GleeBox Command Line Interface for Safari

Are you a mouse or a keyboard?

If you're a keyboard, you'll love GleeBox, a command line interface for Safari. GleeBox is a keystroke away and allows you to easily navigate a given page with keystrokes.

Features

Searching: If you bring up the GleeBox and just start typing some words, it will search the current page for links that contain the text that you've typed. If it cannot find the text, it will send you to Google (or the search engine you configure) with that phrase.

By putting some modifiers in front of the text, you can execute various types of commands.

Page Commands: Prefacing a command with an ! allows you to execute a number of different commands such as !shorten, !tweet, and !rss (you can imagine what those do). You can also use the name of any bookmark you've created. For example, I've got a bookmarklet called "Hootlet" and I can execute it by entering !Hootlet. (It's not working for me for some reason, but that's what it says on the tin.)

Yubnub Commands: Yubnub.org is a website that provides a command line for the entire web. By prefacing your command with : you can execute any of the commands from Yubnub.org. For example, ':stock aapl' will bring up the Yahoo! Finance page for AAPL.

Custom Website Navigation

You can create what are called "Scrapers" and "ESP Visions. Scrapers allow you to tab through any HTML elements that match a specific jQuery selector. There are some built-in scrapers that cycle through header tags, image links, etc. I created some simple ones that cycle through the h1, h2, and h3 tags.

The ? prefix executes any scrapers that you have defined, allowing you to search the page for specific elements, like this:

Note that with the '?a' command, all links are highlighted and I can tab through them. 'Enter' navigates to that link.

ESP Visions are Scrapers that run by default on a given website when you activate GleeBox, making it very quick to navigate through oft-used websites via keyboard.

If you're a website owner, you can help out by including your own GleeBox helper meta tag. That creates a default ESP Vision for your website, eliminating the need for GleeBox users to create their own scraper for your site. Though they can override it with their own

Here's one I created for PimpMySafari.com, which uses a jQuery selector to highlight the post titles and any Previous and Next links at the bottom.

<meta name="gleebox-default-selector" content="h2.entry-title,a:contains(Prev),a:contains(Next)">

And when you activate the GleeBox on PimpMySafari, it automatically executes that scraper:

(Note: this may change as we're undergoing a redesign during the time this was posted.)

Options

GleeBox's behaviors can be adjusted in the Options page (via the !Options command). In addition to setting your Scrapers and ESP Visions, you can change how the GleeBox looks and where it appears. I've also changed the default activation key to a backtick, which means "command" in my mind. (It's a Unix thing.)

User Community

There is a community of GleeBox users who share the scrapers and other tips on the official GleeBox sharing site, The Tipjar. Check that out for some more ideas on what you can do with GleeBox.

There's definitely a learning curve, and I'll probably be making myself a cheat sheet for the wall next to my monitors. Though I'm quickly getting the hang of it.

For more info, see their website and watch this introductory video...