Baby steps toward replacing Google Reader about vienna-rss

[devongovett]

Let me know if you want to collaborate! https://github.com/devongovett/reader

[barijaona]

@devongovett How about centralizing the API specifications on a common wiki ?

[mipmip]

Do I understand it right that devongovett/reader together with de google reader sync features of 3.0 would make a syncable vienna mobile version possible?

[barijaona]

Yes, it should be possible. Might work with Feedly and the product announced by Digg too, as well as other products willing to mimic Google Reader API.

[barijaona]

In an ideal world, all services would implement the Google Reader API.

But we are not in an ideal world. The July 1st deadline is just 3 months ahead, and while almost everyone is rushing to implement the Google Reader API, we haven't seen yet an implementation that we can beta-test with Vienna.
And I doubt that it is anyone's priority to support non paying users who would access their servers with ad-free RSS clients.
So, this being the Easter week-end, I considered other manners of resurrecting feeds syncing… ;-)

For my personal use, I installed a copy of Tiny Tiny RSS. Not very difficult, but definitely not for the average Vienna user.
Tiny Tiny RSS has an API, but apparently, a single Androïd client uses it. There is a "digest" plugin and a web app for smartphones who can decently handle iPad and iPhone though.
Implementing Tiny Tiny RSS support in Vienna seems feasible, but there are a few fundamental differences between its API and Google's.

I then searched other APIs we could consider. I found Feedmin, then Fever and wondered : would Vienna users fork money to access these services ?

And it came to my mind that I don't like that all these APIs use internal ID numbers to reference feeds and articles. It is a potential source of problems when you decide to switch to another service.

I then rediscovered the NewsBlur API, and found out that it has the advantage of referencing articles by their URLs. This is interesting for implementing a lightweight solution, limited to syncing, letting each client fetch articles directly from the original source. À la Brent Simmons.

Newsblur.com use is free as far as you don't exceed 68 feeds. This would fit my personal needs : I currently only have 11 feeds that I want to sync with mobile devices ; my other feeds are local to Vienna only. For people wanting to follow more than 68 feeds on the go, 24 US$ a year seems reasonable. If you are tech-savvy, setting up your own installation is perfectly doable : the project is open-source, under a MIT license.

All in all, a good product which seems able to attract multiple categories of people. So I consider focusing my efforts on supporting it.

Your thoughts ?

[mipmip]

The reason why I use vienna because I don't like do be profiled by a company like Google. Being able to sync with a system like tiny tiny rss, or just via dropbox would be my personal choice. I found another promising project, Selfoss.

[barijaona]

Thanks for commenting, @mipmip.

As I said, you can setup a personal server with NewsBlur. Sure, the technical requirements are higher than the basic PHP/MySQL hosting, and there are also a few hardcoded URLs that you will have to change ; but it is certainly feasible.
This is why I find NewsBlur particularly appealing : directly available for non techy people (probably 95% of Vienna users), but also self installable for geeks. We have to focus on a single solution, because we have limited resources (Vienna is just a hobby thing to me, and I am not even a professional programmer).

For the time being, Selfoss' API seriously lacks documentation. May be you can help on fossar/selfoss#121

Dropbox syncing is certainly complicated, and I know no app using this. So, we should forget interoperability.

[pietheinstrengholt]

I'm also working on a new project. Check here: http://www.phppaper.com/demo/

Source: https://github.com/xbmcfreak/phppaper

[barijaona]

BazQux.com and FeedHQ.org support added. There are still some rough edges, but basically, it is working.

[ansani]

Still interested in Feedly/Normandy support in Vienna? Just did some experiments and things seems good.

[mstroeck]

In my opinion: definitely. The optimum would be a world where we have feed
reader support that is as awesome as that of Mr. Reader:

http://www.curioustimes.de/mrreader/

Best,
Michael

On Fri, Sep 6, 2013 at 5:45 PM, Salvatore Ansani
[email protected]:

Still interested in Feedly/Normandy support in Vienna? Just did some
experiments and things seems good.

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Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/160#issuecomment-23949371
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[barijaona]

Welcome back @ansani !

[ansani]

tnx @barijaona ! After a small break for a new son :) I'm back to the community :D
Working hard on Normandy support :D

Next message will contain sync flow.

[barijaona]

Is it possible to have some update on your efforts, @ansani ? If you are too busy for coding, is it possible to help you ?

[barijaona]

Pull request #244 includes InoReader support.

[barijaona]

Server side, we now support The Old Reader, which seems quite popular, as well as Bazqux, FeedHQ and InoReader.
This includes free and non free options, as well as closed source and open source options.
Sure, we can still add support for other servers (for instance, Feedly), but I think we can consider that the original need is now fulfilled.
On the iOS side, I can suggest FeedlerRSS