How to Export a Blog from Writefreely

WriteFreely is a fantastic minimalist blogging platform with Fediverse integration. If you're self-hosting WriteFreely (like this blog!), it's wise to maintain backups for peace of mind. Here's how to export your WriteFreely blog using a tool I created called writefreely-export.

Prerequisites:

  1. Shell access to your WriteFreely server
  2. Node.js installed (I recommend using nvm for managing Node.js versions – installation instructions here)

Steps:

Clone the repository and cd into it:

git clone https://github.com/eobrain/writefreely-export.git
cd writefreely-export

Ensure Node.js compatibility (if using nvm):

nvm use

Finally to do the export do

npm install
npm run export

This creates a content directory containing Markdown files of your WriteFreely posts.

Using the Exported Files

One option is to import your Markdown files into a static site generator like simplestblog. This approach gives you a static backup and an alternate site. For example, this blog is mirrored at mysimplestblog.

Additional Notes:

Consider automating the export process for regular backups.