> **Update**: I made a little
PHP script that lets you upload your subscriptions and will return the converted file. It can be found
here.
[bloglines][] is (maybe *was*, after they had been bought by AskJeeves) a great service if you happen to read your subscriptions at two or more places. Newsreaders get support for their service that allows one to synchronize all your feeds via Bloglines.
Unfortunately, my favourite Newsreader [PulpFiction][] does not yet support bloglines. But while having a look at the [services description][] on bloglines, it occured to me that adding support for bloglines is actually fairly easy: The only thing one needs is an
OPML file that lists the bloglines `getitems`
URL as the feed
URL instead of the original feed’s
URL.
So what I did is write an
XSL file that will take an
OPML file from [http://rpc.bloglines.com/listsubs][] and convert it to an
OPML file with bloglines feeds.
You can then load this new
OPML file into PulpFiction — *et voilà* — Bloglines wherever you want it.
This approach, of course, applies to almost *any* Newsreader that can import
OPML files.
## Use Instructions
What follows is a step-by-step instruction to get this going. However, I assume that you are familiar with the command line and that you have a running [LibXSL][], including the `libxslt` executable, on your system.
1. Download the subscriptions from [bloglines][] and save them as `bloglines.opml`. You find them at [http://rpc.bloglines.com/listsubs][] and you’ll have to authenticate with your bloglines login credentials.
2. Download the
XSL file:
bloglines2opml.xsl
3. On the shell, run the following command:
`xsltproc -O bloglines-sub.opml bloglines2opml.xsl bloglines.opml`
4. Import the newly created file (`bloglines-sub.opml`) into PulpFiction (or any other Newsreader that supports OPML)
5. Enjoy
> **Update**: You can alternatively skip steps 2 and 3 and use the online script available
here.
## Caveats
* Because access to subscriptions is based on
HTTP authentication, your Newsreader must support feed authentication. PulpFiction does so, as well as NewsFire.
* In the current form, all unread items per feed will be downloaded and marked as read in bloglines. If this is not what you want, change line 33 of the
XSL from this:
`
`
to this:
`
`
(The parameter `n` in the `xmlUrl` defines if downloaded items are marked as read in bloglines or not. Default is `1` in my XSL).
[bloglines]:
http://bloglines.com/ “bloglines”
[services description]:
http://bloglines.com/services “Bloglines Services”
[http://rpc.bloglines.com/listsubs]:
http://rpc.bloglines.com/listsubs “http://rpc.bloglines.com/listsubs”
[PulpFiction]:
http://freshsqueeze.com/products/pulpfiction/ “PulpFiction”
[LibXSL]:
http://www.zveno.com/open_source/libxml2xslt.html “LibXML2 and LibXSLT for MacOS X”
Leave a reply