/feedbin

RSS Reader

Primary LanguageRubyMIT LicenseMIT

Feedbin

Feedbin is a simple, fast and nice looking RSS reader.

Feedbin Screenshot

Introduction

Feedbin is a web based RSS reader. It provides a user interface for reading and managing feeds as well as a REST-like API for clients to connect to.

The main Feedbin project is a Rails 4.0 application. In addition to the main project there are several other services that provide additional functionality. None of these services are required to get Feedbin running locally, but they all provide important functionality that you would want for a production install.

  • refresher: Refresher is the service that does feed refreshing. Feed refreshes are scheduled as background jobs using Sidekiq. Refresher is kept separate so it can be scaled independently. It's also a benefit to not have to load all of Rails for this service.
  • polyptych: Polyptych is an API for fetching favicons. Favicons are compiled into a singe CSS file as base64 encoded background images. Polyptych is another Rails App.
  • camo: Camo is an https image proxy. In production Feedbin is SSL only. One issue with SSL is all assets must be served over SSL as well or the browser will show insecure content warnings. Camo proxies all image requests through an SSL enabled host to prevent this.

Requirements

Installation

Ultimately you need a Ruby environment and a Rack compatible application server. For development Pow is recommended.

Feedbin uses environment variables for configuration. Feedbin will run without any of these, but various features and functionality will be turned off.

Environment Variable Description
ASSET_HOST Pull CDN URL
AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID Used for file uploads - http://aws.amazon.com
AWS_S3_BUCKET Used for file uploads - http://aws.amazon.com
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY Used for file uploads - http://aws.amazon.com
CAMO_HOST CDN to point to the camo host
CAMO_KEY Used to rewrite assets to use https - https://github.com/atmos/camo
DATABASE_URL Database connection string - postgres://USER:PASS@IP:PORT/DATABASE
DEFAULT_URL_OPTIONS_HOST Mailer host - feedbin.me
FEEDBIN_HOMEPAGE_REPO Git URL to a Rails engine that provides a custom homepage
FROM_ADDRESS Used as a reply-to email address
GAUGES_SITE_ID gaug.es analytics identifier
HONEYBADGER_API_KEY Used for error reporting - http://honeybadger.io
LIBRATO_SOURCE Default source for metrics - feedbin
LIBRATO_TOKEN Used for reporting stats - http://metrics.librato.com
LIBRATO_USER Used for reporting stats - http://metrics.librato.com
MEMCACHED_HOSTS Comma separated memcached hosts/ports - 192.168.1.2:11121
POLYPTYCH_CDN Used for retrieving and serving favicons - https://github.com/feedbin/polyptych
POLYPTYCH_URL Used for retrieving and serving favicons - https://github.com/feedbin/polyptych
POSTGRES_USERNAME Used for connecting to database
POSTMARK_API_KEY Used for sending email - http://postmarkapp.com
RACK_ENV Environment - production
RAILS_ENV Environment - production
READABILITY_API_TOKEN Used for Readability - http://www.readability.com
REDIS_URL redis connection string - redis://redis:PASSWORD@192.168.1.3:6379
SECRET_KEY_BASE Encryptions key for Rails - run rake secret
SIDEKIQ_PASSWORD Sidekiq Basic Auth Password
STRIPE_API_KEY Used for communicating with stripe - https://stripe.com
STRIPE_PUBLIC_KEY Used for communicating with stripe - https://stripe.com

These variables need to be available in the environment of the user running the app.

Locally I use dotenv combined with pow. Pow's .powenv file is set up to read dotenv's .env file like:

export $(cat .env)

This is necessary so the environment variables can be read by both Pow and Unicorn.

In production environment variables are set in the app users ~/.bash_profile like:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=aoisjf3j23oij23f
...

###Mac OS X Install

This will get Feedbin running on a fresh Mountain Lion install. If you already have a ruby environment configured you can skip most of these steps.

Command Line Tools (OS X Mountain Lion)

These can be downloaded from the Apple Developer website, or in XCode preferences.

Homebrew

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/mxcl/homebrew/go)"

rbenv

brew update
brew install rbenv
brew install ruby-build
echo 'if which rbenv > /dev/null; then eval "$(rbenv init -)"; fi' >> ~/.bash_profile
source ~/.bash_profile

Ruby 2.0

rbenv install 2.0.0-p247
rbenv global 2.0.0-p247

Bundler

gem install bundler

Postgres 9.2.4

cd ~/Downloads
curl -L http://postgresapp.com/download > postgres.zip
unzip postgres.zip
mv Postgres.app /Applications/
open /Applications/Postgres.app

Redis 2.6.14

brew update
brew install redis

Make sure to follow post install instructions.

Clone Feedbin

git clone https://github.com/feedbin/feedbin.git
cd feedbin
bundle

Setup the database

rake db:setup

Start scheduled tasks and background workers

bundle exec foreman start

pow

curl get.pow.cx | sh
ln -nfs /path/to/feedbin ~/.pow/feedbin

At this point you should be able to load feedbin.dev in your browser.

###Ubuntu 12.04 Dependencies

apt-get install -y python-software-properties
add-apt-repository -y ppa:pitti/postgresql
apt-get -y update
apt-get -y upgrade
apt-get install -y build-essential curl libreadline-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libpq-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev zlib1g-dev libssl-dev postgresql-client-9.2

TODO: Getting the Ruby environment setup on Ubuntu and running Feedbin