# Archive chat file format **URL:** \ **Category:** API and Webhooks\ **Created:** [November 19, 2021, 8:42am UTC](https://devforum.zoom.us/t/archive-chat-file-format/60459 "2021-11-19T08:42:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![vivek.thetalake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/2bfe46/32.png) [@vivek.thetalake](https://devforum.zoom.us/u/vivek.thetalake)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 8:42am UTC](https://devforum.zoom.us/t/archive-chat-file-format/60459/1 "2021-11-19T08:42:10Z")
**Description** What is the format of archived chat file for meetings fetched using Archive api? Is the file format published somewhere? A sample message obtained from the archive api is pasted below: 00:01:02 Vivek J([16778240,vivek+thetalake@wexxxxxt.com](mailto:16778240,vivek+thetalake@wexxxxxt.com)): Ok, here are some chats for this archived meeting It will be helpful to know more about the file format as we write a parser. **Which App Type (OAuth / Chatbot / JWT / Webhook)?** OAuth **Which Endpoint/s?** /archive\_files (described [here](https://marketplace.zoom.us/docs/api-reference/zoom-api/archiving/listarchivedfiles)) /rec/archive/download/ **Additional context** We need to write a parser that will parse the chat text file for our compliance platform. It will be helpful to know the file format. ---
**Author:** ![gianni.zoom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/devforum.zoom.us/gianni.zoom/32/32523_2.png) [@gianni.zoom](https://devforum.zoom.us/u/gianni.zoom)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 4:34pm UTC](https://devforum.zoom.us/t/archive-chat-file-format/60459/2 "2021-11-19T16:34:15Z")
Hi @vivek.thetalake , Here’s the file types that can be returned via that endpoint: ![Screen Shot 2021-11-19 at 11.33.02 AM](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/zoomdeveloper/original/3X/e/7/e775ca97572cc28773ae03cb98b62697ca811bf8.png) The chat file is in the form of a TXT file. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![vivek.thetalake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/2bfe46/32.png) [@vivek.thetalake](https://devforum.zoom.us/u/vivek.thetalake)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 5:04pm UTC](https://devforum.zoom.us/t/archive-chat-file-format/60459/3 "2021-11-19T17:04:41Z")
Thanks for replying. We know both of those things. The question is about the details of the format of the text file in which chats are returned, including all use cases, so our parser is reliable and does not break for use cases we did not know based on simple test data. ---
**Author:** ![vivek.thetalake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/2bfe46/32.png) [@vivek.thetalake](https://devforum.zoom.us/u/vivek.thetalake)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2021, 6:58pm UTC](https://devforum.zoom.us/t/archive-chat-file-format/60459/4 "2021-11-19T18:58:43Z")
Let me give an example. The following is a line from a chat file: 00:01:02 Vivek J([16778240,vivek+thetalake@wexxxxxt.com](mailto:16778240,vivek+thetalake@wexxxxxt.com)): Ok, here are some chats for this archived meeting This line from the chat file can be deconstructed as: - the first field seems to be the local time when the message was posted, followed by a tab (\t) > 00:01:02 - Then the first name and last name of the participant who posted (with one space between them) > Vivek J - Followed by 2 comma separated data points in parentheses: 1) some number, which is not the account number, and 2) email id of the participant, followed by colon character and tab (\t): ` > ([16778240,vivek+thetalake@webisoft.com](mailto:16778240,vivek+thetalake@webisoft.com)): - And the message in the end > Ok, here are some chats for this archived meeting Sorry if format is not the correct word, perhaps the right word for what we are looking for may be schema or layout of fields in the text file and the separators or terminators used. This will help in tokenizing and parsing all types of data that can come in the chat file. ---
**Author:** ![gianni.zoom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/devforum.zoom.us/gianni.zoom/32/32523_2.png) [@gianni.zoom](https://devforum.zoom.us/u/gianni.zoom)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 10:12pm UTC](https://devforum.zoom.us/t/archive-chat-file-format/60459/5 "2021-11-22T22:12:05Z")
Hi @vivek.thetalake , Thanks for the additional context! The documentation you’re seeking does not exist at the moment, but you can submit a #feature-requests for this. Gianni ---
**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/zoomdeveloper/original/3X/6/1/614bdd549b610bbaa46ff934617683a02bdaa03c.png) [@system](https://devforum.zoom.us/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2021, 8:12am UTC](https://devforum.zoom.us/t/archive-chat-file-format/60459/6 "2021-12-23T08:12:29Z")
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