This is a command-line tool I use to update my BlogRoll (at https://www.andrewsw.com/news/blogroll.php ).
If you use NetNewsWire or NetNewsWire Lite, you might also find it useful.
1.1 How to set it up and configure it
Copy the com.andrewsw.BlogRollUpdater.plist file to your Library/Preferences and edit it using the PropertyList Editor that Apple supplies as part of the Developer Tools CD that comes with MacOS X.
The default settings may be sufficient for you. The keys are as follows (by “group” what is mean is a group of Subscriptions in NetNewsWire):
| ContainersToExclude | an array of strings, which are the names of groups to be excluded from output |
| DestinationFile | the Unix path to where the output file should be put. It may include a ~ which will be expanded as per common Unix conventions |
| prolog | text that will be output at the beginning of the file |
| epilog | text that will be output at the end of the file |
| preContainerTitle | text that will be output before the title of every group that is being output |
| postContainerTitle | text that will be output after the title of every group that is being output |
| preContainer | text that is output before the contents of every group that is being output |
| postContainer | text that is output after the contents of every group that is being output |
| itemFormat | a string that consists of how to output the item. See below for more details |
1.1.1 Format of the itemFormat key
- %{home} means the URL of the actual HTML page for that RSS feed
- %{name} means the name of the RSS feed
- %{rss} means the URL to the actuall RSS feed itself
- %{%{} means just a %{
- %{}} means just a }
1.1.2 Future Work
I intend to release an updated version of this that does not require people to edit the com.andrewsw.BlogRollUpdater.plist themselves, but instead has some nice GUI.
1.2 How to use it
Run the BlogRollUpdater executable whenver you see fit. For some, it might be on log in, for others, via a cron job, and for others, via a script that runs it and then activates NetNewsWire.
1.3 How it works
It reads the com.ranchero.NetNewsWire.plist file as well as the com.andrewsw.BlogRollUpdater.plist file, both to be found in Library/Preferences ( com.ranchero.NetNewsWire.plist will likely be present only if you’re using NetNewsWire or NetNewsWire Lite – use of one of those is, at present, a prerequisite for use of BlogRollUpdater ), and uses them to construct a file and put it in a location specified in the com.andrewsw.BlogRollUpdater.plist file.
1.4 Why Use It
So you can maintain your BlogRoll in just one place ( NetNewsWire ), instead of several.
1.5 Current Status
Would benefit from a GUI so people don’t need to edit the com.andrewsw.BlogRollUpdater.plist themselves, but functions enough for me to use it on a regular basis, so it meets my criteria for a release at present.
1.6 Geek Level Features
It can accept a command-line argument of an alternate file to use instead of com.andrewsw.BlogRollUpdater.plist . This can come in handy if you want to do something like have some categories in your NetNewsWire and update the BlogRoll for one blog, and some categories for the BlogRoll for another blog.
1.7 News and Updates
News and Updates can be found at https://www.andrewsw.com/news/index.php?s=BlogRollUpdater
1.8 License Terms
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.
1.9 Where to Get It
https://www.andrewsw.com/downloads/BlogRollUpdater%20v0.1.dmg.gz