blog archive format

From IndieWeb

blog archive format is a data format proposed by Manton Reece for the export of a blog, based on a zip file and top level HTML h-feed inside, that is supported by micro.blog. Posts are saved as both h-feed and JSON Feed so that importers can choose which format they prefer to parse.

Original proposal: https://www.manton.org/2017/11/24/blog-archive-format.html

More details: https://www.manton.org/2021/12/27/importing-blog-archive.html

Yet more details: https://book.micro.blog/blog-archive-format/

Advantages

Blog Archive Format was designed to solve a few problems compared to other export formats:

  • An open format that is not tied to implementations details of any single platform.
  • Wrapped in a ZIP file so can contain images and other media.
  • Includes both JSON Feed and Microformats for options when reading archives.
  • Includes an HTML file of posts with relative image links so that it can be previewed directly in a web browser without any conversion.

Implementations

micro.blog

Micro.blog can export and import as blog archive format since 2019

  • On the web, click on Posts β†’ "…" β†’ Export. Micro.blog will create a .bar file on S3 and make it available for download.
  • In the macOS app, choose File β†’ Export β†’ Blog Archive. Micro.blog will download all your photos locally and save a .bar file to your Mac.
  • For importing, in the macOS app choose File β†’ Import β†’ Blog Archive. You can also double-click on .bar files to open them.

Ruby script

Mastodon to Blog Archive script by Manton Reece, written in Ruby, can convert Mastodon's export (essentially ActivityStreams 2.0 JSON) to Blog Archive Format, and runs as a command-line tool.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming for and about the Blog Archive Format, and plans or intentions to implement & support.

Koype

Koype has a plan to implement the:

See Also