pdf-rss-dl 0.0.2

A tool to download and export RSS feed entries as PDFs

PDF RSS Downloader

This Python script downloads and exports RSS feed entries into PDF files. It checks if the entries have already been exported by referencing a downloaded.dat file to avoid duplicates. The script handles multiple date formats and ensures that the generated filenames are compatible with the filesystem.

Features

• RSS Feed Parsing: Parses RSS feeds from a list of URLs.
• PDF Export: Converts RSS entries (including title, link, publication date, and description) into PDF files.
• Duplicate Check: Keeps track of downloaded entries using downloaded.dat to prevent duplicate downloads.
• Filename Sanitization: Ensures filenames are safe and do not exceed OS limits by truncating and sanitizing them.
• Multiple Date Formats: Supports parsing of multiple date formats commonly found in RSS feeds.
• UTF-8 Character Handling: Handles special characters in RSS entries to avoid encoding issues.

Requirements

• Python 3.7 or higher
• fpdf library

You can install the required dependencies using pip:

pip install fpdf feedparser

Usage

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/thisisawesome1994/pdf-rss-downloader.git
cd pdf-rss-downloader

2. Prepare the RSS Feeds:

   • Create a rss_feeds.txt file in the root directory of the project.
   • Add the RSS feed URLs, one per line. Example:

https://example.com/rss
https://anotherexample.com/feed

3. Run the Script:

python app.py

4. Output:

• PDFs will be saved in the downloaded_pdfs directory, organized by feed title and year of publication.

5. Check Duplicates:

• The script logs downloaded entries in downloaded.dat to avoid processing the same entry multiple times.

Customization

• Filename Length: - The sanitize_filename function truncates filenames to a default of 100 characters. You can modify this value in the script if needed.
• Adding New Date Formats: - You can add more date formats to the parse_published_date function if your RSS feed uses a format not covered by the script.

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues or pull requests. Contributions are welcome!