Turtl to markdown directory

Apps
1

I wrote a small PHP (sorry) script that takes a Turtl backup (JSON) file and turns it into a directory structure with markdown files. These can then easily be imported into joplin via “import MD (markdown)”, creating (sub)notebooks to reflect the original structure in Turtl.
This imports text and password notes, other types are not supported but could be retrofitted easily. No file import either. Hereby MIT license for compatibility.

#!/usr/bin/php
<?php

function sanitize_filename($s) {
	$s = preg_replace('/[_\/\|\"]/',' ',$s) ;
	$s = preg_replace('/\.+/','.',$s) ;
	return $s ;
}

if ( !isset($argv[1]) ) {
	die ("USAGE: {$argv[0]} turtl_backup_file.json") ;
}

$j = json_decode ( @file_get_contents($argv[1]) ) ;
if ( !isset($j) or $j === null ) {
	die ("File {$argv[1]} does not exist, or is not valid JSON") ;
}

@mkdir ( "output_md" ) ;
#@mkdir ( "output_md/no_board" ) ;


$spaces = [] ;
foreach ( $j->spaces AS $s ) {
	$spaces[$s->id] = sanitize_filename($s->title) ;
	@mkdir ("output_md/{$s->title}" ) ;
}

$boards = [];
foreach ( $j->boards AS $b ) {
	$space_name = $spaces[$b->space_id] ;
	$board_title = "{$space_name}/" . sanitize_filename($b->title) ;
	$boards[$b->id] = $board_title ;
	@mkdir ( "output_md/$board_title" ) ;
}

foreach ( $j->notes as $n ) {
	if ( !isset($n->board_id) or $n->board_id === null ) $board_title = $spaces[$n->space_id] ;
	else $board_title = $boards[$n->board_id] ;
	$add = '' ;
	do {
		$filename = "output_md/{$board_title}/" . sanitize_filename($n->title) ;
		if ($add == '' ) $add = 2 ;
		else {
			$filename .= "-{$add}" ;
			$add++ ;
		}
		$filename .= '.md' ;
		$continue = file_exists($filename) ;
	} while ($continue) ;
	# Support more note types here
	if ( isset($n->password) ) $text = $n->password ;
	else $text = $n->text ;
	file_put_contents ( $filename , $text ) ;
}

?>
1 Like
2

Thanks! I’ve added the complete code to your post so that it’s self contained, and also because I’m going to close the issue on GitHub.

3

Thanks! Working! Saving a lot of time and effort

4

Pardon my total ignorance, I'm a complete PHP noob who just wants to move my notes to Joplin. I've just downloaded PHP, but I can see I clearly know nothing as just copy pasting the code in it doesn't work for me. Is there something I need to edit to point to my Turtl folder?