I'm in the early stages of designing an RSS app, and I'd like to include syncing to an online RSS feed service as a feature. Most such apps make use of Google Reader's feed/syncing features, but Google is now moving sync out of its Reader service, and also its API remains undocumented. Are there any alternatives to Google Reader that offer online syncing of feeds with a desktop client, and which have a documented API?
5 Answers
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3
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What about Newsblur?
Don't know anything about them, but they appear to have a reasonable facsimile of a product in this vein.
Here are their API docs. http://www.newsblur.com/api
They are a subscription service, but you can have up to 64 feeds for free.
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A couple suggestions, the original web RSS Reader BlogLines is still around, though now under new management since MerchantCircle purchased the service late last year. The APIs maybe still functional: Or they may be deprecated/turned off, haven't tried the APIs myself.
If BlogLines API is no longer around a better bet is LiveDoor Reader (along with it's open sourced version is called FastLadder).
Livedoor Reader is a Japanese service, but FastLadder pages and documentation are available in english and Japanese.
Downloadable Open sourced versions for running on your own machines be they windows, Mac OSX, or Linux from here There's also a FastLadder Google source Code page.
There are RSS apps for both IOS and Android that sync with LiveDoor Reader/FastLadder instances. Just search for LDR in their respective app stores.
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I don't think there's a ready answer yet, but I think Brent Simmons has a rough spec of what could be a start:
http://inessential.com/2010/02/08/idea_for_alternative_rss_syncing_system
Basically, imagine a server that manages feed subscription lists and captures annotations for feed items. Those annotations for items would be things like (un)read, starred, shared, saved, deleted, or whatever else an app might want to attach to a feed item. It should stay simple and not fetch or process feeds themselves - other apps and libraries do that fine already.
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Feedlooks looks close too with no ties to Google Reader - not sure about the API, though http://www.feedlooks.com/
Years back, I'd used a self hosted Open Source app called Gregarious - It appears to have gone missing recently.
Here's the Gregarious Archive from 2010 http://web.archive.org/web/20100925221312/http://gregarius.net/
Another contender for the do-it-yourselfer might be utilizing SimplePie.org
