Modifying the Favorite Servers list (in Finder's "Connect to Server" dialog) on OS X 10.11, a revisit of my blog post at: http://michaellynn.github.io/2015/10/24/apples-bookmarkdata-exposed/

fav_servers.py

import os.path
from Foundation import NSData, NSKeyedUnarchiver, SFLListItem, NSURL, NSMutableDictionary, NSKeyedArchiver, NSString, NSDictionary, NSArray

def load_favservers(sfl_path):
    if os.path.isfile(sfl_path):
        # File exists, use it
        sfl_decoded = NSKeyedUnarchiver.unarchiveObjectWithData_(NSData.dataWithContentsOfFile_(sfl_path))
    else:
        # File doesn't exist, make a blank template
        sfl_decoded = {u'items': [],
                       u'version': 1L,
                       u'properties': {"com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ForceTemplateIcons": False,},
                      }
    mutable_favs = dict(sfl_decoded)
    mutable_favs['items'] = list(mutable_favs['items'])
    return mutable_favs

def create_favitem(url=None, name=None):
    if name is None:
        # Make the display name the same as the URL by default
        name = url
    props = {NSString.stringWithString_('com.apple.LSSharedFileList.OverrideIcon.OSType'): NSString.stringWithString_(u'srvr')}
    props = NSDictionary.alloc().initWithDictionary_(props)
    return SFLListItem.alloc().initWithName_URL_properties_(name, NSURL.alloc().initWithString_(url), props)

def purify(obj):
    # This code ensures that certain data types are very definitely the ObjC versions
    d = dir(obj)
    if '__reversed__' in d:
        # list / NSArray
        return NSArray.alloc().initWithArray_(obj)
    elif 'items' in d:
        # dictionary / NSDictionary
        return NSDictionary.alloc().initWithDictionary_(obj)
    elif 'strip' in d:
        # string / NSString
        return NSString.alloc().initWithString_(obj)
    # Unhandled
    return obj

def save_favservers(favs, path):
    # Prior to running code through NSKeyedArchiver, we want to strip out custom pyObjC subclass types
    temp_keys = favs.keys()
    fixed_values = [purify(favs[x]) for x in temp_keys]
    fixed_keys   = [purify(x) for x in temp_keys]
    # Once everything is cleaned up, put it into a new NSDictionary
    formatted_favs = NSDictionary.alloc().initWithObjects_forKeys_(fixed_values, fixed_keys)
    return NSKeyedArchiver.archiveRootObject_toFile_(formatted_favs, path)

# How to use it
# -------------
# Pick the path:
sfl_path = os.path.expanduser('~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteServers.sfl')
# Load it:
my_favs  = load_favservers(sfl_path)
# Make a new favorite:
new_fav  = create_favitem(url='smb://username@servername', name='A Cool Custom Name')
# Append it to the end:
my_favs['items'].append(new_fav)

# Saving back like this probably won't work if the user has the dialog open, so you'll want to
# do it at login with a tool like outset: https://github.com/chilcote/outset
# (The best time to do it would be when they're not logged in at all ...)
result = save_favservers(my_favs, sfl_path)

Many thanks! this script is great! I've found Finder will sometimes overwrite the modified com.apple.LSSharedFileList.FavoriteServers.sfl with the copy it seems to have in memory. Do you know of any way around this?

@sonic84 just run "killall Finder" after script

Any possibility of an update for High Sierra on this? Loading the list seems to work fine, but create_favitem seems to error out on line 22 for me.

Hello,
Is there any way to remove item from fav server using that type of script?
I have tried many times but not able to remove item from "myfavs" dict
getting below error:
argument of type 'SFLListItem' is not iterable
Thanks

Any possibility of an update for High Sierra on this? Loading the list seems to work fine, but create_favitem seems to error out on line 22 for me.

@kernsb Have you find anything for MacOS High Sierra?