FeedingIt - RSS Reader (Maemo5 / Harmattan)
 

I have uploaded a little application that I made last week into extra-devel. It is a simple RSS Reader. This is my first software released in such a way, so I'd be very interested in having some feedback as far as packaging, and if it installs successfully, in particular in regards to the dependencies, on a fresh n900.

As far as the software itself, I think it is fairly usable now. Its main feature is portrait mode support (thanks to thp!). The main thing I want to fix next is that it somewhat locks up the UI when downloading/updating feeds.

The project garage page is at https://garage.maemo.org/projects/feedingit/ if you'd like to report any bugs or improvements.

Update: 0.5.4-3 version is now in Extras with lots of improvements in usability (such as image caching, automatic updates...)

Update: Now available for Harmattan: http://store.ovi.com/content/227782

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Hi, just tested it and think this is a pretty nice start. Actually I am/was planing to write an rss-reader myself and the UI you are using in FeedingIt is pretty much what I would have done. It Installed nicely on my N900 and is mostly working as it should. Some Improvement suggestions:

* Fixing the UI Hang would be really nice
* Some Labels for what is what in the "Add Feed" Dialog (I used URL and Label the wrong way at the first try)
* Updating individual Feeds doesn't seem to work
* Adding an application Icon would be nice (the blue square is not that nice ^^)

And some "nice to have" features (maybe some aren't that easy to do):
* Way to sort/move the feeds for individual order
* Subfolders/Categories (usefull for people with lots of feeds)
* Load and display images in HTML-Feed entries

So much for my feedback, I'll keep an eye on the project, even the way it is now with the basic features is more useable than the built-in reader (yay portrait mode!!)
Thanks for your work ^^

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Thanks, it is very much appreciated.

The UI hang fix is definitely coming up, and I'll clean up the "Add Feed" dialog, I'm not very satisfied with the way it feels.
As for the icon, it does have one (a very unexciting one, I admit). I noticed on new installation, the icon cache takes a bit to update, so maybe it'll show up for you at some point. But maybe I did it wrong, I'll try to see if that can be improved.

Good ideas, I'll definitely look into those later on.
You can load the HTML images in the menu of the article "Display Images". I debated whether to do it automatically or not. If that doesn't work, it might be feed specific, in which case I'd be interested to know which.

Thanks again for the feedback!

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

You're right, didn't notice the image loading option in the articles menu. And it does work for me with the feeds I tried. I think a general setting for loading/not loading on display would be nice for a later version.

The Icon didn't show up so far, although I did reboot once since the install (and I cant seem to find the cli icon-cache update command right now). I noticed that some packages do the icon-cache update on install/uninstall (at least they show a notification that says they do). Maybe something like this would be an option for your package.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

hello. in the first place i have to tell u that i'm a noob concerning linux and maemo 5. i have a nokia n900 and i can not install this application. it sais that it misses some dependency.
how should i install this application.
thanks a lot....

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Hello, I'm definitely looking for a good rss application and installed feedingit but I'm not able to make it work. When I run the app, nothing but the title bar appears and when I switch to the application manager, feedingit crashes.
So I flashed my device and reinstalled it but I still can't manage to make it work.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

I had missing dependencies for libgtkhtml2-0 and python-gtkhtml2. These can be fixed by running in X Terminal (as root):

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

i find it. it's in extras-devel.
do you think you can make for it also a widget, that will be awsome.
anyways it is working great.
nice job...

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

I like it!

Looks way better that the build in RSS Reader. One feature i would suggest is open up hyperlinks in RSS articles with microb, to get a full featured article

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

I've finally managed to make it work by installing pygtkeditor. Maybe some missing dependencies...

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Thanks Rob1n, that's what I wanted to know. These are set as dependencies, but I guess I'm doing something wrong with the package as they should be installed automatically along.

You can already, but it's quite tricky to click on the link properly. It's not very finger friendly.

I'd like to, but it might be a while before I can get to it.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

That was actually my fault - I was installing from the .deb file rather than the repo. I've just uninstalled all of them and reinstalled via the repo - everything was pulled in automatically this time.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Uploaded a new version into extras-devel:
* Added dbus service to add new feed (#4992)
* Fixed #4979, delete feed issue
* Fixed "Add Feed" dialog
* Added progress bar and multi-threading for downloading feeds
* Automatic loading of images in HTML feeds
* Use dbus to open up external browser

Note that there is a slight change in the backend of the read/unread tracking, so you need to update all the Feeds if you're upgrading from a previous version.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

i really can't find it in extras-devel. any ideas?

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Strange, it's definitely there. Make sure you refresh the list in the application manager after enabling extras-devel. FeedingIt is in the Internet & Networking category.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Very nice, coming along beautifully. Can we just get a in article nav button of some sort, I hate how we have to go back to reading list and select new article after done with one.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

I'll see what can be done. I've wanted a way to do so too, but without taking too much screen real-estate. I wonder if it'd be possible to use the zoom button, or some kind of gesture.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Verson 0.2.0-3 in extras-devel now:
* Added support for left/right gestures in articles
* Added support for sorting the feed list

There is now a new menu on the main page to open a dialog to be able to sort the feeds the way you want it. And one the articles, you can do a swipe of the finger to the left or right to go to the next/previous article.
This version will probably go into extras-testing once I've done some more testing on it.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

I installed the latest version in extras-devel and I can't seem to get gestures working. Nothing seems to happen.

I can't include feed names, the feeds only seem to work if you use the same URL for both. It repeats Enter Feed Name twice. Shouldn't it be URL for one and custom name for the other?

Edit: Hmm.. it's 0.1.3-1 that's not the latest.
Edit2: Upgrading to latest now (odd how it didn't grab it originally when I installed it a few minutes ago).

Edit 3:

Ok figured everything out. Gestures do work. And I was putting URL first, name second when it should be the other way around.

May I suggest rename the second one to URL?

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Sorry about that. Version 0.2.0-4 is getting built into extras-devel right now to fix that.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

The feedparser seems to have problems to parse the planet-maemo feed at http://maemo.org/news/planet-maemo/rss.xml
At least the feed stays empty

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

@slocan

after several hickups your software works pretty well with your last release on my N900. Do you think that you can integrate full google reader syncronisation (not just importing as many other rss readers do)?

I believe this app could be THE standard rss reader for all maemo users if this would work - and I would even pay for this app. I'm a total rss addict ...

Other nice features would be a kind of integration of this petrovich feature, to share articles via mail, twitter, facebook or whatever.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

It also won't work with.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/ICanHasCheezburger

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

thank you very much for this app..

few things
turn on/off marking text (how about doble click anywhere turns on... double click again off)

the animation when moving between feeds with fingerswipe plays the same from both ways.. abit confusing.. minor

zoom text 10% up and down with vol buttons

scale images to fit view if they are bigger (800px for landscape and 480px for potrait)

make press on links open a dialog "open in webbrowser?".. yes/no.. would hate to have it open browsers by mistake.

again very good app

thank you

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Christoph and Laughing Man, those feeds work for me. Make sure that you update the feed after adding it (it is not automatic, and will come up blank until you do).

Chschubert, integration with google reader doesn't seem all that straighforward (no offical API), so maybe something I'll think about it for the long term, but don't hold your breath :)

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Is that text selection, or something else?

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Hmm I'll try again. But after adding it and refreshing it doesn't seem to show anything.

Edit: Odd it works now.. strange (what witchcraft did you do!).

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

yes I meant text selection

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Hmm, planet-maemo works for me now too. I did update the feed before, but that didn't help. After deleting and readding the feed, it works. So could you please fix another feed with you witchcraft OTA ?
http://blog.fefe.de/rss.xml?html
still does not work. Even after removing and readding several times.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

There is no witchcraft. My guess for the previous feeds were some kind of network error when downloading them.

[QUOTE=christoph;464037]http://blog.fefe.de/rss.xml?html
still does not work. Even after removing and readding several times./QUOTE]That's an interesting one, the feed does not contain any timestamps for its articles. I'll try to get a fix for it later on.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Hey, Thanks for the many updates ^^

one small request: normally its nice to have the pictures autoloaded in the articles. But today I went by train and my UMTS-Connection was very unstable. Every time my connection was lost the loading of the article hanged the programm for a long while. It even triggered the Maemo "Kill unresponsive program"-question when I tried to interact with the program. So an option for disabling the automatic image-loading (aka offline-mode) would be really appreciated. Alternatively loading images in background to keep the program responsive would work too.

P.S. I also added a bug for it in the garage tracker

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Thanks for the great app, I haven't used it thoroughly but some improvements I immediately thought about were:

1) Option for text size/Increase text size. Current text size is a bit small. Especially the text on the headline list is too small for glancing rss on the move.
2) Option for disabling auto rotate.
3) IMO the button-like feed list is not clean-looking.
4) App hangs when opening a feed with image in it. (EDGE only; WIFI is good)

Pardon me if I sound nick-picking...

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Version 0.2.1-2 is in extras-devel/extras-testing now.
It improves the download of images (doesn't lock up the UI anymore, and much faster), as well as fixes the issue reported with a few feeds.

sony123, thanks for the feedback. 4) is much improved now, and I'll try to think about 1, 2 and 3 for later. UI design isn't my forte :)

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

I second that. Great app otherwise, thank you :)

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Very nice app, I love that it has support for non-landscape viewing. :)

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Is it possible to have this app enable you to import feeds, from say google reader or from a file. I really don't want to type in my 100 or so feed links?

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Yes, OPML import/export would be very useful.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

OPML support is next on my to-do list, stay tuned.

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

Just tested the new version while driving to work by bus and despite the bad/dropped UMTS connection FeedingIt stayed responisve.

Thanks a lot for the fast fix!

Re: FeedingIt - RSS Reader
 

i love the application, i installed it yest and loving it to bits

but since i woke up today, the application refuses to open.

A bug?