Sunday, March 31, 2013

From Google Reader To Tiny Tiny RSS

In early 2000s, I migrated from FeedReader application to Google Reader. Now it's time to move on, again.
I have chosen Tiny Tiny RSS because :
  • It was in Slashdot comments
  • It has both a Web interface and an Android app
  • It is a very active project
  • I can host it myself (it's not in some cloud)
  • Articles will not be marked read after 30 days
  • I can disable article purge
Hosting
Tiny Tiny RSS works fine with WampServer but I do not allow connections from internet to my local home private network.
I could not use the following web hosting providers :
  • free.fr : no support for PHP 5.3
  • olympe : doc is dead, do not know how to upload files
  • 000webhost : ftp is deadly slow, tt-rss does not work (uname, not writable errors)
  • byethost : dojo not defined error, could not load feeds
  • Toile Libre : dead
I have chosen hostinger :
  • ttrss works ! (PHP 5.3.20 and you can enable PHP 5.4)
  • small .p.ht url suffix
PHP has open_basedir restrictions but :
  • you can use this patch
  • You must use the 'resolved' url once all redirections have been resolved
Sample feeds resolved by firefox :
  • The Daily WTF : http://thedailywtf.com/rss.aspx gives http://syndication.thedailywtf.com/TheDailyWtf
  • PC Inpact : http://www.pcinpact.com/rss/news.xml gives http://pcinpact.com.feedsportal.com/c/35178/f/652880/index.rss
Edit 2013.04.01 : hostinger lets you add cron jobs to update feeds.
Edit 2013.04.11 : 10 days later, I got an official answer from hostinger support saying that cron jobs only support PHP 5.2. Too bad...