Importing google reader starred items into pocket. As you all know google reader is being killed very soon.

there are lots of google reader alternatives.
I use reeder on my phone, ipad and mac to read all my rss feeds.
it syncs with google reader and so I have built up a lot of starred items over the years.
usually I mean to read these articles later, or I need them to research a new blog post.

with the death of google reader comes the death of years worth of saving awesome things from the internet :(

Ive decided to use feedly for my rss needs after google reader dies.
but I also decided it was time to move my starred items to something more, um, appropriate.

pocket is the service I decided to go for.
its supported in lots of apps. Including reeder. and feedly!

so, all my future ‘stars’ will work, as long as I click the correct button.
but how to import my (563) existing starred items?

first step:
export from google reader before its too late:

go to the google takeout tool
click on the ‘choose services’ then on ‘Reader’ then ‘Create Archive’
once the archive is created, download it to your machine and un-zip the file.
inside you will find a file called ‘starred.json’

this file contains all the data needed, except its not in the correct format.

I found a blog where the author had a python script that would do the bulk of the converting work:

download the script from http://pastebin.com/cm9L01XY
and change its extension from .txt to .py

you’ll need to edit the script to suit the path where you extracted your starred.json file

eg /Users/myuser/Desktop/starred.json

and to add in an export path for the file it creates

eg /Users/myuser/Desktop/pocket.html

run the script by opening a command prompt and typing:

python converter.py

you will find at the location specified above for the export path a file, hopefully called ‘pocket.html’

if you log in to your pocket account and go to getpocket.com/import/instapaper and upload the created file pocket will import all of your starred items !