HN Saved Links Export

This is a python script to export your saved links from Hacker News. What's a saved link, you ask? Any story that you upvote on HN is added to your saved links. You can access them at https://news.ycombinator.com/upvoted?id=<your username> while logged in.

Instructions

Python 3 is required to run this. If you don't have it installed, install it using the package manager for your OS before following these instructions.

1. Setup a virtual env (recommended, but optional) and install the dependencies:

   # Set up and activate a Python 3 virtual env
   $ python3 -m venv venv
   $ source venv/bin/activate
   
   # Install dependencies
   $ pip install -r requirements.txt

   You might have to use sudo with the last command on Linux.

2. Run the script and enter your HN login credentials.

   $ python3 export_links.py
   Enter your HN account details:
   Username: amjd
   Password: [password will be hidden]

3. After all the links are processed, you will be asked to enter an output file name. Use any name with the extension .json or .csv, or leave blank to go with the default links.json. The output file will be saved in the appropriate format.

4. Profit!

P.S.: Your username and password are 100% safe and are sent over HTTPS. You can study the source code of this small script to verify that.

Sample output

JSON:

{
  "total": 2661,
  "links": [
    {
      "author": "coloneltcb",
      "url": "https://m.signalvnoise.com/getting-from-%EF%B8%8F-%EF%B8%8F-to-%EF%B8%8F-%EF%B8%8F-%EF%B8%8F-%EF%B8%8F-%EF%B8%8F-c65cc3bb7cb1#.rgrwe5cnw",
      "age": "2 days ago",
      "title": "How to ask for reviews without feeling icky about it",
      "comments_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11740967",
      "number": 1,
      "comments": 28,
      "points": 79
    },
    {
      "author": "adventured",
      "url": "http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-22/modi-s-mini-shuttle-set-to-blast-into-elon-musk-s-race-for-space",
      "age": "7 hours ago",
      "title": "India is set to launch a scale model of a reusable spacecraft on Monday",
      "comments_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11751776",
      "number": 2,
      "comments": 43,
      "points": 117
    },


    "..."
    
    
    {
      "author": "lydiahan",
      "url": "http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131029100222-95015-my-first-job-fired-and-rehired-on-day-1?trk=tod-home-art-list-small_1",
      "age": "931 days ago",
      "title": "My First Job: Fired and Rehired on Day 1",
      "comments_url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6667202",
      "number": 2661,
      "comments": 113,
      "points": 199
    }
  ]
}

Todo

• Add support for exporting favourites.
• Convert this into a CLI.

Similar

HN Saved Export by thomaskcr

Contribute

If you think of any improvements, create an issue or send a pull request. :)