Ruben Laguna's blog

Jul 11, 2008 - 6 minute read - blinklist bookmarks delicious export exporting import importing jruby json kaylon migrating migration parsing powermarks ruby script

Migrating BlinkList bookmarks and Powermarks bookmarks to del.icio.us

UPDATE: It seems that Blinklist’s JSON export doesn’t work any more, and delicious now requires OAuth authentication for new accounts (which rubilicious doesn’t support). So I created another script to transform Blinklist’s CSV format to HTML bookmark format which you can import to delicious.

It’s done. I was suffering constant problems with BlinkList and I decided to move to del.icio.us. I also decided to rescue the old powermarks 3.5 bookmarks from the oblivion and import them to del.icio.us too.

BlinkList gives you the option of exporting your bookmarks in JSON format via the Options ->Export links. (here is the link)

So grab the json file and save it somewhere in your disk.

Then you have to use the script below to load the bookmars into del.icio.us but first make sure that you have ruby or jruby, rubygems, json-jruby or json-ruby, jruby-openssl and rubilicious installed.

If you use jruby you can install everything in the following way:

jruby -S gem install json-jruby  jruby-openssl rubilicious-0.2.0.gem

Then use the following script to load all the bookmarks in the json file to del.icio.us. Just change the filename and username and password to suit your needs.

#!/usr/bin/ruby

require "rubygems"
require "rubilicious"
require "json"
require "date"
require "time"


def getTime(item)
  dateadd = item['dateadd']
  return Time.at(dateadd) unless dateadd == false
  return Time.now
end

def getIsPrivate(item)
  isprivate = item['private']
  return "checked"==isprivate
end

def getTags(item)
  item['tag'].gsub(' ', '_').gsub(',',' ')
end

json_string = File.new("blinklist20080710.json").read

result = JSON.parse(json_string)

r = Rubilicious.new('your_delicious_username','your_delicious_password')

i=0
for item in result do
  i += 1
  puts "#{i}: #{item['url']}"
  #next if i < 3229
  r.add(item['url'],item['name'],item['description'], getTags(item), getTime(item), true, getIsPrivate(item))
end
puts "ended"

If the script fails in the middle of the import don’t worry. just uncomment the “#next if i < 3229” and change the 3229 to the last bookmark id that was loaded. Rerun the script and it will skip all bookmarks up to the one you write there.

Loading the old powermark file into del.icio.us is a little more complex. You will need two files:

  1. state_pattern.rb (from maurice codik’s blog). I’m copying it here for completeness sake
#!/usr/bin/ruby

# Copyright © 2006 Maurice Codik - maurice.codik@gmail.com
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and
# associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction,
# including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute,
# sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial
# portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
# LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
# IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
# SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.


class Connection
  include StatePattern

  state :initial do # you always need a state named initial. this is where you begin.
    def connect
      puts "connected"
      # move to state :connected. all other args to transition_to are passed to the new state's constructor
      transition_to :connected, "hello from initial state"
    end
    def disconnect
      puts "not connected yet"
    end
  end

  state :connected do
    def initialize(msg)
      puts "initialize got msg: #{msg}"
    end
    def connect
      puts "already connected"
    end
    def disconnect
      puts "disconnecting"
      transition_to :initial
    end
  end

  def reset
    puts "reseting outside a state"
    # you can also change the state from outside of the state objects
    transition_to :initial
  end
end


# how's it work:
# Each call to state defines a new subclass of Connection that is stored in a hash.
# Then, a call to transition_to instantiates one of these subclasses and sets it to the be the active state.
# Method calls to Connection are delegated to the active state object via method_missing.

module StatePattern
  class UnknownStateException < Exception
  end

  def StatePattern.included(mod)
    mod.extend StatePattern::ClassMethods
  end

  module ClassMethods
    attr_reader :state_classes
    def state(state_name, &block)
      @state_classes ||= {}

      new_klass = Class.new(self, &block)
      new_klass.class_eval do
        alias_method :__old_init, :initialize
        def initialize(context, *args, &block)
          @context = context
          __old_init(*args, &block)
        end
      end

      @state_classes[state_name] = new_klass
    end
  end

  attr_accessor :current_state, :current_state_obj

  def transition_to(state_name, *args, &block)
    new_context = @context || self

    klass = new_context.class.state_classes[state_name]
    if klass
      new_context.current_state = state_name
      new_context.current_state_obj = klass.new(new_context, *args, &block)
    else
      raise UnknownStateException, "tried to transition to unknown state, #{state_name}"
    end
  end

  def method_missing(method, *args, &block)
    unless `current_state_obj
      transition_to :initial
    end
    if `current_state_obj
      @current_state_obj.send(method, *args, &block)
    else
      super
    end
  end

end
  1. The script that parses the powermarks file and load it to del.icio.us
#!/usr/bin/ruby
require "rubygems"
require "rubilicious"
require "json"
require "date"
require "time"
require "state_pattern"

class Parser
  include StatePattern

  attr_accessor :name, :url,:desc,:tags ,:date , :r

  state :initial do
    def parse(line)
      #puts "initial: #{line}"
      if line =~ /<a href="(.*)">(.*)<\/a>/
        @context.name = $2
        @context.url = $1
        transition_to :read_keywords
      end
    end
  end

  state :read_keywords do
    def parse(line)
      if line =~ /<!--keywords-->(.*)$/
        @context.tags = $1.chomp
        transition_to :read_keywords2
      end
    end
  end

  state :read_keywords2 do
    def parse(line)
      #puts "read_keywords2: #{line}"
      if line =~ /<!--/
        if line =~ /^<!--desc-->/
          transition_to :read_desc
          @context.current_state_obj.parse(line)
        end
        if line =~ /^<!--mdata/
          transition_to :read_metadata
          @context.current_state_obj.parse(line)
        end
        return
      end
      @context.tags += " " + line.chomp
    end
  end

  state :read_desc do
    def parse(line)
      if line =~ /<!--/
        if line =~ /<!--desc-->(.*)/
          @context.desc = $1.chomp
        else
          #puts "not desc"
          if line =~ /<!--mdata/
            transition_to :read_metadata
            @context.current_state_obj.parse(line)
          else
            raise "dont know how to parse this in this state #{line}"
          end
          return
        end
      else
        @context.desc += " " + line.chomp
      end
    end
  end

  state :read_metadata do
    def parse(line)
      @context.date = $1.hex if line =~ /<!--mdata=[\w+][([0-9A-F]+)][([0-9A-F]+)][([0-9A-F]+)]/
      @context.date = Time.now.to_i if @context.date > 0

puts ""
      puts "name: #{@context.name}"
      puts "url:  #{@context.url}"
      puts "tags: #{@context.tags}"
      puts "date: #{Time.at(@context.date)}"
      puts "desc: #{@context.desc}" unless @context.desc.nil?
      puts ""
`context.r.add(`context.url,`context.name,`context.desc, `context.tags, Time.at(`context.date), false, true)
`context.name = `context.url = `context.tags = `context.date = @context.desc = nil

transition_to :initial
end
end

end

r = Rubilicious.new('your_delicious_username','your_password')
p = Parser.new
p.r = r;
i = 0
File.new("pm3520070703.htm").each { |line|
puts i;
i += 1
#next unless i >2261
p.parse(line);
}

puts "ended"

(This script will add all the links as private. If you don’t want that behaviour just modify the last parameter in “>code>@context.r.add(@context.url,@context.name,@context.desc, @context.tags, Time.at(@context.date), false, true)>/code>” to “false”.)

Again, if the script fails in the middle of the import don’t worry. just uncomment the “#next unless i > 2261” and change the 2261 to the line number where you want to resume parsing the powermarks file. Rerun the script and it will skip all previous lines.

Hope it helps anybody that it’s trying to escape from Blinklist and/or Powermarks. I successfully imported 3299 blinklist bookmarks and 4000 powermarks bookmarks (a lot of dupes though). By the way, the first script will replace any previous bookmark with the same url and the second script will not. That’s the way I wanted it but of course you can change it. The parameter before the last one in the call to add is the one that control the “replace”. (see add documentation).