Luna RSS
by Nathan Tech
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Table of contents:
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This document is split into sections, each one given after two plus symbols ("++").
The sections of the document are as follows:
1. What is an RSS?
2. What can this program do?
3. The front window.
4. The repositories
4.1: The iTunes repository window
4.2: the feedly.com Repository.
5. Settings.
6. The Feed Builder
7. The feed viewer
8. The play window.
9. Contact, reports, and suggestions.
10. List of valid iTunes categories.
11. Keystrokes
12. Frequently Asked Questions.
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++ 1. What is an RSS?
RSS has stood for a few things, but as of 2.0 it stands for "really simple syndication". sounds fancy, right?
In very basic terms, an RSS feed can serve as a kind of change log or news log for users.
Some websites, as an example, use them to notify users about when they make a change to a page's content, release a new product, or some other similar things.
News companies use them as a way to notify users of new headlines.
For the purposes of this document, we will refer to two types of RSS feed:
Text: This is an RSS feed which one might get from news websites, or websites that post changes through an RSS feed.
Podcast: this is an RSS feed which is used by podcast makers to notify listeners of new episodes.
The reason for doing this will become clear further down.
Who has RSS feeds?
Most, if not all, podcast makers should have an RSS feed available.
Most websites may also offer an RSS feed for you to stay up to date.
To the best of our knowledge, most major news websites also offer RSS feeds.
How does Luna RSS feature into this?
that's what this document is here to show you!
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++ 2. What can this program do?
Features of this program are listed below:
*Listen to RSS feeds, and notify you of updates
*listen to podcast feeds and notify you if there is a new episode
*customisable check times on all feeds
*presents all feeds in an understandable, easy-to-follow layout
*able to download podcast episodes
*able to bookmark downloaded episodes so you can get back to your place later
*able to stream podcast episodes
*able to bookmark streamed episodes so you can come back to them later
*allows you to build your own, W3C valid, text feed
*allows you to build your own, W3C  valid and iTunes valid, podcast feeds
*allows you to manage your made feeds
*gives you access to the iTunes repository of podcasts an the feedly.com of feeds
*checks for updates, so you don't have to!
*allows you to favorite your feeds
*allows you to share your feeds to twitter.
*hidable window*Allows you to sort your feeds into categories
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++ 3. The Front Window.
When you open the program, you are presented with the front window.
It contains items in this order:
A Tree View, named feeds: When you add your rss feeds, be they text or podcast, this is where they will appear. You can navigate this like a normal listree view. When selecting an item, if there are unseen items in that feed, the program will make a cheerful noise to tell you about it. Press enter on a feed to enter it. You can also press alt 1 to favorite, and alt 2, to unfavorite the feed. You can also press your applications key to activate the actions menu, see below.
actions, a button: A button that brings up a list of actions. See below for  action list.
Recent list: This contains a list of recently updated feeds and the episode that was found, making quick navigation to updates easier.
Exit button: This will exit the program, saving your feeds. Feeds, as well as downloaded content, are put in a folder called rss data.
Status, text box: This will display information to tell you what the program is doing and may say, either:
*updating x feeds, where x is the number of feeds being updated
*updating feed http://example.com
*Next feed update at x: Where x is the next time it is scheduled to check a feed for updates.
		Action button list:
the action button, when clicked, brings up a list of things you can do which are listed below. This list will adapt depending on what is focused. the list below shows all possible items, but some of these may not show if yo are not focused on a feed, for example.
delete: If a feed is selected, this will delete it. There is a confirmation for this, as well as a choice as to whether you want to delete the downloads or not.
Edit: This allows you to edit the feed's URl and login data.
Recategorise Feed: If a feed is selected, this will allow you to move it to a category, or create a new one.
View feed info: Providing a feed is selected, this allows you to view information on it, like Author, title, ETC.
View feed description: pretty much does exactly what the menu item name suggests.
Share feed to twitter: Again, pretty self explanatory.
Download entire archive: If the feed is a podcast, this will download all of the episodes to your computer(not recommended for large podcasts).
Force update of feed: If you want one of your feeds to update now, rather than waiting for the timer, this is the action to use.
Change feed regularity: If a feed is selected, this will bring up a list in which you can choose how often the program should check this specific feed for updates.
View Feed Status: this allows you to view any error codes that may be occurring, such as a perminant redirect. Most of the time the program will handle these itself, but it is useful information to know.
Add new feed: Brings up a text box to allow you to add a new feed. used for text feeds, or if a podcast is not listed in the iTunes repository.
Add Multiple feeds: Same as the above option, but used for pasting in several links.
Import feeds from a .OPML file: This will move you to a dialogue in which you choose a file that the program can import. .OPML files are xml exports of a collection of feeds from other RSS feed parsers. Note that after the alert telling you how many feeds are imported, there will be a short period, depending on number of feeds, in which the program will slow down slightly while it checks all of the new entries for updates or errors. Also note: The program will attempt to fix any double feeds it sees, but it may be necessary to reboot the program after importing.
Save your feeds to a .OPML file: Export your feeds for safe keeping.
		Other things to note about this window:
From this screen, you can also press control h, to hide the window.
this is useful if you want to leave it open and be notified of feed updates, but don't want it taking up space in your alt tab list.
you can reshow the window by clicking on the notification area icon.
Important! Clicking on the icon on your desktop while the program is hidden will launch a new instance of the program, not show the old window.
This screen also has a menu bar, information on this is shown below:
The menu bar has three menus:
Feeds: From this menu you can add a new feed, import feeds, export feeds and exit the program.
Utilities: From this menu you can access the feed builder, search the iTunes repository, search the feedly.com repository and change your settings.
Luna RSS: From this menu you can launch the Readme, go to the Nathan Tech website, and make a suggestion or report a bug.
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++ 4: The repositories
Luna RSS ships with two repositories that you can search through to obtain feeds and podcasts.
both of these are accessed from the Utilities menu on the main screen.
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++ 4.1: The Feedly.com repository screen
Feedly.com is a website that traks and logs over 50,000 RSS feeds and podcast feeds. It also covers other topics and facilities, but they are above and beyond the point of this document.
Luna rSS gives you completely free, completely 0 hassle access to this repository.
By clicking the search the repository button, you are entered into a simple window showing a list, which will contain your search results, a search field, and a search button.
Upon finding a result, pressing enter on it presents you with options to view information, or subscribe, to the feed.
Upon your subscription the program will do the following:
create a folder in rss data with the name of the feed.
In there, it will create a downloads folder.
In the downloads folder it will put a file called "feed.dat", this is the raw xml feed, and can be used across any of the RSS podcast reading apps.
It will also create two other files, url.dat and feed.dat, which it will store in rss data/the name of the feed. These are what the program uses to record bookmarks and the like.
Should you choose to download any media, see the section on downloading, the content will be stored in rss data/name of the feed/downloads.
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++ 4.2: The iTunes repository window.
iTunes is, first and foremost, known asApple's hub for selling media (Music, Movies, TV shows, Books and Apps) to their customers. But besides that it is also the largest and most influential podcast directory in the world. ... Much like a phone book for podcasts.
Source: https://www.podigee.com/en/blog/itunes-podcast-directory-what-it-is-and-why-you-need-it/
Luna rSS gives you completely free, completely 0 hassle access to this repository.
By clicking the search the repository button, you are entered into a simple window showing a list, which will contain your search results, a search field, and a search button.
Upon finding a result, pressing enter on it presents you with options to view information, or subscribe, to the feed.
Upon your subscription the program will do the following:
create a folder in rss data with the name of the feed.
In there, it will create a downloads folder.
In the downloads folder it will put a file called "feed.dat", this is the raw xml feed, and can be used across any of the RSS podcast reading apps.
It will also create two other files, url.dat and feed.dat, which it will store in rss data/the name of the feed. These are what the program uses to record bookmarks and the like.
Should you choose to download any media, see the section on downloading, the content will be stored in rss data/name of the feed/downloads.
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++ 5. Settings.
Upon clicking on the settings button, you are presented with a simple window to control a number of features about the program, listed below:
Play a sound when a feed is updated or you arrow over a feed with unread content,
play a sound when a feed is checked. Useful to know what the program is doing, but can get a little irritating if it is regular.
Play introduction sound: Toggle whether you want to hear the introduction sound.
Play exit sound: Toggle whether you want to hear the exit sound.
Play a sound when feeds are loaded: This will play a sound when Luna RSS is finished loading your feeds from their saved states.
Windows notification settings: Luna RSS has the ability to send notifications through windows and this setting allows you to choose between never, only for feeds you favorite, or all of your feeds.
Compressed feed view: Enabling this will mean that when an text only RSS feed is shown instead of showing a list of data for each entry, Luna will show you only a text box with the summary.
How often should I check feed updates? This is a list of times, from which you select the default update time for new feeds be they added through the repository or through the manual entry field.
Set this time on all currently added feeds: This is a button. Luna has the ability for you to szet different feeds to update at different rates. If you want them to all be changed to one though, click this button to adjust them all to the time selected in the above list.
How many recent changes should be stored? this determines how many items appear in the recently updated list of the main screen.
Set save path: This will change the location of the RSS data folder. Note that the program will copy over your feeds, but will not copy any already downloaded content.
Authorise to twitter: this will allow you to share things to twitter.
If you're wondering where the save settings button went, don't panic. Simply click close and it will ask if you want to save your changes.
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++6. the feed builder
the feed builder is split into two parts:
The first is to create a text RSS feed, the second, to create a podcast RSS feed.
Most of this section is very self explanatory, but we have listed some information below:
Homespace: Set this to where your rss feed will sit, for example:
http://nathantech.net/test.xml.
itunes:explicit: this should  either be yes, no, or clean.
itunes:category: this should be one of the categories shown at the end of this document, and is case sensative.
itunes:duration: This should either be in the format of seconds, minute:seconds, or hour:minute:seconds.
itunes:keywords should be a list of keywords separated by commas.
guid: This is usually set to the perminant link of your feed entry, or podcast episode. You should set this to a unique link for it to be valid.
Make sure of the following when building podcast feeds.
Each podcast entry must have with it, an associated file.
The program will use this to fill out certain pieces of information required in the feed.
Note that, providing all details are written correctly, the program will produce W3C and iTunes compliant feeds, however, you may want to check yours for errors at:
https://validator.w3.org/feed/
Also note: File names should not contain spaces. The program will automaticly warn you if it does, and replace any spaces with periods.
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++ 7. The feed viewer.
Upon pressing enter on a feed, you are entered into the feed viewer.
this presents you with two lists, and a back button.
The first list shows episodes, the second details about the selected episode.
Things to note for this window:
If focused in the episodes list, you can press backspace to get back to the main front window.
Note that while we call it the episode viewer, in other feeds it would show you entries, rather than episodes.
If you press enter on an episode name, one of two things will happen:
1. If media is found, see below, it will bring up a menu offering you the opportunity to stream, play or download the file.
2. If no media is found, it will just shift you to the details list without you having to press tab.
The details list shows various pieces of information depending on what feed you have, and what the feed owner has chosen to work with.
You will notice links, titles, and sometimes even summaries.
You can copy these to your clipboard by pressing enter on it.
If you see an item marked as media, such as this:
media: http://example.com/example.mp3,
It means the program has identified that it will be able to possibly stream, download, or play this link.
This is useful in the case of podcasts.
Pressing enter on an item marked as media will offer you the streaming option, download if not already downloaded, or play if the media is already downloaded in a context menu view.
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++ 8. the play window.
the play window is quite simple in layout, but does require you note one or two things.
Upon the successful download of your media file, the beginning of a stream, or just the plain playing of a file, you will be put in the playing window.
This window contains:
a play button. This will change to pause if the media is playing, and replay if the media is at the end.
A position slider,
A volume slider,
A boosed volume slider, allowing you to turn up the volume over 100 percent.
and a box containing information about how long the media is, in time format.
You will then find a button labeled as playing speed: Normal. this feature allows you to change how fast your podcast is played to you. Press once for fast, twice for very fast, three times to go to very slow, four times to go to slow, and a fifth to get it back to normal.
There is also a back button. Very important!
Things to note:
1. If you begin a stream, listen for a bit, then leave the window, the program will remember where you were up to, providing you do not reboot it.
2. If you have downloaded a file, the program will remember your position across reboots for as many files as you like.
3. Note the following: When streaming a file, the position slider will be a bit jumpy at first. This is because, while you can instantly play the file, the program still has to get the media from the internet, and prepare it. Once the entire file is prepared, the position slider will act as normal. Recommended: If you are streaming, do not change position for the first 10 to 30 seconds. Time varied based on download speed of your internet and size of the stream. We at Nathan Tech chose this option, over making the user wait, simply as it gives instant playing access to the stream.
4. Where supported, with downloaded episodes, if the podcast supports chapters, the chapters will be shown in a list before the pause button and can be jumped to by pressing enter on any of the titles.
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++ 9. Contact, reports, and suggestions.
You can contact us here at Nathan Tech through the following link:
https://nathantech.net/contact.php.
Please submit all feature requests and bug reports through this link.
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++ 10. List of valid iTunes categories.
Alternative Health

Amateur

Arts

Automotive

Aviation

Buddhism

Business

Business News

Careers

Christianity

College & High School

Comedy

Design

Education

Education Technology

Fashion & Beauty

Fitness & Nutrition

Food

Gadgets

Games & Hobbies

Government & Organizations

Health

Higher Education

Hinduism

History

Hobbies

Investing

Islam

Judaism

K-12

Kids & Family

Language Courses

Literature

Local

Management & Marketing

Medicine

Music

National

Natural Sciences

News & Politics

Non-Profit

Other

Other Games

Outdoor

Performing Arts

Personal Journals

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Podcasting

Professional

Regional

Religion & Spirituality

Science & Medicine

Self-Help

Sexuality

Shopping

Social Sciences

Society & Culture

Software How-To

Spirituality

Sports & Recreation

TV & Film

Tech News

Technology

Training

Video Games

Visual Arts


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++11. Keystrokes:
Navigate windows by searching for the plus symbol.
+Global:
By default, global keystrokes are disabled. but once you enable them in settings, you can set 5 custom global keystrokes for skipping forward and back, turn the volume up and down, and playing/pausing your podcast episodes.
You can change your keystrokes in the keyboard item of the utilities menu.
+Main window:
alt h: Focus on feeds
alt A: Actions menu
alt Q: Quit
alt S: Search for a podcast using iTunes
Alt D: Search for a feed using feedly.com
alt X: settings
alt B: feed builder
delete: When focused on a feed, will jump you to the delete confirmation window.
control s: Export your feeds to a file
control n: Open up the new feed URL text field.
control h: Hide the window.
control e: Edit a feed's URL.
control i: Import from a file.
Control r: refresh your feed list.
Alt: Go to the menus.
f5: Same as Control r.
Control u: Jump to an unseen feed, IE, one that has updates for you to see.
+settings:
alt s: Save
alt B: back
+Feed Builder
Alt T: text wizard
Alt P: Podcast wizard
Alt E: Edit a feed
Alt B: Back
+Items window:
alt d: Delete item
alt a: Add item
alt e: Export
Alt s: Save
+Editting feed update times:
alt s: Save
+Delete feed:
a: Delete everything
d: delete everything except the downloads folder
b: back
+Search screens:
alt g: Begin search
Alt b: back
alt H: results
+add and edit feeds:
alt s: save
alt b: back
Note: Most, if not all, back buttons are accessible through the alt B command.
+Play Screen:
Control p: Play/pause.
Control left and control right: skip forward and back.
Control up and Control down: Turn the volume up or down.
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++12. Frequently Asked Questions:
	Q: Luna does not support this feed type, why is that?
A: I try to get Luna to support as many as I can, but if you've found one the program isn't happy with, feel free to go to the Nathan Tech menu by pressing alt and submit a bug report. Remember to include the link to the feed so I can try it out.
	Q: Luna has categorised some of my feeds under error. what does this mean?
A: there are a few reasons for this and there are a few steps you can try.
1. First step is always to click the action menu and then click on force update of feed. this fixes it most of the time.
2. If it still shows in the error category, try opening it. Does it open to feed items? If so, you could recategorise it yourself through the action menu. sometimes Luna is just a bit too sensitive or there was a temporary error which is now fixed.
3. Still not opening? Go to the action menu and click on View Feed Status. This will usually tell you what is going wrong. See the below question for information about status messages.
4. Make sure the link is correct. This seems pretty obvious but make sure you've not got a typo in your link and you've not entered a username where there should not be one and so on. You can edit the feed from the action menu.
5. All else failing? Send it across in a report and I'll see what I can do.
	Q: What are these status message error codes?
a: There are a number of codes the program can show you if you click on view status shown below:
1. 404: the feed link you provided has gone. In this case it's best to go to the website you got it from and see if they have a new link.
2. 301: Temporary redirection. The feed has moved temporarily. Luna RSS will usually handle these on its own.
3. 302: Permanent redirection. The feed has moved Permanently. Luna RSS will usually handle these on its own.
4. 403: Forbidden. You've tried to access a link which needs some form of permission which you've not given Luna, for example a login.
5. Any other codes are usually server side and up to the feed owner to fix.
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End of Readme.
Last updated: March 25th 2021.
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Nathan Tech.
It's not Disability.
It's ability!