doc

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,116 @@
+# Migrate your notes from Bear to Zettlr!
+
+## Background
+
+I recently switch from Bear to Zettlr to manage my notes.
+However, I was sad to discover that Bear exports notes in a non-standard way:
+
+- File attachments are HTML links that don't even point to the correct file
+- All notes are stored in the same directory, regardless of your tag hierarchy
+- The tag format used by Bear (#foo/bar) is incompatible with Zettlr format (#bar)
+- Bonus: some file attachment were missing...
+
+So, I decided to write this tool in order to save my hundreds of notes!
+
+## Usage
+
+First, export all your notes from Bear.
+
+* Go to **Notes**
+* Hit **Cmd+A** to select all your notes
+* Go to **File** > **Export Notes...**
+* Select **Markdown** and check **Export attachments**
+* Select a directory to store your exported notes
+* Click **Export notes**
+
+Then, install **git** and **go**.
+
+```sh
+brew install git golang
+```
+
+Checkout this repository.
+
+```sh
+git clone https://github.com/nmasse-itix/bearnotes.git
+cd bearnotes/cli
+```
+
+Start a discovery of your notes.
+
+```sh
+go run main.go discover --from /path/to/bear-notes --tag-file /tmp/tags.yaml
+```
+
+If everything goes well, it should display a count of your exported notes
+along with the discovered tag list.
+
+You can review the generated tag configuration file.
+
+```sh
+open /tmp/tags.yaml
+```
+
+Finally, launch the proper migration phase.
+
+```sh
+go run main.go migrate --from /path/to/bear-notes --to /path/to/zettlr-notes --tag-file /tmp/tags.yaml
+```
+
+Review the migrated notes.
+
+If you want to change the default folder hierarchy, read the next section.
+
+## Configuration
+
+You can configure how the migration tool stores your notes, in which folder and even rewrite the tags to match Zettlr's format.
+
+The default configuration for a tag is:
+
+```yaml
+foo/bar:
+    ignore: false
+    handling_strategy: same-folder
+    target_directory: foo/bar
+    target_tag_name: bar
+```
+
+It defines that any note having this tag will go to the **foo/bar** directory.
+The **#foo/bar** tag will be rewritten as **#bar**.
+All the notes having the **#foo/bar** tag, will be stored in the same directory, along with their embedded images and file attachments.
+
+If you think the migration tool wrongly identified a tag, you can switch the **ignore** option to **true**.
+
+```yaml
+foo/bar:
+    ignore: true
+```
+
+If you want to rewrite the **#foo/bar** tag as **#foo-bar**, you can change the **target_tag_name**. 
+
+```yaml
+foo/bar:
+    ignore: false
+    handling_strategy: same-folder
+    target_directory: foo/bar
+    target_tag_name: foo-bar
+```
+
+Note: If you want to remove the tag from the migrated note, use `target_tag_name: ""`.
+
+The `target_directory` option is straightforward: it defines where to store the notes having this tag.
+
+The `handling_strategy` option specifies how notes will be saved on the filesystem
+
+- **same-folder**: all notes having this tag are stored in the **target_directory** along with their embedded images and file attachments.
+- **one-note-per-folder**: each note will get a sub-folder in the **target_directory**
+
+Note: given that a document can have multiple tags, it is perfectly valid for a tag to specify no target directory or no handling strategy if you know that another tag will provide them. 
+
+If by any chance, for a note the tool cannot determine a target directory or an handling strategy, the note will be stored in the root of the target directory.
+
+And if a note receives different configurations by two different tags, the first one wins (by order of tag appearance in the document).
+
+## License
+
+MIT