HyperTexting OPML Imports

HyperTexting
1

I need to do some work on OPML imports in HyperTexting to improve the overall flow. There is one glaring papercut that I’ve already seen reported RE: how imported feeds initially appear as “Other Feeds” after importing them (more on this soon), and one report of an import failing to show a list of feeds.

Let me document what an import should look like as of TestFlight build 0.18.1 (66).

First of all, to open the import file picker, tap “Explore”, then tap the toolbar “…” button, and select “Add subscription list”. After you select a file you should see a sheet that looks like this:

Example "Add subscription list" picker
Example "Add subscription list" picker1206×2622 219 KB

After you select the individual feeds you want to import (or tap “All” to select all feeds), tapping “Add” should import those feeds to HyperTexting. For reasons I’ll explain below, those imported feeds should appear at the bottom of the “Explore” → “Following” view in a section called “Other Feeds”.

Example "Other Feeds" section.
Example "Other Feeds" section.1179×2556 211 KB

Of the many problems with this current workflow, you cannot tap on these freshly imported feeds or otherwise interact with them until HyperTexting fetches and parses the feed (by performing a pull-to-refresh from the home Timeline view), which now feels like an obvious papercut that I’ll work on resolving. It is also possible that you won’t even see the imported feeds in the “Other Feeds” section (another now-obvious papercut), in which case they should appear after a pull-to-refresh from the “Explore” → “Following” view.

The workflow as of 0.18.1 (66) is to import your OPML file, then pull-to-refresh from the Following tab, then pull-to-refresh from the Timeline tab.

BUT Y THO?! :scream:

HyperTexting organizes feed content around website “profiles”. Here is an example profile:

guide-profile-01-2
guide-profile-01-21359×2736 544 KB

It determines the website that a feed should be associated with using the link provided in the feed that indicates the website its content originates from (the exact implementation varies across RSS, Atom, and JSONFeed feed formats). Once HyperTexting knows what website to associate a feed with, it will appear in the “Explore” → “Following” view as a website you are following. I need to fix the OPML import flow to associate the imported feeds with their corresponding website, and finish building out the profile view for feeds that aren’t associated with a website so these can be interacted with as well.

1 Like
2

Thanks for investigating the issue.

In my case, using an OMPL exported by Feeeed

  1. most of the feeds were imported and “hypertexted”

  2. some are reported under other feeds, unclickable, even after multiple pull to refresh and a day gone by (also ALL rsshub are there)

  3. youtube videos feeds were not imported, except one, but parsed incorrectly

  4. podcast feed looks all imported. Parsing shows all the text, which usually is advertisement, i guess it would be more proficent to just show the playable audio file with the cover, isn’t it?

Other app OMPL when imported, instead, shows no feed (tried from Unread, Lume, others).

thanks!

IMG_5836
IMG_58361320×2868 286 KB

1 Like
3

:eyes:

Thanks for these notes. TL;DR - I’m hoping to have several fixes for these issues out by Monday or Tuesday at the latest.

The longer version:

OPML Imports and “Other Feeds”

I think working on an improvement to the OMPL import flow is probably my top priority right now as it has already tripped up several people. That “other feeds” implementation is confusing to say the least. It’s not very helpful to show something that can be interacted with. The good news is I have everything I need to make that better, I just need to connect the dots.

Multiple YouTube Feeds

When you say “YouTube feeds were not imported, except one” do you mean you only see one “YouTube” in your “following” list? If so, that is by design. Because HyperTexting organizes feeds around the websites they originate from, all YouTube channel RSS feeds will be aggregated into the YouTube website.

If you tap “Explore” → “Following” → @youtube.com, and then slide the tab bar to “Feeds”, you should see all of the YouTube feeds you’re following.

IMG_6604.PNG
IMG_6604.PNG1206×2622 246 KB

Then in your news feed you should see posts from @youtube.com with the YouTube Channel name as the “byline”:

IMG_6605
IMG_66051206×274 24.1 KB

YouTube Feeds Are Broken

As for the actual YouTube feed content, there’s a bug in my parser that’s not extracting the thumbnails and descriptions. I should have that fixed next week. Actual YouTube video playback might take a little longer, but it’s on the roadmap.

RSSHub

I just tried one of those RSSHub feeds that I can see in your screenshot and I was getting the following error:

Due to cost considerations, we will gradually restrict access to rsshub.app for some feed readers.

Please note that rsshub.app is intended for testing purposes only and should not be used as a production RSS source.

For stable and long-term usage, we strongly recommend self-hosting RSSHub.
Official deployment guide: https://docs.rsshub.app/deploy/

I’ll have to take a closer look at the RSS Hub project to see if there’s something I need to do to make HyperTexting compatible, or if the solution is that you need to self-host RSS Hub. I can’t promise I’ll have an update on this very soon, but I’m putting it in the backlog to investigate.

Cheers!

4

Thanks for the explanation, appreciated.

Yes, i can found the Youtube “page” but:

  1. title is one of my youtube feeds, not Youtube

  2. when i go on the page, Youtube is properly displayed, yet only feeds from that specific youtube channel are shown, not any other (i have around 50 subscribed, that it should have been imported via ompl).

Please refer to screenshot

IMG_5870
IMG_58701320×2868 231 KB

5

IMG_5871
IMG_58711320×2868 273 KB

6

Try tapping the … toolbar menu from the YouTube profile page, then “Refresh profile”.

I can see posts from multiple YouTube channels in your timeline there (see “by BBC World Service” and “by CNA Insider”).

7

You are right, feeds are there, only the title is wrong, reporting for all one name feed instead of Youtube.

Did your suggestion and it now fixed!

IMG_5873
IMG_58731320×2868 256 KB

8

Made some improvements to the feed parser so it’s picking up YouTube descriptions and thumbnails now. :ok_hand:t4:

IMG_0088.PNG
IMG_0088.PNG1179×2556 258 KB

(Coming soon to TestFlight)

1 Like
9

I figured out the issue with some of my imported feeds. The URL has since changed (no longer /rss but /feed) and now I can’t clear them out since other feeds cannot yet be interacted with (e.g. swipe to select and delete)

1 Like
10

I haven’t forgotten about this! I should have a fix for this by next week.