# Recommended library for parsing RSS and Atom feeds

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-library-for-parsing-rss-and-atom-feeds/190571>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 23, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-library-for-parsing-rss-and-atom-feeds/190571 "2010-06-23T02:10:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/croxmeister)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 2:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-library-for-parsing-rss-and-atom-feeds/190571/1 "2010-06-23T02:10:20Z")

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Hi,  
I am looking to sort through the various options for processing  
RSS/Atom  
feeds in Ruby.  
I did some basic research, and FeedTools looks like the incumbent  
option,  
though many (old)  
blog posts warned that it is only minimally maintained (if at all).  
FeedZirra looks very popular,  
has been recommended here, and activity is pretty high.

Does anyone have a complete list of all the library options? ( a link to  
a  
roundup article/blog post  
would be great)  
Does anyone have a particular favourite? Why you prefer it over other  
options?

Posting links to reasonably up to date articles would be best. Google  
searches are turning up  
older articles predominantly, and thats not a good sign IMO.

High on my list of features is:

- Heroku compatibility.
- Easy to use in a way that respects the feeds source
- Allows me to treat RSS/Atom the same

regards,  
Richard

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**Author:** ![croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/croxmeister)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-library-for-parsing-rss-and-atom-feeds/190571/2 "2010-06-23T12:17:19Z")

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On Jun 22, 8:09 pm, Richard C. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> roundup article/blog post
> 
> - Easy to use in a way that respects the feeds source
> - Allows me to treat RSS/Atom the same

Nokogiri, LibXML-Ruby, REXML

I’ve been down the road of creating a parser for these and, in my  
experience, it turns out to be a YAGNI, because an XML parser works  
well enough.

---

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**Author:** ![croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/croxmeister)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-library-for-parsing-rss-and-atom-feeds/190571/3 "2010-06-23T12:43:40Z")

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On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 11:16 AM, Intransition [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> > Does anyone have a particular favourite? Why you prefer it over other  
> > options?
> 
> Nokogiri, LibXML-Ruby, REXML
> 
> I’ve been down the road of creating a parser for these and, in my  
> experience, it turns out to be a YAGNI, because an XML parser works  
> well enough.

A bit low level aren’t they? Don’t really want to get my hands too dirty  
with Schema formats etc. Want something that is simple enough to  
use and has respectable performance (which won’t be the case with  
anything I hand-write).  
Thanks for the feedback.  
Richard

---

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**Author:** ![croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/croxmeister)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-library-for-parsing-rss-and-atom-feeds/190571/4 "2010-06-23T20:44:28Z")

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On 6/22/2010 6:09 PM, Richard C. wrote:

> roundup article/blog post
> 
> - Easy to use in a way that respects the feeds source
> - Allows me to treat RSS/Atom the same
> 
> regards,  
> Richard

The RSS reader in the Ruby Standard Libs supports Atom as well:  
[http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/rss/rdoc/index.html](http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/rss/rdoc/index.html)

It is essentially undocumented, but there are some examples at:  
[http://www.cozmixng.org/~rwiki/?cmd=view;name=RSS+Parser%3A%3ATutorial.en](http://www.cozmixng.org/~rwiki/?cmd=view;name=RSS+Parser%3A%3ATutorial.en)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/53a042/32.png) [@croxmeister](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/croxmeister)\
**Post date:** [June 23, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/recommended-library-for-parsing-rss-and-atom-feeds/190571/5 "2010-06-23T16:50:13Z")

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On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 07:43:02PM +0900, Richard C. wrote:

> > > roundup article/blog post
> 
> A bit low level aren’t they? Don’t really want to get my hands too dirty  
> with Schema formats etc. Want something that is simple enough to  
> use and has respectable performance (which won’t be the case with  
> anything I hand-write).

There are several listed at [ruby-toolbox.com](http://ruby-toolbox.com):

```
http://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/rss_feed_parsing.html

```

I’ve heard good tings about feedzirra (the top listed there) although  
I have not used it personally. There was a bit of buzz about it last  
year.

enjoy,

-jeremy