I've done the google 'takeout' thing and saved it on my computer several
times and will do it one more before the end of November, at which point
google says the Hangouts part will no longer be available.

I've looked at the Hangouts.json file with firefox, which is better than
just using a text editor, but not by much. By searching for TEXT you
can find the actual words that were typed into hangouts, but everything
else is uselessly cryptic.

Is there any way to look at this as a spreadsheet-like thing without
actually learning how to use the software itself? I will NEVER want to
write a database program (BTDT with dBaseII and am glad I'll never have
to do that again), just see this as actual information. Seeing it as
originally presented would be the absolute best possibility, but that
seems unlikely...

--
Cheers, Bev
"Do not try to solve all life's problems at once -- learn to
dread each day as it comes." -- Donald Kaul

The Real Bev wrote:

> I've done the google 'takeout' thing and saved it on my computer several
> times and will do it one more before the end of November, at which point
> google says the Hangouts part will no longer be available.

I do NOT have a good answer for you - but I commiserate with your feelings.
I'm at my 15GB limit for GMail and I've recently done the hangouts thing.

I don't use Hangouts so I don't know if it's anything like Hangouts
results. Probably not as Google Mail is your mail & attachments mostly.

Problem is the resulting files are not easily readable in a program.

> I've looked at the Hangouts.json file with firefox, which is better than
> just using a text editor, but not by much. By searching for TEXT you
> can find the actual words that were typed into hangouts, but everything
> else is uselessly cryptic.

I also look at the takeout results in an editor. For 15GB, there are many
4GB files (depending on your options) which expand to millions of files.

I have never found an easy way to see what's there in a format that is
anything like what it was when it was in Thunderbird. But I haven't tried
hard either as it is just a backup since I already have all my email.

> Is there any way to look at this as a spreadsheet-like thing without
> actually learning how to use the software itself?

I'll keep an eye out in this thread as if there is a way to look at takeout
results in the same way (offline) as they were (online), that would be
nice.
--
Posted out of the goodness of my heart to disseminate useful information
which in this case is to commiserate with The Real Bev on reading Hangouts.

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> I do NOT have a good answer for you - but I commiserate with your feelings.
> I'm at my 15GB limit for GMail and I've recently done the hangouts thing.
>
> I don't use Hangouts so I don't know if it's anything like Hangouts
> results. Probably not as Google Mail is your mail & attachments mostly.
>
> Problem is the resulting files are not easily readable in a program.

I meant "takeout" and not hangouts, in that I did the "takeout thing" for
my Google Email (but I've never done the takeout for Hangouts data).

Mea culpa.

The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote:
> I've done the google 'takeout' thing and saved it on my computer several
> times and will do it one more before the end of November, at which point
> google says the Hangouts part will no longer be available.
>
> I've looked at the Hangouts.json file with firefox, which is better than
> just using a text editor, but not by much. By searching for TEXT you
> can find the actual words that were typed into hangouts, but everything
> else is uselessly cryptic.
>
> Is there any way to look at this as a spreadsheet-like thing without
> actually learning how to use the software itself? I will NEVER want to
> write a database program (BTDT with dBaseII and am glad I'll never have
> to do that again), just see this as actual information. Seeing it as
> originally presented would be the absolute best possibility, but that
> seems unlikely...

I've never used Hangouts or its 'takeout', but from what I understand
of what you're trying to do, I think you might want to have a look at
the Unix/Linux 'strings' command (use 'strings -a' and perhaps also
other options).

On 11/22/22 11:33 AM, Frank Slootweg wrote:
> The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've done the google 'takeout' thing and saved it on my computer several
>> times and will do it one more before the end of November, at which point
>> google says the Hangouts part will no longer be available.
>>
>> I've looked at the Hangouts.json file with firefox, which is better than
>> just using a text editor, but not by much. By searching for TEXT you
>> can find the actual words that were typed into hangouts, but everything
>> else is uselessly cryptic.
>>
>> Is there any way to look at this as a spreadsheet-like thing without
>> actually learning how to use the software itself? I will NEVER want to
>> write a database program (BTDT with dBaseII and am glad I'll never have
>> to do that again), just see this as actual information. Seeing it as
>> originally presented would be the absolute best possibility, but that
>> seems unlikely...
>
> I've never used Hangouts or its 'takeout', but from what I understand
> of what you're trying to do, I think you might want to have a look at
> the Unix/Linux 'strings' command (use 'strings -a' and perhaps also
> other options).

json files are ALL text. As usual, google gives you something crippled.
The last thing I want to do is program or learn a new programming
language. Well, maybe not exactly the LAST, but pretty damn close to
the bottom.

It's like giving you your photos, but as ascii...

--
Cheers, Bev
"Sure, everyone's in favor of saving Hitler's brain, but when
you put it into the body of a great white shark, suddenly
you're a madman." --Futurama

On Tue, 22 Nov 2022 19:33:42 +0000, Frank Slootweg wrote:

> The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote:
>> I've looked at the Hangouts.json file with firefox, which is better than
>> just using a text editor, but not by much. By searching for TEXT you
>> can find the actual words that were typed into hangouts, but everything
>> else is uselessly cryptic.
>>
>> Is there any way to look at this as a spreadsheet-like thing without
>> actually learning how to use the software itself?

There's json_pp which will format JSON in a way that's more human readable.
Also, there's jq for extracting particular parts of the data. It will also
format into human readable.

On 11/23/22 7:27 AM, Joe Beanfish wrote:
> On Tue, 22 Nov 2022 19:33:42 +0000, Frank Slootweg wrote:
>
>> The Real Bev <bashley101@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> I've looked at the Hangouts.json file with firefox, which is better than
>>> just using a text editor, but not by much. By searching for TEXT you
>>> can find the actual words that were typed into hangouts, but everything
>>> else is uselessly cryptic.
>>>
>>> Is there any way to look at this as a spreadsheet-like thing without
>>> actually learning how to use the software itself?
>
> There's json_pp which will format JSON in a way that's more human readable.
> Also, there's jq for extracting particular parts of the data. It will also
> format into human readable.

json_pp looks like a way to make JSON code more readable. If so, not
what I need.

jq looks more useful. Perhaps it's sufficient to search for all
instances of TEXT and then output characters until a ?? is encountered.
Does that sound like a possibility?

Yeah, I'm old and tired...

--
Cheers, Bev
There is a fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'