RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

Hi, I have a question about RSS feeds in general, and specifically, if any PPC programs will help me do what I need, thanks for the help!

I remember 3-5 years ago using Avantgo which would download entire articles (while docked to a PC) from sites and store them on the device for later viewing offline (before wireless internet was prevalent). I'm on the hunt for a program that will basically do the same for my new Diamond, ideally with RSS feeds because almost every site offers them.

I've tried RSS Hub, but it seems to only download the headline, and reading the article requires clicking the link, which opens Opera and then requires a live data connection. I've also tried SPB Insight and found the CNN channels (including subchannels) do actually download the entire article, but at least a couple other channels (mostly news) only download the headlines.

Is this "headline or article" choice something set by the RSS operator, or are there programs that will automatically download the entire article attached to RSS feeds? Knowing what I'm trying to do, does anybody have any better ideas?

Thanks!

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

Spb Insight ($) gives you that option, and with unlimited data now-a-days... www.spbsoftwarehouse.com

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

...I've tried SPB Insight, but found several feeds still only download the headers (Yahoo News, Google News, Motley Fool, and Engadget, just to name a few). Since so many popular feeds weren't working, I wasn't sure if I misunderstood the point of Insight (which I thought was to download the entire article with pictures) or if it is to-be-expected that it wouldn't work with several feeds.

Perhaps the wierdest part is that all of the feeds I'm having trouble with are actually listed in the "quick-select" top 50 feeds in the Insight program. Since SPB obviously generated this list, I was surprised so many of them simply don't work. Why would they create a quick-selection list of feeds from within their program that aren't compatible? *shrug*

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

I've used NewsGatorGo, pRSSReader, and EgressRss411. I can't remember if they all offer the ability to download the full articles but I know for sure that you can with EgressRSS411.

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

i seem to remember EgressRSS downloading the entire article.

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

pRSSreader ftw ... I use the program for all of my RSS and it synchs with Google Reader, too.

It's offline options include the ability to cache images, too.

Best regards,
-boggsie

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

Brilliant guys, thanks! I found a couple references on the SPB support forums; it seems they design specific templates for each feed format. Whenever the sites change their format for any reason, the templates no longer work.

Of the ~10 sites I tried to get to work with Insight, I found only 3 that worked completely (entire article), most either gave just headlines or errored out. I know users can create templates, but I have a problem spending $20 to sign myself up for extra homework :???:

Thanks again for the help guys, I'm going to try out your suggestions!

Happy Holidays!

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

Speaking of RSS, I was wondering about something. More and more I see RSS feeds applied to forums within a forum site. For example PPCGeeks has an RSS feed for the Pocket PC software forum as well as each individual forum for phones, etc.

Subscribing though seems to only notify of new threads in the forum not replies to existing threads. Know what I mean? Is it just a shortcoming of RSS technology in general?

I use my reader for seeing news articles that get posted at various sources. How nice would it be to also see activity at the various forums I participate in. Currently RSS only is good to see new threads but, as we know, the vast majority of action takes place in the replies within a thread.

How nice it would be to sit in one reader and see the activity across multiple forums, replies included. Is it me or RSS or the forum site setting up the feed?

Thanks

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

No, I think thats how its supposed to be set up. If you want to be notified of comments within a topic you can subscribe to that topic and you'll get emails.

Re: RSS - Downloading entire articles?
 

This might work. You can use the new feature that Google Reader has that allows you to create an RSS feed even if there isn't one available. All you would have to do is pick all the forums that you wanted to monitor. Found here: http://googlereader.blogspot.com/
Follow changes to any website

..... Today we're rolling out a change in Google Reader that lets you create a custom feed to track changes on pages that don't have their own feed.
These custom feeds are most useful if you want to be alerted whenever a specific page has been updated. For example, if you wanted to follow Google.org's latest products, just type "http://www.google.org/products.html" into Reader's "Add a subscription" field. Click "create a feed", and Reader will periodically visit the page and publish any significant changes it finds as items in a custom feed created just for that page.