This page provides detailed instructions on how to use the exporter tool to filter and export messages based on dates and specific chat criteria. The exporter supports two main types of filters for now: Date Filters and Chat Filters. These filters help you tailor the export to include or exclude messages based on the date range or specific correspondents involved in the conversations.
Date Filters
The exporter currently supports three date filters, namely, between, before, and after. All date filters are inclusive.
Usage
The option takes keywords to identify the type and therefore the format must be followed:
- Between filter keyword:
-, and the format is <date> - <date>
- Before filter keyword:
< , and the format is < <date>
- After filter keyword:
> , and the format is > <date>
Date Format
The default date format is %Y-%m-%d %H:%M. You can change it with the --date-format option. The value should be a formatting string supported by strftime and strptime functions.
For example, if you want to supply an ISO compliant date: wtsexporter -a --date "< 2024-01-01T00:00:00.00000Z" --date-format "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%fZ"
Example
Between
This will export messages received or sent between 2023-01-01 00:00 to 2024-01-01 00:00, inclusively.
Before
This will only export messages received or sent before 2024-01-01 00:00.
After
This will only export messages received or sent after 2023-01-01 00:00.
Chat Filter
The exporter currently supports two chat filters, namely, include and exclude.
Usage
The options takes one or more phone numbers as the arguments.
Note that the for both include and exclude chat filters, the country calling codes are optional.
Example
Include
This will only export messages sent by the specified correspondent:
Multiple correspondents can also be included at once:
Exclude
This will export all messages except those sent by the specified correspondent:
Multiple correspondents can also be included at once: