This node.js script converts a post from Metafilter into a PDF suitable for printing in book form.
Once downloaded, run npm update to get the necessary node modules.
There are two dependencies that need to be installed outside of npm. The first is wkhtmltopdf, which has pre-compiled packages available for easy installation. The second is pdftotext, which is a part of the xpdf suite of tools. I had to download and install it manually, but you may be able to do it with your preferred package management tool.
Usage: node mefi2book.js [options]
Options:
-p, --postnumber The numberic ID of the post, found in its URL. REQUIRED
-s, --subsite The subsite. Valid options are www, ask, or metatalk. Default is [www]
-n, --nocache Ignore cached files [false]
--verbose Output some messages as the script progresses [false]
-v, --version Print version and exit
So, for example if you wanted a book version of the Edward Snowden thread, you would type:
$ node mefi2book.js -p 128901
Your computer will then chug along for 10-60 seconds, and produce a file called www_metafilter_128901.pdf
Please note that this script is relatively brittle. If [mathowie] or [pb] decide to change class names or other markup, it could very well break this program.
- Some older threads that allowed images and had fewer markup restrictions (I'm looking at you 9622) can crash the script
- Support different sized books
- Multiple threads in one book
- Deal to some degree with comments broken up between pages
- Generate a book jacket PDF
GPLv3