[App] I-RSS - Beta Closed (Updated 29.7.2011)

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PaulosCZ

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2008
180
11
3dworms.eu
UPDATE 29.7.2011 - The Private Beta is now closed. The first beta version is now entering testing phase.

Let's make some good app for Windows Phone 7! I've decided to make
applogobig.png

This page is about the development of new Windows phone 7 RSS Client - I-RSS. It's in the final stage of development and the goal is to create fast, nice, intuitive and competitive RSS Reader - and then push it to Marketplace. The application will probably have free and paid version (which will cost less than $2), making it attractive for users.
irssmain10.png
irssmain10111.png

Screenshot is truly Work In Progress! Last Update 10.3.2011

And what I'm currently planning for it?
  • An intuitive and clean RSS reader with Metro-like interface
    Progress: 95%
  • Option to add feeds directly or by choosing from webpage
    Progress: 95% (now only timeouts to handle)
  • Import / Export feeds from / to other feed aggregators
    Preparing import from Google Reader, later sync with GR
  • Add selected news to Instapaper / Read It Later - to read them later
    Progress: 85%
  • Sort the incoming news by date, source
    Progress: 98%
  • Flag some news items so you can return to them later
    Progress: 100%
  • Search in downloaded news
    Progress: 99% - every time there is something to do better :)
  • Push notifications, toasts and live tiles
    OK, this is unreal for the first versions of the app. I'll need to learn LOT about servers.

Progress of actual coding is currently approx. 85%.

Thanks goes to Captainkrtek, emuneee and mei_liberi_fatali for developing with me! ;)

Stay tuned for news and CONTRIBUTE with your ideas!


-------------------------
Original post:
Hello folks,

I had an idea recently of writing a RSS application for WP7 which would not be based on Google Reader or anything like that. But I've caught myself into a limiting Microsoft trap.

And that is: How will users add feeds? Typing the whole URL of the feed? Not really good solution, I guess. Hovewer, I came with one solution, at last.

User would type in the address of the website (ie. www.cnn.com) and the application would search for all avaible RSS sources there and let user choose.

So I will need your help. What do you think about that? Do you have any other things you think they are worth trying?
Thanks in advance ;)
 
Last edited:
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Tom Servo

Senior Member
Aug 1, 2009
290
29
I don't see where the problem is in combining both in the same place.

You need an URL entry field anyway. Once the user hits enter, make a request to the URL. If it's a RSS feed that's returned, add it immediately, if it's HTML, scan for RSS feed links in the meta section and have the user select.
 

irdawood

Senior Member
Oct 24, 2007
193
4
also make sure you have an import export function, something that is universal i think is OMAP?
 

PaulosCZ

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2008
180
11
3dworms.eu
I don't see where the problem is in combining both in the same place.

You need an URL entry field anyway. Once the user hits enter, make a request to the URL. If it's a RSS feed that's returned, add it immediately, if it's HTML, scan for RSS feed links in the meta section and have the user select.
Well, there is no problem with that, actually it was my suggestion. Thanks for confirming my thoughts. ;)

also make sure you have an import export function, something that is universal i think is OMAP?
Be sure I'll do that... but that's another problem, where to load from / save to? We could maybe import feeds from Google Reader, but what would be the point of G:RSS then? (Items sync... I know :))
Export... I could send the OPML file (no OMAP!) through email but I have to make sure I can do that using dev tools first.
Or upload to some file sharing server...

Anyways: Stay tuned for news!
 
Last edited:

mesofly

Member
Sep 18, 2010
12
0
Hope you've got more planned for your rss feed reader than automatically finding feeds based on domain name since Google reader already does that.

imho - syncing with an existing rss reader is the best bet. What user would want to have to resubscribe to all their feeds?
 

vangrieg

Senior Member
Jul 30, 2007
2,500
45
Moscow
I wouldn't want to resubscribe but quite often want to add a feed on my phone as it's my primary device for casual browsing. Lack of copy/paste is a real limiting factor.
 

OndraSter

Retired Recognized Developer
Mar 27, 2009
2,083
272
31
Prague
You have got here one big problem - no background app running possibility, so when new RSS comes, you won't be able to download it without firing the application first.

The only way how to get notifications is via online notifications, which means you'll have to run server where you'll fire these notifications to phone.

Or that's what I remember from KeyNote...
 

PaulosCZ

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2008
180
11
3dworms.eu
Of course I'm planning more things for my application! Push notifications will be a pain in the back for a while - let's hope I'll sort that out.

BTW I've updated the first post with some of my progress! Please check periodically to see what I want to have in the app and contribute with anything you find useful! In a while (few days) I'll add some screenshots with my progress.
 
Last edited:

PaulosCZ

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2008
180
11
3dworms.eu
First screenshots added

Okay, so I'm releasing first screenshots of the actual I-RSS design. You can find them in the first post, along with some progress changes.

The design can be changed, as well as other things - nothing is final, as there is still lot of work to do. Please write if you don't like it or you have some thoughts. (But also write if you like it :p ) This way we'll make better app for you and everyone else! :)

The offer to contribute to development is still valid! It's also in the first post.

Thanks for any response!
 
Last edited:

meltwater

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 28, 2009
2,070
325
Hi, good to see RSS feeds!

Please pressurise XDA to support some useful thread subscription feeds for use with this app, it is something seriously lacking here.

Although I can't offer developer time (don't have WP7 etc and other projects) I will be happy to talk through design ideas and concepts as I am working on wm6 sense RSS tab so there will be useful concepts for both.

Feel free to have a look in the RSSTab wiki, as I aim to collect ideas etc in there.
http://xdaforums.com/wiki/index.php?title=Sense_RSS_Tab_Project
Although the main focus of the tab is to create the means to a generic tab rather than fancy features, there are some I am hoping to implement eventually.


All the best.
 
Last edited:

PaulosCZ

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2008
180
11
3dworms.eu
Hey meltwater,

your ideas for Sense RSS Tab are neat! I'll certainly use some of them in my app (of course different way so it fits into WP7 design). There are some (i.e. offline mode and levelled design) I'm actually using to achieve my goals - Windows Phone 7 developer tools make this much easier.

As I see it, I should make wiki page as well, seems like your ideas are very inspiring for me! :) And to the RSS subscriptions in XDA-devs forum... Well, I'm in touch with Captainkrtek as he offered help with my project. Be sure I'll pressurize enough :D
 

Captainkrtek

Retired Recognized Developer / Retired Forum Mod
Feb 16, 2010
2,436
560
Seattle
Hey Paulos,
Sorry I havent been corresponding with you, been very busy! Ill try to see what I can do in the next few days :)
 

meltwater

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 28, 2009
2,070
325
Hey meltwater,

your ideas for Sense RSS Tab are neat! I'll certainly use some of them in my app (of course different way so it fits into WP7 design). There are some (i.e. offline mode and levelled design) I'm actually using to achieve my goals - Windows Phone 7 developer tools make this much easier.

As I see it, I should make wiki page as well, seems like your ideas are very inspiring for me! :) And to the RSS subscriptions in XDA-devs forum... Well, I'm in touch with Captainkrtek as he offered help with my project. Be sure I'll pressurize enough :D

Sound good, always good to put in ideas which are a little different and add value. At the moment trying to work out a good process for storing feeds which are no longer present in the downloaded feed. Hopefully compact .net is ok with generating xml but I doubt it, one way or another will do it.
What I've seen of windows phone 7 development the graphics and animations are very slick right out the box, where wm is a pig. Hopefully wp7 or sliverlight can be put on wm devices, would soften the effort ms is making killing off wm development.
 

PaulosCZ

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2008
180
11
3dworms.eu
Hey Paulos,
Sorry I havent been corresponding with you, been very busy! Ill try to see what I can do in the next few days :)
Hey captain,
good you're still there :) Hopefully you will have more time in next days.

Sound good, always good to put in ideas which are a little different and add value. At the moment trying to work out a good process for storing feeds which are no longer present in the downloaded feed. Hopefully compact .net is ok with generating xml but I doubt it, one way or another will do it.
What I've seen of windows phone 7 development the graphics and animations are very slick right out the box, where wm is a pig. Hopefully wp7 or sliverlight can be put on wm devices, would soften the effort ms is making killing off wm development.
You can serialize and deserialize in C#, there should be no problem with that (I encountered one but nothing to worry about :) ). But there can be performance issues I actually met today when I combined deserializing with sorting and filtering. But important is the actual performance on device so I'll wait until Captainkrtek will have some more time.
And don't think developers for WP7 have things so easy. You still have to code many of the transitions you need. :p
 

meltwater

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 28, 2009
2,070
325
Hey captain,
good you're still there :) Hopefully you will have more time in next days.


You can serialize and deserialize in C#, there should be no problem with that (I encountered one but nothing to worry about :) ). But there can be performance issues I actually met today when I combined deserializing with sorting and filtering. But important is the actual performance on device so I'll wait until Captainkrtek will have some more time.
And don't think developers for WP7 have things so easy. You still have to code many of the transitions you need. :p

Yep I need to work on my xml de/serializing etc, just did some basic code to test the concept out, can now tidy it up. Hopefully it'll lead to other sense tabs using the same methods, moves the coding to .net rather than tackling sense scripts. When you post up a wiki I will link it from mine then!
 

PaulosCZ

Senior Member
Sep 28, 2008
180
11
3dworms.eu
OK, so I've updated my progress a bit on the first page and there are some new screenshots. By the way, when I've been looking on YouTube, I found some other interesting RSS readers that are being developed. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QY7iOP_9To
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOmGu6nAFRE
Neat ideas, huh? :)
I've already created the Wiki page - http://xdaforums.com/wiki/index.php?title=I-RSS_Project - but it needs to be completed. I don't have enough time today... maybe tomorrow? :D
 

meltwater

Inactive Recognized Developer
Jan 28, 2009
2,070
325
OK, so I've updated my progress a bit on the first page and there are some new screenshots. By the way, when I've been looking on YouTube, I found some other interesting RSS readers that are being developed. See for yourself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QY7iOP_9To
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOmGu6nAFRE
Neat ideas, huh? :)
I've already created the Wiki page - http://xdaforums.com/wiki/index.php?title=I-RSS_Project - but it needs to be completed. I don't have enough time today... maybe tomorrow? :D

I think the 1st one of the two, some interesting ideas (although how easy it is to find what you want is another thing).

Just been looking at Custom Feeds from searches, found that Bing supports &Format=rss option to create feeds, and Google allows you to create custom ones from your Google Alerts. Will add them and see how the results work out.

I've added a cross-link to your wiki, like the progress on your 1st page, if only it would work on wm too! :)
 

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    UPDATE 29.7.2011 - The Private Beta is now closed. The first beta version is now entering testing phase.

    Let's make some good app for Windows Phone 7! I've decided to make
    applogobig.png

    This page is about the development of new Windows phone 7 RSS Client - I-RSS. It's in the final stage of development and the goal is to create fast, nice, intuitive and competitive RSS Reader - and then push it to Marketplace. The application will probably have free and paid version (which will cost less than $2), making it attractive for users.
    irssmain10.png
    irssmain10111.png

    Screenshot is truly Work In Progress! Last Update 10.3.2011

    And what I'm currently planning for it?
    • An intuitive and clean RSS reader with Metro-like interface
      Progress: 95%
    • Option to add feeds directly or by choosing from webpage
      Progress: 95% (now only timeouts to handle)
    • Import / Export feeds from / to other feed aggregators
      Preparing import from Google Reader, later sync with GR
    • Add selected news to Instapaper / Read It Later - to read them later
      Progress: 85%
    • Sort the incoming news by date, source
      Progress: 98%
    • Flag some news items so you can return to them later
      Progress: 100%
    • Search in downloaded news
      Progress: 99% - every time there is something to do better :)
    • Push notifications, toasts and live tiles
      OK, this is unreal for the first versions of the app. I'll need to learn LOT about servers.

    Progress of actual coding is currently approx. 85%.

    Thanks goes to Captainkrtek, emuneee and mei_liberi_fatali for developing with me! ;)

    Stay tuned for news and CONTRIBUTE with your ideas!


    -------------------------
    Original post:
    Hello folks,

    I had an idea recently of writing a RSS application for WP7 which would not be based on Google Reader or anything like that. But I've caught myself into a limiting Microsoft trap.

    And that is: How will users add feeds? Typing the whole URL of the feed? Not really good solution, I guess. Hovewer, I came with one solution, at last.

    User would type in the address of the website (ie. www.cnn.com) and the application would search for all avaible RSS sources there and let user choose.

    So I will need your help. What do you think about that? Do you have any other things you think they are worth trying?
    Thanks in advance ;)