forked from notBrad/bubo-rss
133 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
133 lines
6.6 KiB
Markdown
[](https://app.netlify.com/sites/bubo-rss-demo/deploys)
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# 🦉 Bubo Reader (2.0)
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Bubo Reader is a hyper-minimalist <acronym title="Really Simple Syndication">RSS</acronym> and <acronym title="JavaScript Object Notation">JSON</acronym> feed reader you can deploy on your own server, [Netlify](https://netlify.com) in a few steps or [Glitch](https://glitch.com) in even fewer steps! The goal of the project is to generate a webpage that shows a list of links from a collection of feeds organized by category and website. That's it.
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It is named after this [silly robot owl](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYSeCfo9-NI) from Clash of the Titans (1981).
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You can read more about how this project came about on my blog:
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- [Introducing Bubo RSS: An Absurdly Minimalist RSS Feed Reader](https://george.mand.is/2019/11/introducing-bubo-rss-an-absurdly-minimalist-rss-feed-reader/).
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## Getting Started
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- Clone or fork the repo and run `npm install` to install the dependencies.
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- Update `feeds.json` to include categories and links to feeds you would like to see.
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- Run `npm run build:bubo`
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That's it! You should now have a static page with links to the latest content from your feeds in the `public` folder, ready to serve.
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## Differences in Bubo 2.0
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Version 2.0 has introduced some substantial changes for Bubo! While the static output remains endearingly spartan, the engine that builds it has changed a bit.
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Hopefully all of these changes are in services of making this project more useful to others and encouraging outside contributions.
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Changes of note:
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- Bubo has been rewritten in [TypeScript](https://www.typescriptlang.org/). It's pretty slick! I anticipate the typing could be improved, but it's a start.
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- You fill find an `.nvmrc` file in the root of this project. Learn more [about nvm](https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm) if you're unfamiliar.
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- The script will actually write your `index.html` file for you (Previously the build script simply ran `node src/index.js > output/index.html`). It makes a strong assumption that this file lives in the `public` folder.
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- There is a somewhat sophisticated mechansim in-place for batching & throttling your requests, if needed.
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## Anatomy of Bubo Reader
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The static pieces:
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- `conf/feeds.json` - a JSON file containing your feed URLS separated into categories.
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- `config/template.html` - a [Nunjucks](https://mozilla.github.io/nunjucks/) template that lets you change how the feeds are displayed. This can be changed to anything else you like— see below.
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- `public/style.css` - a CSS file to stylize your feed output.
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- `public/index.html` - The HTML file that gets automatically generated when Bubo is run.
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The engine:
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- `src/index.ts` - The primary script you run when you want to build a new version of Bubo. It will automatically fetch the latest content from your feeds and build a new static file at `public/index.html`.
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- `src/renderer.ts` — The renderer that loads Nunjucks, the template and understands how to process the incoming feed data. Prefer something else? This is the place to change it!
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- `src/utilities.ts` — A variety of parsing and normalization utilities for Bubo, hidden away to try and keep things clean.
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## Throttling
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In the main `index.ts` file you will find two values that allow yout to batch and throttle your feed requests:
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- `MAX_CONNECTIONS` dictates the maximium number of requests a batch can have going at once.
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- `DELAY_MS` dictates the amount of de;ay time between each batch.
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The default configuration is **no batching or throttling** beacuse `MAX_CONNECTIONS` is set to `Infinity`. If you wanted to change Bubo to only fetch one feed at a time every second you could set these values to:
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```javascript
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const MAX_CONNECTIONS = 1;
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const DELAY_MS = 1000;
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```
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If you wanted to limit things to 10 simultaneous requests every 2.5 seconds you could set it like so:
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```javascript
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const MAX_CONNECTIONS = 10;
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const DELAY_MS = 2500;
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```
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In practice, I've never _really_ run into an issue leaving `MAX_CONNECTIONS` set to `Infinity` but this feels like a sensible safeguard to design.
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## Demos
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You can view live demos here:
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- [https://bubo-rss-demo.netlify.com/](https://bubo-rss-demo.netlify.com/)
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- [http://bubo-rss.glitch.me/](http://bubo-rss.glitch.me/)
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Not the most exciting-looking demos, I'll admit, but they work!
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**Getting Started**
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- [Deploying to Glitch](#glitch)
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- [Deploying to Netlify](#netlify)
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- [Keeping feeds updated](#updated)
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<a id="glitch"></a>
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## Deploying to Glitch
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The quickest way is to remix the project on Glitch:
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[https://glitch.com/edit/#!/bubo-rss](https://glitch.com/edit/#!/bubo-rss)
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There is also a `glitch` branch on this repo if you'd prefer to start there.
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Just change some feeds in `./config/feeds.json` file and you're set! If you'd like to modify the style or the template you can changed `./public/style.css` file or the `./config/template.html` file respectively.
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<a id="netlify"></a>
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## Deploying to Netlify
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- [Fork the repository](https://github.com/georgemandis/bubo-rss/fork)
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- From your forked repository edit `config/feeds.json` to manage your feeds and categories
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- [Create a new site](https://app.netlify.com/start) on Netlify from GitHub
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The deploy settings should automatically import from the `netlify.toml` file. All you'll need to do is confirm and you're ready to go!
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<a id="updated"></a>
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### Keeping Feeds Updated
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#### Using Netlify Webhooks
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To keep your feeds up to date you'll want to [setup a Build Hook](https://www.netlify.com/docs/webhooks/#incoming-webhooks) for your Netlify site and use another service to ping it every so often to trigger a rebuild. I'd suggest looking into:
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- [IFTTT](https://ifttt.com/)
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- [Zapier](https://zapier.com/)
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- [EasyCron](https://www.easycron.com/)
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#### Using GitHub Actions
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Coming soon—there is an old branch that demonstrates this, but it needs to be revisisted in light of Bubo 2.0.
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#### Rolling Your Own
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If you already have a server running Linux and some command-line experience it might be simpler to setup a [cron job](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cron).
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## Support
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If you found this useful please consider sponsoring me or this project.
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If you'd rather run this on your own server please consider using one of these affiliate links to setup a micro instance on [Linode](https://www.linode.com/?r=8729957ab02b50a695dcea12a5ca55570979d8b9), [Digital Ocean](https://m.do.co/c/31f58d367777) or [Vultr](https://www.vultr.com/?ref=8403978).
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## Showcase
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Here are some websites using Bubo Reader:
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- [Kevin Fiol](https://kevinfiol.com/reader/) ([repo](https://github.com/kevinfiol/reader))
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