Dispatch

Dispatch is a Python 3 script that syncs the current weekly edition of The Economist into reader mode for the Apple Safari browser on macOS and iOS.

This can be used as an alternative to the Economist iOS app for reading the digital version of the Economist on macOS and iOS, and makes it easy to search through articles.

This project requires that you have access to the digital version of the Economist, and is not affiliated with or supported by The Economist.

Requirements

Python 3 (has not been tested with Python 2)
Safari browser running on macOS
Access to the digital version of the Economist

Usage

You can view all options and modes by running:

python3 dispatch.py --help

Setup on macOS

On macOS make sure you are logged into the Economist (https://www.economist.com/) in Safari.

If you want the articles to be synced to your machine, and available to read offline, go to Safari > Settings > Advanced and make sure that Save articles for offline reading automatically is checked.

Download the dispatch.py script, and place it in a location you will remember.

Sync to Reading mode on macOS

Open the terminal application, switch to the directory where the script is saved, and then run the script with the following command:

python3 dispatch.py

This will sync all of the current weeks articles for the Economist into the Reader mode in Safari, which you can view at Safari > View > Show Reading List Sidebar

The articles may take a couple of minutes to sync, but you can begin to read them immediately.

Tip, if you press CMD-SHIFT-R when viewing the article, it will format the article in Reader mode which makes it much easier to read.

Sync with iOS

If you would like to have the reading list synced with Safari on iOS, enabled iCloud syncing for Safari on iOS and macOS by following the instructions at:

https://support.apple.com/guide/icloud/set-up-safari-mm5400ef10c4/icloud

View this article for information on how to view Reading List in Safari on iOS, including how to enabled offline mode:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/108970

Print all article URLs

If you would like to just get a list the URLs for all of the articles for the current edition, then call the script and set the print flag like so:

python3 dispatch.py --print

This will print out the URL for each article in the current edition, with one url per line.

Known Issues

On macOS, sometimes the thumbnails for the page will not load, but if you click the article you can still read it.

On macOS, sometimes the article will not show in Reader view. You can enable if with CMD-SHIFT-R

When syncing between macOS and iOS, there will sometimes be duplicate posts on macOS. (Safari sync bug?)

Questions, Feature Requests, Feedback

If you have any questions, feature requests, need help, or just want to chat, you can ping me on Twitter or via email at mikechambers@gmail.com.

You can also log bugs and feature requests on the issues page.

License

Project released under a MIT License.

mikechambers/dispatch