elfeed-summary/README.org
2022-03-28 12:07:08 +03:00

190 lines
10 KiB
Org Mode

#+TITLE: elfeed-summary
[[https://melpa.org/#/elfeed-summary][file:https://melpa.org/packages/elfeed-summary-badge.svg]]
The package provides a tree-based feed summary interface for [[https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed][elfeed]]. The tree can include individual feeds, [[https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed#filter-syntax][searches]], and groups. It mainly serves as an easier "jumping point" for elfeed, so to make querying a subset of the elfeed database one action away.
Inspired by [[https://github.com/newsboat/newsboat][newsboat]].
[[./img/screenshot.png]]
* Installation
The package is available on MELPA, so install it however you normally install packages. My preferred way is =use-package= with =straight=:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(use-package elfeed-summary
:straight t)
#+end_src
Of course, you have to have [[https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed][elfeed]] configured.
* Usage
Running =M-x elfeed-summary= opens up the summary buffer, as shown on the screenshot.
The tree consists of:
- feeds;
- searches;
- groups, that can include other groups, feeds, and searches.
Available keybindings in the summary mode:
| Keybinding | Command | Description |
|------------+-------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| =RET= | =elfeed-summary--action= | Open thing under the cursor (a feed, search, or a group). If there is at least one unread item, it will show only unread items. |
| =M-RET= | =elfeed-summary--action-show-read= | Open thing under the cursor, but always include read items |
| =q= | ... | Quit the summary buffer |
| =r= | =elfeed-summary--refresh= | Refresh the summary buffer |
| =R= | =elfeed-summary-update= | Run update for elfeed feeds |
| =u= | =elfeed-summary-toggle-only-unread= | Toggle showing only unread entries |
| =U= | =elfeed-summary--action-mark-read= | Mark everything in the entry under the cursor as read |
The standard keybindings from [[https://magit.vc/manual/magit.html#Sections][magit-section]] are also available, for instance =TAB= toggles the visibility of the current group. [[https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil][evil-mode]] is also supported.
* Configuration
** Tree configuration
The structure of the tree is determined by the =elfeed-summary-settings= variable.
This is a list of these possible items:
- Group =(group . <group-params>)=
Groups are used to group elements under collapsible sections.
- Query =(query . <query-params>)=
Query extracts a subset of elfeed feeds based on the given criteria. Each found feed will be represented as a line.
- Search =(search . <search-params>)=
Elfeed search, as defined by =elfeed-search-set-filter=.
- a few special forms
=<group-params>= is an alist with the following keys:
- =:title= (mandatory)
- =:elements= (mandatory) - elements of the group. The structure is the same as in the root definition.
- =:face= - group face. The default face is =elfeed-summary-group-face=.
- =:hide= - if non-nil, the group is collapsed by default.
=<query-params>= can be:
- A symbol of a tag.
A feed will be matched if it has that tag.
- =:all=. Will match anything.
- =(title . "string")= or =(title . <form>)=
Match feed title with =string-match-p=. <form> makes sense if you
want to pass something like =rx=.
- =(author . "string")= or =(author . <form>)=
- =(url . "string")= or =(url . <form>)=
- =(and <q-1> <q-2> ... <q-n>)=
Match if all the conditions 1, 2, ..., n match.
- =(or <q-1> <q-2> ... <q-n>)= or =(<q-1> <q-2> ... <q-n>)=
Match if any of the conditions 1, 2, ..., n match.
- =(not <query>)=
Feed tags for the query are determined by the =elfeed-feeds= variable.
Query examples:
- =(emacs lisp)=
Return all feeds that have either "emacs" or "lisp" tags.
- =(and emacs lisp)=
Return all feeds that have both "emacs" and "lisp" tags.
- =(and (title . "Emacs") (not planets))=
Return all feeds that have "Emacs" in their title and don't have
the "planets" tag.
=<search-params>= is an alist with the following keys:
- =:filter= (mandatory) filter string, as defined by
=elfeed-search-set-filter=
- =:title= (mandatory) title.
- =:tags= - list of tags to get the face of the entry.
Available special forms:
- =:misc= - print out feeds, not found by any query above.
Also keep in mind that ='(key . ((values)))= is the same as ='(key (values))=. This helps to shorten the form in many cases.
Also, this variable is not validated by any means, so wrong values can produce somewhat cryptic errors. Sorry about that.
** Example
Here is an excerpt from my configuration that was used to produce this screenshot:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(setq elfeed-summary-settings
'((group (:title . "GitHub")
(:elements
(query . (url . "SqrtMinusOne.private.atom"))
(group . ((:title . "Guix packages")
(:elements
(query . (and github guix_packages)))
(:hide t)))))
(group (:title . "Blogs [Software]")
(:elements
(query . software_blogs)))
(group (:title . "Blogs [People]")
(:elements
(query . (and blogs people (not emacs)))
(group (:title . "Emacs")
(:elements
(query . (and blogs people emacs))))))
(group (:title . "Podcasts")
(:elements
(query . podcasts)))
(group (:title . "Videos")
(:elements
(group
(:title . "Music")
(:elements
(query . (and videos music))))
(group
(:title . "Tech")
(:elements
(query . (and videos tech))))
(group
(:title . "History")
(:elements
(query . (and videos history))))
;; ...
))
;; ...
(group (:title . "Miscellaneous")
(:elements
(group
(:title . "Searches")
(:elements
(search
(:filter . "@6-months-ago sqrtminusone")
(:title . "About me"))
(search
(:filter . "+later")
(:title . "Check later"))))
(group
(:title . "Ungrouped")
(:elements :misc))))))
#+end_src
** Faces
Faces for groups by default use the =elfeed-summary-group-faces= variable, which serves as a list of faces for each level of the tree. Individual group faces can be overridden with the =:face= attribute.
Faces for feeds by default reuse [[https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed#custom-tag-faces][the existing elfeed mechanism]]. The tags for feeds are taken from the =elfeed-feeds= variable; if a feed has at least one unread entry, the unread tag is added to the list. This can be overridden by setting the =elfeed-summary-feed-face-fn= variable.
Searches are mostly the same as feeds, but tags for the search are taken from the =:tags= attribute. This also can be overridden with =elfeed-summary-search-face-fn= variable.
** Other options
Also take a look at =M-x customize-group elfeed-summary= for the rest of available options.
* Ideas and alternatives
The default interface of elfeed is just a list of all entries. Naturally, it gets hard to navigate when there are a lot of sources with varying frequencies of posts.
Elfeed itself provides one solution, which is using [[https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed#bookmarks][bookmarks]] to save individual [[https://github.com/skeeto/elfeed#filter-syntax][searches]]. This can work, but it can be somewhat cumbersome.
[[https://github.com/sp1ff/elfeed-score][elfeed-score]] is another solution, which introduces scoring rules for entries. Thus, with proper rules set, the most important entries should be on the top of the list. You can take a look at [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvWbUGx9U5E][this video by John Kitchin]] to see how this can work.
However, I mostly had =elfeed-score= to group entries to sets with equal scores, and I then processed one such set or the other. This is why I decided this package is a better fit for my workflow.
Another idea I used often before that is this function:
#+begin_src emacs-lisp
(defun my/elfeed-search-filter-source (entry)
"Filter elfeed search buffer by the feed under the cursor."
(interactive (list (elfeed-search-selected :ignore-region)))
(when (elfeed-entry-p entry)
(elfeed-search-set-filter
(concat
"@6-months-ago "
"+unread "
"="
(replace-regexp-in-string
(rx "?" (* not-newline) eos)
""
(elfeed-feed-url (elfeed-entry-feed entry)))))))
#+end_src
I've bound it to =o=, so I would open =elfeed=, press =o=, and only see unread entries from a particular feed. Then I cleaned the filter and switched to the next feed. Once again, a tree with feeds is obviously a better tool for such a workflow.
The last solution I want to mention is [[https://github.com/manojm321/elfeed-dashboard][elfeed-dashboard]], although I didn't test this one. It looks similar to this package but seems to require much more fine-tuning, for instance, it doesn't allow to list all the feeds with a certain tag in a group.