Convert your Day One Classic entries to Markdown.
This shell script uses plutil to extract Entry Text and Tags from each Day One entry. A new file is created for each entry in a new export folder within the same directory using the Creation Date timestamp and an MD5 hash.
The following keys are included in the export:
- Creation Date
- Entry Text
- Tags
The goal of this script is to extract text content from a Day One Classic journal instead of entry metadata or associated media. The following are not included in the exported Markdown files:
- Activity
- Creator
- Ignore Step Count
- Location
- Music
- Publish URL
- Starred
- Step Count
- Time Zone
- UUID
- Weather
- Find your Day One Classic entries files from Day One > Settings… > Sync.
- Copy this folder somewhere it can be modified without affecting the original files.
- Copy the script.sh file into the folder.
- Give the script permissions to execute by running
chmod u+x ./script.sh. - Run the script using
./script.sh. - Observe a new folder is created called exports where your entries were converted into Markdown.
Day One Classic stores entries as plist (Property List) files, an XML format popular on Apple software for quickly storing data without having to manage a database. Day One 2 moved to SQLite3. If you have other media in your journal, they will be stored in separate folders.
The following is what entries look like in their plist format. Content formatted with brackets has been redacted, e.g. [iPhone].
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Creation Date</key>
<date>2014-10-23T15:36:33Z</date>
<key>Creator</key>
<dict>
<key>Device Agent</key>
<string>iPhone/iPhone6,1</string>
<key>Generation Date</key>
<date>2014-10-23T15:36:33Z</date>
<key>Host Name</key>
<string>[Device Name]</string>
<key>OS Agent</key>
<string>iOS/8.0.2</string>
<key>Software Agent</key>
<string>Day One iOS/1.15.1</string>
</dict>
<key>Entry Text</key>
<string>Today's the day!</string>
<key>Ignore Step Count</key>
<true/>
<key>Location</key>
<dict>
<key>Administrative Area</key>
<string>[State Code, e.g. NY]</string>
<key>Country</key>
<string>United States</string>
<key>Latitude</key>
<real>[30.123456789012345]</real>
<key>Locality</key>
<string>[City]</string>
<key>Longitude</key>
<real>[-30.123456789012345]</real>
<key>Place Name</key>
<string>[123 Cole St.]</string>
<key>Region</key>
<dict>
<key>Center</key>
<dict>
<key>Latitude</key>
<real>[30.123456789012345]</real>
<key>Longitude</key>
<real>[-30.123456789012345]</real>
</dict>
<key>Radius</key>
<real>69.809858438969187</real>
</dict>
</dict>
<key>Music</key>
<dict>
<key>Album</key>
<string>Mickey Mouse Operation</string>
<key>Album Year</key>
<string>2006</string>
<key>Artist</key>
<string>Little People</string>
<key>Track</key>
<string>Start Shootin'</string>
</dict>
<key>Publish URL</key>
<string>[https://dayone.me/1DfZzie]</string>
<key>Starred</key>
<false/>
<key>Step Count</key>
<integer>3851</integer>
<key>Tags</key>
<array>
<string>quote</string>
</array>
<key>Time Zone</key>
<string>US/Pacific</string>
<key>UUID</key>
<string>[FE8C4DDF45B14BAEBDD0E2988CD301E0]</string>
<key>Weather</key>
<dict>
<key>Celsius</key>
<string>14</string>
<key>Description</key>
<string>Mostly Cloudy</string>
<key>Fahrenheit</key>
<string>58</string>
<key>IconName</key>
<string>pcloudy.png</string>
<key>Pressure MB</key>
<real>1017.67</real>
<key>Relative Humidity</key>
<real>91</real>
<key>Service</key>
<string>Forecast.io</string>
<key>Visibility KM</key>
<real>15.08</real>
<key>Wind Bearing</key>
<integer>144</integer>
<key>Wind Speed KPH</key>
<real>3.5099999999999998</real>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>- karyslav uses AppleScript in DayOneClassicMD-to-Separete-MarkDown-files to parse a single Markdown file by the "Date:" delimiter.
- If you're using Day One 2, use indyandie's Last Day script.
This shell script attempts to follow the style guidelines described by Google's Shell Style Guide.