Download AGU sessions as notes for Obsidian

Given one or more URLs, makes a set of Markdown files for use in Obsidian. E.g.:

Binary vs. Python script

I provide a pre-compiled, packaged Python binary that I have tested on my Apple Silicon Mac. It should work on other Apple Silicon Macs. Call it from a terminal like so (replacing the URL with your URL of interest):

$ ./agu-notes-from-url https://agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/meetingapp.cgi/Session/233359

(If you get a permissions error, try doing chmod +x agu-notes-from-url and try again. You should only have to do that once.)

You can also import from a .ics file, which you can download from the AGU scheduling webapp:

$ ./agu-notes-from-url schedule-AGU25.ics

If you have some other kind of machine, you'll need to run the script using Python. E.g.:

$ python3 agu-notes-from-url.py https://agu.confex.com/agu/agu24/meetingapp.cgi/Session/233359

More details on the latter below.

Instructions

General options:

By default, this program:

• Downloads notes to the directory where it's called
• Includes #AGUyyyy but with yyyy being the current year
• Does not overwrite existing folders or notes

If you'd like to change any of those, then in the directory where you'll be calling the binary/script (this does not have to be the directory where the binary/script is located, nor does it have to be the directory where you want the notes saved), make a text file called settings.ini. Change settings like so:

[optional]
output_location = /path/to/where/you/want/files/downloaded
overwrite = true
year = 2024

If you're importing a .ics file, you can also specify a single date to extract events from:

[optional]
date = 2025-12-15

You can also add debug = True to enable verbose printout useful for debugging.

If not using the binary

Running the script with Python requires that your Python have the following non-standard modules installed:

• selenium v4.11 or later
• icalendar (if reading a .ics file)

If you get a ModuleNotFoundError for either of those, you can install them like so:

python3 -m pip install icalendar