RSS Feed reader for Browsers

Info

Background daemon to convert RSS Feeds into HTML pages. Presentation of data is similar to Firefox's variant.

The usage of the web interface can be protected by a list of users/passwords. Authenticated users can trigger commands for media files of a RSS feed, e.g. for downloading it. See Adding action handlers to feeds for instruction how to add own commands.

Requires

Python >= 3.8 List of required packages: See pyproject.toml

Installation and start

Installation by prebuild package:

python3 -m pip install {PATH to *.whl-file}

or with virtual environment

apt install python3-venv
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
python3 -m pip install {PATH to *.whl-file}

Installing developing version from sources

git clone "{This repo}"
cd rss2html
poetry install
poetry run python3 -m rss2html

Start

Call python3 -m rss2html and visit http://localhost:8888

Take a look into the Setup section to see how you could configure the program. If you want install the program as background daemon, call make install_service. If you installed rss2html by *.whl-file you probably need to adapt rss_server.service.

Configuration

1. Install program and its dependencies.
2. The settings are defined in rss2html/default_settings.py.
   If you want override values create settings.py and place your changes there:

#!/usr/bin/python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

HOST = "localhost"  # Empty string "" will allow access from everywhere.
PORT = 8888
# […]

Place this file into $HOME/.config/rss2html (Linux) or %APPDATA%/rss2html (Windows) or this folder.

3. Start service, e.g.: python3 -m rss2html [--daemon]

4. Visit localhost:8888/?feed=[your feed url] to view a feed.
   The content presentation is similar to Firefox's <= 63.x. The feed will be stored in the history of visited feeds.

5. (Optional) Combine Firefox's 'Open with'-dialog
   for RSS-feeds with the scripts/rss_reader script.
   This will open the feed content in a new browser tab.

   (Linux) The list of applications in the 'Open With'-dialog depends from the entries in /usr/share/applications.

   To extend this dialog with 'rss_reader':
   5.1 Copy scripts/rss_reader.desktop into above folder and
   5.2 Copy scripts/rss_reader into /usr/local/bin (or edit the path in 'rss_reader.desktop')

6. (Optional) Enable SSL encryption Write ssl key and crt path into settings.py variables SSL_KEY_PATH and SSL_CRT_PATH. You can also generate both files by make ssl to test it locally. Then start programm with --ssl flag.

Manage Favorites

The favorite feeds can be managed over the files favorites.py and, if multiple users are defined, favorites_{username}.py.

#!/usr/bin/python3
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

from rss2html.feed import Feed

FAVORITES = [
    Feed("example",
         "http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/podcast-das-war-der-tag.803.de.podcast",
         "Example Feed"),
]

Place the file(s) into $HOME/.config/rss2html (Linux) or
%APPDATA%/rss2html (Windows) or this folder.

These files will also be created/changed by actions taken on the web interface.

Developing

Requirements

poetry, lessc, babel

python3 -m pip install poetry
apt install python3-babel node-less

Prepare start of program directly from its sources

git clone "{This repo}"
cd rss2html
poetry install

[comment]: # The classical way without venv/poetry: [comment]: # python3 -m pip install --target "site-packages" -U -r requirements.txt [comment]: # PYTHONPATH=src:site-packages python3 -m rss2html

Starting program from its sources

make run or make run_443

Note that first call of run_443 creates a copy of the python binary and allowing this copy the usage of lower port numbers by

	/usr/bin/sudo /sbin/setcap CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE=+eip "./python3_443"

Use this during development only. You could also use AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE in a Systemd service file.

Building package

Creates new package in dist:

poetry build

Adding a new language

1. Add language code in Makefile to SUPPORTED_LANGS variable.
2. Run make babel_compile

Updating existing localization's

1. Run make babel_prepare babel_update to update *.pot- and *.po-files
2. Edit ./locale/{LANG CODE}/LC_MESSAGES/messages.po
3. Run make babel_compile

Adding action handlers to feeds

Two actions are predefined: Download file and play file locally. If you want define more actions you can extend your local settings file.

Handle action by arbitrary python function

Extend your settings.py by

from rss2html.default_settings import ACTIONS

def can_action_name(feed, url, settings):
    # Return True if your action should be possible for this url
    # Can be used to restrict action on domain name, etc.
    return True

def action_name(feed, url, settings):
    # Add your stuff here
    return True

ACTIONS.update({
    "my_action" : {
        "handler": action_name,
        "check": can_action_name,
        "title": "Description",
        "icon": "icons/gnome_download.png",
    },
})

Run local command

If you want call a shell command but no python function you can use following variant:

from rss2html.default_settings import ACTIONS
from rss2html import actions

lexample = ["notify-send", "RSS VIEWER", "{url}"]
ACTIONS.update({
    "play_ssh" : {
        "handler": actions.factory__local_cmd(lexample),
        "check": lambda feed, url, settings: True,
        "title": _('Local example cmd'),
        "icon": "icons/gnome_term.png",
    },
})

(Secure) way to trigger a command over SSH

This sections shows how you can trigger a command on an other host by invoking a script over SSH. This needs the generation of a new SSH Key and a binding of the script with this key. The allowed commands are defined in scripts/rss2html.sh on the remote machine.

Hint: Step 1-3 can be executed by scripts/install_ssh.sh

1. Create new key for rss2html: ssh-keygen -f ~/.ssh/rss2html -P ""

2. Copy scripts/rss2html_ssh.sh.example to rss2html.sh and add your commands into the script. The keyword (here: PLAY) should match with the value in step 2. Copy the script onto your target system.

3. Add following line in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on your remote system. The command-prefix restricts the accesses on this single script. command="{absolute path}/rss2html_ssh.sh" {Content of ~/.ssh/rss2html.pub}

4. Extend your settings.py to propagate commands to web interface by

from rss2html.default_settings import ACTIONS
from rss2html import actions

ssh_args = ("user@machine", "PLAY '{url}'", "~/.ssh/rss2html")
ACTIONS.update({
    "play_ssh" : {
        "handler": actions.factory__ssh_cmd(*ssh_args),
        "check": actions.can_play,
        "title": _('SSH Play'),
        "icon": "icons/gnome_term.png",
    },
})
# ... Other

Screenshots