Extract Safari reading list and bookmark URLs with Node.js

While organising files in preparation for moving to a shiny new Mac, I wanted to compile a list of all the Safari reading list entires I'd made over the years. The data for this is held in a .plist file - Apple's JSON like text/binary format - and is fairly easy to extract.

To do so, npm init, then install a plist parser. This translates the plist data into a nice JSON object. I used bplist-parser, which can be installed with npm i bplist-parser. Then create an index.js file and fill it with the following code:

  1  const fs = require("fs");
  2  const bplist = require("bplist-parser")(async () => {
  3    const obj = await bplist.parseFile(
  4      "/Users/YOUR_NAME/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist"
  5    );
  6  
  7    const buildList = (rawList) => {
  8      const resArr = [];
  9      rawList[0].Children.map((x) => {
 10        const resStr = `${x.URIDictionary.title} - ${x.URLString}`;
 11        resArr.push(resStr);
 12      });
 13      return resArr.join("\n");
 14    };
 15  
 16    const bookmarksBar = obj[0].Children.filter((x) => x.Title === "BookmarksBar");
 17    const bookmarksMenu = obj[0].Children.filter((x) => x.Title === "BookmarksMenu");
 18    const readingList = obj[0].Children.filter(
 19      (x) => x.Title === "com.apple.ReadingList"
 20    );
 21  
 22    // change the argument to one of the three above to change the output
 23    const list = await buildList(readingList);
 24  
 25    fs.writeFileSync("./reading_list", list);
 26  })();
 27  

Make sure to allow your terminal file access (in Settings => Security & Privacy => Privacy), insert your profile name where the 'YOUR NAME' placeholder is, then run node index.js and your list will be output.