Recipe for Safari "Reading List" unread items

[anoved]

Hi!

I'd like to share another recipe. This one is a little peculiar. Instead of fetching a list of articles from an RSS feed or a web page, it uses the list of unread items in Safari's "Reading List." It is therefore compatible only with Mac OS X (and probably just 10.7).

(Reading List basically helps you bookmark articles you want to read later. It's bit like Instapaper, but not as sophisticated, and built into the browser. It can sync across computers and iOS devices using iCloud.)

The recipe and more details are available at GitHub:
https://github.com/anoved/Safari-Reading-List-Recipe

Please be sure to read the "Limitations" section of the Readme so that you understand what this recipe does and does not do. It's basically a proof-of-concept. Feedback is of course encouraged!

Thanks,
Jim

[kovidgoyal]

You can use the python standard library module plistlib rather than plutil.

[anoved]

Thanks for the tip. As a Python rookie, I did not even know about plistlib.

plutil is still needed because the Safari bookmarks file is stored in the binary property list format, which plistlib can't read. However, I can use plistlib to parse the XML output by plutil. Doing so certainly looks more straightforward than [ab]using BeautifulSoup for the job, so I will revise the recipe to use plistlib.

[anoved]

OK, I have updated the recipe to use plistlib. It is more concise.
https://github.com/anoved/Safari-Reading-List-Recipe

I am curious to hear usage feedback from anyone who uses Reading List regularly.

[anoved]

FWIW, I've posted a more user-friendly guide to this recipe at my blog:
http://anoved.net/2012/02/ebook-reci...-reading-list/

Due to the Mac OS X-specific nature of this recipe and its reliance on other software, I don't expect it is appropriate to include in Calibre - but I hope it useful to someone!

[anoved]

One more related follow-up: I've written a standalone script, derived from this recipe, to report the contents of Reading List. Might be useful for anyone interested in integrating Reading List bookmarks with other services. https://github.com/anoved/ReadingListReader

[anoved]

Just a heads-up for anyone who happens to use this recipe: I am aware of a compatibility problem with Mac OS X 10.8.3 (the format of the bookmarks file that stores Reading List items has changed slightly).

Update: I'm not sure if the problem was actually introduced in 10.8.3 or if it was simply a circumstance I hadn't encountered before, but in either case, I've update the recipe with a fix. (Basically, the reading list bookmark's date can be found in two places, but I was only looking in one place; now I check both if necessary.) https://github.com/anoved/Safari-Reading-List-Recipe