RSS Mastery with RSS-Bridge & Elfeed [Video]

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve just published a short video covering the basics of RSS, RSS-Bridge & Elfeed, it’s currently available on YouTube.

Video notes

What is RSS?

XML-based web feed that allows users to access updates of websites, without “visiting” the website.
Hacktivist including Aaron Swartz contributed to the development of RSS

Why use it?

Having total control over information you consume
- Filter/Prioritize content from various sources
- Bypass algorithms
- Ad-free reading
Offline Access
Time saving
Allows creation of a personalized & decentralized information hub

(+ Emacs RSS) ;; => ’elfeed

No matter what RSS reader you choose, they all get the same job done

Elfeed is a simple & highly customizable RSS client for Emacs
- Developed by Christopher Wellons (skeeto)
It has a well designed database & tagging system

use-package installation example:

(use-package elfeed
  :vc (:url "https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed") ;; vc option is available on Emacs 30
  :config
  (setf elfeed-search-filter "@1-week-ago +unread"
        browse-url-browser-function #'browse-url-default-browser
        elfeed-db-directory (locate-user-emacs-file "elfeed-db"))
  ;; Feeds Example
  (setf elfeed-feeds
        '(("https://hackaday.com/blog/feed/"
           hackaday linux)))

  ;; Play videos from elfeed
  (defun elfeed-mpv (&optional use-generic-p)
    "Play video link with mpv."
    (interactive "P")
    (let ((entries (elfeed-search-selected)))
      (cl-loop for entry in entries
               do (elfeed-untag entry 'unread)
               when (elfeed-entry-link entry)
               do (start-process-shell-command "elfeed-video" nil (format "mpv \"%s\"" it)))
      (mapc #'elfeed-search-update-entry entries)
      (unless (use-region-p) (forward-line))))

  :bind (("C-x f" . elfeed)
         :map elfeed-search-mode-map
         ("v" . 'elfeed-mpv)
         ("U" . 'elfeed-update)))

What to do with websites that do not provide an RSS feed?

Utilize rss-bridge to generate one.
RSS Bridge is easy to self host using docker

Example guix service: