Release Notes for Nexus AI Chat Importer

Version 1.3.0 - Major Update: Selective Import & Enhanced User Experience

Overview

Version 1.3.0 introduces selective conversation import, allowing you to choose exactly which conversations to import from your ChatGPT and Claude exports. This release brings major improvements to the import workflow with interactive conversation selection, multi-file processing with automatic deduplication, enhanced import reports with per-file statistics, and flexible folder management with separate settings for conversations, attachments, and reports. International users benefit from ISO 8601 timestamp support and locale-independent date parsing. The release includes comprehensive DALL-E processing enhancements, architecture refinements, and 26 bug fixes across import processing, UI formatting, and settings migration.

☕ Support This Project

This plugin is free and always will be. If you find it valuable, please consider supporting its development:

Your support helps me dedicate more time to:

• 🚀 Adding new features
• 🐛 Fixing bugs faster
• 💡 Implementing user suggestions
• 📚 Improving documentation

Even $5 makes a difference! 🙏

⚖️ LICENSE CHANGE

⚠️ Important: License Update

Previous versions (≤1.2.0): MIT License
Version 1.3.0+: GNU GPL v3.0

Why the change?

After 300+ hours of development and 1000+ downloads, I'm changing to GPL v3 to:

• Protect this work from commercial exploitation without giving back
• Ensure it remains free and open for everyone
• Allow me to create commercial products for other platforms based on this codebase

What this means for you:

As a user: Nothing changes! The plugin is still:

• ✅ Free forever
• ✅ Open source
• ✅ Fully functional

As a developer: If you fork or modify this plugin:

• ✅ You must keep it open source (GPL v3)
• ✅ You must share your improvements
• ✅ You cannot create a closed-source commercial version

Previous versions

Versions ≤1.2.0 remain under MIT license (already released, can't be revoked). However, all future development will be GPL v3.

Thank you for your understanding and continued support! 🙏

See LICENSE.md for full legal details.

🚀 MAJOR NEW FEATURES

🎯 Selective Conversation Import

• Interactive conversation selection: Choose exactly which conversations to import from your ZIP files
• Multi-file support: Select and process multiple ZIP files in a single operation
• Smart deduplication: Automatically detects and handles duplicate conversations across multiple files
• Comprehensive preview: View conversation details before importing:
  • Title, date, message count
  • Existing status (new, update, or already imported)
  • Attachment information
  • File source tracking
• Flexible sorting: Sort conversations by date, title, messages, or status
• Batch operations: Select all, deselect all, or cherry-pick specific conversations

📊 Enhanced Import Reports

• Per-file statistics: Detailed breakdown of what was imported from each ZIP file
• Visual presentation: Beautiful callouts and tables for better readability
• Chronological file listing: Files sorted newest first for easy tracking
• Comprehensive metrics:
  • Total conversations analyzed vs. imported
  • Attachment statistics (found/missing/failed)
  • Processing time and performance data
  • Selective import details when applicable

🗂️ Improved Folder Management

• Separate folder settings: Independent configuration for:
  • Conversations folder (where chat notes are stored)
  • Attachments folder (where files and artifacts are saved)
  • Reports folder (where import reports are generated)
• Automatic migration: Seamless upgrade from old archiveFolder setting
• Folder change detection: Warns when changing folders with existing content
• Smart folder migration: Option to move existing content when changing locations

🔧 TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS

Internationalization & Standards

• ISO 8601 timestamps in frontmatter: All metadata dates use international standard format
• Custom message timestamp formats: Choose your preferred format for message callouts
  • Default: Follows Obsidian's language setting (English = US format)
  • Custom: ISO 8601, US, European, UK, German, or Japanese formats
• Non-US locale support: Fixed timestamp parsing issues for international users
• Consistent date formatting: Unified date handling across all features
• Automatic migration: Existing conversations upgraded to ISO 8601 in frontmatter
• Note: Format changes only affect new imports, existing notes remain unchanged

DALL-E Processing Enhancements

• Centralized processor: Unified DALL-E handling logic for better reliability
• Recursive prompt search: Improved association between prompts and generated images
• Dual format support: Handles both text-based and code-based prompt formats
• Nested callout structure: Better visual organization of prompts and images
• Accurate timestamps: Uses prompt timestamp for generated images

Architecture Refinements

• Provider-agnostic formatters: Cleaner separation between providers
• Centralized message filtering: Removed duplicated logic across codebase
• Enhanced metadata extraction: New dedicated service for conversation metadata
• Improved error handling: Better logging with conversation and message context

🐛 BUG FIXES

Import & Processing

• Fixed Claude detection for older export formats without projects.json
• Fixed duplicate conversation handling in multi-ZIP imports
• Fixed existence status calculation after deduplication
• Fixed file statistics tracking during deduplication
• Prevented report generation when import is cancelled
• Fixed timestamp normalization for ZIP file comparisons

UI & Formatting

• Fixed DALL-E callout encapsulation and indentation
• Cleaned up message spacing in notes (removed blank lines)
• Fixed truncated text in conversation selection dialog
• Fixed YAML frontmatter alias sanitization for special characters
• Fixed title cleaning to handle double quotes properly
• Improved dialog sizing and readability

Settings & Migration

• Fixed settings overwrite issues during upgrades
• Fixed folder change detection and added cancel option
• Fixed Reports folder migration to same level as Conversations
• Added fallback for conversationFolder in existing conversation scans
• Fixed progress dialog errors during migration

✨ USER EXPERIENCE ENHANCEMENTS

Dialog Improvements

• Modern file selection: Enhanced multi-file picker with better UX
• Conversation selection: Beautiful, responsive table with comprehensive information
• Import completion: Detailed summary dialog with statistics and next steps
• Folder migration: Clear guidance when changing folder locations
• Upgrade notices: Informative dialogs for automatic migrations

Quality of Life

• Empty conversation filtering: Automatically skips conversations with 0 messages
• Invalid conversation filtering: Skips conversations with missing IDs or timestamps
• Always generate reports: Reports created even when 0 conversations imported
• Better error messages: More context in attachment error logging
• Debug logging: Comprehensive logging for troubleshooting

🔄 MIGRATION & COMPATIBILITY

Automatic Migrations (v1.2.0 → v1.3.0)

1. Folder settings migration: Converts archiveFolder to separate folder settings
2. ISO 8601 timestamp migration: Updates all conversation frontmatter dates
3. Alias sanitization: Fixes special characters in frontmatter aliases
4. Timestamp precision: Ensures consistent timestamp formatting

Breaking Changes

• Settings structure: archiveFolder replaced with conversationFolder, attachmentFolder, reportFolder
• Date format: All timestamps now use ISO 8601 format (YYYY-MM-DDTHH:mm:ss.sssZ)
• Report filenames: Now use YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS format instead of slashes

Backward Compatibility

• Existing conversations remain fully functional
• Old settings automatically migrated on first launch
• No manual intervention required for upgrades

⚠️ IMPORTANT NOTES

For New Users

• Selective import: You can now choose which conversations to import
• Multi-file support: Process multiple ZIP files in one operation
• Better organization: Separate folders for conversations, attachments, and reports
• International support: Works correctly with all date/time locales

For Existing Users

• Automatic upgrade: Plugin handles all migrations automatically
• Settings preserved: Your preferences are maintained and enhanced
• Folder structure: Reports folder moved to same level as Conversations folder
• No data loss: All existing conversations and attachments remain intact

Performance Considerations

• Large ZIP files (1000+ conversations) may take time to analyze
• Conversation selection dialog loads all conversations for preview
• Deduplication across multiple files adds processing time
• Progress dialogs show real-time status for long operations

📋 WHAT'S NEXT

Version 1.3.0 establishes a mature, user-friendly import workflow:

• ✅ Selective import: Full control over what gets imported
• ✅ Multi-file support: Batch processing with deduplication
• ✅ International standards: ISO 8601 timestamps and locale support
• ✅ Enhanced UX: Beautiful dialogs and comprehensive reports
• 🔮 Future enhancements: Additional providers, advanced filtering, bulk operations

Version 1.2.0 - Major Update: Claude Support & Enhanced UI

🚀 MAJOR NEW FEATURES

🎉 Full Claude Support Added

• Complete Claude conversation import: Import your Claude.ai conversations for the first time!
• Claude artifact versioning: Each artifact modification creates a separate file (script_v1.md, script_v2.md, etc.)
• Smart content tracking:
  • create commands start new artifacts with full content
  • rewrite commands create new complete versions
  • update commands apply incremental changes to previous versions
• Chronological processing: Artifacts processed in conversation order for accurate version progression
• Claude attachment support: Handles file references with links to original conversations

🎨 Revolutionary UI with Custom Callouts

• Nexus custom callouts: Replaced ugly indentations with beautiful, themed callouts
• Role-specific styling:
  • 👤 User messages: Blue callouts with user icon
  • 🤖 Assistant messages: Green callouts with bot icon
  • 📎 Attachments: Amber callouts with paperclip icon
  • ✨ Artifacts: Purple callouts with sparkles icon
  • 🪄 DALL-E Prompts: Red callouts with magic wand icon
• Better readability: Clean, modern presentation that adapts to your Obsidian theme
• Functional links: Markdown links work perfectly inside callouts

⚡ Performance Optimizations

• 50%+ faster ChatGPT processing: Major optimizations for large conversation imports
• Optimized mapping traversal: Reduced iterations by 50% through smart caching
• Pre-compiled regex patterns: Faster message content processing
• Smart sorting algorithms: Insertion sort for small datasets, optimized for mostly-sorted data

🔧 Technical Improvements

Provider Selection Workflow

• Automatic provider detection: Smart detection of ChatGPT vs Claude exports
• Manual override option: Force provider selection when auto-detection fails
• Better error handling: Clear feedback when ZIP format is unrecognized

Enhanced Processing Architecture

• Conversation-level processing: Full conversation analysis for better context
• Persistent content tracking: Artifact content properly accumulates across conversations
• Smart update handling: Filters out empty UI-only updates while preserving meaningful changes
• Chronological message ordering: Fixed Claude message ordering issues

Reimport Safety

• Version UUID tracking: Prevents duplicate versions when reimporting conversations
• Incremental updates: New artifact versions added without affecting existing files
• Stable numbering: Version numbers remain consistent across multiple imports

🐛 Bug Fixes

• Fixed ChatGPT code block detection: JSON strings in message parts now properly converted to code blocks
• Restored DALL-E prompts: Prompts now display in dedicated callouts instead of being hidden
• Fixed Claude message ordering: Messages now appear in correct chronological order
• Improved link handling: Proper vault-relative paths for all artifact and attachment links
• Better ZIP file caching: Optimized attachment extraction with cache management

🎯 Enhanced User Experience

• Version-specific artifact links: Each artifact reference links to its exact version with "View Artifact" text
• Improved visual hierarchy: Clear distinction between different content types
• Better attachment status: Clear indicators for found/missing/failed attachments
• Cleaner conversation layout: No more messy indentations, everything in organized callouts

⚠️ Important Notes

For New Users

• Claude support: You can now import Claude conversations alongside ChatGPT
• Modern UI: All conversations use the new callout system for better readability
• Performance: Large conversation imports are significantly faster

For Existing Users

• Automatic upgrade: Existing ChatGPT conversations remain functional
• UI improvements: New imports will use the enhanced callout system
• NEW: Claude support: You can now import Claude conversations for the first time!
• Settings preserved: All your existing settings are maintained

File Structure Changes

• Claude artifacts: Saved in Attachments/claude/artifacts/{conversation_id}/ with version numbers
• Callout styling: Custom CSS classes for Nexus callouts (automatically applied)
• Legacy support: Old div-based styling still works but new callouts are recommended

🔄 Migration Guide

From v1.1.0 to v1.2.0

1. No action required: Plugin automatically upgrades
2. Claude users: Can now import conversations for the first time
3. UI benefits: New imports automatically use enhanced callouts
4. Performance: Enjoy faster processing on large ChatGPT exports

Recommended Actions

• Test Claude import: Try importing a Claude conversation to see the new features
• Reimport large ChatGPT files: Benefit from 50%+ performance improvements
• Check callout styling: Verify the new UI looks good with your Obsidian theme

🎯 What's Next

This major release establishes Nexus AI Chat Importer as a multi-provider platform:

• ✅ ChatGPT: Full support with attachments and optimizations
• ✅ Claude: Complete support with artifacts and versioning
• 🔮 Future providers: Architecture ready for additional AI platforms

Version 1.1.0 - Attachment Support

View Full README

Overview

Version 1.1.0 adds comprehensive attachment support to the plugin. ChatGPT conversations now import with their associated files, including DALL-E generated images, documents, and other attachments when available in the export archive.

New Features

Attachment Import System

• Import images, documents, and files from ChatGPT exports
• DALL-E generated images are automatically detected and imported
• Files are organized in Attachments/chatgpt/images/ and Attachments/chatgpt/documents/
• Generation prompts are preserved with DALL-E images
• Status tracking shows which files were found, missing, or failed to import

Import Reports

• Reports are now organized in Reports/chatgpt/ folder
• Attachment statistics display: ✅ found, ⚠️ partial, ❌ missing
• Report names include dates extracted from ZIP filenames

Reprocess Existing Conversations

• Option to reprocess conversations imported before v1.1.0
• Adds attachment support to previously imported notes
• Automatic detection when reimporting already processed files

Improvements

Settings

• Toggle to enable/disable attachment import
• Configurable attachment folder location
• Options for handling missing files
• Control over attachment statistics in reports

Report Content

• Focus on new and updated conversations
• Cleaner statistics without unnecessary information
• Better organization of import results

Fixes

Performance

• Resolved startup performance issue affecting users with large conversation collections
• Eliminated file scanning that was slowing Obsidian launch

Technical Details

Architecture Changes

• Provider-agnostic framework for future AI chat platform support
• Modular settings interface with organized sections
• Enhanced error handling and type safety

File Processing

• ZIP-wide file search using ChatGPT file identifiers
• Conflict resolution for duplicate filenames
• Memory-optimized processing

Message Processing

• Improved filtering of ChatGPT internal messages
• Better handling of DALL-E content in conversations
• Enhanced content extraction from complex message structures

Migration Notes

For Existing Users

• All existing conversations remain functional
• Settings are preserved with new attachment options added
• No manual migration required

Storage Considerations

• Attachment import increases vault size
• Consider excluding attachment folder from cloud sync for large collections
• Attachment processing is optional and can be disabled

Compatibility

File Formats

• Supports both old and new ChatGPT export formats
• Automatic conversion of legacy .dat files to correct extensions
• Handles image attachments

Breaking Changes

• Import reports now use provider-specific subfolders
• Internal API changes for provider-specific logic (affects developers only)

Future Development

This release establishes the foundation for:

• Support for additional AI chat platforms
• Enhanced content analysis and filtering
• Batch operations on imported conversations

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Superkikim/nexus-ai-chat-importer/compare/1.0.8…1.1.0