# Simple RSS Feed Reader

This utility fetches and displays the latest articles from an RSS or Atom feed. It uses the `feedparser` library to handle the complexities of different feed formats and `webbrowser` to optionally open links.

**Modules Used:**
*   `feedparser`: A powerful library for parsing RSS and Atom feeds.
*   [[programming/python/modules/argparse-module|argparse]]: To handle command-line arguments.
*   `webbrowser`: To open article links in the default web browser.

## Installation

```bash
pip install feedparser
```

## The Code

Save this as `rss_reader.py`.

```python
import feedparser
import argparse
import webbrowser
import sys

def read_feed(url, limit=5, open_browser=False):
    print(f"Fetching feed from: {url}...")
    
    # Parse the feed
    # feedparser handles HTTP requests internally
    feed = feedparser.parse(url)
    
    # Check for parsing errors (bozo bit)
    # Note: feedparser often returns usable data even if the XML is malformed
    if feed.bozo:
        print("Warning: Feed might be malformed or invalid.")

    if not feed.entries:
        print("No entries found in this feed. Check the URL.")
        return

    # Print Feed Title
    feed_title = feed.feed.get('title', 'Unknown Feed')
    print(f"\n--- {feed_title} ---\n")

    # Iterate through entries
    display_count = min(limit, len(feed.entries))
    for i, entry in enumerate(feed.entries[:display_count]):
        title = entry.get('title', 'No Title')
        link = entry.get('link', '')
        published = entry.get('published', entry.get('updated', 'N/A'))
        
        print(f"{i+1}. {title}")
        print(f"   Date: {published}")
        print(f"   Link: {link}")
        print("-" * 40)

    # Interactive mode to open links
    if open_browser:
        while True:
            choice = input(f"\nEnter number to open (1-{display_count}) or 'q' to quit: ")
            if choice.lower() in ['q', 'exit']:
                break
            try:
                idx = int(choice) - 1
                if 0 <= idx < display_count:
                    link = feed.entries[idx].get('link')
                    if link:
                        print(f"Opening: {link}")
                        webbrowser.open(link)
                    else:
                        print("Error: No link available for this entry.")
                else:
                    print("Invalid number.")
            except ValueError:
                print("Please enter a valid number.")

if __name__ == "__main__":
    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Simple RSS Feed Reader")
    parser.add_argument("url", help="URL of the RSS feed")
    parser.add_argument("-l", "--limit", type=int, default=5, help="Number of articles to show (default: 5)")
    parser.add_argument("--open", action="store_true", help="Interactive mode to open articles in browser")
    
    args = parser.parse_args()
    
    read_feed(args.url, args.limit, args.open)
```

## Usage

```bash
# Read Hacker News RSS
python rss_reader.py https://news.ycombinator.com/rss

# Read Reddit Python and open links interactively
python rss_reader.py https://www.reddit.com/r/python/.rss --limit 10 --open
```

[[programming/python/python]]