wfdesk

Frequently Asked Questions

wfdesk — FAQ

Contents

Getting started

What is wfdesk?
A personal link manager. You save URLs, organize them into categories, and group everything under profiles so you can keep separate collections for different contexts (work, research, personal, etc.).

How do I create an account?
Go to /register/, fill in a username, email, and password. A default profile called "personal" is created for you automatically.

What do I see when I first log in?
The dashboard — your categories for the active profile displayed as cards, and any uncategorized links below them.

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Profiles

What is a profile?
A named workspace. Each profile has its own independent set of categories and links. Switching profiles changes everything you see on the dashboard.

How do I create a profile?
Go to the Profiles page and fill in the form at the bottom. Names must be unique per account (e.g. "Work", "Research").

How do I switch profiles?
Go to the Profiles page and click "Switch to this" on any inactive profile. The dashboard immediately reflects the new active profile.

Can profiles share categories or links?
No. Everything is scoped to a specific profile. Links and categories created while one profile is active belong to that profile only.

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Search

How do I search for links or categories?
Use the search bar on the dashboard. It searches across all category names, descriptions, and link names/URLs/descriptions at once, including links stored inside subcategories and uncategorized links. Results show matching top-level category cards with their matching links, plus any matching uncategorized links in a separate section below.

Can I search from a category detail page?
Yes — the search bar on a category detail page runs a global search across all your categories, uncategorized links, and all your links, the same as the dashboard search bar. Results open on the dashboard with a "Clear" button to return you to the category page you came from.

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Categories

What are subcategories?
Categories can be nested. Subcategories appear as cards on the parent category's detail page. Search automatically recurses into subcategories — a link inside a subcategory surfaces under its top-level parent card in results. Subcategories are created either manually from the category detail page or automatically when you import bookmarks (each nested folder becomes a subcategory under its parent).

How do I create a category?
Click "+ New Category" on the dashboard. Give it a name (required) and an optional description. To create a subcategory, open the parent category's detail page and click "Add" next to the Subcategories heading — the new category is automatically nested under that parent.

How do I edit a category?
Hover over a category card to reveal its action buttons. Click the edit button (pencil icon) to open the edit form. You can update the category name and description. Changes are saved immediately and reflected everywhere the category appears — on the dashboard, in category detail pages, and in subcategories lists.

What does the click count on a category card mean?
It shows the total number of times links inside that category (and any of its subcategories) have been clicked. It's a quick way to see which categories you use most.

What happens if I deactivate a category?
It moves to an "Inactive" section on the dashboard (visible when you toggle "Show all"). Its links are preserved but not shown by default.

How do I delete a category?
Categories can only be deleted when they are inactive. Deactivate first, then a Delete button appears. You'll be asked to confirm. Links inside the category are not deleted — they become uncategorized.

Can I reactivate a deactivated category?
Yes — toggle "Show all" on the dashboard, then click the activate button on the inactive category card.

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Links / Resources

How do I add a link to a category?
Open a category (click its card on the dashboard), then click "+ Add Link". Fill in the name (required), URL (required), and an optional description.

How do I edit a link after saving it?
Open the category containing the link, find it in the list, and click its edit button. You can update the name, URL, and description.

How do I add a link without a category?
Click "+ New Link" on the dashboard. It will appear in the "Links (Uncategorized)" section below your categories.

How do I deactivate or delete a link?
Open the category (or the uncategorized section), find the link, and use its toggle button to deactivate it. Once inactive, a delete button appears for permanent removal.

How do I delete all dead links in a category at once?
On the category detail page there is a "Delete all inactive resources" button that removes every inactive link in that category in one step.

What does "Link may no longer be valid" mean?
When you import links with the "Validate links" option enabled, wfdesk checks each URL in the background. If it gets a bad response (404, 403, 500, etc.) the link is automatically marked inactive and that warning is prepended to its description. You can re-activate it manually if needed.

How does wfdesk fill in link descriptions automatically?
When you import links with "Validate links" enabled, wfdesk fetches each page's meta description (Open Graph description, standard meta description, or page title) and saves it for any link that has no description yet.

Where do the small icons next to link names come from?
wfdesk automatically fetches the favicon for each link's website and displays it to the left of the link name. Favicons are retrieved when you use the "Fetch descriptions" action on the Manage page. Not every site provides a favicon, so some links may not show one.

Can I refresh descriptions and icons for all my links?
Yes — on the Manage page click "Fetch descriptions". This queues a background task for every link in your active profile that visits each URL, updates its description from the page metadata, and saves the site's favicon as the link icon. Both the description and icon are refreshed each time, replacing any previously stored values.

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Recommendations

What are recommendations?
A recommendation is a way to endorse or highlight a link you've saved. You can add a comment explaining why you recommend it, and optionally keep your recommendation anonymous.

How do I recommend a link?
When viewing a category, hover over a link and a star icon appears next to the edit and delete buttons. Click it to open the recommendation form. Add an optional comment explaining why you recommend the link, optionally check the "Is anonymous" box, then click "Recommend".

What does it mean when a link is public?
When you recommend a link, it is automatically marked as public (is_public=True). This indicates that the link has been recommended and is worth sharing.

Can I make an anonymous recommendation?
Yes — check the "Is anonymous" box in the recommendation form. Your recommendation will appear as "Anonymous" on the recommendations page, though administrators can still see who made it in the Django admin interface.

Where can I see all recommendations?
Click the "Recommendations" link in the header navigation. This shows all recommendations grouped by day, with the most recent first.

Can I see who recommended a link?
Yes — on the Recommendations page, each link shows who recommended it. If multiple people recommend the same link, they are listed together (e.g., "user1, user2 and 1 other"). The recommendation count shows how many times that link has been recommended.

Can I recommend the same link twice?
No. You can only recommend each link once. If you try to recommend a link you've already recommended, you'll see an error message asking you to use a different link. To update your recommendation, you would need to deactivate the original one first (admins only).

Is there a limit on comment length?
Yes — comments are limited to 500 characters. This keeps recommendations concise and readable. If you try to enter a longer comment, you'll see an error message.

Are recommendations paginated?
Yes — the Recommendations page shows 10 days of recommendations per page. If you have many recommendations across different dates, use the pagination controls at the bottom of the page (First, Previous, Next, Last) to navigate between pages.

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Importing bookmarks

What format does the importer accept?
HTML files exported from Chrome. Maximum file size is 5 MB.

How do I export bookmarks from Chrome?
Open Chrome's Bookmark Manager (⌘/Ctrl+Shift+O), click the ⋮ menu in the top-right, and choose "Export bookmarks". This downloads an HTML file.

What happens to my bookmark folders during import?
The full folder hierarchy is preserved. Each folder becomes a category and nested folders become subcategories under their parent. For example, a bookmark in "Work → Tools → Editors" creates three nested categories. If a category at a given path already exists it is reused; otherwise it is created. Chrome’s top-level “Bookmarks bar” container is automatically stripped — its children become root-level categories rather than being nested under a “Bookmarks bar” category. Will duplicate links be imported?
No. If a URL already exists anywhere in your account it is skipped. The import results page shows how many links were added and how many were skipped.

Can I validate links during import?
Yes — check the "Validate links" box on the import form. After the import completes, each newly created link is checked in the background. Unreachable links are automatically marked inactive.

Which profile do imported links go into?
The profile that is active at the time of import.

Are chrome:// URLs imported?
No, internal browser URLs are skipped automatically.

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Exporting bookmarks

Can I export my links back to Chrome?
Yes — on the Manage page click “Export bookmarks”. This downloads a Chrome-compatible HTML file containing all active categories and links for the current profile, with the folder hierarchy preserved. You can import this file directly into Chrome via the Bookmark Manager (⋮ → Import bookmarks).

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Support & feedback

How do I report an issue?
While logged in, look for a blue button with a warning icon in the bottom-right corner of the page. Click it to open a report form. Describe what you encountered and click "Send report". Your report is delivered to the site administrator.

What information is included in my report?
Your report includes the message you type, your name and email (auto-filled from your account), and the URL of the page where you found the issue.

Who receives my bug report?
Bug reports are sent to the site administrator. Include as much detail as possible to help us understand and fix the issue.

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Account & access

Is my data visible to other users?
No. All profiles, categories, and links are private to your account.

Can I have multiple accounts?
Yes — each account is completely independent with its own data.

What happens if I'm not logged in?
All pages redirect to the login screen.

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