[HN Gopher] Show HN: Extract an RSS feed from almost anything
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       Show HN: Extract an RSS feed from almost anything
        
       Howdy! RSSfeedASAP scratches my own itch. I run a regional
       podcasting directory which gets dozens of messy submission for
       podcasts. Often they don't even include an xml file and me being a
       good samaritan I sometimes do the manual work and find it myself. I
       got tired of that manual work and decided to build a microapp.
       RSSfeedASAP is this app and I decided to release it in case someone
       else finds any use in it.
        
       Author : roks0n
       Score  : 77 points
       Date   : 2023-09-03 15:37 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (rssfeedasap.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (rssfeedasap.com)
        
       | idoshamun wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | rhabarba wrote:
       | If you want to create new RSS feeds from almost anything, my
       | rssparser.lisp is still there:
       | https://code.rosaelefanten.org/rssparser.lisp
        
         | chuchana wrote:
         | Thanks
        
         | menotyou wrote:
         | Is there a docker image for this?
        
           | rhabarba wrote:
           | What exactly would be the point of shoving a script that is
           | nothing more than a simple cronjob and that could
           | theoretically just be compiled as a static binary into a
           | Docker container?
        
             | regularjack wrote:
             | Had you replied in a respectful manner, you would have
             | gotten a reply from me with what I think are legitimate
             | reasons for having this script in a docker image.
        
               | rhabarba wrote:
               | The required degree of respect was exhausted by the
               | question of what the advantages were. This rampant
               | epidemic of wanting to dump everything into some kind of
               | "container" and "image" was quite funny for a while, but
               | is now just annoying.
        
             | 5636588 wrote:
             | Dude, it was only a question. You could've just said no
             | instead of going on some weird rant. There are plenty of
             | reasons for containerization, but it seems like engaging in
             | any sort of conversation with you is pointless.
        
               | rhabarba wrote:
               | > You could've just said no instead of going on some
               | weird rant.
               | 
               | "Dude", I could, but then a valid follow-up would have
               | been something like "why not?", and I think that I have
               | sufficiently covered this.
               | 
               | > There are plenty of reasons for containerization
               | 
               | "Bro", I understand that containerization would make a
               | small amount of sense under the following circumstances:
               | 
               | - The software in question was a giant package with a
               | quadrillion dependencies which all interfere with each
               | other. rssparser.lisp is not.
               | 
               | - The software in question will need to be deployed on a
               | metric ton of very different machines. rssparser.lisp can
               | easily be deployed without this additional layer.
               | 
               | > it seems like engaging in any sort of conversation with
               | you is pointless.
               | 
               | You haven't even tried yet. I'm open for any kind of
               | discussion, but it would probably help both sides if the
               | subject was "how to improve the software", don't you
               | think?
        
               | jasonlotito wrote:
               | > You haven't even tried yet.
               | 
               | Someone asked a simple question.
               | 
               | You replied with a comment that ended like so "into a
               | fucking Docker container?"
               | 
               | As a third party here (and not the person you asked),
               | it's fairly easy to assume that someone who pretends to
               | be "Looking forward to feedback" and then responds with
               | "fucking" and being rude is really just trolling here and
               | not interested in reasonable and adult conversations.
               | 
               | At the very least, you know you were wrong, because
               | you've been editing your comments to make it seem less
               | aggressive.
               | 
               | My honest suggestion: apologize, and get offline. There
               | is no reason to be acting like this.
        
         | roks0n wrote:
         | This is very cool! I will check it out in more detail. I
         | appreciate your recommendation!
        
           | rhabarba wrote:
           | Looking forward to feedback! I posted it on HN a while ago,
           | but it can't hurt to have new input.
        
         | gbighin wrote:
         | Thanks!
        
       | roks0n wrote:
       | I appreciate the visits and people testing things out, I'm
       | observing the logs and I've already fixed a few problems and
       | added a few things to my todo list. \o/
        
       | darkstar999 wrote:
       | I recently installed self-hosted FreshRSS, an rss reader which
       | can _create_ rss feeds from sites that don't provide them using
       | techniques like xpath selectors.
       | 
       | https://www.freshrss.org
        
       | schnubbidubb wrote:
       | There's also RSS-Bridge: https://github.com/RSS-Bridge/rss-bridge
       | 
       | "The RSS feed for websites missing it"
        
         | Vinnl wrote:
         | There are also a bunch of similar projects in the comments of
         | my Show HN [1] where I shared a similar project.
         | 
         | [1] Show HN: RSS feeds for arbitrary websites using CSS
         | selectors - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27739568
        
       | ajot wrote:
       | Maybe I misunderstood, this tries to find RSS feeds from sites,
       | not generate RSS feeds for sites that don't have them, right?
       | 
       | I've been using RSSPreview addon on Firefox for a couple years to
       | perform this, but I really see the value of a Web service to do
       | this anywhere. Kudos!
        
         | roks0n wrote:
         | The primary objective was to access RSS feeds from various
         | platforms or to create them with known structures to facilitate
         | access to feeds, such as iTunes, SoundCloud, YouTube, and
         | Google Podcasts. Recently, I have incorporated the ability to
         | generate RSS feeds for Spotify shows, as they currently do not
         | provide access to an XML file. However, this feature is limited
         | to shows only and does not include playlists or artists.
         | 
         | The main focus was on accessing podcast RSS feeds, which is why
         | the initial efforts were concentrated on these platforms.
         | However, plans are in place to expand support to other
         | platforms and different types of content based on user demand.
         | 
         | May I ask what purpose you are using the RSSPreview addon for?
        
           | ajot wrote:
           | > May I ask what purpose you are using the RSSPreview addon
           | for?
           | 
           | Mostly, to have an RSS button in the navigation bar, but I
           | found it useful when checking different feeds for the same
           | page. For instance, I've recently started following some
           | software projects on GitHub, some of which I like to follow
           | by release, while some I like to follow by commit, for
           | example. The preview let me see what each feed shows, and get
           | a feel on the frequency of "news" for each feed.
           | 
           | Hope this can help you, I'm no podcast listener so can't
           | really give you a hint on which podcast-related features I
           | would look for in a news feed.
        
       | dotBen wrote:
       | I'm old enough to remember when browsers would highlight in the
       | url bar that a site had an RSS feed. _Well, I 'm old enough to
       | remember upgrading from Mosaic to Netscape, so I'm v old._
       | 
       | Cool little project.
        
         | jacooper wrote:
         | Ironically, chrome(ihm) is starting to show that again. An RSS
         | icon next to the URL if an RSS feed is provided.
        
       | fevangelou wrote:
       | Shameless plug on something similar: https://feedreader.xyz
       | 
       | Comes as a bookmarklet and it will not only find a page's feed,
       | it will also display it nicely directly.
       | 
       | Demo on Verge's feed:
       | https://feedreader.xyz/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theverge.com%2...
       | (you just visit the site, hit the bookmarklet & there you go)
       | 
       | This was primarily built after realizing that the official Google
       | RSS plugin for Chrome was never gonna be updated and was "stuck"
       | to that annoying layout while displaying a page's feed.
        
       | RockRobotRock wrote:
       | Can I suggest removing recently extracted or having a way to hide
       | whatever you extract from the home page?
        
         | roks0n wrote:
         | Good suggestion. I see people already started getting naught
         | ideas. Change is being deployed now.
        
           | RockRobotRock wrote:
           | Maybe a hand curated list of feeds that could be extracted
           | would be better? :)
        
       | infogulch wrote:
       | Cool project! Dovetails nicely with a recent project of mine.
        
         | roks0n wrote:
         | Thank you! I am intrigued, what project are you currently
         | working on? I would be interested to know if you come across
         | any limitations or see any areas for improvement in my app.
         | Feel free to reach out on X @asapship
        
           | infogulch wrote:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37362151
           | 
           | :)
        
             | roks0n wrote:
             | This is great! I've had htmlx on my "things to look into"
             | list for a few weeks now and funny enough I use Go on the
             | backend of rssfeedsasap as well. :)
        
               | infogulch wrote:
               | Thanks! I'm trying to make xtemplate into a 'Rapid
               | Application Development' RAD tool, as one of the
               | commenters pointed out. lmk if you feel like trying it
               | out; @infogulch everywhere
        
       | idosh wrote:
       | Do you use alternate meta tag to detect the rss feed?
        
         | roks0n wrote:
         | It uses several techniques one of which is also meta tags.
        
           | kevincox wrote:
           | Strange. I tried it with my blog and it said there was no
           | feed https://kevincox.ca. I definitely have a alternate link
           | tag set up.
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-03 23:00 UTC)