Today I got my first GitHub star!!! The repo is iExport which is an innocent piece of Python to extract the contents of a OS X user's chat.db, conveniently contained out-of-sight in `~/Library/Messages/chat.db` and accessible via `sqlite3 chat.db`. I've annotated the script below to show you how it's done. ```python #!/usr/bin/env python3 import base64 import mimetypes import cgi import sqlite3 from os import path # this is the path where iMessage app stores the contents locally CHAT_DB = path.expanduser("~/Library/Messages/chat.db") # unix epoch used in query EPOCH = 978307200 # this is just some basic formatted html that colorizes the chats # the messages and images are interpolated into divs below print(""" """) # to see the chats you have, use this util # def list_chats(): # db = sqlite3.connect(CHAT_DB) # cursor = db.cursor() # rows = cursor.execute(""" # SELECT chat_identifier # FROM chat; # """) # for row in rows: # export(row[0]) def export_all(): db = sqlite3.connect(CHAT_DB) cursor = db.cursor() rows = cursor.execute(""" SELECT chat_identifier FROM chat; """) for row in rows: export(row[0]) # main query—get text, timestamp, and images from messages # iterate over these rows, and base64 encode attachments # in order to display images then just interpolate them like so: # line = "

" % (who, date, text) # note: remove LIMIT 1 to get all messages def export(chat_id): db = sqlite3.connect(CHAT_DB) cursor = db.cursor() rows = cursor.execute(""" SELECT datetime(m.date + ?, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') as fmtdate, m.is_from_me, m.text, a.filename FROM chat as c INNER JOIN chat_message_join AS cm ON cm.chat_id = c.ROWID INNER JOIN message AS m ON m.ROWID = cm.message_id LEFT JOIN message_attachment_join AS ma ON ma.message_id = m.ROWID LEFT JOIN attachment as a ON a.ROWID = ma.attachment_id WHERE c.chat_identifier = ? ORDER BY m.date LIMIT 1; """, (EPOCH, chat_id)) for row in rows: date = row[0] who = "me" if row[1] is 1 else "contact" if row[3]: attachment = path.expanduser(row[3]) media_type = mimetypes.guess_type(attachment)[0] try: with open(attachment, "rb") as image: encoded_data = base64.b64encode(image.read()) except: encoded_data = "" text = "

" % ( media_type, encoded_data) text = "

" % (attachment) else: text = cgi.escape(row[2] or '') line = "

" % (who, date, text) print(line.encode("utf8")) # crude way to construct the document, I know :~) # you'll want to pipe the output # python ixport.py > imessages.html # and then pray that your browser is prepared # I would suggest no scrolling until all has loaded # or opening a PR to paginate the data from chunks print(""" """) export_all() ```

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