Instapaper Scraper

This script allows users to scrape all saved Instapaper bookmarks and export them as CSV data.

Features

• Scrapes all bookmarks from your Instapaper home page.
• Support scraping bookmarks from specific Instapaper folders
• Export bookmarks metadata in CSV format

Requirements

The following Python libraries are required:

• requests
• beautifulsoup4
• python-dotenv

Install all dependencies using the provided requirements.txt:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Setup

1. Clone or download the repository.
2. Create an .env file in the project root with your credentials:

   INSTAPAPER_USERNAME=your_username
   INSTAPAPER_PASSWORD=your_password
   

3. Run the script:

   # Output to console
   python scrape.py
   
   # Save output to CSV file
   python scrape.py > bookmarks.csv

Environment Variables

• INSTAPAPER_USERNAME: Your Instapaper account username
• INSTAPAPER_PASSWORD: Your Instapaper account password
• ENABLE_FOLDER_MODE: Set to 'true' to scrape a specific folder
• FOLDER_ID_AND_SLUG: The folder ID and slug when folder mode is enabled

How It Works

1. Authenticate: Logs into Instapaper using your credentials
2. Extract Bookmarks: Fetches bookmarks from either homepage or specific folder
3. Process Pages: Iterates through all available pages of bookmarks
4. Output CSV: Prints bookmark data in CSV format with headers

Example Output

The script outputs CSV data with the following structure:

page,id,title,url
Page 1,999901234,"Article 1",https://www.example.com/page-1/
Page 1,999002345,"Article 2",https://www.example.com/page-2/

Acknowledgments

This script is forked and modified from:

• Original Gist by jaflo
• Forked Gist by domingogallardo

Major modifications include:

• Switched from HTML/PDF downloads to CSV export format
• Added environment variable support using python-dotenv
• Implemented folder-specific bookmark scraping
• Enhanced documentation and examples

Disclaimer

This script requires valid Instapaper credentials. Be cautious when using personal account information and ensure compliance with Instapaper’s Terms of Service.