Getting started¶
Because listparser is just a single file, you can copy it to a convenient directory and start the Python interpreter. listparser has a single public function, parse().
>>> import listparser
>>> result = listparser.parse('http://github.com/kurtmckee/listparser/raw/master/project.opml')
parse() can be given a URL, an open file handle, or even an in-memory string.
The dictionary that parse() returns will contain several important keys.
The meta key¶
The meta key contains a dictionary of information about the subscription list, including its title, when it was created and last modified, and who maintains the subscription list:
>>> result.meta.title
u'listparser project feeds'
>>> result.meta.author.keys()
['url', 'name', 'email']
The feeds key¶
The feeds key is a list of dictionaries. The title and the URL are stored in keys of the same names:
>>> for i in result.feeds:
... print "%s <%s>" % (i.title, i.url)
...
listparser blog <http://kurtmckee.livejournal.com/data/atom?tag=listparser>
listparser releases <http://freecode.com/projects/listparser/announcements.atom>
listparser changelog <http://github.com/feeds/kurtmckee/commits/listparser/master>
The lists key¶
OPML subscription lists can point to other subscription lists as easily as they can point to feeds. These subscription lists are placed in the lists key, and have the same title and URL information as feeds do.
The opportunities key¶
Several subscription list formats can contain not just a feed URL but the feed’s homepage URL as well. Some software butchers the OPML or RDF+FOAF file creation and outputs only the feed’s homepage URL.
When listparser encounters a homepage URL without a corresponding feed URL, it puts that information into the opportunities key. Opportunities contain the same title and URL information as feeds do, but remember that the URLs are expected to point to a homepage. It is therefore expected that feed readers using listparser will have to run feed and subscription list autodiscovery software against the list of opportunity URLs.
See also