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Last active April 11, 2025 17:50
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Feedreader Example
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feedreader_example.md

Example of using Feedreader Integration to display recent news on dashboard

First add the feed you want using the UI

image

and enter your feed URL

image

to be sure to only get the latest news item configure the integration

image

and set to 1 entry

image

now you want to set up some text helpers to hold the data

image

image

ENSURE THEY ARE SET TO A MAX LENGTH OF 255

you should make one for:

RSS Title

RSS Description

RSS Link

RSS Date

now we need to fill these with data from the integration when new news arrives by triggering on the event

example automation:

alias: RSS Feed Reader
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: event
    event_type: feedreader
    event_data:
      feed_url: https://newsletter.openhomefoundation.org/rss/
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: input_text.set_value
    metadata: {}
    data:
      value: " {{ trigger.event.data.title }} "
    target:
      entity_id: input_text.rss_title
  - action: input_text.set_value
    metadata: {}
    data:
      value: " {{ trigger.event.data.description }} "
    target:
      entity_id: input_text.rss_description
  - action: input_text.set_value
    metadata: {}
    data:
      value: " {{ trigger.event.data.link }} "
    target:
      entity_id: input_text.rss_link
  - action: input_text.set_value
    metadata: {}
    data:
      value: " {{ trigger.event.data.published }} "
    target:
      entity_id: input_text.rss_date
mode: single

you should change the URL to match your feeds URL and update the helper entities as needed to point to where you want the data.

now you can create a markdown card on your dashbaord to display the information from the feed

example card:

type: markdown
content: |-
  ## {{states('input_text.rss_title')}}
  ### {{states('input_text.rss_description')}}
   {{states('input_text.rss_link')}}
   
   {{states('input_text.rss_date')}}
title: Latest From The Open Home Foundation

should look like this:

image

if it is currently showing no data you can either wait for the next RSS announce or you can reload the integration to force it to grab the most recent news item

@MichaelMKKelly
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MichaelMKKelly commented Apr 11, 2025

@wormuths
yeah input text is limited to 255 so stripping it down to that to prevent errors is a good idea

on the date point. I had a go at making it work and it was a bit of chaos as in RSS feeds it comes from in rfc-822 format which has some variations. I figured for simple example to display a date then just text would be easier.

I did get a semi working version but I had to strip the timezone out and could not figure a way to put it back in
this is where i got to playing in the template editor in the dev tools if you you want to play with it

{% set input = 'Mon, 31 Mar 2025 15:47:37 GMT' %}
{% set splitdate = input.split(' ') %}
{% set timezone = splitdate[(splitdate|length -1)] %}
{% set time_without_tz = input[:(input|length - (timezone|length + 1) )  ] %}
{% set parseFormat ='%a, %d %b %Y %H:%M:%S' %}
{% set real_datetime = strptime(time_without_tz, parseFormat) %}

{{real_datetime}}

my string manipulation is a bit of a mess but you can see what I am getting at and can refactor it if you like.

I don't really use the integration that much myself so need to dive in a bit.
there is also a parsed date object as part of the event so you could rebuild the format from that but I think that was missing the timezone section.

I am sure someone with more knowledge than me could make something better but perhaps adding to the integration itself might be a better option to be honest.

@wormuths
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wormuths commented Apr 11, 2025

I'd be happy just having it input the date/time from when it was updated, as in, when the feed was entered into the helper. Basically, the time I added the headline, rather than the exact second it was published. Exact doesn't matter to me (might for some), as it's just a general guideline...

But this integration IS seriously lacking. Changing the number of feeds isn't making a difference. Once again, nothing is downloading for me. I thought it was because the feeds were set to "1", so I changed it to "2". It's made no difference, and nothing is updating because the integration says it isn't detecting anything.

Screenshot_20250411_132005

Screenshot_20250411_132101

The last update happened around midnight last night, and now it no longer updates. Last time this required a restart to fix. There are no errors in the logs, and what's worse, there is NO WAY to disable system polling and use an automation to fire the "feedreader" event on a defined schedule to force it. If it stops, it just stops. No warning, nothing...

I'm setting back to one feed, and restarting. I'll see how it goes.

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