Provide OPML feed import/export options

[dredmorbius]

Title:
Provide OPML feed import/export options

Area:
Reading Page

Summary:
Providing OPML support would allow for a standards-compliant improvement in the ability to manage RSS/Atom feeds on user's Reading Pages.

Description:
DW offers users the ability to add and manage feeds of RSS/Atom sources as a "Reading Page" feature, effectively a Web-based Newsreader.

Management of feeds (adding, removing, organizing, modifying) is done through a series of Web interfaces, principally http://www.dreamwidth.org/feeds/, http://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/circle/edit, http://www.dreamwidth.org/manage/subscriptions/filters, and http://username.dreamwidth.org/read.

Some of these tasks, as well as archival and distribution or sharing of lists, would be much easier if feeds could be exported in OPML format, a standard data exchange format for RSS and Atom feeds used by many feed readers. Providing import/export for Dreamwidth feeds would avoid a significant amount of front-end and back-end redesign to improve the feeds management process while providing for much greater user flexibility and ease in management.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opml

This is *not* a request to allow re-syndication of feeds (though people would be able to share the feeds lists they subscribe to). E.g., request #9210 is an entirely different matter: http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/9210.html

Among challenges:

- DW feeds are based on local feeds, not the original source. Translating between these would have to be provided for.
- Allowing both feeds *and* filters to be exported/imported would be most useful. This would require some design and planning.

There's an earlier (2009) suggestion which mentions OPML though it's not clear where it is access or what the files contain: http://dw-suggestions.dreamwidth.org/133555.html

Poll #15785 Provide OPML feed import/export options

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 35

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
8 (22.9%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
1 (2.9%)

(I have no opinion)
26 (74.3%)

(Other: please comment)
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[swaldman]

Export seems like a reasonable thing. Without knowing the code in question, I imagine it should be straightforward to go through the list of syndicated feeds that a user subscribes to and find the sources for them - unless there's any security/privacy issue with people syndicating a feed without indicating exactly where it comes from?

Import seems, at first glance, a little more complex, because some of the feeds being imported from OPML are probably already syndicated to DW. Should it automatically point these out and offer them? What if there is more than one?

[dredmorbius]

The fact that you proxy feeds locally on DW complicates things somewhat. what I'd really like to do is take the exported OPML from my local (desktop) RSS client, and feed it in to DW. In that case, identifying the local feed corresponding to those would be necessary. The win for me would be much easier overall feed management.

On the export side, you've got the distinction between the source upstream feed, and the locally proxied DW feed. All else being equal, I'd prefer disambiguation to the source.