Gator - RSS Feed Aggregator

A command-line RSS feed aggregator built with Go and PostgreSQL.

Prerequisites

Before running this program, you'll need to have the following installed on your system:

1. PostgreSQL

You need PostgreSQL installed and running on your machine.

Installation:

• macOS: brew install postgresql
• Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install postgresql
• Windows: Download from postgresql.org

After installation, make sure PostgreSQL is running:

# Check if PostgreSQL is running
psql --version

Create a database for the application:

createdb gator

2. Go

You need Go 1.25 or higher installed.

Installation:

• Download from go.dev/dl
• Or use a package manager:
  • macOS: brew install go
  • Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install golang

Verify installation:

go version

Installation

Install the gator CLI tool using go install:

go install github.com/joaquinbian/blog-aggregator-go/cmd/gator@latest

This will install the gator binary to your $GOPATH/bin directory (typically ~/go/bin).

This will install the gator binary to your $GOPATH/bin directory (typically ~/go/bin).

Make sure your $GOPATH/bin is in your system's PATH:

export PATH=$PATH:$(go env GOPATH)/bin

Configuration

Before running the program, you need to set up a configuration file.

Create a file named .gatorconfig.json in your home directory:

cd ~
touch .gatorconfig.json

Add the following content to .gatorconfig.json:

{
  "db_url": "postgres://username:password@localhost:5432/gator?sslmode=disable",
  "current_user_name": ""
}

Replace username and password with your PostgreSQL credentials.

Usage

Once installed and configured, you can use the gator CLI with the following commands:

User Management

Register a new user:

gator register <your_name>

Login:

gator login <your_name>

List all users:

gator users

Reset database (delete all users):

gator reset

⚠️ Warning: This will delete all users and their associated data from the database.

Feed Management

Add a new RSS feed:

gator addfeed <feed_name> <feed_url>

Example:

gator addfeed "Golang Blog" https://go.dev/blog/feed.atom

List all feeds:

gator feeds

Follow a feed:

gator follow <feed_url>

See your followed feeds:

gator following

Unfollow a feed:

gator unfollow <feed_url>

Feed Aggregation

Start the aggregator (fetches feeds at regular intervals):

gator agg <time_interval>

Examples:

gator agg 30s   # Fetch every 30 seconds
gator agg 5m    # Fetch every 5 minutes
gator agg 1h    # Fetch every hour

This command will continuously fetch RSS feeds in the background based on the time interval you specify. It automatically stores all posts from your followed feeds into the database.

Browse Posts

View posts from your followed feeds:

gator browse <limit>

Examples:

gator browse       # View 2 most recent posts (default)
gator browse 10    # View 10 most recent posts
gator browse 50    # View 50 most recent posts

This command displays posts from all the feeds you're following, including the post title, description, feed name, and link.

Example Workflow

# 1. Register yourself
gator register alice

# 2. Add some RSS feeds
gator addfeed "Tech Crunch" https://techcrunch.com/feed/
gator addfeed "Hacker News" https://news.ycombinator.com/rss

# 3. Follow a feed
gator follow https://techcrunch.com/feed/

# 4. Check which feeds you're following
gator following

# 5. Start aggregating feeds (fetches every minute)
# Run this in a separate terminal window
gator agg 1m

# 6. Browse the collected posts
gator browse 5

Database Schema

The application uses four main tables:

• users: Stores user information
• feeds: Stores RSS feed information
• feed_follows: Tracks which users follow which feeds
• posts: Stores individual posts/articles from RSS feeds

Contributing

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