klip

A simple tool for parsing Kindle clippings. It will parse the format used in the My Clippings.txt file on your kindle serve it to you as a JavaScript object. You can also parse directly to a .json file, a feature which is also accessible via a command line interface.

See an example of the output in test/data/my_clippings.json.

Installation

If you are using klip as a node module within a project, install locally:

npm install klip

If you plan to use it as a command line utility, install globally:

npm install -g klip

API

klip.parse(filePath, callback)

Parses the given file into a JavaScript object.

callback

The callback returns three arguments

• err: returns an error if there is one
• data: contents of the files as a javascript object
• 'raw' : contents of the original text file

example

var klip = require('klip');
klip.parse('data/My Clippings.txt', function(err, data) {
	if(!err) {
		console.log('data parsed successfully!', data);
	}
});

klip.exportJson(inputPath, outputPath, [options], [callback])

Parses the given file and saves it as a json file in the output path.

options

• pretty: set to false if your don't mind ugly JSON (defaults to true)
• organizeBy: Allows you to organize results rather than just returning a flat array of results (defaults to null)
  • When passed a string the results will be organized hierarchically with that string as a key value. For instance, passing "title" will sort by the clipping title.
  • When passed as a function, that function will be passed the parsed results as its first argument and expect the modified results to be returned. For example:

    var callback = function (parsed) { return parsed; }

callback

The callback returns one argument

• err: returns an error if there is one

example

var klip = require('klip');
klip.exportJson('data/My Clippings.txt', 'data/my_clippings.json', function(err){
	if(!err) {
		console.log('success!');
	}
});

CLI

You can also run klip as a command-line tool. If you plan to use this functionality you might want to install the node module globally:

npm install -g klip

The signiture is:

klip -[flags] [input] [output]
   -h - show help
   -u - set options.pretty to false
   -t - set options.organizeBy to title
   -a - set options.organizeBy to author

For example:

klip -ut test/data/My\ Clippings.txt test/data/my_clippings.json

Or you can access the help via

klip -h

Props

I used the following libraries/tools as reference points when developing this tool:

• Bookcision - This handy little bookmarkley originall got me thinking about the whole thing. Unfortunately, when you grab clippings from Amazon's site, it doesn't include notes from any PDFs or non-Amazon ebooks, etc., but My Clippings.txt includes everything.
• kindle-my-clippings (Node) - I wanted something like this but much simpler.
• kindleclippings (Ruby)
• Kindle-Clippings-Parser (Python)
• kindle-clippings-parser (Python)

License

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2014 Andy Dayton

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.