miniflux-legacy/README.markdown

Miniflux - Minimalist News Reader

Miniflux is a minimalist web-based news reader.

Features

• Host anywhere (shared hosting, vps or localhost)
• Easy setup => copy and paste and you are done!
• CSS optimized for readability
• Keeps history of read items
• Remove Feedburner Ads and analytics trackers
• Import/Export of OPML feeds
• Feed updates via a cronjob or with the user interface with one click
• Protected by a login/password (only one possible user)
• Use secure headers (only external images and Youtube/Vimeo videos are allowed)
• Open external links inside a new tab with a rel="noreferrer" attribute
• Mobile CSS (responsive design)
• Keyboard shortcuts (pressing '?' displays a pop-up listing the shortcuts; pressing 'q' closes it)
• Basic bookmarks
• Translated in English, French, German, Italian, Czech and Simplified Chinese
• Themes

Todo and known bugs

• See Issues: https://github.com/fguillot/miniflux/issues

License

• AGPL: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt

Authors

Original author: Frédéric Guillot

Contributors

People who sent one or many pull-requests:

• André Kelpe: https://github.com/fs111
• Ayodio: https://github.com/ayodio
• Chris Lemonier: https://github.com/chrislemonier
• Derjus: https://github.com/derjus
• Eauland: https://github.com/eauland
• Félix: https://github.com/dysosmus
• Horsely: https://github.com/horsley
• Ing. Jan Kaláb: https://github.com/Pitel
• James Scott-Brown: https://github.com/jamesscottbrown
• Luca Marra: https://github.com/facciocose
• Maxime: https://github.com/EpocDotFr
• MonsieurPaulLeBoulanger: https://github.com/MonsieurPaulLeBoulanger
• Necku: https://github.com/Necku
• Thiriot Christophe: https://github.com/doubleface
• Ygbillet: https://github.com/ygbillet

PS: Many people sent a bug report too (see issues tracker)

Roadmap

• http://miniflux.net/roadmap.html

ChangeLog

• http://miniflux.net/changes.html

Requirements

• Recent version of libxml2 >= 2.7.x (version 2.6.32 on Debian Lenny are not supported anymore)
• PHP >= 5.3.7
• PHP XML extensions (SimpleXML, DOM...)
• PHP Sqlite extension

Libraries used

• PicoFeed
• PicoFarad
• PicoTools
• PicoDb
• SimpleValidator
• PHP 5.5 password backport

Installation

1. You must have a web server with PHP installed (version 5.3.7 minimum) with the Sqlite and XML extensions
2. Download the source code and copy the directory miniflux where you want
3. Check if the directory data is writeable (Miniflux stores everything inside a Sqlite database)
4. With your browser go to http://yourpersonalserver/miniflux
5. The default login and password is admin/admin
6. Start to use the software

FAQ

How do I update my feeds with a cronjob?

You just need to be inside the directory miniflux and run the script cronjob.php.

Parameters	Type	Value
--limit	optional	number of feeds
--call-interval	optional, excluded by --limit, require --update-interval	time in minutes < update interval time
--update-interval	optional, excluded by --limit, require --call-interval	time in minutes >= call interval time

Examples:

crontab -e

# Update all feeds
0 */4 * * *  cd /path/to/miniflux && php cronjob.php >/dev/null 2>&1

# Update the 10 oldest feeds each time
0 */4 * * *  cd /path/to/miniflux && php cronjob.php --limit=10 >/dev/null 2>&1

# Update all feeds in 60 minutes (updates the 8 oldest feeds each time with a total of 120 feeds).
* */4 * * *  cd /path/to/miniflux && php cronjob.php --call-interval=4 --update-interval=60 >/dev/null 2>&1

Note: cronjob.php can also be called from the web; in this case specify the options as GET variables. Example: http://yourpersonalserver/miniflux/cronjob.php?call-interval=4&update-interval=60

How does Miniflux update my feeds from the user interface?

Miniflux uses an Ajax request to refresh each subscription. By default, there is only 5 feeds updated in parallel.

I have 600 subscriptions, can Miniflux handle that?

Your life is cluttered.

Why are there no categories? Why is feature X missing?

Miniflux is a minimalist software. Less is more.

I found a bug, what next?

Report the bug to the issues tracker and I will fix it.

You can report feeds that doesn't works properly too.

Which browser is compatible with Miniflux?

Miniflux is tested with the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari.

I don't use Microsoft products, then I have no idea if Miniflux works correctly with Internet Explorer.

How to override application variables?

There is few settings that can't be changed by the user interface. These parameters are defined with PHP constants.

To override them, create a config.php file at the root of the project and change yourself the values.

By example, to override the default HTTP timeout value:

# file config.php

<?php

// My specific HTTP timeout (5 seconds)
define('HTTP_TIMEOUT', 5);

Actually, the following constants can be overrided:

• HTTP_TIMEOUT => default value is 10 seconds
• APP_VERSION => default value is master
• DB_FILENAME => default value is data/db.sqlite
• DEBUG => default is false (enable logs dump of picoFeed)
• DEBUG_DIRECTORY => default is /tmp (place to store log files)
• THEME_DIRECTORY => default is themes
• SESSION_SAVE_PATH => default is empty (used to store session files in a custom directory)

How to change the session save path?

With several shared hosting providers, sessions are cleaned frequently, to avoid to login too often, you can save sessions in a custom directory.

• Create a directory, by example sessions
• This directory must be writeable by the web server user
• This directory must NOT be accessible from the outside world (add a .htaccess if necessary)
• Override the application variable like described above: define('SESSION_SAVE_PATH', 'sessions');
• Now, your sessions are saved in the directory sessions

How to create a theme for Miniflux?

It's very easy to write a custom theme for Miniflux.

A theme is just a CSS file, images and fonts. A theme doesn't change the behaviour of the application but only the page design.

The first step is to create a new directory structure for your theme:

mkdir -p themes/mysuperskin/{css,img,fonts}

The name of your theme should be only alphanumeric. There is the following directories inside your theme:

• css: Your stylesheet, the file must be named app.css (required)
• img: Theme images (not required)
• fonts: Theme fonts (not required)

For a very basic theme example, have a look to the directory examples\mytheme.

Miniflux use responsive design, so it's better if your theme can handle mobile devices.

If you write a very cool theme for Miniflux, send me your code to be available in the default installation! It would be awesome for everybody :)

List of themes:

• Original theme By Frederic Guillot
• Midnight By Luca Marra
• Green by Maxime (aka EpocDotFr)

Coding standards for contributors

• Line indentation: 4 spaces
• Line endings: Unix
• File encoding: UTF-8