FDDB-Exporter

The longest-running project on this blog, documented as it went. FDDB.info has a good food database and a diary that is quick to log into; it also puts every graph behind the premium tier and deletes older entries. These six posts are five years of getting my own data back out of it.

It started in 2021 as a Python script that scraped the daily calorie total into a Postgres table so Grafana could draw it. Then macronutrients mattered more than calories, so it had to understand a whole diary entry. Then a Flutter app, so triggering an export did not mean opening a terminal. Then, in 2024, a proper rewrite: Java and Spring Boot, MongoDB, full entry retrieval, a REST API. Since then an InfluxDB path for Grafana, a re-released mobile app, a web UI that replaced it, and an MCP server so an assistant can answer questions about the diary.

Read upwards from the bottom if you want the arc; start at the top if you just want what it does now. There is also a summary on the project page.

2021–2026 / 6 posts