RSS to PDF?

Devlar · 09-27-2006, 08:19 AM

As most of you are probably aware, the News button on my iLiad is rather neglected. Currently there are no real services being offered. I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any software that would print multiple RSS feeds to PDF. At the moment I can't seem to find anything.

There are tons of free RSS feeds out there that could be used by the iLiad if such software existed. Currently, you can print feeds with Thunderbird, but its combersome because it asks you for a filename for each PDF you make.

Anyway, just throwing out an idea for anyone with some programming skills and some free time.

rlauzon · 09-27-2006, 12:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devlar

As most of you are probably aware, the News button on my iLiad is rather neglected. Currently there are no real services being offered. I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any software that would print multiple RSS feeds to PDF. At the moment I can't seem to find anything.

There are tons of free RSS feeds out there that could be used by the iLiad if such software existed. Currently, you can print feeds with Thunderbird, but its combersome because it asks you for a filename for each PDF you make.

Anyway, just throwing out an idea for anyone with some programming skills and some free time.

Since RSS is just data in an XML format, you could simply write a program to apply a style sheet to create HTML. The iLiad can read that directly. Or you could push the HTML through an HTML-to-PDF conversion to create a PDF.

vranghel · 09-27-2006, 02:23 PM

There's already an online service that does exactly that: RSS 2 PDF

Devlar · 09-28-2006, 05:00 PM

Thank you for the help.

Unfortunately, RSS to PDF doesn't do exactly what I'm looking for.
See you get something like the attached file. Which is a list of links, which isn't particularly useful. What I would like to see is something that can take those links and then create pdfs from their contents. Much like what happens when you click on RSS feeds in Firefox or Thunderbird, the content comes up.

rlauzon · 09-28-2006, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devlar

Unfortunately, RSS to PDF doesn't do exactly what I'm looking for.
See you get something like the attached file. Which is a list of links, which isn't particularly useful. What I would like to see is something that can take those links and then create pdfs from their contents. Much like what happens when you click on RSS feeds in Firefox or Thunderbird, the content comes up.

Keep in mind that Firefox and Thunderbird sometimes do alot of extra work for you.

I ran into this issue when playing wtih RSS feeds. Some of them were nothing more than a set of links. Thunderbird would go out and get each page as I read it.

Devlar · 09-28-2006, 07:42 PM

Well what I think would be beneficial is a tool that would go out and get each page, except be able to do that in batch format. Take the entire feed, fetch each page, and PDF print it.

What would be even better, would be if you could get a tool to do that with syncronization, where you plug the device in and it automatically, deletes/uploads the feed. You'd get DRM free newspapers, and they wouldn't necessarily have to be conventional newspapers either. There are tons of RSS feeds with content that is better than your standard New York Times.

Moments like this kind of make me wish I had some programming skill. But, alas, I can simply throw out ideas for my betters to formulate.

vranghel · 09-28-2006, 10:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devlar

Moments like this kind of make me wish I had some programming skill. But, alas, I can simply throw out ideas for my betters to formulate.

I too have sometimes lots of ideas, but no programming skills to back them up

The best thing out there that i know of is PDF-O-Matic

deadite66 · 09-29-2006, 03:45 PM

i think it will be difficult to do, most sites have text either side of the main story and the text ends up too small to read.

b_k · 09-29-2006, 04:22 PM

i think i will give AutoIT and a XML-parser a try.
Maybe i get a more or less general RSS to HTML converter together. I'm thinking of getting article links from the RSS and RegExing them to print version links. Just have to figure out how to get rid of eventual ads and if I download images in the article or just try to throw them away.

deadite66 · 09-30-2006, 03:41 AM

think bbc news could be easy to do

main link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5394026.stm

printable version
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pag...uk/5394026.stm

fetch the xml and prepair an article list from xml and strip off the http:// bit from the main link and add http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/

might have a go later, i only know a small amount of tcl though.

jæd · 09-30-2006, 08:28 AM

Have a quick look at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9580#post39580 ... I was originally going to a pdf version, but I realised that doing it in HTML would give me free-scaling...!

Devlar · 09-30-2006, 10:59 AM

AWESOME!

No, really, AWESOME!

Now if you could show us how you created this, maybe even whip out a front end to do it then you'd honestly have done more for the creation of content for the iLiad than iRex (which isn't hard at this point mind you)

lufee · 10-02-2006, 11:41 AM

i have test that the html2pdf cant support simple chinese and also big5 chinese.i hope that when it support the chinese. i am waiting for it .

jæd · 10-02-2006, 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Devlar

AWESOME!

No, really, AWESOME!

Now if you could show us how you created this, maybe even whip out a front end to do it then you'd honestly have done more for the creation of content for the iLiad than iRex (which isn't hard at this point mind you)

Currently thinking how to do this... But you might see a rival iDS server. (Once I figure out the protocol they use)

RSS2PDF · 10-11-2006, 11:59 PM

Hi Guys,

Thanks for mentioning my webservice at http://rss2pdf.com

RSS 2 PDF offers a service called OPML 2 PDF where you can pass it the URL of an OPML list of newsfeeds.

RSS 2 PDF will then generate a PDF magazine or book from all the feeds listed in your OPML file (with a limit of 50 feeds).

Here's a sample PDF in this format:
http://rss2pdf.com/index.php?url=htt...rom+Wired+News

The above link appears truncated in this forum, so perhap it's best if you check out the sample on the RSS 2 PDF website .

If you want to create mobile-friendly PDF magazines of multiple feeds using my free OPML 2 PDF web service, you have to pass the following URL parameters to my web service using this format:

url = (the url-encoded link for your OPML file)
src = opml (tells my service to parse your url as an OPML file, and not as a single RSS or Atom feed - which is how RSS2PDF usually works)
title = (optional url-encoded title for your PDF Magazine)

Thanks a lot for mentioning RSS2PDF and you've got a cool forum here

Tom Churm
Creator & Developer Guy
RSS2PDF
http://rss2pdf.com

09-27-2006, 08:19 AM	#1
Devlar Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 397 Join Date: Jul 2006 Device: Kobo Aura H20	RSS to PDF? As most of you are probably aware, the News button on my iLiad is rather neglected. Currently there are no real services being offered. I'm wondering if anyone is aware of any software that would print multiple RSS feeds to PDF. At the moment I can't seem to find anything. There are tons of free RSS feeds out there that could be used by the iLiad if such software existed. Currently, you can print feeds with Thunderbird, but its combersome because it asks you for a filename for each PDF you make. Anyway, just throwing out an idea for anyone with some programming skills and some free time.

10-11-2006, 11:59 PM	#15
RSS2PDF Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2006	RSS 2 PDF - Free Online RSS, Atom or OPML to PDF Generator Hi Guys, Thanks for mentioning my webservice at http://rss2pdf.com RSS 2 PDF offers a service called OPML 2 PDF where you can pass it the URL of an OPML list of newsfeeds. RSS 2 PDF will then generate a PDF magazine or book from all the feeds listed in your OPML file (with a limit of 50 feeds). Here's a sample PDF in this format: http://rss2pdf.com/index.php?url=htt...rom+Wired+News The above link appears truncated in this forum, so perhap it's best if you check out the sample on the RSS 2 PDF website . If you want to create mobile-friendly PDF magazines of multiple feeds using my free OPML 2 PDF web service, you have to pass the following URL parameters to my web service using this format: url = (the url-encoded link for your OPML file) src = opml (tells my service to parse your url as an OPML file, and not as a single RSS or Atom feed - which is how RSS2PDF usually works) title = (optional url-encoded title for your PDF Magazine) Thanks a lot for mentioning RSS2PDF and you've got a cool forum here Tom Churm Creator & Developer Guy RSS2PDF http://rss2pdf.com Last edited by RSS2PDF; 10-12-2006 at 12:07 AM.

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09-27-2006, 02:23 PM	#3
vranghel Addict Posts: 285 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Vancouver, Canada Device: Proud Iliad owner	There's already an online service that does exactly that: RSS 2 PDF

09-28-2006, 07:42 PM	#6
Devlar Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 397 Join Date: Jul 2006 Device: Kobo Aura H20	Well what I think would be beneficial is a tool that would go out and get each page, except be able to do that in batch format. Take the entire feed, fetch each page, and PDF print it. What would be even better, would be if you could get a tool to do that with syncronization, where you plug the device in and it automatically, deletes/uploads the feed. You'd get DRM free newspapers, and they wouldn't necessarily have to be conventional newspapers either. There are tons of RSS feeds with content that is better than your standard New York Times. Moments like this kind of make me wish I had some programming skill. But, alas, I can simply throw out ideas for my betters to formulate.

09-29-2006, 03:45 PM	#8
deadite66 Groupie Posts: 197 Karma: 16 Join Date: Apr 2006 Device: irex iliad, uk Kindle gen3	i think it will be difficult to do, most sites have text either side of the main story and the text ends up too small to read.

09-29-2006, 04:22 PM	#9
b_k Übernerd Posts: 238 Karma: 74 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Germany Device: iRex iLiad	i think i will give AutoIT and a XML-parser a try. Maybe i get a more or less general RSS to HTML converter together. I'm thinking of getting article links from the RSS and RegExing them to print version links. Just have to figure out how to get rid of eventual ads and if I download images in the article or just try to throw them away.

09-30-2006, 03:41 AM	#10
deadite66 Groupie Posts: 197 Karma: 16 Join Date: Apr 2006 Device: irex iliad, uk Kindle gen3	think bbc news could be easy to do main link http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5394026.stm printable version http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pag...uk/5394026.stm fetch the xml and prepair an article list from xml and strip off the http:// bit from the main link and add http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/ might have a go later, i only know a small amount of tcl though.

09-30-2006, 08:28 AM	#11
jæd Evangelist Posts: 458 Karma: 293 Join Date: May 2006	Have a quick look at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9580#post39580 ... I was originally going to a pdf version, but I realised that doing it in HTML would give me free-scaling...!

09-30-2006, 10:59 AM	#12
Devlar Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 397 Join Date: Jul 2006 Device: Kobo Aura H20	AWESOME! No, really, AWESOME! Now if you could show us how you created this, maybe even whip out a front end to do it then you'd honestly have done more for the creation of content for the iLiad than iRex (which isn't hard at this point mind you)

10-02-2006, 11:41 AM	#13
lufee Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2006	i have test that the html2pdf cant support simple chinese and also big5 chinese.i hope that when it support the chinese. i am waiting for it .

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