Offline Feed Reader?

[Sir Jasper]

Hi,

This is probably a throwaway thought, but could you identify what you need using your Feed Reader and then use Evernote [free version] to get the pages with full text and pictures.

I have used Evernote via Wine and Internet Explorer but I think there is a ´buntu Firefox Evernote add-on.

I have no expertise in your requirement - just trying to help as you have waited a long time.

My regards

PS There is also a Scrapbook add-on for Firefox.

[bornagainpenguin]

Hi,

This is probably a throwaway thought, but could you identify what you need using your Feed Reader and then use Evernote [free version] to get the pages with full text and pictures.

I have used Evernote via Wine and Internet Explorer but I think there is a ´buntu Firefox Evernote add-on.

I did a google of the application and found the Firefox extension you speak of, the reviewers are saying it is incredibly unstable on the latest version of Firefox.

I have no expertise in your requirement - just trying to help as you have waited a long time.

My regards

I appreciate that. Basically what I am looking for is an application that can upon being opened read through a list of feeds and download their content (text and any associated images) and cache these for later reading offline. I have a netbook with WiFi but unfortunately not everywhere I go has an open access point, so having my feeds (from news sites and blogs) allows me to read stuff offline and stay current even while not connected.

Straw Feed Reader used to do this quite well, before it was essentially abandoned and allowed to bitrot away as newer versions of Python dropped backwards compatibility and html libraries changed names and versions. Sure the application occasionally seemed to really slam the hard disk when writing the feeds to its database, but I could set it to run overnight while I was sleeping and have all sorts of articles to read later. Unfortunately it seems that Straw is the only application of its kind that runs on Linux. When ever you see a feed reader on Linux claiming to have offline support it always seems to be the text they refer to, not the associated images.

What good is it to have an xkcd feed without the images?

Or an engadget feed discussing a new device without the images of that device?

This is why I want a truly offline feed reader.

PS There is also a Scrapbook add-on for Firefox.

I've tried that one before, it seemed to be more of a webcopier like HTTRack than a feed reader.

Also, I'm trying to get something that is its own application if at all possible.

--bornagainpenguin

PS: Thanks again for the reply, I appreciate any help given!

[bornagainpenguin]

Regularly scheduled bump. Feel free to ignore (most people chose this option).

--bornagainpenguin

PS: Is there a prize for thread with the most bumps and no solution that works?

[Sir Jasper]

Hi again,

Perhaps you could PM carlee, for example, with a link to this thread asking if she/he would would so kind as to read it.

Expecting a PM response might be a bit much, but asking someone to view your thread seems, at least to me, to observe good etiquette.

My regards

[vincentertainment]

Sounds like a useful program. I live in a rural area too. No broadband here.

I'm not a programmer but I was wondering how hard would it be for someone who is a programmer to update Straw for newer releases or to import that offline photo archiving feature into another program?
Isn't that one of the advantages of open source and free licensces?

[bornagainpenguin]

Perhaps you could PM carlee, for example, with a link to this thread asking if she/he would would so kind as to read it.

Okay, I'll bite--who is carlee and why should I ask for her to read this thread? Googling does nothing.

--bornagainpenguin

[bornagainpenguin]

Sounds like a useful program. I live in a rural area too. No broadband here.

Then you know my pain. Actually I get DSL at home, but I don't stay home all day, I have to move about and that is where I run into the dearth of internet issue. Not that the DSL I get is all that much better than dial-up these days thanks to how much Verizon keeps choking me, but still...

I'm not a programmer but I was wondering how hard would it be for someone who is a programmer to update Straw for newer releases or to import that offline photo archiving feature into another program?

As far as I can tell the biggest issue seems to be the changes between the 2.4 versions of Python and later, which have no backwards compatibility with each other and the changes in the HTML libraries the application uses to render with. Assuming this can be fixed...

Isn't that one of the advantages of open source and free licensces?

I keep hearing that one too. Doesn't seem to hold up much unless you're either a programmer or a corporation; the rest of us have to make do the best we can no matter which platform we run...

--bornagainpenguin

[ramnarayan]

Solution from 2005

http://mrpostman.sourceforge.net/index.html

(03/06/2005) A new script for reading RSS feeds was released. In contrast to lots of RSS readers it will also download the full news message including pictures. Thus offline reading is made easy. Sample configurations for CNN, BBC, ... are provided.

**
Seems like this is an age old problem with no decent solution.

If anyone gets MRpostman running please let me know, its how to sucks and am not sure how this integrates into a mail client. ??

ram

[bornagainpenguin]

Solution from 2005

http://mrpostman.sourceforge.net/index.html

(03/06/2005) A new script for reading RSS feeds was released. In contrast to lots of RSS readers it will also download the full news message including pictures. Thus offline reading is made easy. Sample configurations for CNN, BBC, ... are provided.

**
Seems like this is an age old problem with no decent solution.

If anyone gets MRpostman running please let me know, its how to sucks and am not sure how this integrates into a mail client. ??

ram

As I said in the other thread, I'll be giving this a try and posting back what my results (if anything) are. Oh, and I also posted a link to Lucidor in that thread in case you're still looking for it.

--bornagainpenguin

[sandyd]

I've been holding on to Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04.4 for awhile now both due to needed hardware support and for application compatibility with my preferred feed reader. Straw. Unfortunately, while the hardware support seems to be slowly improving, I have been unable to find a replacement offline feed reader for Straw and since it has become increasingly clearer Straw is abandonware and will not be updated to work on the newer python, or to use the new python gecko modules I need to find a replacement for when Canonical drops support for Hardy Heron. I have tried out quite a few different feed readers in the past but have been unable to find one with Straw's killer feature...

Straw has the ability to download and cache locally any images associated with a post for offline viewing. I need that feature! Many of my feeds include images as an important part of the article, and I am unable to always be connected to a WiFi hotspot in the rural area where I live. Without the ability to cache both images and text a feed reader is not truly offline or useful to me.

Can someone please recommend me a feed reader that offers true offline?

Thanks in advance!

--bornagainpenguin

Okay, I'll bite--who is carlee and why should I ask for her to read this thread? Googling does nothing.

--bornagainpenguin

that would be me.

a) although ubuntu has dropped straw in karmic... installing it in karmic still works. If you want to stay with straw, you can still upgrade all the way to karmic and still use it.

I havent tested it on lucid cause one of the lucid bugs is inhibiting my ability to boot to the desktop, but ill get testing once I get the computer moving.

b) RSSowl seems to be able to cache images. im downloading it to give it a run right now, but comcast is giving me 50kb/s, so this is gonna take some time....

Yup. As long as you open the post once, RSSowl will cache the image.
If you dont open it, only the text is cached.

Just press the update button, and ill download all the text. Ill see if it has a hidden option to download the images as well...