What is rss-parser?
rss-parser is a lightweight and easy-to-use library for parsing RSS and Atom feeds in Node.js. It provides a simple API to fetch and parse feeds, making it easy to integrate RSS feed reading functionality into your applications.
What are rss-parser's main functionalities?
Parsing a feed from a URL
This feature allows you to parse an RSS feed from a given URL. The code sample demonstrates how to fetch and parse the feed, then log the title of the feed and each item within it.
const Parser = require('rss-parser');
let parser = new Parser();
(async () => {
let feed = await parser.parseURL('https://example.com/rss');
console.log(feed.title);
feed.items.forEach(item => {
console.log(item.title + ':' + item.link);
});
})();
Parsing a feed from a string
This feature allows you to parse an RSS feed from a raw XML string. The code sample demonstrates how to parse the XML string and log the title of the feed and each item within it.
const Parser = require('rss-parser');
let parser = new Parser();
let xml = `<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>Example RSS Feed</title>
<link>https://example.com/</link>
<description>This is an example RSS feed</description>
<item>
<title>Example Item</title>
<link>https://example.com/example-item</link>
<description>This is an example item</description>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>`;
(async () => {
let feed = await parser.parseString(xml);
console.log(feed.title);
feed.items.forEach(item => {
console.log(item.title + ':' + item.link);
});
})();
Customizing the parser
This feature allows you to customize the parser to include additional fields that are not part of the default RSS/Atom specification. The code sample demonstrates how to include a custom field ('media:content') and log it for each item in the feed.
const Parser = require('rss-parser');
let parser = new Parser({
customFields: {
item: ['media:content']
}
});
(async () => {
let feed = await parser.parseURL('https://example.com/rss');
console.log(feed.title);
feed.items.forEach(item => {
console.log(item.title + ':' + item['media:content']);
});
})();
Other packages similar to rss-parser
feedparser
Feedparser is a robust RSS and Atom feed parsing library for Node.js. It offers more control and customization options compared to rss-parser, but it has a steeper learning curve and requires more boilerplate code to get started.
rss
The rss package is primarily focused on generating RSS feeds rather than parsing them. It allows you to create RSS feeds programmatically, which can be useful if you need to provide RSS feeds for your own content.
xml2js
xml2js is a general-purpose XML parser for Node.js. While it is not specifically designed for RSS or Atom feeds, it can be used to parse any XML, including RSS feeds. It provides more flexibility but requires more manual handling of the XML structure.
Installation
You can install via npm or bower:
npm install --save rss-parser
bower install --save rss-parser
Usage
You can parse RSS from a URL, local file (NodeJS only), or a string.
parseString(xml, callback)
parseFile(filename, callback)
parseURL(url, [options,] callback)
Check out the output format in test/output/reddit.json
NodeJS
var parser = require('rss-parser');
parser.parseURL('https://www.reddit.com/.rss', function(err, parsed) {
console.log(parsed.feed.title);
parsed.feed.entries.forEach(function(entry) {
console.log(entry.title + ':' + entry.link);
})
})
Web
<script src="/bower_components/rss-parser/dist/rss-parser.min.js"></script>
<script>
RSSParser.parseURL('https://www.reddit.com/.rss', function(err, parsed) {
console.log(parsed.feed.title);
parsed.feed.entries.forEach(function(entry) {
console.log(entry.title + ':' + entry.link);
})
})
</script>
Redirects
By default, parseURL
will follow up to one redirect. You can change this
with options.maxRedirects
.
parser.parseURL('https://reddit.com/.rss', {maxRedirects: 3}, function(err, parsed) {
console.log(parsed.feed.title);
});
Contributing
Contributions welcome!
Running Tests
The tests run the RSS parser for several sample RSS feeds in test/input
and outputs the resulting JSON into test/output
. If there are any changes to the output files the tests will fail.
To check if your changes affect the output of any test cases, run
npm test
To update the output files with your changes, run
WRITE_GOLDEN=true npm test
Publishing Releases
npm version minor
grunt build
git commit -a -m "browserify"
npm publish
git push --follow-tags