Description: This is a very simple RSS reader going back to the essentials: We show title, time/date and description information from the feeds of one single source which can be chosen in the configuration menu. We do not use any images in the description; shown is only the text.
Left mouseclick on feed opens the connected html-page in the default browser, right mouseclick enables reload.
Plasmoid is written in QML.
Installation:
plasmapkg2 -i RSS.zip
Remove:
plasmapkg2 -r RSS.zipLast changelog:
v. 0.2: - Exceptional faster reload after unsuccessful load of feed - Handle Umlaut etc.
v. 0.3: - Reload time is only determined by configuration - Right mouseclick allows immediate reload of feed. - Options allow now to change color and opacity of text, background, header.
Hi there! I decided to make a modified version of this widget, which I finally published today. As I said I really like the base layout but would have preferred a few changes, such as support for media thumbnails and using colors from the system color scheme. My version adds those capabilities, alongside a few other cleanups and improvements. If you're interested in seeing what I did, you can find my fork over here:
https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1205062
This widget seems to no longer be working, possibly after the update to Plasma 5.7.0: The widget still appears, and I can see the title of the feed... but entries no longer load any more.
Hey,
Great plasmoid, but couple of issues.
1. Feed doesn't parse html tags in the content/body, just shows them as is.
2. I have a feed that requires basic authentication. When I enter it in the plasmoid, it asks for username/password but never shows the result.
Thanks for the good work! Keep it up!
Something I kept forgetting to mention: If you click on an entry in the feed, wait for the link to open in the web browser (in my case Firefox), then quickly scroll to another desktop, plasmashell crashes. If you wait long enough without doing anything however (about 10 seconds), no crash. Can anyone else confirm this bug and take a look at it please?
Also: The opacity for the background color is not persisted. If you open the settings menu, click the color field for Background Color, select an Alpha Channel lower than 255, click OK to save everything, then restart plasmashell, it will be back at 255.
Ignore the first problem, it's not caused by RSS Reader. It's a general Plasma issue which the widget only triggered.
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=357403
Thank you a lot for your comments.
Yes, it is pretty annoying that part of the config gets lost after reboot or any restart of plasma. However, I have no idea why that is so. In the configuration file, transparency is stored in a hex code together with background color. Obviously this value is not read. A workaround would be to store the transparency separately, but that's not nice. I would appreciate a nice solution; unfortunately at the moment I don't have the time to search one by myself.
Yay for new version! There are however a few things I don't really like about it, in case they can be improved:
- Could the new background color become optional, for those of us who like seeing the text directly on the normal widget background? My hope was that , it would use the normal font color of the KDE color scheme, in order to fix the visibility issue with darker themes.
- I'm glad that the right-click menu has an option to reload the widget at will now. But the "Widget settings..." and "Desktop options" entries are gone! From what I'm seeing, all plasmoids are supposed to have these as well on right-click... entering the menu to customize the widget is a bit harder now due to this.
Hi,
- in fact, the new background color is optional: just set the alpha-channel to 0.
- the reload-option should only appear if you right-click inside the plasmoid. Right-clicking on the surrounding desktop gives you the desktop options. And hovering with mouse over applet opens the sidebar with customize options as it is usual for most plasmoids. Do you expect an option "customize" in the mouse menu?
Best,
andreas
Thanks for your reply! I noticed later that the background color could separately be set to lower alpha, which fixes that problem. Only thing I think would still be nice in this case, is an option to use color scheme colors instead of fixed colors only, for both the background and fonts. You know best if that's possible or worth implementing of course... I just use both light and dark schemes, and prefer widgets adapting automatically to each.
As for the right-click menu: The desktop-options entry matters less... the settings entry is however more important, so you don't have to always unlock widgets and click the wrench icon to access it. I pointed both out because every other plasmoid normally has them, even when custom entries are added to the click menu as well... so it sorta feels like a bug that they're missing here.
My last comment was a bit rushed, so here's a more complete opinion after actually using the widget for a few days:
- The biggest problem is the hardcoded text colors! If I use a dark color scheme with white text, Simple RSS does not respect it unlike other plasmoids. This makes the text pretty much unreadable. I suggest that the title and body use the normal view text color, whereas the date and links use the link view text color.
- There is only support for one RSS feed. A list in which you can add and reorder items would be very helpful! A workaround for now is to use multiple plasmoids.
- Ideally there should be a way to update the widget on demand. Either a small button in one of the corners, or a menu item when you right-click. Sometimes you want to refresh it earlier than the set interval.
- Possibly support entry thumbnails, which many RSS feeds have. If so, making the size customizable would also be ideal.
If this was under a less restrictive license than CC-BY-NC (maybe GPL), I'd actually support adding it to plasma5-addons officially. The idea is pretty good, and it's a very useful and needed widget.
Thank you for these detailed notes, MirceaKitsune!
> - The biggest problem is the hardcoded text
> colors!
Good point. Next version will have that feature.
> - There is only support for one RSS feed. A workaround for now is > to use multiple plasmoids.
This is exactly the intended use. I did not like these readers presenting several feeds in a bulk.
> - Ideally there should be a way to update the
> widget on demand. Either a small button in one of
> the corners, or a menu item when you right-click.
Also very good point.
> - Possibly support entry thumbnails, which many
> RSS feeds have.
I wanted it as simple as possible, so I deliberately dropped that.
> If this was under a less restrictive license than
> CC-BY-NC (maybe GPL), I'd actually support adding
> it to plasma5-addons officially.
I will change that, too.
Thanks again!
andreas
+1 for encouragement. The idea is good, but the current widget isn't very useful yet unfortunately. Namely since you can only define a single URL, instead of multiple feeds. It would also be nice if thumbnail icons could be supported. Much is still missing overall.
... not with all feeds.
E.g.: http://www.tagesschau.de/infoservices/rssfeeds/ (alle drei!)
But a very good app, because I'm missing the news feed plasmoid in KDE 5.
It works also with that RSS feed. As with all RSS readers you have to use the actual feed page (in xml), not the general information (html Web page):
http://www.tagesschau.de/xml/rss2
... "you have to use the actual feed page (in xml), not the general information (html Web page)"
I am not stupid, I know this.
The problem was an PC, which is very old and not all the time load or reload the feeds.
On an other PC everything works well now.
Ratings & Comments
20 Comments
Hi there! I decided to make a modified version of this widget, which I finally published today. As I said I really like the base layout but would have preferred a few changes, such as support for media thumbnails and using colors from the system color scheme. My version adds those capabilities, alongside a few other cleanups and improvements. If you're interested in seeing what I did, you can find my fork over here: https://www.opendesktop.org/p/1205062
This widget seems to no longer be working, possibly after the update to Plasma 5.7.0: The widget still appears, and I can see the title of the feed... but entries no longer load any more.
Please ignore my early report: This problem was fixed after restarting the machine.
Hey, Great plasmoid, but couple of issues. 1. Feed doesn't parse html tags in the content/body, just shows them as is. 2. I have a feed that requires basic authentication. When I enter it in the plasmoid, it asks for username/password but never shows the result. Thanks for the good work! Keep it up!
Something I kept forgetting to mention: If you click on an entry in the feed, wait for the link to open in the web browser (in my case Firefox), then quickly scroll to another desktop, plasmashell crashes. If you wait long enough without doing anything however (about 10 seconds), no crash. Can anyone else confirm this bug and take a look at it please? Also: The opacity for the background color is not persisted. If you open the settings menu, click the color field for Background Color, select an Alpha Channel lower than 255, click OK to save everything, then restart plasmashell, it will be back at 255.
Ignore the first problem, it's not caused by RSS Reader. It's a general Plasma issue which the widget only triggered. https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=357403
Thank you a lot for your comments. Yes, it is pretty annoying that part of the config gets lost after reboot or any restart of plasma. However, I have no idea why that is so. In the configuration file, transparency is stored in a hex code together with background color. Obviously this value is not read. A workaround would be to store the transparency separately, but that's not nice. I would appreciate a nice solution; unfortunately at the moment I don't have the time to search one by myself.
Yay for new version! There are however a few things I don't really like about it, in case they can be improved: - Could the new background color become optional, for those of us who like seeing the text directly on the normal widget background? My hope was that , it would use the normal font color of the KDE color scheme, in order to fix the visibility issue with darker themes. - I'm glad that the right-click menu has an option to reload the widget at will now. But the "Widget settings..." and "Desktop options" entries are gone! From what I'm seeing, all plasmoids are supposed to have these as well on right-click... entering the menu to customize the widget is a bit harder now due to this.
Hi, - in fact, the new background color is optional: just set the alpha-channel to 0. - the reload-option should only appear if you right-click inside the plasmoid. Right-clicking on the surrounding desktop gives you the desktop options. And hovering with mouse over applet opens the sidebar with customize options as it is usual for most plasmoids. Do you expect an option "customize" in the mouse menu? Best, andreas
Thanks for your reply! I noticed later that the background color could separately be set to lower alpha, which fixes that problem. Only thing I think would still be nice in this case, is an option to use color scheme colors instead of fixed colors only, for both the background and fonts. You know best if that's possible or worth implementing of course... I just use both light and dark schemes, and prefer widgets adapting automatically to each. As for the right-click menu: The desktop-options entry matters less... the settings entry is however more important, so you don't have to always unlock widgets and click the wrench icon to access it. I pointed both out because every other plasmoid normally has them, even when custom entries are added to the click menu as well... so it sorta feels like a bug that they're missing here.
Look gggggoooddd!
My last comment was a bit rushed, so here's a more complete opinion after actually using the widget for a few days: - The biggest problem is the hardcoded text colors! If I use a dark color scheme with white text, Simple RSS does not respect it unlike other plasmoids. This makes the text pretty much unreadable. I suggest that the title and body use the normal view text color, whereas the date and links use the link view text color. - There is only support for one RSS feed. A list in which you can add and reorder items would be very helpful! A workaround for now is to use multiple plasmoids. - Ideally there should be a way to update the widget on demand. Either a small button in one of the corners, or a menu item when you right-click. Sometimes you want to refresh it earlier than the set interval. - Possibly support entry thumbnails, which many RSS feeds have. If so, making the size customizable would also be ideal. If this was under a less restrictive license than CC-BY-NC (maybe GPL), I'd actually support adding it to plasma5-addons officially. The idea is pretty good, and it's a very useful and needed widget.
Thank you for these detailed notes, MirceaKitsune! > - The biggest problem is the hardcoded text > colors! Good point. Next version will have that feature. > - There is only support for one RSS feed. A workaround for now is > to use multiple plasmoids. This is exactly the intended use. I did not like these readers presenting several feeds in a bulk. > - Ideally there should be a way to update the > widget on demand. Either a small button in one of > the corners, or a menu item when you right-click. Also very good point. > - Possibly support entry thumbnails, which many > RSS feeds have. I wanted it as simple as possible, so I deliberately dropped that. > If this was under a less restrictive license than > CC-BY-NC (maybe GPL), I'd actually support adding > it to plasma5-addons officially. I will change that, too. Thanks again! andreas
+1 for encouragement. The idea is good, but the current widget isn't very useful yet unfortunately. Namely since you can only define a single URL, instead of multiple feeds. It would also be nice if thumbnail icons could be supported. Much is still missing overall.
That's correct, thank you for that hint, samypp133!
Works after doing : apt-get install qml-module-qtquick-xmllistmodel
... not with all feeds. E.g.: http://www.tagesschau.de/infoservices/rssfeeds/ (alle drei!) But a very good app, because I'm missing the news feed plasmoid in KDE 5.
It works also with that RSS feed. As with all RSS readers you have to use the actual feed page (in xml), not the general information (html Web page): http://www.tagesschau.de/xml/rss2
... "you have to use the actual feed page (in xml), not the general information (html Web page)" I am not stupid, I know this. The problem was an PC, which is very old and not all the time load or reload the feeds. On an other PC everything works well now.
Great that it works now!