rssparser

node-rssparser

rssparser is a RSS/ATOM feed parser that returns the requested feed urls in a json object that is formatted so that you will not have to worry (much) about the format of the requested feed.

Motivation

RSS and ATOM feeds are both trying to deliver similar content, but are different enough with their structure to be aggravating. The purpose of rssparser is to allow for the important parts of the feeds (article titles, links, etc) to be returned in a standard format, but to also return the rest of the feed in a reasonable way.

Installing

Like all node.js modules, just use npm!

npm install rssparser

Usage

Using rss parser is easy, just call:

var parser = require('rssparser');
var options = {};
//rss feeds
parser.parseURL('http://laymansite.com/feed', options, function(err, out){
	console.log(out);
});
//atom feeds
parser.parseURL('http://www.blogger.com/feeds/10861780/posts/default', options, function(err, out){
	console.log(out);
});

Output

The point of rssparser is to try and hide the format of the originally requested feed. Thus RSS and ATOM feeds are returned in a common format. Similar fields (pubDate vs update) will be mapped to the same field in the output.

The 'minimal' output format is:

{
	type:"rss" or "atom"
	title: Title of the feed
	desc: description or subtitle
	url: url of the feed
	update: pubDate or update time of the feed
	items:[
		{
			title: Title of article
			desc:	Description or content of article
			link: Link to article
			date: Time article was published
		}...
	]

Tests

Tests for rssparser can be run using the command:

npm test

Make sure that you machine has an internet connection before running the tests.