A hack to free your notes from Apple Notes to markdown for use in TiddlyWiki, Boostnote, and more!
This is a hack at this point and I haven't published any of the packages to npm. I'm open to publishing them to make them easier to use if people are interested. Just submit a request here if you're interested.
It must be run on macOS under the account/login that you want to access Apple Notes data from. You'll need a recent version of macOS and a recent node.js installed.
First thing you'll need to do is build it. Just run /build.sh from the root.
To run the tool run the following from the root of the repo. Running without any arguments will print the help:
node ./packages/apple-notes-export-app/dist/cli.js
To export to markdown/tiddlywiki:
node ./packages/apple-notes-export-app/dist/cli.js tiddlywiki
NOTE: Tiddlywiki essentially stores files as markdown files (e.g. filename.md) with an adjacent .meta file (e.g. filename.md.meta). So if you want your Apple Notes exported to plain markdown files use TiddlyWiki.
The above will export all notes, next go to the output directory that it exported to (by default to ~/Downloads/apple-notes-export/tiddlywiki/)
To open and run TiddlyWiki to see your notes use the following steps:
cd ~/Downloads/apple-notes-export/tiddlywiki/
Create a folder for a new wiki that includes server-related components
npx tiddlywiki wiki --init server
Now copy the exported tiddlers into the new wiki dir:
mv ./tiddlers ./wiki/tiddlers
Start the tiddlywiki server:
npx tiddlywiki wiki --listen
Visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/ in your browser.
Click on the More tab on the right sidebar. Then select the All tab below it. You should see ALL of your notes!
Click on the More tab on the right sidebar. Then select the Tags tab below it. You should see tags for all of your folders from Apple Notes!
If you want to filter by a specific note use the --filter arg:
node ./packages/apple-notes-export-app/dist/cli.js tiddlywiki --filter "my note name"
For more options, run:
node ./packages/apple-notes-export-app/dist/cli.js --help
NOTE: Boostenote support worked at one moment in time and I imagine it is still pretty close, but it definitely needs testing / work. I'd love contributions!
# export to boostnote:
node ./packages/apple-notes-export-app/dist/cli.js boostnote
YOU are welcome to contribute! Please submit pull requests!
The big thing to note is that on the surface this looks like a normal Node.js/TypeScript project but it is not! It uses the osascript command-line tool (osascript is kinda like node.js but much more limited) to run the TypeScript (converted to JavaScript and bundled with Webpack) in Apple's "JavaScript for Automation" (JXA) which is part of the Open Scripting Architecture (OSA). It makes fairly extensive use of the Objective/C bridging to directly reference Objective/C SDK to make this all work.
To build all the packages run /build.sh. There's no magic in there so it's a good reference to understand what's going on.
For an overview of the packages see the README in the packages folder.
- To send the get event to the external entity and return its value, call the property as a function!
- enter the command
debuggerinto a script to stop it in safari's debugger: See https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/releasenotes/InterapplicationCommunication/RN-JavaScriptForAutomation/Articles/OSX10-11.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40014508-CH110-SW3
- JavaScript for Automation Release Notes is the official reference for JavaScript for Automation (JSX) which is the component that provides the JavaScript language in the Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) environment (of which the other notable language is AppleScript).
- Open Scripting Architecture (OSA) is the official reference for the Open Scripting Architecture built into macOS.
- Mac Automation Scripting Guide is an archived summary of AppleScript and links to JavaScript for Automation topics.
- Foundation Framework in Apple Developer Documentation is the Foundation Framework which provides access to the "essential data types, collections, and operating-system services to define the base layer of functionality for your app" for any macOS application.