How to convert epub to obsidian compatible markdown?

[jm355]

When I convert an epub to markdown and try to open it in obsidian, the links don't work. They could just be as simple as [[Filename#HeaderBeingLinkedTo|HeaderBeingLinkedTo]]

[jgm]

What options are you using to convert? What do the links pandoc generates look like, and what do you want them to look like?

[jm355]

pandoc -i 'Impro Improvisation and the Theatre - Keith Johnstone.epub' -o Impro.md
an example link from the table of contents:

[[[INTRODUCTION]{#06_Contents.xhtml_kobo.2.1 .koboSpan
xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"}]{#06_Contents.xhtml_int1}](#07_INTRODUCTION.xhtml#int1a)

How I'd like it to look:

[[Impro#INTRODUCTION|INTRODUCTION]]

But there are lots of formatting issues when converting that document beyond just the links, including not making the chapter titles headings (which would prevent my desired link format from working anyways), so I should probably stick with a normal ebook reader instead of trying to import my library into obsidian

[jm355]

if you want to try it out book.zip

[jgm]

The structure pandoc produces is a faithful rendition of what is in the EPUB.

However, you can use a Lua filter to make it work the way you want. See the docs on Lua filters.

Essentially you want your filter to change Link elements that look like

      Link
        ( "" , [] , [] )
        [ Span
            ( "06_Contents.xhtml_int1" , [] , [] )
            [ Span
                ( "06_Contents.xhtml_kobo.2.1"
                , [ "koboSpan" ]
                , [ ( "xmlns" , "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" ) ]
                )
                [ Str "INTRODUCTION" ]
            ]
        ]
        ( "#07_INTRODUCTION.xhtml#int1a" , "" )

into

Link
        ( "" , [ "wikilink" ] , [] )
        [ Str "INTRODUCTION" ]
        ( "Impro#INTRODUCTION" , "" )

If your filter is called fixlinks.lua, then you'd use the options --lua-filter fixlinks.lua -t markdown+wikilinks_title_after_pipe.

[jm355]

Thanks! I didn't know that was possible