With things quieting down going into the summer, I’ve found myself with some extra free time. So, I decided to start work on a project that has been at the back of my mind for a while now – porting FeedSpider to Enyo 2. This port solves a few problems for me:
- Mojo, as a framework, is an evolutionary dead end. It has not received any updates since 2011, and, even then, had been superseded by Enyo. Enyo is the future, and is something that I need to improve my skills with.
- There is currently no RSS reader client for Open webOS (which does not support Mojo). I might be able to help out there 🙂
- Personally, I have switched back to an iPhone as my daily driver, (although I still love my touchpad), and I haven’t been able to find an RSS reader client that I like. So, I’ll do what I did before – roll my own.
The first goal of this project is to replicate the FeedSpider experience in Enyo (with a few tweaks), and to deliver a working RSS reader client for webOS (both open and legacy) and iOS. Further goals are to add support for Android, Windows Phone, and possibly even a Windows 8 (touch) app.
I’ve already had a fairly successful week, and have begun designing the new app and fleshing out some of the components. So far, I’ve ported over the login system, and have successfully pulled test data down from The Old Reader. I am working on the layout of the main page, and am starting to port the Mojo classes over to handle the static feeds (ie. All Items, Starred, Shared, etc.).
Fortunately, at the end of the day, it is all Javascript, so I can reuse much of the code and structure, thanks in no small part to Darrin Holst’s excellent architecture. In fact, it looks like I will be able to use many of the Prototype.js classes with few or no changes.
That being said, I forsee a couple of challenges. OAuth has reared it’s ugly head again, and while I might be able to use OAuth.io, I may need to come up with a more creative solution. That will require further research. I’m also sure that I will run into further pitfalls during the porting process that will slow me down a bit. But, with a little bit of creative thinking, and some reflection on the architecture before building, I’m sure that I can handle it.
To close off this inaugural post, here are a few screenshots of what I’ve completed already.
This is the initial layout test/mockup. These items are all statically generated.
Here is the new login screen. As of this screenshot, it actually works, and should be able to authenticate to any of the non-OAuth RSS readers.
Today’s update comes after I completed the port of the static feeds from Prototype.js classes to Enyo kinds. This was necessary since they mix layout and functionality. The Prototype classes that just handle functionality don’t needed to be converted into Enyo kinds.
For more information as the project continues, stay tuned to this blog and follow @FeedSpiderApp on Twitter.