support 1.5 and it appears in my Add-ons list. But there is no way to start it. In the Add-ons list, the field for OPML Support shows a greyed-out OPTIONS button, and all I can do is either disable it ore it or uninstall it.
    How can I start using it?

    Thanks for your efforts

    Reply
  23. Mike Scirocco says:

    Firefox v3.0

    When I try to export just the Live Feeds with or without preserving the folder structure it just hangs, no output whatsoever. When I close the dialogue FF stops, so it looks like it’s crashing the program.

    Does it work with v3.0?

    Reply
  24. Randy says:

    I’m using Firefox 3.0, and OPML Support 1.5. I exported my feeds from IE7 as OPML. In Firefox, I used Import OPML, and selected the defaults (create folders as in the OPML file, and not converting to bookmarks) , but it although it said it was Processing the file, it never finished. Nothing was ever imported.

    Reply
  25. Lou says:

    I have the same problem as the previous user … hang (I guess?… shows the “processing” for the longest time) on import with no result…

    Reply
  27. George says:

    Does not work. Same as 24 and 25.
    WHY IS THIS NOT BUILT IN TO FF3??

    Very disappointing. Oh well, back to IE7.

    Reply

  28. After having problems with a hanging pc using the 1.5 version I tried the latest experimental version 1.5.2 This caused a Parse failure saying :”an unknown entity”

    Reply

  31. Hey, when will you be putting this update in the official Mozilla Firefox Add-ons directory. Your version there is still at 1.3. I only truly trust extensions from the Add-on directory.

    Reply

  32. Appeared to install fine but now I’m guessing it doesn’t work with OSX 10.3. Recieving an error message (file size) when I atttempt to upload the file.

    Reply
  34. Remco says:

    Hi,

    I’m having trouble importing an IE7 generated OPML file. On both Mac and WinXP and in both the latest versions of FF I get the following error msg: XML-parse failure: Undefined entity Location: chrome://opml-support/content/import-wizard.xul Row30, Colomn 3:

    ________________^

    What can be wrong?

    Thanks for your help

    Reply

  35. Hi

    I have the same problem than Remco.
    chrome://opml-support/content/import-wizard.xul

    I can’t import my files …

    I have the Firefox 3 and XP …

    Have a nice day, Thanks

    Reply
  36. Feelgood says:

    Hi

    I have a similar problem.
    XML-parse failure: Undefined entity Location: chrome://opml-support/content/export-wizard.xul Row33, Colomn 3:

    I can’t export my files …

    I have the Firefox 3.03 and XP …

    Any suggestions.

    Reply
  37. nabla666 says:

    “Erreur d’analyse XML : entité non définie
    Emplacement : chrome://opml-support/content/export-wizard.xul
    Numéro de ligne 33, Colonne 3 :
    —————-^”
    This is the error I have when I try to export my bookmarks
    (FF 3.03fr, Vista64 ult, opml 1.52)
    In fact I installed OPML trying to fix a bug with my Mozilla : the native ‘HTML export” fonction does not work anymore (since around a month)
    I still can export to the json format but I can’t import this save so I am stuck…
    If anyome has the same problem and an idea…

    Reply
  38. glitch says:

    Hey all,

    I’m a bit new to OPML and have a question (lazyweb request, i guess).

    I’m looking for something that takes all my bookmarks that I have, strips them of their RSS feeds, and puts it properly into one OPML file which I can then upload to google reader or something.

    I thought that this extension might be close, but after installation and exporting all bookmarks to an opml file called bookmarks, google reader is telling me that it can’t read the file.

    am I missing something?

    please email @ eag3000 at gmail

    thanks

    Reply
  40. Sue says:

    Just a little feedback in case it helps others, using Firefox 3.0.3 I managed to import an opml generated by Sage wit the following 2 caveats:
    1/ OPML support stopped importing on finding an empty feed in the opml file ( ) – I had a blank entry in the opml as that’s what Sage does if you put a blank (spacer) line in the list of fields. After deleting the entry using notepad all the feeds infor imported fine
    2/ When performing the import the dialog box never showed that the import was complete. After a couple of tries I figured out that it was importing ok and closed the dialog using Cancel. So now I have to watch the disk activity to see when the import is complete.
    Other than those glitches, no problem.
    Thanks.

    Reply
  42. Anonymous says:

    FFX 2.0.020 XP,
    install. fine, doens’t work
    error “Erreur d’analyse XML : entité non définie
    Emplacement : chrome://opml-support/content/export-wizard.xul
    Numéro de ligne 33, Colonne 3 : ”

    what a pity to claim a plugin available if the code is at the begining wrong…

    Reply
  45. Anon says:

    In regards to those asking why this feature or are not built-in to Firefox, and threatening to go back to Microsoft Bloatware Products:

    The light nature, plug ability, and modularity of Firefox is a large part of what spawned its popularity, and of what continues to make it a great tool to this day. If you need every feature under the sun, and the kitchen sink, pre-installed, you probably _should_ stick with the Microcrud that came pre-installed. Or maybe you could launch a Firefox fork (“Bloatfox” perhaps?) that comes pre-configured with all the stuff that nobody will ever need.

    Reply

  49. The Plug-In’s Export is not compatible with the most popular free soft – Juice Podcast Receiver (all versions, including standard 2.0 and 2.22a-b): maybe, because of opml version difference or anything else. While importing to the Juice, the Podcast Receiver importing site-address at the place of the feed-address – or doesn’t importing anything.

    Please, check compability with Juice Receiver 2.22!

    Reply
  50. lz says:

    I installed OPML support version 1.6 in Firefox 3.5.8 to export bookmarks (about 35 thousand of them) to SiteBar. SiteBar did not accept the OPML file. I modified the OPML file as follows:
    1. Every /> newline ctrl-Q-J<)
    2. Byte values hex 0D and hex 19 (there were about 200 of them) changed to space (in Bless).
    After that the OPML file was accepted by SiteBar.

    It would be nice if the OPML support could manage without these correction of the result file. I know that there would not be any non-printable chars in the bookmark-source. Still, OPML support add-on would have some strategy for such a situation.

    Otherwise, thanks. It works and that is most important, at least for me.

    Reply
  51. Edwin says:

    Import does not seem to be able to handle file containing extremely large numbers of bookmarks, I have tried it in 2 different installs of Firefox running on PCLinuxOS (same computer, reinstalled OS twice though) and each time it hung without ever finishing the import, I tried cancelling and restarting a couple times with the same results every single time, it never once did finish importing. Seriously now, people reported this problem back in 2008 and it STILL hasn’t been fixed, WTF??

    Reply
  52. Chris Barts says:

    This does not preserve tags: It seems to export them along with everything else, as I can see them in the generated file, but importing that file results in all of the tags being removed from the imported bookmarks.

    This extension would be absolutely perfect if it handled importing tags correctly.

    Reply

  54. Is there a tutorial available that can help me with RSS feeds? I’m a new blogger and RSS is the last mountain I have to climb before I can call myself freelance. I know that most blog hosting sites (WordPress, Blogger) offer a plug-in for your blog, but I want to use RSS for my website. Any links/tips would be greatly appreciated.

    Reply
  55. foreigner says:

    Using OPML Support 1.6 on FF 3.6.15.

    Using OPML as a backup tool for bookmarks, I have exported all bookmarks and imported all bookmarks; always preserving folder structure.

    I am very, very displeased to see that after a full import, all “date” attributes (added, modified) of all bookmarks were not maintained, but instead were set to contain the date-time at which the bookmarks were imported. Furthermore, the “visit date” field was blanked. For this reason — non-restoration of important data — I intend to seek an alternative tool.

    Like other users, I observed that OPML Support appears to be hung or not responding while taking an inordinately long time. I propose that a progress indicator be added to the application.

    Reply
  56. Dave says:

    Hi, I just downloaded this app, but it doesn’t seem to work in the current version of Firefox… that, or I’m just not seeing where it is in the new configuration. There doesn’t seem to be a “Library” page anymore, and the “Organize” option doesn’t show up in any of the Bookmark dropdowns. Am I missing something, or is there a newer version I should be using?

    Thanks.

    Reply
  59. Regis says:

    I have used that addon for a long time and never had any problem. But now (newest version), if I export my bookmarks in an OPML file, I cannot import that file. It is says:
    “The OPML document you selected is not well-formed and cannot be imported”
    This is odd, any way to fix it? Should I take care of the accent (I am French and there is a lot of them)?

    Reply
  61. Jim says:

    Just upgraded to Firefox 20 (Windows 8).
    OPML support missing.
    Removed OPML Support 1.6 and added OPML Support 2.
    Still don’t see OPML Support on Bookmarks Library page.

    Reply
  62. Simon says:

    When is the new update going to show up in Firefox site? I’ve updated to FF20 and the addon doesn’t appear anymore.

    Reply
  65. RO NILAI says:

    Importing OPML doesn’t work. When I press OK, “Processing bookmarks…” appears in the dialogue box then nothing else happens. Please advise.

    Reply

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