How to use the command goobook (with examples)

Google contacts are a convenient way to keep track of all your contacts, and with goobook, you can access and manage your Google contacts right from the command line or from the mutt email client. This article will guide you through two common use cases of goobook, along with the necessary code, explanation of each argument, and example outputs.

Use case 1: Allowing goobook to access Google contacts using OAuth2

Code:

goobook authenticate

Motivation: By authenticating goobook with your Google account, you give it permission to access your Google contacts. This is required before you can perform any actions on your contacts using goobook.

Explanation: This command initiates the authentication process for goobook. It will open a web browser and prompt you to grant access to goobook. Once you grant permission, goobook will receive an OAuth2 token, which allows it to access your Google contacts.

Example output:

Please follow the URL below to authenticate goobook:
https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?...

Use case 2: Dumping all contacts to XML (stdout)

Code:

goobook dump_contacts

Motivation: Sometimes you need to export all your Google contacts for various purposes, such as backup or analysis. With goobook, you can easily dump all your contacts to XML format and redirect the output to a file or further process it.

Explanation: This command instructs goobook to retrieve all your Google contacts and print them in XML format to the standard output (stdout). You can redirect this output to a file using the “>” symbol followed by the desired file name.

Example output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<contacts>
  <contact>
    <name>John Doe</name>
    <email>john.doe@example.com</email>
    <phone>123456789</phone>
  </contact>
  ...
</contacts>

Conclusion:

Goobook is a powerful command-line tool that allows you to access and manage your Google contacts effortlessly. By following the examples in this article, you can authenticate goobook with your Google account and dump your contacts to XML format. With goobook, you can seamlessly integrate your Google contacts into your command-line workflow or mutt email client.