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https://github.com/themightygit/rssole

A no-frills RSS Reader inspired by the late Google Reader
https://github.com/themightygit/rssole

bootstrap bootstrap5 go golang htmx rss rss-reader

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A no-frills RSS Reader inspired by the late Google Reader

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# rssole



An absolutely no frills RSS Reader inspired by the late Google Reader. Runs on

your local machine or local network serving your RSS feeds via a clean

responsive web interface.



![Screenshot 2023-08-10 at 14 21 53](https://github.com/TheMightyGit/rssole/assets/888751/a44ae604-72a4-4e92-8ed7-5580663eaf0c)



A single executable with a single config file that can largely be configured

within the web UI.



Its greatest feature is the lack of excess features. It tries to do a simple

job well and not get in the way.



## Background



I really miss Google Reader, and I really like simplicity. So I made this

non-SaaS ode to Google Reader so I can triage my incoming information in one

place with one interface in a way I like. At heart this is a very self serving

project solely based around my needs, and because of that it's something I use

constantly. Hopefully it's of use to some other people, or you can build upon

it (MIT license, do what you want to it - make it comfortable for you).



## Advantages/Limitations



I see these as advantages (so they are unlikely to be added as features), but

some may see them as limitations...



- Only shows what's in the feed currently, does not store stories beyond their

  lifetime in the feed.

- Doesn't try to fetch anything from the linked page, only shows info present

  in the feed. The aim is not to keep you inside the RRS reader, if you want

  more then follow the link to the origin site.

- No bookmarks/favourites - you can already do this in the browser.

- It's not multi-user, there is no login or security protection. It's not

  intended as a SaaS product, it's just for you on your local machine or

  network. But you can stick an authenticating HTTP proxy in front of it if you

  wish.



## Pre-Built Binaries and Packages



Check out the [Releases](https://github.com/TheMightyGit/rssole/releases/)

section in github, there should be a good selection of pre-built binaries

and packages for various platforms.



## Installing via Brew



```console

$ brew install themightygit/rssole/rssole

```



## Installing via Go



You can install the binary with go install:



```console

$ go install github.com/TheMightyGit/rssole/cmd/rssole@latest

```



## Building



NOTE: You can ignore the `Makefile`, that's really just a helper for me during

development.



To build for your local architecture/OS...



```console

$ go build ./cmd/...

```



It should also cross build for all the usual golang targets fine as well (as no

CGO is used)...



```console

$ GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build ./cmd/...

$ GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build ./cmd/...

$ GOOS=darwin GOARCH=amd64 go build ./cmd/...

$ GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 go build ./cmd/...

$ GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 go build ./cmd/...

$ GOOS=windows GOARCH=arm64 go build ./cmd/...

```



...but I only regularly test on `darwin/amd64` and `linux/amd64`.

I've seen it run on `windows/amd64`, but it's not something I try regularly.



### Smallest Binary



Go binaries can be a tad chunky, so if you're really space constrained then...



```console

$ go build -ldflags "-s -w" ./cmd/...

$ upx rssole

```



## Running



### Command Line



If you built locally then it should be in the current directory:



```console

$ ./rssole

```



If you used `go install` or brew then it should be on your path already:



```console

$ rssole

```



### GUI



Double click on the file, I guess.



If your system has restrictions on which binaries it will run then try

compiling locally instead of using the pre-built binaries.



## Now read your feeds with your browser



Now open your browser on `:8090` e.g. http://localhost:8090



## Network Options



By default it binds to `0.0.0.0:8090`, so it will be available on all network

adaptors on your host. You can change this in the `rssole.json` config file.



I run rssole within a private network so this is good enough for me so that I

can run it once but access it from all my devices. If you run this on an alien

network then someone else can mess with the UI (there's no protection at all on

it) - change the `listen` value in `rssole.json` to `127.0.0.1:8090` if you

only want it to serve locally.



If you want to protect rssole behind a username and password or encryption

(because you want rssole wide open on the net so you can use it from anywhere)

then you'll need a web proxy that can be configured to sit in front of it to

provide that protection. I'm highly unlikely to add username/password or

encryption directly to rssole as I don't need it. Maybe someone will create a

docker image that autoconfigures all of that... maybe that someone is you?



## Config



### Arguments



```console

$ ./rssole -h

Usage of ./rssole:

  -c string

        config filename (default "rssole.json")

  -r string

        readcache location (default "rssole_readcache.json")

```



### `rssole.json`



There are two types of feed definition...



- Regular RSS URLs.

- Scrape from website (for those pesky sites that have no RSS feed).

  - Scraping uses css selectors and is not well documented yet.



Use `category` to group similar feeds together.



```json

{

  "config": {

    "listen": "0.0.0.0:8090",

    "update_seconds": 300

  },

  "feeds": [

    {"url":"https://github.com/TheMightyGit/rssole/releases.atom", "category":"Github Releases"},

    {"url":"https://news.ycombinator.com/rss", "category":"Nerd"},

    {"url":"http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/rss.xml", "category":"News"},

    {

      "url":"https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/news/", "category":"Games",

      "name":"PCGamer News",

      "scrape": {

        "urls": [

          "https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/news/",

          "https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/news/page/2/",

          "https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/news/page/3/"

        ],

        "item": ".listingResult",

        "title": ".article-name",

        "link": ".article-link"

      }

    }

  ]

}

```



## Key Dependencies



I haven't had to implement anything actually difficult, I just do a bit of

plumbing. All the difficult stuff has been done for me by these projects...



- github.com/mmcdole/gofeed - for reading all sorts of RSS formats.

- github.com/andybalholm/cascadia - for css selectors during website scrapes.

- github.com/JohannesKaufmann/html-to-markdown/v2 to convert HTML into Markdown

  (thus sanitizing and simplifying it).

- github.com/gomarkdown/markdown to render content markdown back to HTML.

- github.com/k3a/html2text - for making a plain text summary of html.

- HTMX - for the javascript anti-framework (and a backend engineers delight).

- Bootstrap 5 - for HTML niceness simply because I know it slightly better than

  the alternatives.