Feedjack
--------

Feedjack is a feed aggregator, allowing to aggregate multiple rss/atom
feeds into multiple "sites", accessible as regular web pages, somewhat
like "planet" aggregator does, but better.

It is intended to be useful as a multisite feed aggregator (planet, e.g.
"planet python"), as well as a personal feed reader app with web
interface. It's also a Django app, which can be integrated into larger
Django projects.

This project is a fork of the original Feedjack project by Gustavo
Picón, which seem to be abandoned for a while now. See CHANGES file for
more details on what happened here over time.

Installation
------------

Python module (Django app)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This feedjack fork is a regular package for Python 2.7 (not 3.X).

Best way to install it (from
`PyPI <https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Feedjack/>`__) would be to use
`pip <http://pip-installer.org/>`__:

::

    % pip install Feedjack

If you don't have it, use:

::

    % easy_install pip
    % pip install Feedjack

Alternatively (see also `pip2014.com <http://pip2014.com/>`__ and
`install
guide <http://www.pip-installer.org/en/latest/installing.html>`__):

::

    % curl https://raw.github.com/pypa/pip/master/contrib/get-pip.py | python
    % pip install Feedjack

Current-git version can be installed like this:

::

    % pip install 'git+https://github.com/mk-fg/feedjack.git#egg=Feedjack'

All of these will automatically fetch and install 'feedjack' Django app
to a configured python site-path, along with all the required
dependencies.

Another way of installing from a git chechout would be running
``python setup.py install`` in the dir.

Note that to install stuff in system-wide PATH and site-packages,
elevated privileges are often required. Use "install --user",
`~/.pydistutils.cfg <http://docs.python.org/install/index.html#distutils-configuration-files>`__
or `virtualenv <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/virtualenv>`__ to do
unprivileged installs into custom paths.

Django project
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are not familiar with Django framework and how Django apps are
deployed, please see this short tutorial, which contains all the steps
necessary to initialize "django project" directory, also explaining
what's in there:

::

    https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/intro/tutorial01/#creating-a-project

Django project - at it's minimum - is just a few `configuration
files <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/settings/>`__,
specifying which database to use, and which "apps" should handle which
URLs.

Feedjack can only be deployed as an "app" in such project, so it either
has to be created, or app can be enabled in any existing one.

Enabling app in a Django project
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-  First of all, 'feedjack' app must be enabled in settings.py under
   `INSTALLED\_APPS <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/settings/#installed-apps>`__.

-  Running ``./manage.py migrate`` (`"migrate"
   command <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/django-admin/#migrate-app-label-migrationname>`__,
   supersedes "syncdb" in Django-1.7) from the command line should then
   populate database (whichever is configured in the same file) with
   feedjack-specific schema.

-  Feedjack "static files" directory should be setup to be reachable
   under configured
   `STATIC\_URL <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/settings/#static-url>`__
   (under "STATIC\_URL/feedjack/", to be precise).

   This can be done automatically by using
   `django.contrib.staticfiles <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/ref/contrib/staticfiles/>`__
   app, that `will copy/link static
   files <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/howto/static-files/>`__
   with ``./manage.py collectstatic`` command.

   It can also be done manually. For instance, if your STATIC\_URL
   resolves to "/var/www/htdocs", and Feedjack was installed to
   "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/feedjack", symlinking dir from
   there should probably do the trick:

   ::

       % ln -s /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/feedjack/static/feedjack /var/www/htdocs/

-  Be sure to enable/add/uncomment/check "django.contrib.admin" app
   (`Django admin
   interface <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/ref/contrib/admin/>`__)
   as well, since it's the most convenient and supported way to
   configure and control feedjack.

   "migrate" operation (same as after enabling feedjack itself) might be
   necessary after that.

   Other ways to configure and control feedjack app after installation
   are:

   -  Command-line tools.

      These are accessible via django-admin.py (or "./manage.py"
      wrapper) - see ``--help`` output for reference on all the
      supported commands there.

      Some (e.g. "feedjack\_update") can also be installed as python
      console\_scripts entry points.

   -  Manipulate models from the python code or ``./manage.py shell``
      directly, which might be desirable for some kind of migration or
      automated configuration.

-  Add an entry for feedjack.urls in your Django "urls.py" file, so it'd
   look like this (with admin interface also enabled on "/admin/"):

   ::

       urlpatterns = patterns( '',
           (r'^admin/', include('django.contrib.admin.urls')),
           (r'', include('feedjack.urls')) )

   (of course, less trivial Django configurations should probably have
   way more entries there)

After all that, it might be worth checking out "/admin" interface (if
django.contrib.admin app was enabled) to create a feedjack site,
otherwise sample default site will be created upon first request.

Be sure to check out deployment section of Django docs and a checklist
there before making project accessible from the internet:

::

    https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/howto/deployment/
    https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/stable/howto/deployment/checklist/

See also "Configuration" section below.

Requirements
~~~~~~~~~~~~

-  `Python 2.7 <http://python.org/>`__ (not 3.X)

-  `Django 1.8+ <http://djangoproject.com>`__

-  `feedparser 4.1+ <https://code.google.com/p/feedparser/>`__

-  (optional, recommended) `pytz <http://pythonhosted.org/pytz/>`__ -
   required by Django in some cases, facilitates correct
   handling/interpretation of timezones.

-  (optional) `lxml <http://lxml.de>`__ - used for html mangling in some
   themes (fern, plain) processing of more free-form timestamps on
   feeds, if feedparser can't handle these for whatever reason.

-  (optional, only for updating from older Feedjack/Django versions)
   `South <http://south.aeracode.org>`__

Updating from older versions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The only non-backwards-compatible changes should be in the database
schema, thus requiring migration, but it's much easier (automatic even)
than it sounds.

Feedjack didn't have any automatic db migration features in the past,
then used South module (in this fork), and now uses stock `Django
database migration
features <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/migrations/>`__
(which only work with Django-1.7+).

-  To upgrade older installations where there were no migrations in use
   at all, install and enable South app, backup "feedjack/migrations"
   (which now contains Django-native migration info), then rename
   "feedjack/migrations.south" dir to "feedjack/migrations".

   There is no automated way to determine schema version in current
   database, so use South's ``./manage.py migrate --list`` command to
   list migrations, find the one that matches current db state and run
   e.g. ``./manage.py migrate feedjack 0013 --fake`` to make South aware
   of it.

   In case of pre-fork Feedjack versions (0.9.16 and below), this would
   be very first (0001) schema version.

-  To upgrade from South to Django-1.7+ native migrations, temporarily
   restore "migrations.south" dir to "migrations", as outlined above,
   run ``./manage.py migrate`` to make sure all South migrations were
   applied, then restore Django's "migrations" directory, replace
   "south" with "django.db.migrations" in INSTALLED\_APPS and run
   ``./manage.py migrate`` again to apply all these.

   See also `Upgrading from
   South <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.7/topics/migrations/#upgrading-from-south>`__
   section in Django docs on migrations.

Configuration
-------------

The first thing you want to do is to add a Site.

To do this, open Django admin interface and create your first planet.
You must use a valid address in the URL field, since it will be used to
identify the current planet when there are multiple planets in the same
instance and to generate all the links.

Then you should add Subscribers to your first planet. A Subscriber is a
relation between a Feed and a Site, so when you add your first
Subscriber, you should also add your first Feed by clicking in the “+”
button at the right of the Feed combobox.

Feedjack is designed to use `Django cache
system <https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/cache/>`__ to store
database-intensive data like pages of posts and tagclouds, so it is
highly recomended to `configure
CACHES <http://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/cache/#setting-up-the-cache>`__
in django settings (memcached, db, files, etc). Feedjack will try to use
cache with "feedjack" alias, falling back to "default" if that one is
not defined.

Now that you have everything set up, run ``./manage.py feedjack_update``
(or something like
``DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=myproject.settings feedjack_update``) to
retrieve the actual data from the feeds. This script should be setup to
be run periodically (to retreive new posts from the feeds), which is
usually a task for unix cron daemon.

In case of some missing or inaccessible functionality, feedjack may
issue (once per runtime) `python
warnings <http://docs.python.org/library/warnings.html>`__, which can
(and most likely should) be captured by logging system, so they can be
handled by django (e.g. notification mail sent to ADMINS).

To do that, add following code to Django's settings.py:

::

    import logging
    logging.captureWarnings(True)

Bugs, development, support
--------------------------

All the issues with this fork should probably be reported to respective
github project/fork, since code here can be quite different from the
original project.

Until 2012, this fork was kept in a
`fossil <http://www.fossil-scm.org/>`__ repo
`here <http://fraggod.net/code/fossil/feedjack/>`__.

Links
-----

-  Github page (home): https://github.com/mk-fg/feedjack

-  PyPI page: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Feedjack/

-  Original feedjack project links

   -  Bitbucket repository: http://code.tabo.pe/feedjack/
   -  Github mirror: https://github.com/tabo/feedjack
   -  Website (now offline, it seems): http://www.feedjack.org/

-  Other known forks

   -  https://github.com/cato-/django-feedjack
   -  https://github.com/squarepegsys/feedjack
   -  https://code.google.com/p/feedjack-extension/
