reader 2.0 released – a Python feed reader library

[u/genericlemon24]

Hi there!

I'm happy to announce version 2.0 of reader, a Python RSS / Atom / JSON feed reader library.

What's new?

• Cleaner API, and more consistently named methods and attributes.

• Timezone-aware datetimes.

• Safer defaults: opening local (file:) feeds is now opt-in, instead of opt-out.

• Stable plugin support.

• The following plugins are now built-in:

  • enclosure_dedupe – deduplicate the enclosures of an entry

  • entry_dedupe – deduplicate the entries of a feed

  • mark_as_read – mark new entries of a feed as read if their title matches a regex

  • ua_fallback – retry feed requests that get 403 Forbidden with a different user agent

• A new stable plugin hook, for running arbitrary actions for updated entries.

• Reserved tag and metadata keys, to allow exposing reader and plugin functionality directly to the end users.

• Improved update handling: update articles whenever their content changes, regardless of their updated date, while preventing excessive updates.

• Lots of bug fixes.

• Various documentation, CLI, and web application improvements.

• PyPy 3.7 support.

• Drop Python 3.6 support.

This is a major release, and contains some backwards incompatible changes.

What is reader?

reader takes care of the core functionality required by a feed reader, so you can focus on what makes yours different.

reader allows you to:

• retrieve, store, and manage Atom, RSS, and JSON feeds

• mark entries as read or important

• add tags and metadata to feeds

• filter feeds and articles

• full-text search articles

• write plugins to extend its functionality

...all these with:

• a high-level, stable, clearly documented API

• excellent test coverage

• fully typed Python

To find out more, check out the GitHub repo and the docs, or give the tutorial a try.

Why use a feed reader library?

Have you been unhappy with existing feed readers and wanted to make your own, but:

• never knew where to start?

• it seemed like too much work?

• you don't like writing backend code?

Are you already working with feedparser, but:

• want an easier way to store, filter, sort and search feeds and entries?

• want to get back type-annotated objects instead of dicts?

• want to restrict or deny file-system access?

• want to change the way feeds are retrieved by using Requests?

• want to also support JSON Feed?

... while still supporting all the feed types feedparser does?

If you answered yes to any of the above, reader can help.