elfeed-org

Configure the Elfeed RSS reader with an Orgmode file

Problem

Maintaining tags for all my rss feeds is cumbersome using the regular flat list where there is no hierarchy and tag names are duplicated a lot. For example this is how elfeed users typically configure their subscriptions.

(defvar elfeed-feeds-alist
  '(("http://threesixty360.wordpress.com/feed/" blog math)
    ("http://www.50ply.com/atom.xml" blog dev)
    ("http://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/feeds/posts/default" blog)
    ("http://abstrusegoose.com/feed.xml" comic)
    ("http://accidental-art.tumblr.com/rss" image math)
    ("http://english.bouletcorp.com/feed/" comic)
    ("http://curiousprogrammer.wordpress.com/feed/" blog dev)
    ("http://feeds.feedburner.com/amazingsuperpowers" comic)
    ("http://amitp.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default" blog dev)
    ("http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~psilord/blog/rssfeed.rss" blog)
    ("http://www.anticscomic.com/?feed=rss2" comic)
    ("http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/TPQSS" blog dev)))

Solution

Org-mode makes the book keeping of tags and feeds much easier. Tags get inherited from parent headlines so there is no need to specify tags for each and every feed.

* Technology                                                            :tech:
 :PROPERTIES:
 :ID: elfeed
 :END:
  * entry-title: \(linux\|linus\|ubuntu\|kde\|gnome\)                  :linux:
  * http://git-annex.branchable.com/design/assistant/blog/index.rss :mustread:
  * http://feeds.feedburner.com/InformationIsBeautiful
  * Software Development                                                 :dev:
    * Emacs                                                   :emacs:mustread:
      * http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/feed
      * http://nullprogram.com/feed
      * entry-title: \(emacs\|org-mode\)
      * http://planet.emacsen.org/atom.xml
    * Web Development                                                    :web:
      * http://planet.phpunit.de/atom.xml
      * http://feeds.feedburner.com/symfony/blog
      * http://feeds.feedburner.com/qooxdoo/blog/content
    * Eclipse                                                        :eclipse:
      * http://blog.eclipse-tips.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
      * http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
      * http://feeds.feedburner.com/eclipselive
      * http://www.fosslc.org/drupal/rss.xml                           :video:

Tips

A few tips for the org-mode feed configuration:

The tree must have an ID property matching the string specified in the variable rmh-elfeed-org-tree-id.
Feeds must start with http.
Tag rules must start with entry-title: .
You may add text below the headline with the url to describe the feed or to add notes. They will be ignored.
Headlines not starting with http of entry-title: will be ignored.

Installation

Through MELPA

;; Install through package manager
M-x package-install <ENTER>
elfeed-org <ENTER>

Manual

Download elfeed-org

cd ~/.emacs.d/lisp
wget https://github.com/remyhonig/rmh-elfeed-org/blob/master/elfeed-org.el

Install the package in Emacs

C-x C-f ~/.emacs.d/lisp/elfeed-org.el <ENTER>
M-x package-install-from-buffer <ENTER>

Initialization

In your initialization script add the following:

;; Load elfeed-org
;; This hooks up elfeed-org to read the configuration when elfeed
;; is started with =M-x elfeed=
(require 'elfeed-org)

;; Initialize elfeed-org
(elfeed-org)

;; Optionally specify a number of files containing elfeed
;; configuration. If not set then the location below is used.
(setq rmh-elfeed-org-files (list "~/.emacs.d/elfeed.org"))

RafalBabinicz/elfeed-org