Feedreader.com - News

Another example of custom Feedreader programming - Screensaver/Information Screen

tom-admin — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:38:52 +0300

We have played around with the idea of using RSS as data source for screensavers and information screens for a long time. And today we present you the next demo application based on Feedreader platform. It's called Feedreader Screensaver.

You can use Feedreader Screensaver either as just a Windows screensaver or install LCD monitor / LCD TV in some public location and use it as public information screen for displaying news / twitter tweets / company blog / company alert messages using Feedreader Screensaver software.

If you are interested in producing your own information screen with different graphic layouts and settings (currently the application shows only article titles) then do not hesitate to contact us.

If you would like to run the proof of concept application then it's available for download here. Unzip the package and after importing registry run frscreensaver.exe. IF you want to close application then just press ESC. Of course it's just a proof of concept – so it's not meant as a product for working environment. Please do not forget to import registry file to set all the feeds.

By default we are subscribing to specific twitter feed. You can easily change this in registry file ("import into registry.reg"). If you would like to change feed then please delete "rssengine.fdb" for feed changes to take effect.

If you want to use this application as windows screensaver then please rename frscreensaver.exe to frscreensaver.scr and copy all files from zip package to windows folder. After this you can open "Display properties" > "Screensaver" and set this screensaver as your default screensaver.

If you want to "reset" frscreensaver then just delete rssengine.fdb.

Another example of custom Feedreader programming - Podcast Downloader

tom-admin — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:59:31 +0300

We had a couple of hours of free time here and played around with Feedreader modules again. This time we will present really simple Podcast Downloader as demonstration. As you see from image below, it's quite easy to add customer logo, change colors and of you go with your own Podcast Downloader for your users.

By the way - these kinds of applications are not only meant for podcasts. If needed then you can also offer documents, application updates, images with RSS protocol.

By default we are subscribing to BBC News Podcast feed. You can easily change this in registry file ("import into registry.reg"). If you would like to change feed then please delete "rssengine.fdb" for feed changes to take effect.

All podcasts are downloaded to "downloads" subfolder. Podcast downloader can download two podcasts at the same time. Podcast feed is updated after every 10 minutes (this is changeable in registry file).

If you would like to run the proof of concept application then it's available for download here. Unzip the package and after importing registry run podcastdownloader.exe. Of course it's just a proof of concept – so it's not meant as a product for working environment. Please do not forget to import registry file to set all the feeds.

If you want to "reset" podcast downloader then just delete rssengine.fdb.

Custom solutions based on Feedreader

tom-admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:29:46 +0300

We were approached by a company that operates in health business. Company has a lot of branches all over the country and uses special desktop environment that helps sales persons to perform their duties. At first their idea was to purchase Feedreader OEM for use inside a company intranet. But while we were working with this company it became more and more clear that instead of full blown Feedreader they want really simple way of alerting sales persons for example about changed prices emergency situations and so on.

What were the main functional requirements for this application? Application had to run in a way that end user cannot change (and possibly break) anything. Everything had to be configurable from central location. Settings are read from registry. New feed subscriptions and old feed removals are also done automatically based on registry keys. One additional special requirement specifies the position and size of alert window. This requirement is needed because of special desktop environment. Only place to show alerts was on the upper right corner of screen. And of course we had to disable the way to move the alert window.

We have written about Feedreader platform before. To say it again - Feedreader platform is really flexible when it comes to developing different applications. We can take Feedreader core (called Newsbrain) and mold it to whatever application we currently need. Great example of flexibility is Feedreader Anywhere (FRAW) that is really the same Feedreader – only differences are user interface and database backend.

And because of all this flexibility we had an opportunity to offer 100% tailored solution for our customer. We took Feedreader core and added the parts of user interface that were needed. This simple project took less than week to accomplish and our client was really satisfied to get the solution that they had in mind.

We cannot show the real application because of sensitivity issues. At the same time here is a screenshot of a concept application that we made to demo our ideas.

If you would like to run the proof of concept application then it's available for download here. Of course it's just a proof of concept – so it's not meant as a product for working environment. Please do not forget to import registry file to set all the feeds.

Introducing Feedreader Anywhere

tom-admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:50:25 +0300

It's about time to introduce new server based application called Feedreader Anywhere (or simply FRAW).

Feedreader Anywhere is version of Feedreader that runs, well, anywhere :). And it does not matter if we are talking about different operation systems or different geographical continents. Whatever kind of computer or phone or appliance you are using or in whatever location you are currently happen to reside – all your feeds are only a click away. And even if you have not used Feedreader Anywhere for a while you still have all the newest articles waiting for you. This is because Feedreader Anywhere updates feeds even if user has not logged on.

So in one word – Feedreader Anywhere is a Feedreader that is available anywhere without the need for complicated installation and management process.

Functionality

When developing Feedreader Anywhere our priority was not to duplicate the functionality of standard Feedreader. There are a lot of different features in Feedreader that are really not used by everybody. So we want to keep this thing simple. After all – this is the logic that we are praised for.

At the same time standard Feedreader lacks anything that is related to groupware features. But these features are highly needed in corporate environments. The coolest groupware feature that will be included in Feedreader Anywhere is the functionality to share and subscribe the folder of feeds. Basically one user can create a structure of folders and feeds and share the folder. Other users can subscribe this folder and use it the way like it was their own folder. And if user who shared the folder subscribes to new feeds in this folder or unsubscribes from some feeds then all the changes are reflected on every user who has subscribe to this particular shared folder.

Multiuser environment also opens some interesting possibilities when it comes to finding the feeds that user could be interested in. For example user subscribes to „CNN Top Stories“ newsfeed. Feedreader Anywhere analyzes other users feeds and can then offer a list of feeds that are subscribed by users who have also subscribed to „CNN Top Stories“.

Some screenshots

How we are placing the product

We see Feedreader Anywhere as a product that can be used by companies for providing their employees the access to RSS feeds without any complicated installation processes in every computer in corporation. Feedreader Anywhere is also great way to go if corporation has offices in multiple locations and intranet has quite loose architecture.

Feedreader Anywhere can be used for offering employees the access to public RSS feeds (newspapers, portals and so on) but can also be used for sharing corporate information inside the company. Be it then CRM messages, company news, or daily menu :).

We also see Feedreader Anywhere as starting point for creating custom workflows that are different in case of every company. For example news agencies can add editorial environment to Feedreader Anywhere. Media monitoring companies could use Feedreader Anywhere as client portal for sharing information. PR entities inside larger corporations can use Feedreader Anywhere for storing articles. Uses are limitless.

We will not currently offer Feedreader Anywhere as public service. The idea is interesting but we are lacking the resources to do it with quality.

Technical details

Technically speaking - Feedreader Anywhere is a web application that lies on top of Feedreader Connect Server. Feedreader Anywhere is developed using Borland Delphi that is non-interpreted language. This means that application is really fast then compared to usual applications that are developed using PHP, Java, DotNet or Perl.

Feedreader Anywhere runs as Apache module. It's also possible to offer ISAPI module then there is request for this.

As Feedreader Anywhere user interface is developed using HTML and Javascript then anybody can create 100% custom layout for Feedreader Anywhere. Develop special iPhone version or version for WAP browsers – everything is possible. It's only matter of changing HTML and Javascript.

Feedreader Anywhere and Feedreader Connect Server are both using MySQL Server as database backend. On request Microsoft SQL port is also possible.

Preview available

You are welcome to get a sneak preview of Feedreader Anywhere. Please navigate to http://web.feedreader.com/ and after simple registration (no emails and other non-important stuff is asked) you are ready to go. If you cannot get yourself registered then you can always play with username "test" and password "test".

If checking out sneak preview of Feedreader Anywhere then please notice that this is not 100% running and completed application. This is really not even an alpha version but something that's shown fresh from our labs. So in other words – not everything is not working. And if it does not work in your case then please give us time to make things better.

Things that do not exist yet or are under development:

Unread counts
Seeing more than 200 articles at one time
Smart feeds
Different layout modes
Folder sharing and subscribing.
It's not possible to trigger feed update manually
No ways to import feed list (OPML).
Search is only using article titles.
Auto-discovery of feeds does not work
etc

Supported web browsers:

Firefox
Internet Explorer (7,8)
Opera
Safari
Google Chrome.

When it comes to web browsers then safest bet is to use Firefox or Google Chrome for testing.

Feedreader 3.14 released

tom-admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 10:12:07 +0300

We are proud to announce Feedreader 3.14.

Changes and additions:

Offline support added - Read more from here
Faster update intervals possible - Read more from here
Upgraded to new FirebirdSQL version. This version is faster and more stable.
Fixed bug with enclosure/podcast download when using some proxy servers. Previously download progressbars were left open.
Added twitter search feed
Proxy configuration added to welcome dialog.
Performance improvements because we eliminated some functionalities in RSS engine (Newsbrain) that were not needed in standard Feedreader.
Added a /debug parameter that can be used to debug Feedreader in case of problems.
Updated tree component that we are using inside Feedreader.
"Keep application in front when opening links in browser" is fixed
Translation files now support latest User interface features
Some little (and old) bugs fixed
Fixed some bugs with chunked download
"Smartfeed not saved" bug is fixed!

Download

Please download release from here (zip from here).

Donate

If you like the release then you can make donation to our Paypal account at paypal -@- feedreader.com

Update to Feedreader Connect Server.

tom-admin — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:07:51 +0200

There have been some big changes then it comes to Feedreader Connect Server.

First of all - we have made Feedreader Connect Server prices more logical and also more affordable. Till this day only way of purchasing Feedreader Connect Server was with monthly payments. For some it was confusing. From today on you can purchase Feedreader Connect Server with the following prices:

Up to 100 feeds - 490 Euros
Up to 1000 feeds - 990 Euros
1000 feeds and more - contact us!

So you are welcome to purchase your dream software now :).

And if we were on it we also updated some documentation. Please take a look at new article that explains what are Article Indexer and Web Page Downloader. We did not describe these add-ons clearly before.

We also updated Feedreader Connect Server free version installer with fresh new version (including latest FeedreaderAdministrator). You can download it from here. Free version can update 4 feeds but in other terms it's quite like normal Feedreader Connect Server.

If you still do not know what Feedreader Connect Server is then please take a look at this image:

and read our announcement here :).

Feedreader Connect - Usage cenario #1

tom-admin — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:15:52 +0200

We have been asked multiple times about possible uses for Feedreader Connect Server. From our documentation it's looks like the product is quite powerful. But what exactly we can do with it? This made us to create slide show where working application that uses Feedreader Connect Server is demoed. Following is an working example of how Feedreader Connect Server is used for information monitoring. It gives interested parties some ideas for what Feedreader Connect could be used.

On following screenshots you will see administration environment of media monitoring application. We use it both for administering public portal and also for offering services for end users. We also sell this application on top of Feedreader Server. Clients of this application include various media related organizations but interestingly also police organization. But now about functionalities.

Following image shows topic groups that we have defined. Topic group consists of one or multiple topics. For example topic group "Microsoft" could include "Microsoft, Windows XP, MSFT". All topic groups usable in public portal (or private portal) and also available to be used as RSS feeds to be imported to other information systems or RSS readers. The list of links provides the shortcuts to the same topic group feed in different predefined channel groups. I will talk about channel groups later.

In next screenshot you will see how the topic group is defined. In this example we see topic group called "Microsoft". Each keyword is tracked continuously. You can also define topic groups that share topics/keywords.

Following images shows you how to define channel groups if needed. In simple cases you do not need to create channel groups because you want to find information from all the subscribed feeds in your database. But in more advanced cases it's possible to create channel groups like „online news only“, „paper channels only“ or for example "blogs only". This way you can limit the search of information only to some channels.

On next screenshot we have opened channel group in detail view. You can add and remove channels if you click on "Manage".

Functionality „mail rules“ shows you one of the outcomes of defining topics, topic groups, channels and channel groups. You can choose group and channel group, add email recipients and voila! – all the recipients will get all matching articles as emails. This search is persistent - you set it once and then let it run. Articles can be grouped to one email and sent few times a day or recipients can also get article as soon as it’s added to database. You can see here the status of mail sending (when the rule ran last time and how many articles are sent).

Following images shows you how we define mail rule. First you select topic group and then select one or two channel groups (for example NEWS and BLOGS). After this we add recipients, change subject of email and also email greeting. Finally you can specify if you want to send articles grouped. If you choose to send articles grouped then you also specify the times when to send the articles.

Second output from this application is statistics of mentions. You can select topic group and channel group and then select start and end dates and get the statistics either for use in Microsoft Excel or you can do the visual statistics inside our application and can save the created graphs as images.

Following screenshot shows the output of defined topic group in public portal (news.station.ee). It’s accessible by anybody.

On next screenshot you see the same topic group as before. Only this time it’s only accessible by paying clients.

Feedreader MySQL Edition expire period updated

tom-admin — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:06:30 +0300

Just wanted to let you know that if you are the user of Feedreader MySQL Edition and want to continue using it after expiration please download and install update of Feedreader MySQL Edition which can be downloaded from here. After this you will get new expiration period and also some changes/bugfixes :).

If you are interested in buying Feedreader MySQL Edition (price 29 EUR) then please contact toomas at i-systems . ee

Feedreader 3.13 released

tom-admin — Tue, 27 May 2008 11:01:50 +0300

We are pleased to announce Feedreader 3.13. Besides normal version it's also available as version using MySQL backend. This will be the last version of Feedreader before the summer. If there are some critical bugs we will do extra releases but no new functionalities are announced.

Now about new features, changes and fixes:

Added experimental feature - "Add new article" to Feedreader. You can now add new articles or edit existing articles. It's not only true about Feedreader articles - you can copy article text (HTML) from Internet Explorer or even from Word and paste it to Feedreader and save as article. This is good for gathering information to your own "knowledge base".
Search feeds support.
Added possibility to have multiple archives for articles. Create them from File > New > Archive
Archive folder has its own icon now
Feed autodiscovery fixed (occurred then discovering feeds from japanese language pages)
HTTP Chunked download fixed. In some cases Feedreader could run out of memory because of web servers that are serving documents with chunked method.
Fix for situation where unreadcount was calculated incorrectly then one empty folder was moved to other empty folder.
Added update priority field to feed. If you have a lot of feeds you can now add greater priority to feeds that you really want to update on time. Then all these higher priority feeds will always updated first.

Downloads:

Feedreader is seeking a strategic partner / investor

tom-admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:49:11 +0300

Feedreader is the oldest RSS based product on market today. It's been 8 years since the start of our product. Feedreader product is used in hundreds of thousands of computers and in multiple Fortune 100 companies. Feedreader has become synonym for RSS related products. After last two years of development we are finally coming to a point where we have decent portfolio of Feedreader3 products for both personal and corporate environments. While at this point we feel that we need additional power to move to the next level.

This is why i-Systems Ltd. is searching for and accepting offers from strategic investors to participate in Feedreader project. We are offering 20%-80% of project share to investor based on negotiated conditions.

Offer includes following parts:

Application portfolio which has taken ca 6 man-years to complete
Feedreader brand
Client leads
Knowledge in RSS, information technologies, media monitoring fields

By "strategic investor" we mean company who'd like to be part of RSS technology landscape and who has desire to actively participate in leading of strategic processes (marketing, development of existing and new products based on RSS technologies). Potential for marketing products to existing user base (in case of companies) is welcome.

i-Systems Ltd is private company limited by shares situated in Tallinn, Estonia, European Union.

Interested parties can take a look at our technology page to get information about Feedreader product portfolio.

Information inquiries : Toomas Toots, CEO of i-Systems Ltd., Email : toomas -at- feedreader.com, Skype: toomas, Phone +3725021669 (Time zone GMT+2)