Refactoring markdown files

[rami.sedhom]

I had 4000+ notes in Markdown. Each note had same structure as following example:

# HowtoForge

- Tags: #documentation, #guide, #hacks
- Description: Linux Howtos and Tutorials.
- Created_at: 2011-09-28 09:49:45
- URL Response: #StatusCode/200 
- URL: https://www.howtoforge.com

I want to refactor those 4000+ bookmark notes utilizing the YAML frontmatter feature for better searching. It should look like:

---
tags:
  - documentation
  - "#guide"
  - "#hacks"
description: Linux Howtos and Tutorials.
created: 2011-09-28
http response: "200"
url: https://www.howtoforge.com
---

# HowtoForge

How to refactor such bullet points in markdown to YAML frontmatter?
What the best way to do so? I’m open to any programming framework like python, nodejs, or others

[rami.sedhom]

Here my dirty script in Python to accomplish this:

import yaml
import os

notes_directory = r'C:\Obsidian\My Notes\References\Bookmarks'
for filename in os.listdir(notes_directory):
  if filename.endswith('.md'):
    file_path = os.path.join(notes_directory, filename)
    print(file_path)
    with open(file_path, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as file:
      lines = file.readlines()
      for line in lines:
        # check if string present on a current line
        if line.find('- Tags:') != -1:
          overwrite_file_flag = True
          tags_list = line.split(':')[1].split(',')
          tags_list = [tag.replace(' ', '').replace('\n','') for tag in tags_list]
          tags_dict = {}
          tags_dict['tags'] = tags_list
          tags_yaml = yaml.dump(tags_dict, explicit_start=True, default_flow_style=False,
            default_style=None, indent=4)
        else:
          overwrite_file_flag = False
        if line.find('- Description:') != -1:
          overwrite_file_flag = True
          description_str = line.split(':')[1].replace('\n','').strip()
          description_dict = {}
          description_dict['description'] = description_str
          description_yaml = yaml.dump(description_dict, default_flow_style=False,
            default_style=None, indent=4)
        else:
          overwrite_file_flag = False
        if line.find('- Created_at:') != -1:
          overwrite_file_flag = True
          created_str = line.split(' ')[2]
          created_dict = {}
          created_dict['created'] = created_str
          created_yaml = yaml.dump(created_dict, default_flow_style=False,
            default_style=None, indent=4)
        else:
          overwrite_file_flag = False
        if line.find('- URL Response:') != -1:
          overwrite_file_flag = True
          http_response_str = line.split('/')[-1].replace(' ','').replace('\n','')
          http_response_dict = {}
          http_response_dict['http_response'] = http_response_str
          http_response_yaml = yaml.dump(http_response_dict, default_flow_style=False,
            default_style=None, indent=4)
        else:
          overwrite_file_flag = False
        if line.find('- URL:') != -1:
          overwrite_file_flag = True
          url_str = line.split(': ')[-1].replace('\n','')
          url_dict = {}
          url_dict['url'] = url_str
          url_yaml = yaml.dump(url_dict, default_flow_style=False,
            default_style=None, indent=4)
        else:
          overwrite_file_flag = False
        if line.find('# ') != -1:
          h1_str = line

    if overwrite_file_flag:
      with open(file_path, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as file:
        file.write(tags_yaml)
        file.write(description_yaml)
        file.write(created_yaml)
        file.write(http_response_yaml)
        file.write(url_yaml + '---')
        file.write('\n' + h1_str)