Intersquash is a simple yet very functional & free web service that generates an iPhone compatible web interface from feeds.
It is very handy to use the service for creating an iPhone version of any website.
Usage of the service is very easy. Just mention the feed URL & the title of the website & that’s all.
You can see an example for WebResourcesDepot here.
Requirements: No Requirements
This is an open source PHP application which can convert any RSS feed into a PDF newspaper.
It works flawless with fetching only the text & ,currently, has a partial support for images.
The application uses other open source codes like:
TCPDF
HTML Tidy
SimplePie
HTML Purifier
SmartyPants
OPML Parser
If a feed shares a part of the original content, the application has an option to fetch the complete content as well.
Although the application may not seem interesting for many developers at first, the code & the function itself is an inspiration+resource for offering more out of feeds.
Requirements: PHP5 with Tidy enabled
jParse is a jQuery plugin for parsing XML that was fetched with the jQuery .ajax method.
It can select the value of any XML node or a node's parameter & can ouput a totally customized HTML.
The plugin is very flexible & offers features like:
running callback functions before it starts & after it finishes
limitting the number of <items> to be processed
excluding XML nodes with certain words, numbers or symbols
output the number of <item>'s in a feed anywhere in your document
As jQuery .ajax method does not allow cross domain Ajax requests, the XML must be on the same domain.
To see how easy it is to parse a XML file with jParse, check the demo.
Requirements: jQuery
Compatibility: All Major Browsers
rsslounge is an open source, full-featured & web-based RSS feed reader application that is built with PHP-MySQL.
It allows you to read your feeds, categorize or filter them, set priorities & more from an Ajax-based slick interface.
Besides the standard feed items, rsslounge supports images & photoblogs.
For periodically fetching content from feeds, it offers 2 options: cron job or Ajax-based requests (that work while the application is running).
The application makes switching feed readers so easy with the OPML export/import functionality.
Also, rsslounge is a guide-like application for jQuery fans as it makes use of this library fully with the Ajax requests, accordions, sliders, modal boxes & more..
P.S. It works perfectly in all major browsers except IE.
Requirements: PHP 5.2.4+, MySQL, Apache Webserver
Compatibility: All Major Browsers (except IE)
Lilina is an open source PHP application for aggregating feeds from a web-based interface.
It supports RSS, Atom & podcasts inside them. It is also possible to import/export feeds with an OPML file.
The application only requires PHP(5) to run & makes use of 2 built-in libraries: HTML Purifier and SimplePie.
Lilina has a plugin system for extending its capabilities & the look/feel can be customized with the theming support.
Requirements: PHP5
PHP RSS Reader is an application which can crawl an unlimited number of feeds & presents them with an easy-to-use interface.
For an organized navigation, It is possible to create categories & place feeds inside them.
A handy feature is "keyword-based" categories which can auto-move items with the keywords mentioned into the related categories which is great for anyone who follows multiple feeds but hunts for specific keywords.
PHP RSS Reader comes with a complete admin panel where every setting can be controlled.
The application creates SEO-friendly URLs for every category & article which is important for anyone who will use PHP RSS Reader for creating a feed-based website rather than using it as a personal feed-reader.
It is possible to change the look & feel of the interface by simply playing with the CSS files.
There is a web-based installer that help making the application online in a few minutes.
PHP RSS Reader comes with 2 versions:
free version (has some limitations like no keyword-categorization & unlimited sub-categories)
complete, paid version which includes all the features.
The application is a must-check for anyone looking for an advanced RSS reader, planning to create a feed-based website or integrate feeds into an application (where PHP RSS Reader can be used only as the backend engine).
P.S. This post is a sponsored review.
Requirements: PHP & MySQL
PHP RSS Reader, a free application with a paid/premium version that was shared before at WRD, now has a new version with nice features.
The application can crawl any number of feeds and can organize them inside categories created.
Similar to how Google News does, it can now show related news articles appear below each new item, in clusters nice way of discovering more.
The premium version has the ability to categorize contents that include pre-defined keywords which is very useful if you're monitoring your brand or a specific subject.
That version also has a multi-user interface where each user can create his/her own feeds and vote on the stories displayed.
Who is it good for?
It fits to various scenarios:
creating a website from scratch which totally feeds from other sources.
a companion to a website for displaying content from other similar websites.
monitoring your brand or specific keywords from preferred sources (Twitter, newspapers and more).
P.S. The premium version also comes with an optional free installation.
Requirements: PHP & MySQL
Managing News is an open source application that aggregate RSS/Atom based content with search, republishing and mapping.
It is built on Drupal and 30 other open source resources (mostly Drupal modules) and can display the content as list or on a map (by geotagging them).
Using Managing News, it is possible to search for key trends within the feeds followed and graph the results.
Also, it enables you to share any story using Facebook, Twitter or email.
Requirements: PHP 5.2+, MySQL 5+
Newswall is an open source web application that can display feeds and e-mails from any number of sources.
It shows the items as blocks in a dynamical way: the browser width determines the number of blocks per row. Also, depending on the text size of a message, the block contains text only, a header image and text below or just an image.
Besides the intros, full feeds and e-mails (pop and imap are supported) can be read on a click.
The application is multilingual (several languages are already included) and its look can be customized by updating the CSS file.
Newswall is built with PHP and doesn't require any database.
Requirements: PHP
One of the best ways to keep getting inspired and informed regularly is following the feeds of the websites we like.
And, Google Reader is the most popular application used in this case, thanks to the simplicity and price it offers.
WebReader is a free and cross-platform application that carries Google Reader to the desktop.
Once logged in with the Google account, it synchronizes with Google Reader and offers many features like subscribing/unsubscribing, starring items, searching them and more.
Any item can be easily shared in social networking websites, there are multiple view options and a notifier can inform you when a new item is available.
Requirements: No Requirements
Compatibility: Windows, Mac & Linux