With Google Reader, create custom feed from multiple sources

[figpetus]

I spent some time searching today for a way to do this and I didn't find an answer.

Basically, I wanted to display a feed that consisted of all (or some) of my subscriptions in Google Reader, so I didn't need multiple feed readers open in Rainmeter. After googling around, I found 2 links that I took ideas from and combined them to get the effect I desired. First, http://rainmeter.net/cms/Tips-GoogleReaderRSS, which shows you how you can use Google Reader to parse any feed in an easy way. So, I started looking at Google Reader to see if it had a built-in option to output a collection of feeds contained within one feed. I then found this thread: http://rainmeter.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=6883, where smurfier shows you how to create a public feed using Google Reader. I ran into the same problem that quest_que_ce had with that solution, any of the Atom feed readers I tried with Rainmeter would only show the first result from that feed.

I searched some more, and came across the info on the first site again on a different page, which made me wonder what would happen if I took the atom feed that Google Reader would generate and sent that through the Google Reader parser trick? Everything went better than expected.

So, to recap:
Go to your Google Reader page and assign the feeds you want to combine to the same Folder. Change the Folder's privacy setting to Public. Go to the Folder's Public Feed page, copy the Atom feed url that's on the right, and paste it into the value for the URL variable in this code:

Code: Select all

[Variables]
URL=PASTE HERE!
GET=.*(?(?=.*<div class="item">).*<div class="item">.*<a href="(.*)">(.*)</a>.*<div class="item-info">.* on (.*)</div>)

[MeasureFeed]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=Plugins\WebParser.dll
Url=http://www.google.com/reader/view/feed/#URL#?n=8
RegExp="(?siU)<h1>(.*)</h1>#GET##GET##GET##GET##GET##GET##GET##GET#"
UpdateRate=1500

[MeasureLink1]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=Plugins\WebParser.dll
Url=[MeasureFeed]
StringIndex=2

[MeasureTitle1]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=Plugins\WebParser.dll
Url=[MeasureFeed]
StringIndex=3

[MeasureDate1]
Measure=Plugin
Plugin=Plugins\WebParser.dll
Url=[MeasureFeed]
StringIndex=4

It should work for up to 8 entries.

There might be an entirely easier/better way to do this, but like I said I couldn't find it. Hope someone finds this useful.

[Falconer]

Nice! Very handy. I'll have to try this out sometime.

[santa_ryan]

you can add more entries with a little bit or skin editing