FeedReader

FeedReader fetches and parses RSS, Atom, and RDF feeds into normalized Elixir data. It detects formats automatically, recovers from common defects in real-world XML, and is tested against real feeds. Bounded results and lazy event streams make it suitable for production workloads.

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Add FeedReader to your Mix project's dependencies:

defp deps do
  [
    {:feed_reader, "~> 0.1.0"}
  ]
end

Then fetch dependencies and start an interactive Elixir session:

mix deps.get
iex -S mix

Try parsing a feed in IEx:

xml = """
<rss version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Example</title>
    <item><title>First item</title><guid>one</guid></item>
  </channel>
</rss>
"""

{:ok, result} = FeedReader.parse_binary(xml, max_items: 100)
result.feed.title
#=> "Example"

Enum.map(result.items, & &1.title)
#=> ["First item"]

Fetch a remote feed

Use fetch_and_parse/2 to download and collect a feed. Set :max_items to a positive limit to bound the number of retained items.

{:ok, result} =
  FeedReader.fetch_and_parse("https://example.com/feed.xml", max_items: 1_000)

result.feed
result.items

Stream feed events

For large feeds, stream/2 returns feed metadata and items as a lazy event stream. Fully consuming the stream cleans up its downloaded temporary file. If enumeration may stop early, close the session in an after block:

{:ok, session} = FeedReader.stream("https://example.com/feed.xml")

try do
  session.events
  |> Enum.take(10)
  |> Enum.each(&IO.inspect/1)
after
  FeedReader.close(session)
end

Local feeds can be streamed with stream_file/2; the source file remains owned by the caller. See the FeedReader module documentation for parsing options, verified parsing, and format customization.

How to contribute

Install Elixir 1.20.4 with Erlang/OTP 29.1.2, as specified in .tool-versions. Then fetch dependencies and run the project checks:

mix deps.get
mix precommit
mix credo --strict

Create a branch for your change and submit it as a pull request. mix precommit compiles with warnings treated as errors, checks formatting, and runs the tests.