Page link syntax

[pkus]

When I copy a link to a page, it has a format like this:

bookends://sonnysoftware.com/pdf/Library1/138383/1673361249/6

What is that middle number between the unique id and the page? Is it an attachment id? Is this in some way accessible to scripting?

The reason I'm asking is that I'd like to construct page links in scripts/shortcuts based on information about the publication and page number, just like I can in DEVONthink, where it's just id+page. There are different uses for this: Turning handwritten notes with just a page number into markdown notes with links to that page, or asking an LLM to return page links for easier verification.

If this other id is not possible to get automatically, the feature request would be to either
- add this to the "attachment item" object in applescript
- allow simpler links based on just the uuid (bookends://sonnysoftware.com/pdf/Library1/138383/6 in the example) that would then always open that page in the first attachment associated with the item. I'm assuming most people have only one attachment per item like me. It could also make the links more future-proof in some cases, like when an attachment is replaced by a different, annotated version with the same number of pages.

[Jon]

Bookends creates different links for different purposes, and they each have a distinct syntax. These are not documented, can change, and aren't supported. That number is the PDF's creation date in Unix epoch time, seconds since 1970. You can get that from the PDF yourself via AppleScript. If you have a problem calculating it to match Bookends, please contact tech support.

Jon
Sonny Software

[pkus]

Thanks, that’s really helpful. And much better than what I thought, it means I can even create links in Shortcuts on the iPad.