RedditSavedArchiver

A .NET Core app for archiving your saved posts on Reddit. Automatically archives your saved posts to a local database and can optionally crosspost your saved posts to a subreddit for easy searching and filering.

Installing / Getting started

Download the .NET Core 3.1 runtime from the Microsoft website if you dont already have it.

Download and extract the latest release for your operating system from the Github releases page

The program can then be run through your favourite terminal:

• For Windows

  cd path\to\installation
  RedditArchiver.exe

• For Linux

  cd path/to/installation
  ./RedditArchiver

However, before you can use the program you must first configure it so it can access your account. See the following section for information on configuring the program.

Initial Configuration

For the program to view your saved posts it must have permission to access your account.

Creating the app

To create an app, go to your Reddit account preferences and click the "Create app" button at the bottom of the page.

Fill out the new application form with the following information:

• Name: Can be anything you want. "Saved Posts Archiver" is recommended so you can quickly identify it
• App type: Installed app
• Description: You can leave this blank
• About URL: You can leave this blank
• Redirect URI: MUST BE http://localhost:9696/redditArchiver/callback

Once you have filled out the form click "Create app". The app should now appear under your developed applications. Make a note of the 15 character app ID located under the app's name as this will be used in the later steps.

Obtaining OAuth tokens

When you first run the program, or when Reddit returns an unauthorised/forbidden response, the program will prompt you to run the credential setup.

To obtain your OAuth tokens using the credential setup:

1. Run the program. It will automatically prompt you to run the user credential setup when Reddit returns an unauthorised/forbidden response (e.g. when you are using the default appsettings.json). Press "Y" to start the user-credential setup.
2. The program will ask for an app ID. Enter the app ID you copied down when you created the app.
3. The program will then display a URL. Copy this URL, open it in your browser and click the "Allow" button.
4. After clicking allow you should then be redirected to a page with your access and refresh tokens. Copy these down as they will be used in the next step.
   • You can verify that the app has been authorised by going to your Reddit account preferences and checking the "Authorised applications" list

If you have enabled crossposting in your settings but have disabled crossposting using the user account, you will then be prompted to run the bot-account credential setup. Follow the same steps as above however make sure you are signed into Reddit using the bot account before opening URL in your browser.

Adding your tokens to the archiver

For more information on configuring the archiver see the configuration section.

Now that you have your tokens, you need to tell the archiver to use them.

In the installation directory for the program there should be a file called appsettings.json. Open the file in a text editor such as Notepad or vim and look for the section called "UserCredentials". It will probably look something like this:

...
"UserCredentials": {
      "AppID": "YourAppID",
      "AccessToken": "YourAccessToken",
      "RefreshToken": "YourRefreshToken"
    }
...

Replace:

• YourAppID with the app ID you copied down when creating the app
• YourAccessToken with the access token you copied down when you obtained your OAuth tokens
• YourRefreshToken with the refresh token you copied down when you obtained your OAuth tokens

It is also a good idea to replace /u/YourName with your Reddit username in the UserAgent property so Reddit can easily contact you.

If you have enabled crossposting using a bot account, you should also enter your app ID, the bot's access token, and the bot's refresh token into the "BotCredentials" section.

...
"BotCredentials": {
        "AppID": "YourAppID",
        "AccessToken": "BotAccessToken",
        "RefreshToken": "BotRefreshToken"
      }
...

Save and close the file. If you now run the program it should begin archiving your posts to the file savedPosts.db. For information on configuring crossposting or changing where the database is stored, see the configuration section.

Configuration

There are three ways to configure the archiver:

• Configuration file - Settings are stored in the file appsettings.json located in the same directory as the executable.
• Environment variables - Variables must be prefixed with REDDIT_ARCHIVER_. Will override any values set in the configuration file. For more information on using environment variables see the .NET Core documentation. This document will use the double hyphen format in its examples.
• Command-line arguments - Settings passed in using command-line arguments. Will override any values set in the configuration file or environement variables. For more information on using command-line arguments see the .NET Core documentation. This document will use the Windows commands in its examples.

Default Appsettings.json

{
  "ConnectionStrings": {
    "SqliteLocation": "savedPosts.db"
  },
  "Reddit": {
    "UserCredentials": {
      "AppID": "YourAppID",
      "AccessToken": "YourAccessToken",
      "RefreshToken": "YourRefreshToken"
    },
    "UserAgent": "windows:reddit-save-archiver:v0.1.0 (by /u/YourName)",
    "Crosspost": {
      "EnableCrossposting": false,
      "CrosspostSubreddit": "SubredditName",
      "UseUserAccount": false,
      "BotCredentials": {
        "AppID": "YourAppID",
        "AccessToken": "BotAccessToken",
        "RefreshToken": "BotRefreshToken"
      }
    }
  }
}

ConnectionStrings

SqliteLocation

Type: string Default: 'savedPosts.db'

The location of the SQLite database used to archive posts to. File will be automatically created if it doesn't exist.

⚠️ Relative paths are relative to the current working directory. Be careful if you plan to run the program from multiple locations (cron job, another script, etc) as they will not detect a database stored in the program's installation directory.

Examples:

"ConnectionStrings": {
    "SqliteLocation": "savedPosts.db"
  }

RedditArchiver.exe --ConnectionStrings:SqliteLocation savedPosts.db

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_ConnectionStrings__SqliteLocation savedPosts.db

Reddit

UserCredentials

The credentials used to access the user's account. The user's account is used when getting saved posts.

AppID

Type: string
Default: 'YourAppID'

The ID of the application registered with Reddit. See creating the app for more information.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "UserCredentials": {
      "AppID": "YourAppID",
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:UserCredentials:AppID YourAppID

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__UserCredentials__AppID YourAppID

AccessToken

Type: string
Default: 'YourAccessToken'

The access token for the user's account. See obtaining OAuth tokens for more information.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "UserCredentials": {
      "AccessToken": "YourAccessToken"
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:UserCredentials:AccessToken YourAccessToken

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__UserCredentials__AccessToken YourAccessToken

RefreshToken

Type: string
Default: 'YourRefreshToken'

The refresh token for the user's account. See obtaining OAuth tokens for more information.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "UserCredentials": {
      "RefreshToken": "YourRefreshToken"
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:UserCredentials:RefreshToken YourRefreshToken

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__UserCredentials__RefreshToken YourRefreshToken

UserAgent

Type: string
Default: 'windows:reddit-save-archiver:v0.1.0 (by /u/YourName)'

The user agent used when accessing the Reddit API. Used so Reddit can more easily identify and contact the owner of the program.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "UserAgent": "windows:reddit-save-archiver:v0.1.0 (by /u/YourName)"
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:UserAgent "windows:reddit-save-archiver:v0.1.0 (by /u/YourName)"

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__UserAgent "windows:reddit-save-archiver:v0.1.0 (by /u/YourName)"

Crosspost

Settings related to the automatic crossposting of saved posts to a subreddit. If EnableCrossposting is false, all other crosspost settings are optional and are ignored by the program.

EnableCrossposting

Type: bool
Default: false

Whether posts should be automatically crossposted to another subreddit.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "Crosspost": {
      "EnableCrossposting": false
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:Crosspost:EnableCrossposting false

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__Crosspost__EnableCrossposting false

CrosspostSubreddit

Type: string
Default: 'SubredditName'

The subreddit to crosspost to without the /r/ prefix. The crosspost account must be a moderator of the subreddit.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "Crosspost": {
      "CrosspostSubreddit": "SubredditName"
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:Crosspost:CrosspostSubreddit SubredditName

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__Crosspost__CrosspostSubreddit SubredditName

UseUserAccount

Type: bool
Default: false

Whether posts should be crossposted using the account related to the UserCredentials settings or another account.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "Crosspost": {
      "UseUserAccount": false
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:Crosspost:UseUserAccount false

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__Crosspost__UseUserAccount false

BotCredentials

The credentials used to access the crosspost bot account. If UseUserAccount is true, bot credentials are optional and are ignored by the program.

AppID

Type: string
Default: 'YourAppID'

The ID of the application registered with Reddit. Can be the same as the app ID set for the user account. See creating the app for more information.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "Crosspost": {
      "BotCredentials": {
        "AppID": "YourAppID"
      }
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:Crosspost:BotCredentials:AppID YourAppID

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__Crosspost__BotCredentials__AppID YourAppID

AccessToken

Type: string
Default: 'BotAccessToken'

The access token for the bot account. Log in to Reddit using the bot account in your browser and repeat the steps in obtaining OAuth tokens to get the access and refresh tokens for the bot account.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "Crosspost": {
      "BotCredentials": {
        "AccessToken": "BotAccessToken"
      }
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:Crosspost:BotCredentials:AccessToken BotAccessToken

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__Crosspost__BotCredentials__AccessToken BotAccessToken

RefreshToken

Type: string
Default: 'BotRefreshToken'

The refresh token for the bot account. Log in to Reddit using the bot account in your browser and repeat the steps in obtaining OAuth tokens to get the access and refresh tokens for the bot account.

Examples:

{
  "Reddit": {
    "Crosspost": {
      "BotCredentials": {
        "RefreshToken": "BotRefreshToken"
      }
    }
  }
}

RedditArchiver.exe --Reddit:Crosspost:BotCredentials:RefreshToken BotRefreshToken

setx REDDIT_ARCHIVER_Reddit__Crosspost__BotCredentials__RefreshToken BotRefreshToken

Licence

GPL-v3