Export posts out of NodeBB into HTML and Markdown flat files -> Halo ITSM

[phenomlab]

At work, we are transitioning from NodeBB for our Knowledge Base to Halo ITSM, which we require for SOC2 compliance amongst other things. Because I had 165 articles in NodeBB I didn’t want to have to re-type, or even copy and paste, I decided to write a Python script to walk the target category and create a file for each.

Here’s the script to complete that. There are a number of prerequisities here, which I’ve identified below

import os
import re
import time
import requests
import html2text
from datetime import datetime

# --- CONFIGURATION ---
# Your Forum URL goes here
BASE_URL = "https:/yourforum.com"
#The category ID you want to target goes here
CATEGORY_ID = 3
# In my case, I needed to define a new "home" for the exported files under `/public/uploads` as this contained all the images I needed to embed into the new flat files. Therefore, ASSET_DOMAIN is nothing more than a basic website where I can grab the images from afterwards.
ASSET_DOMAIN = "https://assetlocation.com"
# The below directories are created at the same level as the script. If they do not exist, you need to create them. They will contain both `HTML`  and `markdown` copies of the posts.
HTML_DIR = "nodebb_export_html"
MD_DIR = "nodebb_export_markdown"
os.makedirs(HTML_DIR, exist_ok=True)
os.makedirs(MD_DIR, exist_ok=True)

h = html2text.HTML2Text()
h.ignore_links = False
h.body_width = 0

page = 1
total_exported = 0

print(f"🔄 Starting export for category {CATEGORY_ID} from {BASE_URL}")

while True:
    print(f"📄 Fetching page {page}...")
    url = f"{BASE_URL}/api/category/{CATEGORY_ID}?page={page}"
    res = requests.get(url, timeout=10)
    if res.status_code != 200:
        print(f"❌ Failed to fetch page {page}: {res.status_code}")
        break

    data = res.json()
    topics = data.get("topics", [])
    if not topics:
        print("✅ No more topics found. Export complete.")
        break

    for topic in topics:
        tid = topic['tid']
        title = topic['title']
        print(f"→ Exporting topic {tid}: {title}")

        topic_url = f"{BASE_URL}/api/topic/{tid}"
        topic_res = requests.get(topic_url, timeout=10)
        if topic_res.status_code != 200:
            print(f"⚠️ Failed to fetch topic {tid}")
            continue

        topic_data = topic_res.json()
        posts = topic_data.get("posts", [])
        tags = topic_data.get("topic", {}).get("tags", [])
        tag_list = ", ".join(tags) if tags else ""

        safe_title = title.replace(' ', '_').replace('/', '-')
        html_file = f"{HTML_DIR}/{tid}-{safe_title}.html"
        md_file = f"{MD_DIR}/{tid}-{safe_title}.md"

        # --- HTML EXPORT ---
        with open(html_file, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f_html:
            f_html.write(f"<html><head><title>{title}</title></head><body>\n")
            f_html.write(f"<h1>{title}</h1>\n")
            if tag_list:
                f_html.write(f"<p><strong>Tags:</strong> {tag_list}</p>\n")

            for post in posts:
                username = post['user']['username']
                content_html = post['content']
                timestamp = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(post['timestamp'] / 1000).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S UTC')
                pid = post['pid']

                # Rewrite asset paths in HTML
                content_html = re.sub(
                    r'src=["\'](/assets/uploads/files/.*?)["\']',
                    rf'src="{ASSET_DOMAIN}\1"',
                    content_html
                )
                content_html = re.sub(
                    r'href=["\'](/assets/uploads/files/.*?)["\']',
                    rf'href="{ASSET_DOMAIN}\1"',
                    content_html
                )

                f_html.write(f"<div class='post'>\n")
                f_html.write(f"<h3><strong>Original Author: {username}</strong></h3>\n")
                f_html.write(f"<p><em>Posted on: {timestamp} &nbsp;|&nbsp; Post ID: {pid}</em></p>\n")
                f_html.write(f"{content_html}\n")
                f_html.write("<hr/>\n</div>\n")

            f_html.write("</body></html>\n")

        # --- MARKDOWN EXPORT ---
        with open(md_file, "w", encoding="utf-8") as f_md:
            # Metadata block
            f_md.write(f"<!-- FAQLists: Knowledge Base -->\n")
            if tag_list:
                f_md.write(f"<!-- Tags: {tag_list} -->\n")
            f_md.write("\n")

            f_md.write(f"# {title}\n\n")

            for post in posts:
                username = post['user']['username']
                content_html = post['content']
                timestamp = datetime.utcfromtimestamp(post['timestamp'] / 1000).strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S UTC')
                pid = post['pid']

                # Convert HTML to Markdown
                content_md = h.handle(content_html).strip()

                # Rewrite asset paths
                content_md = re.sub(
                    r'(!\[.*?\])\((/assets/uploads/files/.*?)\)',
                    rf'\1({ASSET_DOMAIN}\2)',
                    content_md
                )
                content_md = re.sub(
                    r'(\[.*?\])\((/assets/uploads/files/.*?)\)',
                    rf'\1({ASSET_DOMAIN}\2)',
                    content_md
                )

                f_md.write(f"**Original Author: {username}**\n\n")
                f_md.write(f"_Posted on: {timestamp}  |  Post ID: {pid}_\n\n")
                f_md.write(f"{content_md}\n\n---\n\n")

        total_exported += 1
        print(f"✔ Saved: {html_file} & {md_file}")

    page += 1
    time.sleep(1)

print(f"\n🎉 Done! Exported {total_exported} topics to '{HTML_DIR}' and '{MD_DIR}'")

Run the script using python scriptname.py.

If the script fails, it’s likely because you do not have the required modules installed in Python

import os
import re
import time
import requests
import html2text

In this case, you’d need to install them using (for example) pip install html2text

To get them into an Excel file where they can all be bulk imported, we’d then use something like the below script

import os
import re
import pandas as pd
from datetime import datetime
import markdown

# --- CONFIGURATION ---
export_dir = "nodebb_export_markdown"
output_file = "Halo_KB_Import_HTML.xlsx"
# This value can be whatever suits your needs
created_by = "Import"
today = datetime.today().strftime('%Y-%m-%d')

# --- BUILD DATAFRAME FOR HALO ---
import_rows = []

for filename in sorted(os.listdir(export_dir)):
    if filename.endswith(".md"):
        filepath = os.path.join(export_dir, filename)
        with open(filepath, "r", encoding="utf-8") as f:
            lines = f.readlines()

        # Default values
# Change "Knowledge Base" to reflect what you are using in Halo
        faqlists = "Knowledge Base"
        tags = ""

        # Parse metadata comments from top of file
        metadata_lines = []
        while lines and lines[0].startswith("<!--"):
            metadata_lines.append(lines.pop(0).strip())

        for line in metadata_lines:
            faq_match = re.match(r"<!-- FAQLists:\s*(.*?)\s*-->", line)
            tag_match = re.match(r"<!-- Tags:\s*(.*?)\s*-->", line)

            if faq_match:
                faqlists = faq_match.group(1)
            if tag_match:
                tags = tag_match.group(1)

        markdown_content = ''.join(lines)
        html_content = markdown.markdown(markdown_content)

        # Extract summary from filename
        summary = filename.split('-', 1)[1].rsplit('.md', 1)[0].replace('_', ' ')

        import_rows.append({
            "Summary": summary,
            "Details": html_content,
            "Resolution": "",
            "DateAdded": today,
            "CreatedBy": created_by,
            "FAQLists": faqlists,
            "Tags": tags
        })

# --- EXPORT TO EXCEL ---
df = pd.DataFrame(import_rows)
df.to_excel(output_file, index=False)

print(f"✅ Done! Halo HTML import file created: {output_file}")

This then generates a file called Halo_KB_Import_HTML.xlsx which you can then use to import each exported post into Halo.

Cool eh? Huge time saver