Welcome to Yarle Discussions!

[akosbalasko]

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[gitophile]

Great work. Want to be able to keep up with changes it looks like are made regularly. So.... Pardon my noobie q but is it best to clone and manually do this or some other way better. Plan to do a custom template too.

Thanks Greg

[akosbalasko]

Hi @gitophile !
Thank you!
Please raise your ideas in the Issues tab just to avoid double-work and there we can agree on who can or feel willing to implement that. If you would like to do it, then yes, the common way is to clone the repo and submit a PR on your implementation.

[jalurgemilang]

I am contemplating moving out of Evernote into Obsidian. Your tool is a savior to me because you saved the Created Date and Modified Date into the Windows Explorer file itself, so all my notes are not shown will today's date in Windows Explorer. I don't think there's any other conversion tool that has done this.

However, I notice that the filename does have the date and time. For example, my Hello World note will be exported as "20210630111111 Hello World.md" file. When I use Obsidian to open the files, I will see a lot of numbers (timestamp) on the left panel of Obsidian instead of the actual note's title. How can I make Yarle export without the timestamp in the file name?

[akosbalasko]

Hi @jalurgemilang !
I'm glad you like the tool! :)
The timestamp in the filename is the Zettekasten Id, if you would like to do not generate them, please set 'isZettelkastenNeeded' to false ( meaning that untick its checkbox in the config page)

cheers,
akos

[jalurgemilang]

Thank you. That must be something I missed that setting out. I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

Another feedback, I notice that some of my notes created date and modified date is not being exported out consistently. I am referring to the Properties of the file, not the content inside the markdown. This is using Windows OS.
I have to use Yarle in MacOS on the same Evernote notebook did not observe the inconsistency. I wonder if it was a bug with Windows. Thank you.

[eitang]

Looking to run away form Evernote into Obsidian... 🏃🏽‍♂️
This tool is the closet I've found to get something useful, thank you so much for building and supporting it! 🙏🏼
However the highlighting export doesn't seem to work.
I read that it's supported and even saw it in the outputFormat configuration.

However the highlighting doesn't come out on the .md file, tested this across multiple notes.
See an examples below 👇🏼

ENEX file formatting
<div><b><span style="--en-highlight:red;background-color: #fec1d0;">My ego demands—for myself—the success of my team. —BILL RUSSELL</span></b></div>

MD file output

**My ego demands—for myself—the success of my team. —BILL RUSSELL**

Used yarle-evernote-to-md.4.0.9.Setup.exe

GitHub doesn't let me to upload .enex files, so I'm attaching my original file ZIPed in case you want to see it.

Kindle highlights from The Captain Class A New Theory of Leadership.enex.zip

Thanks again for creating this!

[akosbalasko]

yeah, I found the same. If you have some time for me, i'll release the fixed version possibly tomorrow. Today I'm not sure, because i'm on holiday with the family. ;)

[eitang]

Of course I've got time.
Thank you so much! Really appreciate it!

[akosbalasko]

hi @eitang ,
I released a version with the fix (4.0.10), feel free to try it out, any feedbacks and further improvement ideas are welcome!

cheers!

[eitang]

Thank you so much!
Seems to be working :-)

Will share ideas if I'll think of anything.

[eitang]

Found one for you :-)

Tags are imported as code they're surrounded by ```.
Example:

#tags

As a result they aren't imported as tags, but as code text.

[yukonquest]

Good Day! I am a brand new Obsidian User, I found YARLE in the Obsidian Forums. I used the desktop Windows version, I have Windows 8.1. All is working well, thank you so much for putting this together.

1. My Evernote export has 25 enex files (I have a lot of notes, 12 years worth). Each enex file takes 4-6 hours to complete. I will be at this for days. Is there a way to pickup all the enex files in succession to avoid having to do them individually?
2. The instructions state that after the conversion, to simply “drag” the converted files into Obsidian. The structure that has been created is: /notes//Evernote [2] (where the converted notes are) & /notes/Evernote [2]//_resources (where the attachments are). I tried dragging in ‘all’ the files under Evernote [2], without success. Can you elaborate on how to complete the import process?

Thank you in advance for you assistance. Once I get this all working, this will be a huge timesaver for me (even if it takes days).
On Obsidian Forum: [email protected]
Michael

[akosbalasko]

Hi @yukonquest !

To answer your questions, nope, currently Yarle has no parallelization implemented unfortunately, the enex files are converted one by one. But it sounds like a great improvement for the future, so I add it as a feature request on the issues page. Thank you!

On the second I just wanted to express that just simply move the converted MD files into the folder of the Obsidian vault you use. It can be done in the file system by hitting F6 in Midnight commander or typing mv in terminal, and let Obsidian rebuild the index during its start-time.

Welcome to Obsidian, have a wonderful time here!

[fair21comic]

Hi @akosbalasko

Like many others, I am migrating from Evernote to Obsidian and I find your tool to be almost perfect for the job, so thank you so much for developing it.

My method has been to save the ENEX files from Evernote (you can do 100 notes at a time, and I only have ~300 notes) and then use YARLE to convert to Obsidian format. However I notice that while your tool does preserve the created/modified date somewhere in that it appears correctly at the top of each note:

Obsidian seems to use the date of conversion to sort the notes. Indeed, if I hover over a note, all of them have the date of conversion, which is the same for each note, so I end up with just alphabetical ordering:

I've had a look round both in the settings for YARLE and online forums and haven't come across this particular problem - do you have any ideas?

Jamie

[TjenWellens]

There is a difference between the date in properties (aka frontmatter) and the date in of the file itself.

A file on your OS (windows/linux/mac) has some dates hidden in the file.
I'm guessing that is your second screenshot: obsidian reading the file's created/modified date.
This should match if you use file explorer (or your OS's equivalent, not obsidian)

Your first screenshot is your file's frontmatter, and if in obsidian you click 'source mode' (or open the readme file in another app) you will see that the file literally has text at the beginning with those properties

These two places where dates are stored, are completely separate.
And they won't even be in sync in the future, with the frontmatter 'last updated at' never changing, even though the file's updated date changes.
(obsidian has plugins for that)

[TjenWellens]

yarle should make have both dates the same, because it uses the utimes library to do exactly that.

Maybe you are losing dates them when you're copying the files.
How those 'hidden in file' dates are copied/lost depends on your OS (windows/linux/mac).
I remember having similar problems on my mac.

mac:

the built in cp command actually handles it
-p Cause cp to preserve the following attributes of each source file in the copy: modification time, access time [...]
src: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/80485/can-timestamps-be-preserved-when-copying-files-on-os-x

Windows:

When you move a file to a different folder then its creation date will not change.
When you copy a file do a different folder then its creation date will change.
src: https://superuser.com/questions/1748898/how-to-copy-file-folder-and-preserve-their-creation-date-on-windows-10

linux:

Note that most Linux filesystems don't store dates of creation — the best you can have is date of last modification
src: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1085231/how-can-i-copy-a-folder-without-altering-their-original-dates-of-creation

Check with your 'file explorer'/'finder' (or your OS equivalent) first the date of the original output of yarle.
And compare this wherever you copied it to, and see if the dates changed because of copying.

[fair21comic]

Hi there Thanks very much for getting back to me - sorry about my delayed reply; I have been out of the country. I think the issue is at the stage of ENEX import into Yarle. The way I got my note sinto ENEX format was by doing it manually in EverNote; it allows you to do 100 notes at a time, and because I have 297 notes, I ended up with three ENEX files. Obviously, because these are new files, the ENEX files all have today's date as a creation date. I don't move or copy these files before importing them to YARLE, so I don't think it is a move/copy issue. Maybe I need to convert my notes into ENEX files in a different way? Perhaps it needs to be one per note? What would you suggest? Many thanks again Jamie

…

On Tue, 3 Sept 2024 at 13:54, TjenWellens ***@***.***> wrote: yarle should make have both dates the same, because it uses the utimes library to do exactly that. Maybe you are losing dates them when you're copying the files. How those 'hidden in file' dates are copied/lost depends on your OS (windows/linux/mac). I remember having similar problems on my mac. mac: the built in cp command actually handles it -p Cause cp to preserve the following attributes of each source file in the copy: modification time, access time [...] src: https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/80485/can-timestamps-be-preserved-when-copying-files-on-os-x Windows: When you move a file to a different folder then its creation date will not change. When you copy a file do a different folder then its creation date will change. src: https://superuser.com/questions/1748898/how-to-copy-file-folder-and-preserve-their-creation-date-on-windows-10 linux: Note that most Linux filesystems don't store dates of creation — the best you can have is date of last modification src: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1085231/how-can-i-copy-a-folder-without-altering-their-original-dates-of-creation — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#118 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BAQ676HMYA3ANICSPUWYJLLZUWWPZAVCNFSM6AAAAABNO7N6CCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTANJTGE4DQNQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[TjenWellens]

Hey

Your screenshot shows the date of 2014 showing up correctly in the frontmatter (aka "properties", aka top of the markdown content)
This means yarle is reading the date correctly.

The moving of the enex files does not matter, because yarle looks inside the enex files.
Enex files are simple xml files, you can open them in a standard text editor and see the contents.
There will be a <note>...</note> entry per note (so about a 100 per enex file in your case).
Example:

<note>
    <title>Conference: SocratesBE 2022</title>
    <created>20220710T120501Z</created>
    <updated>20231109T160405Z</updated>
    <tag>published</tag>
    <tag>i.conference</tag>
    <tag>conference.socratesbe22</tag>
    <note-attributes>
      <author>Tjen Wellens</author>
      <source>desktop.mac</source>
    </note-attributes>
    <content>
        ... // your actual formatted text content: headers, paragraphs, checkboxes, etc
    </content>
    <resource> // once per attachment(images, pdfs, etc) in the note
        <data encoding="base64">
            ... // attachment data is base64 encoded, so not human readable
        </data>
        <mime>image/jpeg</mime>
          <width>4032</width>
          <height>3024</height>
          <resource-attributes>
              <file-name>Image from iOS.jpg</file-name>
              <source-url>...</source-url>
          </resource-attributes>
    </resource>
    <resource>...</resource> 
    <resource>...</resource>
</note>

oversimplified and ignoring attachments:

1. Yarle reads each <note> in the .enex file, and creates a file for it. (file's creation-date and updated-at date = today/now)
2. It reads the <created>, <updated> and prints it as frontmatter at the top of the file.
3. It reads the <content> and prints is next in the file (after changing it from evernote-xml to markdown).
4. It reads the <created>, <updated> and changes the file's creation-date and updated-at date.

Your frontmatter has the correct date, so the problem should be at yarle-step-4 or later.
Either:

• A) step 4 failed
• or
• B) you lose the date by copying the .md files (eg 1918 flu pandemic.md)

I myself had (B) happen to me.
When copying the .md files from the yarle export location to where I wanted them to be, I lost the file's creation-date and updated-at date (while the frontmatter stayed correct).

So it's not the copying of the enex files that can cause (B), but the copying of the exported .md files.

[fair21comic]

Hi there Thanks again so much for getting back to me. I seem to have solved my problem: I did what I did before but outputted the YARLE output directly into the Obsidian Vault folder. Notes are sorting by the dates in the note headers now. Thanks so much for your help and for creating this great tool! Jamie

…

On Thu, 19 Sept 2024 at 12:10, TjenWellens ***@***.***> wrote: Hey Your screenshot shows the date of 2014 showing up correctly in the frontmatter (aka "properties", aka top of the markdown content) This means yarle is reading the date correctly. The moving of the enex files does not matter, because yarle looks inside the enex files. Enex files are simple xml files, you can open them in a standard text editor and see the contents. There will be a <note>...</note> entry per note (so about a 100 per enex file in your case). Example: <note> <title>Conference: SocratesBE 2022</title> <created>20220710T120501Z</created> <updated>20231109T160405Z</updated> <tag>published</tag> <tag>i.conference</tag> <tag>conference.socratesbe22</tag> <note-attributes> <author>Tjen Wellens</author> <source>desktop.mac</source> </note-attributes> <content> ... // your actual formatted text content: headers, paragraphs, checkboxes, etc </content> <resource> ... // attachments: images, pdfs, etc ; completely unreadable </resource> oversimplified: 1. Yarle reads each <note> in the .enex file, and creates a file for it. (file's creation-date and updated-at date = today/now) 2. It reads the <created>, <updated> and prints it as frontmatter at the top of the file. 3. It reads the <content> and prints is next in the file (after changing it from evernote-xml to markdown). 4. It reads the <created>, <updated> and changes the file's creation-date and updated-at date. Your frontmatter has the correct date, so the problem should be at yarle-step-4 or later. Either: - A) step 4 failed - or - B) you lose the date by copying the .md files (eg 1918 flu pandemic.md) I myself had (B) happen to me. When copying the .md files from the yarle export location to where I wanted them to be, I lost the file's creation-date and updated-at date (while the frontmatter stayed correct). So it's not the copying of the enex files that can cause (B), but the copying of the exported .md files. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#118 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BAQ676CHLHXGDFCWYCRJYYLZXKWLZAVCNFSM6AAAAABNO7N6CCVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTANRZGIZDKMY> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>