FeedReader
Integrating with applications on devices is important for ownCloud. We have, of course, our desktop and mobile clients, but there is also quite a bit of third-party support. Most prominently, the GNOME desktop for Linux has had ownCloud account support for some years and for next year’s Google Summer of Code we plan to work with them to further integration. Today, we talk about FeedReader, which recently gained an ownCloud backend.
FeedReader
Jan Lukas, author of FeedReader, told us he started the project a little over a year ago. FeedReader is written in vala and uses GTK+. Vala is a C based language which adds object-oriented behavior and reference counting using a pre-processor to generate normal C code for a compiler like GCC. It offers a syntax similar to C#. Language bindings exist for most of the GTK libraries, making it easy to develop applications for the GNOME desktop with vala.
FeedReader version 1.2 was recently released, which marks the point where Jan Lukas feels it is becoming a rather solid and usable RSS client. This prompted him to set up a BountySource page to see what features people would like to have. ownCloud support was one of the first and much of the work for it is done already. The bounty is still open if you want to support it!
He made a video showing FeedReader and ownCloud in action:
Right now, he notes that he still needs beta testers for the ownCloud backend and people should feel free to open bounties on other features. Some of the ownCloud users seem to be interested in an offline mode and he is certainly up for that.
Code-wise, some help with the CSS theming of the articles and content-grabber config files is welcome. Moreover, some feeds only release the first few lines of the article or the website has changed. Writing a simple XPath file will make FeedReader grab all of the content for easy reading, making for a simple yet important contribution.
Check out the FeedReader website for more information and learn how to contribute!
