paulkinlan/ioreader

IO Reader - a news reading framework to enable you to target one news app to multiple devices.

io-reader server

This is a basic proxying server that has some state.

The server runs an instance of the configuration document, which includes the type of API proxy to use and the categories to display.

There are two API proxies included:

• Guardian
• NPR

Installation

• Install Node v0.4.12
• Install npm

Now you can install the dependencies:

npm install express mustache async less uglify-js

Running the app

./run.sh <CONFIG_NAME>

Where <CONFIG_NAME> is the name of a folder in <PROJECT_ROOT>/config.

Configuring your app

Each application needs a configuration to run, the configuration defines properties such as:

1. The port and hostname for the application to listen on.
2. The name and description of the application
3. The directory where the client code is (it can be anywhere you want)
4. The API proxy to use (Guardian, NPR, GoogleFeedApi etc)
   1. The parameters for the API, such as API Keys
5. The columns to display in the app
   1. And proxy specific parameters

Example Configuration: Google Feed API

exports.config = { 
    id: "googlefeed",
    name: "Chrome Developer Relations",
    description: "All the latest news from around the Chrome team",
    version: "0.0.0.11",
    baseDir: "server/templates/",
    clientDir: "client/",
    categories: [
        { 
            id: "pk", url : "http://paul.kinlan.me/rss.xml", title: "Paul Kinlan"
        },
        { 
            id: "mm", url : "http://softwareas.com/rss.xml", title: "Mike Mahemoff"
        }, 
        {
            id: "ig", url : "http://greenido.wordpress.com/rss.xml", title : "Ido Green"
        },
        {
            id: "smus", url : "http://smus.com/rss.xml", title : "Boris Smus"
        }
    ],
    options: {
        appCache: "",
        port: 3000,
        proxies: {
            "googlefeed": {
                referer: "http://paul.kinlan.me/"
            }
        }
    }
};

Most of it is pretty self explanatory, the categories array is specific to the provider. The Guardian API proxy is a simple collection of category names. The NPR API proxy is a collection of category numbers.

For a given proxy, there might require some specific parameters such as API Keys.

ioreader's Issues

The GoogleFeed Proxy doesn't use images

Images are available in the feed but not used. Use them.

Client-min should never be checked in

Refactor GoogleFeed Proxy

It is a bit complex and doesn't need to be,

Switching from Desktop to Tablet with story open

See screenshot:

There are other cases where this happens, but it seems to be consistent in the above case. I'll see if I can reproduce the others with a script to see if it's a timing thing.

Remove Client-min directory. It is no longer needed.

The desktop interface carries styles in to the story element.

Create a Proxy for the Google Feed API

Google provide a Feed API that converts RSS/ATOM into a structured JSON object making it very easy to manipulate.

Fix desktop to look nicer in FF

Refactor run.sh to only run code, not make code

Also create a new Make framework

Uncaught Exception on startup

When visiting the page, with FireBug running, I regularly see this message appear in the console:

uncaught exception: [Exception... "Not enough arguments" nsresult: "0x80570001 (NS_ERROR_XPC_NOT_ENOUGH_ARGS)" location: "JS frame :: http://io-reader.com/scripts/desktop/controller.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 37" data: no]

32 image tags with empty src values

You should be able to spot this using something like Dom Monster!

The drawbacks of this are explained well here: http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2009/11/30/empty-image-src-can-destroy-your-site/

Client code should not reside under the server code

We should have done this a lot earlier, but the client code is under the server directory and there is no need.

It can cause a lot of problems for new developers finding the correct content.

Custom options to be provided in the configuration

We want to be able to allow custom options to be configured for a proxy.

Urls ending in / don't display in GoogleFeedParser

Currently Ido Greens feed doesn't parse

Create an RSS proxy

It would be excellent if we could parse/configure RSS feeds so that people can quickly build their own apps.

Reference to some tablet code that shouldn't be there.

See client/tablet

Refactor Proxy Cache into a common layer

No option to bind server to a host

Always is bound to localhost and never allowed to be bound to another host.

Guardian API: Throw Error on no API key

We need to throw an error on the lack of API key so developers know where to place the key.

Null Reference Exception on Google Feed Proxy

Update the Readme

It is no longer accurate, especially about running the app.

Google Feed Proxy doesn't get Author

Proxy fails due to restrictions on show-media

Fix the guardian API so that it still works when the licence key isn't allowed to use larger media assets.

Tablet Interface incorrectly renders all artciles when switching category.

Testing infrastructure

We have very few tests. Define a test suite for proxies

Remove references to the Guardian