simplenote-backup

• It backups your notes as separated files named with note-id (like 68b329da9893e34099c7d8ad5cb9c940.txt)
• Backup files contains tags.
• It stores files in ~/Dropbox/SimplenoteBackups by default.

Sample of the content of a backup file of a note.

id: 68b329da9893e34099c7d8ad5cb9c940
tags: foo, bar

Content of the note start here after the blank line after headers like email.
....

Why

I know https://app.simplenote.com has "Download .zip", but it doesn't include tags. I know https://app.simplenote.com has "Export notes", but it seems to exclude notes in trash. Neither of both provide us automation or periodical task (like cron). I tired of searching around other options...

Technical notes

• It uses simperium-python sdk.
• I don't trust 3rd party tool which handle password, so you should not trust me. And simperium API didn't provide us a way like OAuth. So I let you get a token from http://app.simplenote.com/ by yourself.

Installation (OS X)

Sorry, if your desktop OS is not an OS X. Sorry, if you are not familiar with command line. I hope you figure out how to deal with it.

1. Create a working directory

If you don't have no idea where to place the directory, home directory is an option.

mkdir ~/SimplenoteBackup
cd ~/SimplenoteBackup

2. Get what needed

git clone https://github.com/Simperium/simperium-python.git
git clone https://github.com/hiroshi/simplenote-backup.git

3. Get your token

1. Open https://app.simplenote.com and login.
2. Open the inspector in your browser (A shortcut may be Command + Alt + i).
3. Type simperium_opts.token in the console of the inspector.
4. You will see a token, like "a543b9622f7bf1a340a8a6682d09ad17".

4. Run the script

cd ~/SimplenoteBackup/simplenote-backup
make TOKEN=YOUR_TOKEN_HERE

If succeed you will see like this:

Starting backup your simplenote to: /Users/hiroshi/Dropbox/SimplenoteBackups
Done: 100 files.

If you'd like to choose another destination directory, add BACKUP_DIR option.

make TOKEN=YOUR_TOKEN_HERE BACKUP_DIR=~/my-simplenote-backup

5. Add cron task if you wish

crontab -e

If you wish to execute a backup job once an hour, add following line:

0 * * * * cd $HOME/SimplenoteBackup/simplenote-backup && make TOKEN=YOU_TOKEN_HERE > cron.log 2>&1

TODO

• Provide an archive file packed with simperium sdk.
• Run the script as a service somewhere so that you don't need to open desktop machine for backing up notes entered in your mobile deices.
• Provide a bookmarklet to grab token in https://app.simplenote.com to ease setup.