Content
The abbreviation RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, which translated into Russian means “really simple distribution of information”. Standard tools of Internet Explorer 6, which is used by default in the most popular operating system today, Windows XP, do not allow working with RSS technology, which somewhat reduces its popularity among ordinary users. RSS is supported by most alternative browsers (Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, etc.) as well as some email clients (Mozilla Thunderbird, FoxMail, PocoMail, etc.). However, subscribing to RSS news and reading them can be carried out using special software, which will be discussed in the guide.
RSS is commonly used on frequently updated sites. If they have a large number of pages with interesting news or articles, the user has to spend a lot of time and traffic on their constant loading. The addition of the ability to subscribe to RSS news feeds on the site greatly simplifies the receipt of updates. The user regularly receives headlines of new articles or news with the ability to read a brief summary of their content.
Working with RSS news feeds using browsers is largely standardized. When you enter a site containing news feeds, an orange icon appears on the right side of the address bar, clicking on which opens a list of available news feeds.
Further work with RSS in different browsers has some unique features. Mozilla Firefox supports livemarks technology, live bookmarks within which news headlines are displayed. You can also choose an external RSS program or install one of several special extensions such as. Opera allows you to read RSS feeds using the built-in email client. A similar feature of Maxthon is implemented inside the left sidebar.
If you do not want to abandon the familiar Internet Explorer 6 browser just for the sake of the prospect of working with RSS, then special programs can come to the rescue, the capabilities of which often significantly exceed the rather meager arsenal of tools built into browsers. Abilon News Aggregator 2.5.3
Official page:
Size: 595 KB
OS: Windows
Russian interface: yes
Price: Free 
Abilon News Aggregator is a lightweight RSS news subscription and reader with tools for creating new blog posts.
During the first start of the Abilon News Aggregator, you are asked to select pre-prepared news feeds from a fairly impressive set. All subscriptions are sorted by folders, by subject. In addition to the suggested set of news feeds, you can import data from the OPML database, as well as use feed sets from Yahoo, LJ, MoreOver.com and MoreRSS.com. In the first two cases, you can make an additional selection of news feeds, and the third and fourth sentences are subscribed to a strictly specified set of channels.
The working window of the application consists of four main panels. One of them displays a list of available channels, just below there are reminders that allow you to store news fragments. The other two panels are designed to display the list of articles and show the current article in more detail.
It is allowed to change window layouts, show or hide panels. Inside the tree structure of subscriptions, you can see the total number of received news, as well as the number of unread articles. These numbers are shown to the right of the channel titles. During the update of the news feed, its color turns green, but if, after contacting the server, new information was received, then the color changes to burgundy. At the bottom, under the subscription window, there are two tabs that allow you to switch between showing all news and only unread items.
Why do we need reminders? You can create several memos with arbitrary names. They are still empty. Then, looking at any articles, you can select part of their text and add it to any memo. At the same time, not only the text is saved, but also an indication of the source from where the copied data was received. Memos can, like news feeds, be grouped into tabs.
While viewing the news, you can change the style of the articles. By default, a small logo from the site is loaded, and the title is highlighted with a blue background. In addition, you can switch to newspaper mode, which shows news summaries in a large window and hides the article list pane.
Abilon News Aggregator contains a built-in browser. With it, you can view regular web pages and, if they have RSS feeds, subscribe to them. The list of found RSS links can be called using the button located to the right of the standard green button to go to the web address.
In the properties of the news channel, you can specify a name and password if the server requires authorization. In addition, it is allowed to specify the update interval of the news feed, as well as play a sound signal when new articles appear. The browser supports flexible customization of news display templates. You can choose from a large number of predefined variables that control how information is displayed on the screen. However, you can do it easier by choosing pre-prepared styling options.
After receiving news, you can call an external application, as well as send notifications to the email address specified in the settings. In addition, you can specify the number of articles stored on the local disk. 
The Abilon News Aggregator includes a blog posting tool. You choose a blog supported by the program (unfortunately, the list is not very long), enter your account data. Articles are created using HTML formatting. You can preview the document and also switch to HTML source view. You can also specify forced transcoding to UTF-8 in the settings.
Full versions of articles can be opened using the built-in browser, as well as by calling an external application - the browser installed in the system by default. General program settings allow you to specify the default fonts and other style parameters. You can specify a proxy server, although you can also import Internet Explorer settings. As mentioned earlier, the program can send notifications to an email address. All mail options are also specified in the general settings of the Abilon News Aggregator.
Abilon News Aggregator has a fairly simple, but quite informative help system presented in English. During testing, the program caused fear of its repeated freezing. At the same time, even the Windows Task Manager could not close the frozen application. But experience shows that in such cases it is impossible to categorically speak about the instability of the program.
Simple and minimalistic RSS feed reader with OPML download support. In some places it "slows down" a little, but it can serve as an alternative for reading feeds and blogs. Supports keyword searches and is available in different language versions.
Feedly
Client for reading blogs and online media without OPML support. It is possible to publish interesting content read on social networks, and save content to bookmarking and deferred reading services like Pocket, Instapaper and Evernote. Organizes existing subscriptions and allows you to choose new ones from the offered feeds. It also has a beautiful and easy-to-use mobile app for iOS and Android.
CommaFeed
Homemade alternative development for Google Reader. This web service is based on open-source technologies. The user can customize the appearance and some parameters of the work using a customizable style sheet (CSS). Supports sending your favorite links to social networks or email.
Digg Reader
A project that has been a content aggregator for a long time, and then it was reworked into a platform for reading the most popular materials. The main and promoted content is presented here in the format of an online magazine. Like several of the previously listed startups, the service does not support OPML file uploads, but it does have native mobile clients.
The old reader
Another client for reading RSS feeds, this time with support for OPML files and a dozen language versions of the interface.
Reeder
A desktop client for Mac with a variety of customization options that has even been closed for a while but has recently "returned to service." Supports content search and posting of read articles on social networks.
Dotdotdot
Content reader platform that combines the capabilities of Instapaper, RSS client, e-book reader. Well suited for reading long, article content. There are apps for iPhone and iPad. Convenient for reading content without being distracted by anything. Interestingly, the service supports several e-book formats. There is no support for OPML files.
Feedspot
Freemium RSS feed reader with austere design and easy ways to quickly publish content to social media. It is possible to save content in such deferred reading services as Evernote, Pocket and Instapaper.
Taptu
A subscription reader that delivers content in the form of a digital story magazine. Supports filtering subscriptions and sorting content in several columns. You cannot import OPML files, but you can add streams for reading from social media such as Facebook, Twitter and many others. The service has native apps for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone.
Tiny Tiny RSS
An RSS reader platform with a somewhat confusing interface and quite slow. On the other hand, she has the ability to fully customize the appearance and work parameters.
NewsBlur
A standalone service where you can import up to 64 feeds of content for free, or you will have to pay $ 2 per month for an unlimited number of imported and readable RSS feeds.
Term Rss has many different definitions - it can be translated as Really Simple Syndication, it can also be translated in a different way, but the essence of this technology will not change from this.
RSS - it is the transmission and updating of news in automatic mode.
The overwhelming majority of news sites, blogs, etc., publish announcements of articles, events, news in RSS format. It provides regular automatic updates so your visitors can see the latest and greatest news.
RSS format not intended to be read by humans. He is XML document specially designed for reading machines. I already wrote about that. And in this article I will show you how read rss feed via PHP.
But first, how is it read at all Rss feed. For RSS reader special programs are used, called aggregators... Many of them are similar to email programs, but instead of incoming emails, they display news from various sources (from all news feeds in which you are registered or subscribed to). Moreover, as in mail, unread news are displayed in bold.
RSS aggregators make it much easier to keep track of news from a huge number of sources, delivering all the news to one place. But taking into account the fact that today smartphones are more and more distributed, there are specialized sites - Web-RSS aggregators. With their help, you can follow the news. from any device that has a browser.
All modern browsers have built-in readability as well Rss feeds, however, it is limited.
Ultimately, some sites collect, aggregate news from various sources into one site. Thus, it is carried out "Syndication".
After RSS service it is time to place it on the hosting. Actually Rss feed- this is a link of this kind - http: /mysite.ru/rss.php, which returns content in the format XML.
Various version of the RSS. For example, RSS 2.0 - this is the most commonly used format. It is used for news sites and blogs, as well as for hosting podcasts.
There is also a new format called Atom, which offers a more standardized approach to upgrade XML content. However, it is extremely rare outside the blogging community. Almost all blog engines can generate Atom tape on the fly.
To read Rss feed we need to find a link to this very tape. To do this, you can go to the site http://news.yandex.ru/export.html. There, select the category that you like and copy the link, for example, this one - http://news.yandex.ru/gadgets.rss.
Print “
- ”;
- link) ’title =‘ $ item-> title ’>”.<
$ item-> title. "- ”. $ item -> description. " ”; <
Foreach ($ items -> channel -> item as $ item) (
print “
}
Print “
Final function to get the content of the rss feed will be as follows:
Function getFeeds ($ url) (
$ url = “http://news.yandex.ru/gadgets.rss”;
$ content = file_get_contents ($ url);
$ items = new SimpleXmlElement ($ content);
Print “
- ”;
- link) ’title =‘ $ item-> title ’>”.
$ item-> title. "- ”. $ item -> description. " ”;
Foreach ($ items -> channel -> item as $ item) (
print “
}
Print “
According to the standard, RSS feed always follows a similar basic structure: each feed includes a root tag “Channel”. Then each item in the feed is represented by a tag channel which has its own tags:
- link - link to the news
- title - the displayed link text
- description - a small introductory text of the news
Thus, today you and I have learned how to disassemble RSS feed using PHP.
For starters, RSS translates to “Really Simple Information Dissemination”.
Reading RSS news can be done through the rss technology supported by most browsers. In addition, you can subscribe and read RSS using special programs that allow you to subscribe and read news feeds.
Usually RSS feed is available on frequently updated sites. If the site has a huge number of pages with interesting articles and news, then the reader will have to spend a lot of time and traffic on their constant loading. And with the appearance on such a site of a subscription to RSS news, it becomes much easier to receive updates. The recipient is constantly receiving headlines of new articles and news with a summary of their content.
Today we will look at several RSS readers. I picked up the programs with a Russian interface and are completely free.
Abilon News Aggregator
Abilon News Aggregator is an RSS feed reader that also has tools for creating new blog posts.
When you start the program for the first time, you can select news feeds from a pre-prepared set. All subscriptions are sorted by subject.
The working window of the program is divided into four main panels. In the upper left there is a list of available channels, below the memo, in the upper right is a list of articles, below the detailed content of the article.
The layout of the panels can be easily changed, as well as removed or displayed any of them.
Subscriptions are displayed in a tree structure with the total number of articles and the number of unread articles indicated in parentheses on the right. Under the subscription window there are two tabs that are responsible for displaying all news or only unread news.
Abilon News Aggregator has a built-in browser that allows you to view and subscribe to web pages with RSS feeds.
In the program settings, you can set the update interval for RSS feeds and set to play a sound signal if new articles have appeared. You can control a large number of variables that control the display of information on the screen.
You can post new articles to your blog. First of all, you select a blog supported by the program (the list is not very long) and enter your account information. Articles are created using the HTML markup language. There is a preview of the article. In the general settings of the program, you can change fonts and other parameters.
The help in the Abilon News Aggregator is pretty basic but very informative.
Feedreader 3.08
Feedreader is a powerful RSS feed reader. The program has a Russian interface that is included in the distribution kit. You just need to select the desired language during installation.
During the initial setup, Feedreader prompts you to select your subscriptions from a large list sorted by topic.
Feedreader has a very simple, concise interface that lacks a toolbar. The status bar contains buttons for switching window layouts, tools for changing the font size and a button for calling the built-in browser, which allows you to view multimedia documents.
To create a new feed, you need to enter a web address and the program will automatically find available subscriptions.
You can create smart news feeds in Feedreader. Their essence lies in the fact that the selection of news is performed according to the given keywords. The display of such articles will be the same as for regular ones.
The tapes are configured in the working window of the program. If authorization is required, then in the settings you can specify a username and password. You can specify an arbitrary news update interval, as well as the number of articles that can be stored on the local disk.
The list of unread news is displayed in a separate virtual news feed. You can search for the necessary information from a single search line, which is located above the list of all your news feeds. Pop-up notifications appear when new articles are posted.
Feedreader can be configured to run from mobile media. In this case, all configuration files will be stored in the program folder.
The help system is not included in the distribution kit, but is located on the official website of the program. All documentation is in English.
Download Feedreader from our program catalog.
RSS Bandit 1.5.0.10
RSS Bandit is a multifunctional program for subscribing and reading RSS news. The app supports all versions of RSS.
On first launch, the program offers a huge list of pre-installed news feeds. Adding new feeds can be done in three ways:
- import of OPML, OCS or XML data
- specifying the RSS feed address
- web address introduction
Next, you can configure notifications about new messages, set the frequency of updating news feeds, and specify the maximum storage period for news. You can also set the style of displaying articles in the working window of the program.
The program supports sending comments to an article if they support the CommentAPI protocol.
You can view article titles in two modes. If the “group messages” option is disabled, the entire list will be linear. The titles and dates of receipt will be shown. If the grouping option is enabled, folders will be shown grouped by the date of receipt. In addition, the source channel will be indicated.
The program has the ability to search the network. You can store the news base not only on a local disk, but also on network resources.
The program does not have built-in help, but the online version has good illustrations to help you learn the program.
YeahReader 2.22
YeahReader allows you to read RSS and PDF feeds. The program has good russification, so it is easy to learn.
When you start the program for the first time, you are automatically subscribed to a large number of RSS feeds. All tapes are in Russian. Using the button on the toolbar, you can subscribe to any news feed. YeahReader has a menu with popular RSS directories.
Each news feed can be updated on a separate schedule. Articles can be tagged with tags: personal, important, interesting, work and read later. Each label has a different color.
YeahReader supports news scoring. This is possible with the sound engine installed in the system. You can post on blogs such as LiveJournal, Blogger, Del.Icio.Us and MetaWeblog.
YeahReader has a primitive help in English, but this cannot be called a minus, since the program is very well Russified.
Say what you like, but keeping abreast of all events in the era of the birth of capitalism was much easier than in our high-tech XXI century. - the limited number of magazines and newspapers that were published at that time cannot be compared with the current media, where there is so much different information, useful and not so much, that you can get lost in its diversity. The World Wide Web will serve as an invaluable service in the process of introducing knowledge, but after watching a dozen or so information WWW-resources, you are guaranteed to be charged in your eyes. However, this will not happen if you use special utilities for collecting news, which will deliver you only the information you need.
FeedDemon 1.5
FeedDemon 1.5
Shareware, $ 30
Verdict
Developer Bradbury Software, LLC
The size 2.46 MB
Best RSS feed reader and manager
One of the best, if not the best, news column reader and management software! Effective and well thought-out interface, a solid set of preset channels, a lot of additional functions - all this allows FeedDemon to easily cope with any task.
Immediately after installation, the program prompts you to select the news channels to which you want to subscribe, or add your own. The list, I must say, is more than impressive - from entertainment and software updates to the latest innovations in technology, more than 200 items in total! By the way, you don't have to enter new feeds manually - FeedDemon handles importing OPML files (a standard RSS import / export format), and also comes equipped with the extremely useful Auto Discovery feature, which automatically finds RSS feeds when browsing Web sites.
Working with news in the RSS format is very simple and convenient and does not at all require routine sorting through each message, as when reading e-mail. Instead, just select the desired feed, and FeedDemon will immediately display all unread news in the form of a single page, automatically uploading images to them as you browse. The user just needs to open the ones they need in the built-in browser or add them to the local analogue of the Favorites - the News Bin basket. What for? And then, that the limit of such systems is limited (on average 200 messages) and as new links arrive, the old ones will be immediately deleted. In principle, in the options it is possible to forcibly increase the cache size, but the option with News Bin looks much more attractive. Powerful data sorting and filtering tools (date of creation / receipt, author, source) will greatly simplify the search for the necessary information in the program cache, and a special FeedStation module will incredibly delight podcasting fans, not only downloading the necessary links, but also automatically uploading them to the playlist of their favorite media player. Well, excellent integration with external browsers will greatly simplify the work with various Web sites. Perhaps the only drawback of FeedDemon is its shareware status, but there are simply no best programs in this category ...
Omea Pro 2.0
Omea Pro 2.0
Price Shareware, $ 49
Verdict
Developer JetBrains
The size 6.4 MB
An excellent information center for a PC that can do everything
A real heavyweight in the field of information resources, which is clearly cramped within the framework of the term "news client". Omea Pro is a fully functional communications center that organically combines a bookmark manager, RSS client, powerful organizer, Usenet conference reader and excellent local search engine. Thanks to this approach, the user will not only optimize his work at the PC without any problems, but will also save a lot of time for finding information on the Internet that is already available on the computer. Omea's local search capabilities are in no way inferior to specialized software: support for all the most popular document types, including PDF, as well as ICQ / Miranda logs, content from downloaded RSS feeds and Web blogs. Well, the "smart" indexing system will make this process almost instant.
Of course, this “combine” has not forgotten the function of collecting news: connecting, managing and viewing RSS columns is just as convenient as those of recognized leaders like FeedDemon. The only drawback is the absence of pre-installed news feeds, but they can be imported from any similar program without any problems, so this fact cannot be considered a significant drawback. And the thoughtful and user-friendly interface, which contains all this variety of functions, deserves the highest praise. An excellent "think tank" for your PC!
ActiveRefresh 2.5.3
ActiveRefresh 2.5.3
Price Shareware, $ 30
Verdict
Developer SisyphSoft
The size 750 KB
Support for updates from sites that do not work with RSS; work with e-mail; good functionality
Shareware status; the interface could be a little more convenient
Software for working with RSS, for all its convenience, has a number of significant drawbacks. The main one is that not all sites have RSS-columns, which means that it will not be possible to quickly receive the latest news from them. But with ActiveRefresh, this problem will not arise - the program allows you to successfully download publications even from sites that do not support RSS! All you need to do is spend a few minutes creating a custom template, after which the utility will "catch" only the information that interests you on the Web pages. And, of course, there is support for ATOM, XML and RSS feeds - just as good as other programs.
In addition, as a nice bonus, it comes with checking and receiving mail from Yahoo !, Mail and other popular e-mail services using the Mail2RSS plugin; in this case, all new messages will be displayed in the form of headers, by clicking on which you will be taken to the mail server itself, where you can read the letter. I was also very pleased with the support of numerous blogs, including the world famous LiveJournal. Now you can not only quote interesting news in your LiveJournal, but also quickly receive updates to your friends' blogs directly from the ActiveRefresh window. The multi-window browser will simplify the viewing of information, and the wide possibilities for exporting and saving news and an excellent scheduler make ActiveRefresh indispensable for every networked user.
Active Web Reader 2.42
Active Web Reader 2.42
Price Freeware
Verdict
Developer DeskShare
The size 1.26 MB
Free, basic set of features; built-in bookmark manager
Rustic appearance
Nice free utility for working with both RSS news and Web pages. By default, the program comes with a number of news feeds, but there are too few of them, and the quality, to be honest, leaves much to be desired. But this is not scary, because adding new settings or importing them from other similar programs into Active Web Reader is as easy as shelling pears. The rest of the utility's characteristics are also quite good. Do not expect any special delights from her like reading e-mail (and is it necessary?) Or supporting podcasting, but with her main task - reading and regularly updating the latest news - she copes with a solid "four". Interesting publications can be immediately sent to a friend by e-mail, added to Favorites, or printed. Another useful function of the program is the built-in bookmark manager (unfortunately, only Internet Explorer is supported), which allows you to regularly track all changes on selected sites. I'd love to see more blog support, the ability to sync feeds and OPML files. But there is a local search in the cache and a multi-window browser, as well as automatic detection of news feeds when browsing the Internet, which is more than enough for a home user. And of course, it attracts the absolute free-of-charge, which favorably distinguishes Active Web Reader from other programs.
NewzCrawler 1.7
NewzCrawler 1.7
Price Shareware, $ 25
Verdict
Developer ADC Software
The size 1.44 MB
Usenet client and RSS aggregator in one program; support for voice engines
Nothing significant
Another interesting product with a number of unique features. Despite its somewhat hackish name, NewzCrawler serves a much more innocuous purpose, namely: collecting everything the most relevant on the Web, from BBC news to science, sports and games. Of course, Web-blogging is fully supported, and the automatic detection of news feeds when surfing the Web - in general, a complete gentleman's set. Well, in order not to get lost in this variety of information, at your service is a powerful system of filters and search according to a given criterion (date, source, author, etc.). And of course, the articles you need can be easily saved or organized into some kind of newspaper, that is, in the form of a solid page, and not separate publications.
Like Omea, our guest is not limited to just RSS news - with the same success Newz-Crawler works with Usenet conferences, in fact, playing the role of an NNTP client. What benefit does a PC owner get from the simultaneous use of two popular sources of information at once, I think, there is no need to spread too much. None of the similar programs offer anything similar. Well, with the help of MS Agent technology, you can listen to news without wasting time reading them. To do this, you just need to download special voice modules (free, but not very high-quality ones are available on the Microsoft website, and from the commercial ones you can recommend the Russian-language Digalo
What it is?
Rss(Really Simple Syndication) is a widely accepted standard for publishing and delivering information, primarily Web site updates. This technology is implemented in the form of a text file created using the XML language. There are several formats for RSS feeds, notably RSS 1.0 and RSS 2.0 (the most commonly used), and now also ATOM, actively promoted by Google. RSS files are standardized so that users can easily sort and filter news by various parameters - for example, post title, author, date of creation, etc. This is done using programs - RSS-clients, or aggregators - that allow you to view information without by going to the site itself. This method is even more convenient in that RSS-aggregators show whether there are any updates on the site or not, saving us from unnecessary waste of time. It should be noted that this simple technology has gained immense popularity over the past two years, because it is the easiest and at the same time the most effective way to update Web resources. Now it is difficult to find a self-respecting English-language portal that does not provide services through RSS-broadcast. Recently, significant shifts in this area have been observed in UANet: more and more leading Ukrainian sites are connecting to this trend, offering RSS feeds.
Why is this needed?
Firstly, this approach dramatically increases your efficiency and saves a lot of time. Instead of going to every interesting site and seeing if anything new has appeared there, you click a button and immediately find out which sites from your list have been updated. By clicking on the selected resource, you instantly receive a news feed. In addition, all publications are provided in a standardized form, and there is no need to get used to the interface of each site. Further, you no longer impose all the information in bulk - you yourself choose only what you need.
Alternative to RSS aggregators
If your favorite browser is FireFox, then you can do without specialized programs by simply installing the appropriate plugin. The new version of Opera is also able to work with news in RSS format, as well as The Bat! and Mozilla Thunderbird. According to rumors, a similar technology is promised to be implemented in the upcoming Internet Explorer 7 - Microsoft is striving to keep up with world progress. Also very popular are Web-aggregators, which are sites for collecting and displaying RSS feeds (for example, Yandex.News).
Disadvantages and limitations of RSS technology
The RSS technology is practically devoid of any serious flaws or limitations, but there are still a number of minor flaws. The most unpleasant one can be called limiting the number of fresh messages stored on the server - only 20. Therefore, if you, for example, forgot to update the content of a site in the aggregator program, the next time it will load new information, removing the previous one, which you do not managed to look through. There is only one way out - to regularly update the content of Web resources, since they take just a couple of kilobytes. And the second minus - there are still retrogrades that have not included RSS support in their site engines.
