I tried to use Pocket, I really tried, but I had to stop using it because it only allowed you 3 highlights per post for free. I know that Pocket is just a company and that they are just trying to provide value to its shareholders, but, come on, is that really a PREMIUM feature? Are you really trying to charge me for a couple of extra bytes?
That’s why I decided to search for another read-it-later app, and I came across Omnivore. It is also Open Source, which would let me self-host the application if I wanted to. I’d be more than happy to pay a fair price for a service I like, but in this case, it isn’t necessary because it’s completely free.
But first, I needed to migrate my data from Pocket to Omnivore. There is currently an open Issue in GitHub (#2050) to provide an official Pocket integration, check in that thread if it has been already implemented before continuing in this tutorial. In my case, after waiting a few weeks, I decided to get on my knees and implement it myself, learning a bit of GraphQL on the way.
Exporting your data from Pocket
This was by far the easiest part, just visit getpocket.com/export and download the ril_export.html file.
Uploading your data to Omnivore
I created a Jupyter Notebook to parse the ril_export.html file and make the proper GraphQL queries to Omnivore’s API.
This notebook doesn’t just create the article, it also archives it if it has been read in Pocket, and sets the upload date.
Getting an Omnivore API key
Because we are using a custom-made application, you will need a key to interact with Omnivore. You can find info on how to create an Omnivore API key in the official documentation.
Running the Jupyter Notebook
I made a Jupyter Notebook using Beautiful Soup to process the ril_export.html file, and gql to run the GraphQL queries, as simple as it is. You can run it online on Binder.
It will ask you to upload the ril_export.html file. Remember to set up the global variables first! Especially the OMNIVORE_API_KEY.
After running, it will start uploading the URLs one by one. It will take a while. If you visit Omnivore, you’ll see that some of these posts don’t have a title or a description. This is because it takes a while to crawl the website.
By the way, did you know that this page is intended to be fully compatible with Omnivore? Try adding some of my posts to your list!