RSS Feed Viewer
Read RSS, Atom And OPML

What An RSS Feed Viewer Does For You

A feed is a plain XML file. It lists the latest posts of a site, and apps read it. But to a person, the raw XML looks like a wall of tags. So you need a viewer that shows what is inside.

This viewer does that in one box. First, paste the XML of an RSS or Atom feed. Then the reader view shows the title, the date, the author and a short summary of each item. Also, it reads OPML files, which list many feeds at once, so a whole reading list opens online in one paste.

Then you can copy the feed in another shape. Pick JSON for a script, CSV for a spreadsheet, or XML that you can format or minify.

Everything runs in your browser. So your feed never leaves your device. That matters, because private feeds can hold personal links and tokens.

Read An RSS Or Atom Feed

First, open the feed in your browser and copy its source, or save the file. Then paste it in the box. The tool finds out if it is RSS 2.0, RSS 1.0 or Atom, and it reads each one the right way.

Each item shows its title as a link, its date, its author and its categories. Then a short summary follows. Also, if the summary holds HTML, the tool turns it into plain text, so no markup reaches the page.

Besides that, the header shows the feed title, its description and the date of the last update.

For more detail, see: RFC 4287, the Atom format.

An OPML Viewer For Feed Lists

OPML is the file that feed readers use to export your subscriptions. First, it holds outlines, and an outline can hold other outlines. So a list can have folders.

Then the viewer draws that tree. Each outline shows its name, a link to its feed address and a link to its site. So you see at a glance what the file holds, and how many feeds there are.

Also, if no outline has a feed address, the tool tells you.

RSS To JSON And CSV

The JSON output is clean and flat. A feed becomes an object with a title, a link, a description and a list of items. Each item has a title, a link, a date, an author, categories, a summary, a guid and a media address.

Next, the CSV output has one row per item, so you can sort and filter a feed in a spreadsheet. Fields with commas or quotes are wrapped, and the file opens cleanly in Excel.

Also, for OPML, the CSV has one row per outline, with its folder path, its name, its type and its two addresses.

Format And Minify The XML

Sometimes you need the XML itself. First, formatted XML puts one tag per line with a two space indent, so it reads well. Then minified XML removes the extra white space, so the file gets smaller.

Both keep every tag, attribute and value. Also, special characters stay escaped, and CDATA blocks stay as they were.

The same works for OPML. So you can tidy an export before you share it, or shrink it before you import it.

Check That Your Feed Is Well Formed

A feed with one broken tag stops many readers. So the tool checks the structure as it reads. It tells you about a tag that never closes, a closing tag in the wrong place, an unfinished comment or a broken CDATA block.

Each message names the line, so you can find the problem fast. Then fix it, and the list appears.

Why Paste Instead Of A Web Address

Many sites block a browser from reading their feed from another site. So a viewer that fetches a web address needs a server in the middle. Then your request would pass through it.

This tool skips that step. First, you paste the XML, and your browser does all the work. So that keeps your feed private, and it works for feeds that sit behind a login.

Safe By Design

First, the tool reads the XML as text and never renders it. Then it draws each item one element at a time, and it links only web addresses. So a script in a feed cannot run.