#1

I’ve been wanting to centralize all my notes and knowledge into something cohesive, so I came up with the idea of importing my Raindrop.io bookmarks directly (and automatically) into my knowledge base in Obsidian using Pandoc. I thought some of you might be interested.

Some caveats

These limitations could be fixed if you care to spend some time on the parsing or use the Raindrop API.

  • Tags are not imported.

  • The parsing is not perfect and some weird markup remains sometimes.

  • All the bookmarks are imported (you can’t pick a specific collection).

What you’ll need

  • Raindrop’s Automatic Backups feature activated (requires a Pro plan subscription)

  • A Dropbox or Google Drive account.

  • Pandoc installed on you computer.

  • Mac OS (or any Linux / Unix based operating system).

How it works

It’s actually much easier than you’d expect!

  • Raindrops’ Automatic Backups exports an HTML file in your Dropbox (or Google Drive) shortly after you add or modify any link.

  • Your computer then runs a cron job that runs a Pandoc command to convert the HTML file into a Markdown file, and saves it in your Obsidian vault directory.

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Activate Raindrop’s Automatic Backups (on Dropbox your file typically goes to /Apps/Raindrop.io/).

  2. Install Pandoc if it’s not done already.

  3. Modify your crontab (in your terminal, type: crontab -e) to execute the Pandoc command (mine runs every day at 5PM). Add the following line to the file: 0 17 * * * pandoc -s -r html /Users/username/Dropbox/Apps/Raindrop.io/Export.html -o /Users/username/Dropbox/path-to/yourvault/Raindrop-Bookmarks.md

That’s it, you’re all set! You’ll now find in your Obsidian Vault a file called Raindrop-Bookmarks.md that has a markdown version of all your Raindrop bookmarks.

Cross posted here: Get your Raindrop.io bookmarks into Obsidian using Pandoc - The Aspiring Nerd - Opinion, analysis and commentary around all things digital

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