bookmark_manager

An alternative bookmark manager for SDR++.

The original Frequency Manager included with the SDR++ has an inconvenience of arranging bookmarks in one row only, so they get overlapped:

I really like SDR++ for its cleanliness, but this issue bugged me a lot. So I simply took the source of the Frequency Manager, copied it, renamed to Bookmark Manager and "fixed" it for myself.

Users can now choose to use between 1 and 10 lines for bookmarks to be automatically arranged:

Bookmarks with UTC, appropriate week days and currently not online are greyed out.

Additionally, by marking "Bookmark Rectangle" to off bookmarks are displayed in text-only, without fat rectangle around:

And each list can be colored to easier distinguish between stations, types or whatever works for the user.

Current Features

(As opposed to original Frequency Manager)

• Bookmark arrangement in up to 10 (user chosen) rows, both top and bottom arrangements
• Bookmarks can be displayed in text-only, without fat rectangle
• Cashed position for mouse-over (no recalculation)
• UTC start/end times of the broadcast (leave 0000 in both for all day broadcasts)
• Week days for a bookmark (all checked by default)
• Each list can be assigned an individual color

Features introduced by Davide Rovelli:

• Labels centered or on the side (flag like)
• Limit clutter to last row and stopping clutter by skipping too many bookmarks
• Clicking on bookmark also selects it in the manager list
• Additional data fields for geoinfo and personal notes

Planned Features

I also have other plans for Bookmark Manager in the future:

• Add a toggle to show/hide bookmarks that are not on time

Building

Bookmark Manager can be built in two ways:

1. Standalone (recommended) — build just this plugin against the SDR++ core (pulled in as a git submodule). SDR++ itself is not built in full; only sdrpp_core is compiled as a build-time dependency. The result is a single loadable plugin that an already-installed SDR++ picks up.
2. In-tree — the classic way, as a module inside the SDR++ source tree.

1. Standalone build (SDR++ as a submodule)

SDR++ is referenced as a git submodule pinned to a tested commit, so no changes to the SDR++ tree are needed.

Get the sources

git clone <this-repo-url> bookmark_manager
cd bookmark_manager
git submodule update --init --recursive

The SDR++ source is checked out under vendor/SDRPlusPlus at a known-good commit. The build only compiles sdrpp_core from it — not the whole app.

Install build dependencies

These are the dependencies required to build SDR++ core. Building does not require SDR++ to be installed — only installing the plugin does (see below).

• Debian/Ubuntu

  sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config \
      libfftw3-dev libglfw3-dev libvolk2-dev libzstd-dev \
      libglew-dev libgl1-mesa-dev
  # for packaging: also install `rpm`

• Fedora/RHEL

  sudo dnf install gcc-c++ cmake pkgconf-pkg-config \
      fftw-devel glfw-devel volk-devel libzstd-devel \
      glew-devel mesa-libGL-devel rpm-build

• macOS (Homebrew) — brew install cmake pkg-config fftw glfw zstd, and build volk from source.
• Windows — dependencies via vcpkg (fftw3, glfw3, zstd) plus volk from PothosSDR.

Configure & build

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build --target bookmark_manager -j$(nproc)

This produces the plugin:

• Linux: build/bookmark_manager.so
• macOS: build/bookmark_manager.dylib
• Windows: build/Release/bookmark_manager.dll

Install into an existing SDR++

make install (or cmake --install) detects where SDR++ is installed on the system and copies the plugin into the correct plugin directory:

• Linux: <prefix>/lib/sdrpp/plugins (e.g. /usr/lib/sdrpp/plugins)
• macOS: SDR++.app/Contents/Plugins
• Windows: <SDR++ install dir>/modules

sudo cmake --install build

If SDR++ is installed in a non-standard location, point the install at the right directory explicitly:

cmake -S . -B build -DSDRPP_PLUGIN_DIR=/path/to/sdrpp/plugins
sudo cmake --install build

After installing, launch SDR++ and enable Bookmark Manager via the Module Manager.

Building installable packages

Enable packaging and run CPack:

cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DBOOKMARK_MANAGER_ENABLE_PACKAGING=ON -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr
cmake --build build --target bookmark_manager -j$(nproc)
cd build && cpack

• Linux — produces a .deb and a .rpm. Both declare a dependency on sdrpp and install only the plugin into /usr/lib/sdrpp/plugins.

  sudo apt install ./sdrpp-bookmark-manager_*_Linux_x86_64.deb
  # or
  sudo dnf install ./sdrpp-bookmark-manager_*_Linux_x86_64.rpm

• macOS — produces a .tar.gz archive containing the .dylib.
• Windows — produces a .zip archive containing the .dll.

Prebuilt packages for Linux, macOS and Windows are produced automatically by the GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/build.yml) and attached to tagged releases.

2. In-tree build (classic SDR++ module)

Checkout SDR++, then place bookmark_manager into the misc_modules directory.

In SDR++'s CMakeLists.txt add:

option(OPT_BUILD_BOOKMARK_MANAGER "Build the Bookmark Manager module" ON)

and

if (OPT_BUILD_BOOKMARK_MANAGER)
add_subdirectory("misc_modules/bookmark_manager")
endif (OPT_BUILD_BOOKMARK_MANAGER)

where appropriate. Then compile all of SDR++, make install, run it, and add Bookmark Manager to your panel using the Module Manager.

The same CMakeLists.txt supports both modes automatically: when built inside the SDR++ tree it detects the existing sdrpp_core target and behaves like the original module; standalone it builds sdrpp_core from the submodule.

Migrating old bookmarks

To migrate old bookmarks simply copy frequency_manager.json, rename it to bookmark_manager.json, then adjust the line number to a desired one.