obsidian export article

content/post/2021/04/the-first-dutch-obsidian-meetup.md

@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ date: 2021-04-25
 context: https://www.zylstra.org/blog/2021/04/16095/
 tags:
     - journaling
+    - obsidian
 categories:
     - learning
 ---

content/post/2021/10/are-digital-gardens-blogs.md

@@ -3,6 +3,8 @@ title: Are Digital Gardens Blogs?
 date: 2021-10-06T10:00:00+02:00
 categories:
   - journaling
+tags:
+  - obsidian
 ---
 
 I've missed the latest IndieWeb popup gathering on [digital gardens and streams](https://indieweb.org/2021/Pop-ups/Gardens_and_Streams_II) (thanks [Frank](https://diggingthedigital.com/17204-2/) for bringing that up). Thankfully, they are intricate note-takers, and it always pays off to poke around in those. As avid journaler, the subject naturally appeals to me. In fact, you could say that _Brain Baking_ is my _digital garden_. Or is it? 

content/post/2021/11/exporting-goodreads-to-obsidian.md

@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+---
+title: Exporting Goodreads to Obsidian
+date: 2021-11-19T08:53:00+01:00
+categories:
+  - software
+tags: 
+  - obsidian
+---
+
+Writing a short review after reading a book became a soothing ritual for me ever since discovering [LibraryThing](https://www.librarything.com/) in 2011. Two years later, Goodreads attracted more and more attention, causing me to jump ships. Most non-fiction books I read produce many analog notes, ending in my personal knowledge management (PKM) system---of which [Obsidian](/tags/obsidian) has become a permanent and valuable addition. The digital review posted on Goodreads is both interesting for my later self and for my friends.
+
+The problem is, my Goodreads reviews do not make it to my PKM system. All analog notes that [get scanned in](/post/2021/01/digitizing-journals-using-devonthink/)---including reading notes---are tagged, and thus searchable. But the Goodreads reviews are on Goodreads; an external service beyond the Brain Baking domain. IndieWeb folks' eyes might start twitching now, proclaiming to [use POSSE instead of the PESOS](/post/2021/03/the-indieweb-mixed-bag/) I did not even employ for Goodreads: _Publish Elsewhere, Syndicate to your Own Site._
+
+That means pressing `⌘P` in Obsidian to apply a fuzzy match on a part of a book title results in no matches. There goes my attempt to build a working _memory extender_. The other day, I knew I've read a book but couldn't remember whether I liked it or not. I usually resort to a `gr` 
+[Alfred workflow](/post/2021/01/the-productive-programmer-on-mac/) to quickly whip up the book's website to find my review. 
+
+But what if I took more in-depth notes? These aren't linked to the review. 
+
+### Solution 1: one-time CSV export
+
+In your Goodreads account settings, there's a well-hidden button called "export", generating a CSV file of your entire library. Great, we can use that to generate Markdown `.md` files that seamlessly blend into the Obisidan Vault. I simply resorted to a combination of `csvparse` and `ejs` to map each record to a template, generating files:
+
+```js
+csvParse(readFileSync(csvfile), {
+	columns: true
+}).forEach(csv => {
+	ejs.render(templates.goodreadsMarkdown, { item: {
+		title: csv['Title'],
+		// ...
+	})
+	writeFileSync(`${outputDir}/${filename}.md`, mddata, 'utf-8')
+})
+```
+
+The template itself is a combination of structured frontmatter and unstructured text as human-readable content:
+
+```md
+---
+title: "<%- item.title %>, <%- item.author %>"
+isbn: <%- item.isbn %>
+rating: <%- item.rating %>
+average: <%- item.average %>
+pages: <%- item.pages %>
+date: <%- item.date %>
+---
+
+# <%- item.title %>
+
+By **<%- item.author %>**
+
+## Book data
+
+[GoodReads ID/URL](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/<%- item.id %>)
+
+- ISBN13: <%- item.isbn %>
+- Rating: <%- item.rating %> (average: <%- item.average %>)
+- Published: <%- item.year %>
+- Pages: <%- item.pages %>
+- Date added/read: <%- item.date %>
+
+## Review
+
+<%- item.review -%>
+```
+
+Where `item.review` is the most valuable data, although I also like Goodread's 5-star rating system. 
+
+This is essentially a one-time script. However, another problem arises: I keep on reading books, and I keep on adding their review on Goodreads. I don't want to periodically download a CSV file, say once a month. Can we do better? 
+
+### Solution 2: automatic RSS export
+
+Yes we can! Goodreads luckily provides a personal RSS feed where your reviews automatically appear (click on any shelf, for example your _My Books: read_ shelf, making a tiny RSS icon appear on the botton right). Partially reusing the above template and code is exactly what I did, except instead of reading a CSV file, I fetched the RSS endpoint and parsed it using `got` and `fast-xml-parser`:
+
+```js
+  const buffer = await got(rssendpoint, {
+    responseType: "buffer",
+    resolveBodyOnly: true,
+    timeout: 5000,
+    retry: 5
+  })
+
+  const books = parser.parse(buffer.toString(), {
+    ignoreAttributes: false
+  }).rss.channel.item
+```
+
+The only difference after that are the property names of the items in the `books` array. A few gotchas:
+
+- The `user_date_added` property is formatted like `Sat, 13 Nov 2021 12:53:08 -0800` in RSS and `YYYY-MM-DD` in CSV
+- The `user_review` property can contain HTML; convert `<br(.?)\/?>` to `\n`.
+- The `title` and `author_name` properties can contain symbols that aren't compatible with your OS' filename requirements.
+- How to determine which entries to parse in the RSS? I solved this by simply keeping track of the latest `book_id` entry; ignoring the rest.
+- What to do when the file already exists---for instance, when I took digital notes in Obsidian before finishing the book and my review on Goodreads? Check with `existsSync` or similar. 
+
+Add the RSS export script to your `crontab` and you're good to go. 
+
+Success:
+
+![](../obsidian-fuzzy.jpg)
+
+Now I can auto-find and link my own reviews in Obsidian!

themes/brainbaking-minimal/assets/sass/_brainbaking-intro.sass

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
     @media (min-width: 1200px)
       font-size: 10vh
     @media (min-width: 1600px)
-      font-size: 12vh
+      font-size: 11.3vh
 
 .avatar-container
   width: 50px