Saving RSS Feed Content

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olympus!
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Joined: December 2nd, 2018, 7:27 am

Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by olympus! »

I would like to ask if there is a way of selecting and saving multiple RSS feeds as html but when opening the html files to look same as when opening them in Firefox, for example how Save Page WE would save them https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... e-page-we/

I added the ImportExportTools plugin but even when selecting multiple feeds and exporting as html with attachments, opening the html files thereafter, they look like plain txt instead of how the page would look when opening it in Firefox.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by tanstaafl »

Print them to the "Microsoft print to PDF" print queue. That will save them as a PDF file. That feature is built into windows 10. The advantage of a PDF file is it is a screen shot.

The problem with using ImportExportTools is that a HTML file doesn't include all of the referenced resources (images etc.). inside that file. You would need to use a web archive format such as MHTML (MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate HTML Documents) to do that. Usually only browsers or archive utilities support that. Printing to a PDF file accomplishes the same thing, but is not so web-centric.
olympus!
Posts: 6
Joined: December 2nd, 2018, 7:27 am

Re: Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by olympus! »

Printing to PDF is a good option, the only problem is that its extremely time consuming. Selecting multiple items and saving each as a separate pdf would be ideal. But bringing up the printing dialogue for each feed and having to name the file is a time killer. No other options I would imagine, right? Thank you for the reply
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tanstaafl
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Re: Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by tanstaafl »

My impression is that all of those methods let you select multiple items at the same time, but will prompt you individually for the filename for each item. I suspect you would be better off using a stand alone RSS feed reader if you need to save them frequently.

https://www.lifewire.com/windows-rss-fe ... rs-1173953
olympus!
Posts: 6
Joined: December 2nd, 2018, 7:27 am

Re: Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by olympus! »

Actually ImportExport Tools lets you select multiple feeds, select a folder and automatically save them as html with the feed title.

In any case, thank you for your help. I will keep using Thunderbird as I enjoy the RSS and email integration and in many ways Thunderbird is a superior RSS Reader than many standalone apps.
alta88
Posts: 1029
Joined: January 28th, 2006, 3:08 pm

Re: Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by alta88 »

olympus! wrote:Actually ImportExport Tools lets you select multiple feeds, select a folder and automatically save them as html with the feed title.

In any case, thank you for your help. I will keep using Thunderbird as I enjoy the RSS and email integration and in many ways Thunderbird is a superior RSS Reader than many standalone apps.
The request to implement this natively is here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=308436

Thanks for the nice observation. If you were to pick one missing feature in Tb feeds, what would you say?
olympus!
Posts: 6
Joined: December 2nd, 2018, 7:27 am

Re: Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by olympus! »

The missing feature for me is a way to backup rss feeds. Emails can be backed up and be usable thereafter, i.e. edit, reply etc.
With feeds, I haven't discovered yet a way to back them up without spending an unreasonable amount of time. If there's an efficient way to back them up, please do share :)
alta88
Posts: 1029
Joined: January 28th, 2006, 3:08 pm

Re: Saving RSS Feed Content

Post by alta88 »

If you mean backing up the feed messages (summary) themselves, it would be no different than backing up any locally stored email, in Local folders or a POP account. Feed messages are constructed exactly like email messages. You may also use the trick of setting up a filter to move messages to an IMAP account folder and have access on multiple devices just like any IMAP email.

If you mean backing up feed subscriptions, you simply open Subscribe, select the account root folder, and Export into an .opml file. This file will be an exact representation of your folder structure in the account, subscriptions, and any options. You can test this easily by creating a second account and Importing an Exported .opml file.

If you mean the web page linked to in the feed message, ie saving the web page at the point in time of the message download, that is the bug cited above. It's somewhat complex but maybe I'll do it someday.
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