API reference

This part of the documentation covers all the public interfaces of reader.

Reader object

Most of reader’s functionality can be accessed through a Reader instance.

reader.make_reader(url, *, feed_root=None, plugins=..., session_timeout=(3.05, 60), reserved_name_scheme=..., search_enabled='auto')

Create a new Reader.

reader can optionally parse local files, with the feed URL either a bare path or a file URI.

The interpretation of local feed URLs depends on the value of the feed feed_root argument. It can be one of the following:

None

No local file parsing. Updating local feeds will fail.

'' (the empty string)

Full filesystem access. This should be used only if the source of feed URLs is trusted.

Both absolute and relative feed paths are supported. The current working directory is used normally (as if the path was passed to open()).

Example: Assuming the current working directory is /feeds, all of the following feed URLs correspond to /feeds/feed.xml: feed.xml, /feeds/feed.xml, file:feed.xml, and file:/feeds/feed.xml.

'/path/to/feed/root' (any non-empty string)

An absolute path; all feed URLs are interpreted as relative to it. This can be used if the source of feed URLs is untrusted.

Feed paths must be relative. The current working directory is ignored.

Example: Assuming the feed root is /feeds, feed URLs feed.xml and file:feed.xml correspond to /feeds/feed.xml. /feed.xml and file:/feed.xml are both errors.

Relative paths pointing outside the feed root are errors, to prevent directory traversal attacks. Note that symbolic links inside the feed root can point outside it.

The root and feed paths are joined and normalized with no regard for symbolic links; see os.path.normpath() for details.

Accessing device files on Windows is an error.

Parameters:

url (str) – Path to the reader database.
feed_root (str or None) – Directory where to look for local feeds. One of None (don’t open local feeds; default), '' (full filesystem access), or '/path/to/feed/root' (an absolute path that feed paths are relative to).
plugins (iterable(str or callable(Reader)) or None) – An iterable of built-in plugin names or plugin(reader) –> None callables. The callables are called with the reader object before it is returned. Exceptions from plugin code will propagate to the caller. Defaults to DEFAULT_PLUGINS.
session_timeout (float or tuple(float, float) or None) – When retrieving HTTP(S) feeds, how many seconds to wait for the server to send data, as a float, or a (connect timeout, read timeout) tuple. Passed to the underlying Requests session.
reserved_name_scheme (dict(str, str)) – Value for reserved_name_scheme. The prefixes default to .reader./.plugin., and the separator to .
search_enabled (bool or None or 'auto') – Whether to enable search. One of 'auto' (enable on the first update_search() call; default), True (enable), False (disable), None (do nothing).

Returns:

The reader.

Return type:

Reader

Raises:

StorageError – An error occurred while connecting to storage.
SearchError – An error occurred while enabling/disabling search.
InvalidPluginError – An invalid plugin name was passed to plugins.
PluginInitError – A plugin failed to initialize.
PluginError – An ambiguous plugin-related error occurred.
ReaderError – An ambiguous exception occurred while creating the reader.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: Wrap exceptions raised during plugin initialization in PluginInitError instead of letting them bubble up.

New in version 2.4: The search_enabled keyword argument.

Changed in version 2.4: Enable search on the first update_search() call. To get the previous behavior (leave search as-is), use search_enabled=None.

Changed in version 2.0: feed_root now defaults to None (don’t open local feeds) instead of '' (full filesystem access).

New in version 1.17: The reserved_name_scheme keyword argument.

New in version 1.16: The plugins keyword argument. Using an invalid plugin name raises InvalidPluginError, a ValueError subclass.

New in version 1.14: The session_timeout keyword argument, with a default of (3.05, 60) seconds; the previous behavior was to never time out.

New in version 1.6: The feed_root keyword argument.

class reader.Reader(...)

A feed reader.

Persists feed and entry state, provides operations on them, and stores configuration.

Currently, the following feed types are supported:

Atom (provided by feedparser)
RSS (provided by feedparser)
JSON Feed

Additional sources can be added through plugins.

In order to perform maintenance tasks and release underlying resources in a predictable manner, the Reader object should be used as a context manager from each thread where it is used. For convenience, it is possible to use a Reader object directly; in this case, maintenance tasks may sometimes be performed before arbitrary method calls return.

Important

Reader objects should be created using make_reader(); the Reader constructor is not stable yet and may change without any notice.

Changelog

Changed in version 2.16: Allow using a Reader object from multiple threads directly (do not require it to be used as a context manager anymore).

Changed in version 2.16: Allow Reader objects to be reused after closing.

Changed in version 2.16: Allow using a Reader object from multiple asyncio tasks.

Changed in version 2.15: Allow using Reader objects as context managers.

Changed in version 2.15: Allow using Reader objects from threads other than the creating thread.

Changed in version 2.10: Allow passing a (feed URL,) 1-tuple anywhere a feed URL can be passed.

New in version 1.13: JSON Feed support.

after_entry_update_hooks

List of functions called for each updated entry after the feed is updated.

Each function is called with:

reader – the Reader instance
entry – an Entry-like object
status – an EntryUpdateStatus value

Each function should return None.

Warning

The only entry attributes guaranteed to be present are feed_url, id, and resource_id; all other attributes may be missing (accessing them may raise AttributeError).

Changelog

New in version 1.20.

before_feed_update_hooks

List of functions called for each updated feed before the feed is updated.

Each function is called with:

reader – the Reader instance
feed – the str feed URL

Each function should return None.

Changelog

New in version 2.7.

after_feed_update_hooks

List of functions called for each updated feed after the feed is updated.

Each function is called with:

reader – the Reader instance
feed – the str feed URL

Each function should return None.

Changelog

New in version 2.2.

before_feeds_update_hooks

List of functions called once before updating any feeds, at the beginning of update_feeds() / update_feeds_iter(), but not update_feed().

Each function is called with:

reader – the Reader instance

Each function should return None.

Changelog

New in version 2.12.

after_feeds_update_hooks

List of functions called once after updating all feeds, at the end of update_feeds() / update_feeds_iter(), but not update_feed().

Each function is called with:

reader – the Reader instance

Each function should return None.

Changelog

New in version 2.12.

close()

Close this Reader.

Releases any underlying resources associated with the reader.

The reader can be reused after being closed (but you have to call close() again after that).

close() should be called from each thread where the reader is used. Prefer using the reader as a context manager instead.

Raises:: ReaderError –

Changelog

Changed in version 2.16: Allow calling close() from any thread.

add_feed(feed, /, exist_ok=False, *, allow_invalid_url=False)

Add a new feed.

Feed updates are enabled by default.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The feed URL.
allow_invalid_url (bool) – Add feed even if the current Reader configuration does not know how to handle the feed URL (and updates for it would fail).
exist_ok (bool) – If true, don’t raise FeedExistsError if the feed already exists.

Raises:

FeedExistsError – If the feed already exists, and exist_ok is false.
StorageError –
InvalidFeedURLError – If feed is invalid and allow_invalid_url is false.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed argument is now positional-only.

New in version 2.8: The exist_ok argument.

New in version 2.5: The allow_invalid_url keyword argument.

Changed in version 2.5: Validate the new feed URL. To get the previous behavior (no validation), use allow_invalid_url=True.

delete_feed(feed, /, missing_ok=False)

Delete a feed and all of its entries and tags.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The feed URL.
missing_ok (bool) – If true, don’t raise FeedNotFoundError if the feed does not exist.

Raises:

FeedNotFoundError – If the feed does not exist, and missing_ok is false.
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed argument is now positional-only.

New in version 2.8: The missing_ok argument.

New in version 1.18: Renamed from remove_feed().

change_feed_url(old, new, /, *, allow_invalid_url=False)

Change the URL of a feed.

User-defined feed attributes are preserved: added, user_title. Feed-defined feed attributes are also preserved, at least until the next update: title, link, author, subtitle (except updated and version, which get set to None). All other feed attributes are set to their default values.

The entries and tags are preserved.

Parameters:

old (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The old feed; must exist.
new (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The new feed; must not exist.
allow_invalid_url (bool) – Change feed URL even if the current Reader configuration does not know how to handle the new feed URL (and updates for it would fail).

Raises:

FeedNotFoundError – If old does not exist.
FeedExistsError – If new already exists.
StorageError –
InvalidFeedURLError – If new is invalid and allow_invalid_url is false.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The old and new arguments are now positional-only.

New in version 2.5: The allow_invalid_url keyword argument.

Changed in version 2.5: Validate the new feed URL. To get the previous behavior (no validation), use allow_invalid_url=True.

New in version 1.8.

get_feeds(*, feed=None, tags=None, broken=None, updates_enabled=None, new=None, sort='title', limit=None, starting_after=None)

Get all or some of the feeds.

The tags argument can be a list of one or more feed tags. Multiple tags are interpreted as a conjunction (AND). To use a disjunction (OR), use a nested list. To negate a tag, prefix the tag value with a minus sign (-). Examples:

['one']

one

['one', 'two'] [['one'], ['two']]

one AND two

[['one', 'two']]

one OR two

[['one', 'two'], 'three']

(one OR two) AND three

['one', '-two']

one AND NOT two

Special values True and False match feeds with any tags and no tags, respectively.

True [True]

any tags

False [False]

no tags

[True, '-one']

any tags AND NOT one

[[False, 'one']]

no tags OR one

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only return the feed with this URL.
tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only return feeds matching these tags.
broken (bool or None) – Only return broken / healthy feeds.
updates_enabled (bool or None) – Only return feeds that have updates enabled / disabled.
new (bool or None) – Only return feeds that have never been updated / have been updated before.
sort (str) – How to order feeds; one of 'title' (by user_title or title, case insensitive; default), or 'added' (last added first).
limit (int or None) – A limit on the number of feeds to be returned; by default, all feeds are returned.
starting_after (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Return feeds after this feed; a cursor for use in pagination.

Yields:

Feed – Sorted according to sort.

Raises:

StorageError –
FeedNotFoundError – If starting_after does not exist.

Changelog

New in version 2.6: The new keyword argument.

New in version 1.12: The limit and starting_after keyword arguments.

New in version 1.11: The updates_enabled keyword argument.

New in version 1.7: The tags keyword argument.

New in version 1.7: The broken keyword argument.

get_feed(feed, default=no value, /)

Get a feed.

Like next(iter(reader.get_feeds(feed=feed))), but raises a custom exception instead of StopIteration.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The feed URL.
default – Returned if given and the feed does not exist.

Returns:

The feed.

Return type:

Feed

Raises:

FeedNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed and default arguments are now positional-only.

get_feed_counts(*, feed=None, tags=None, broken=None, updates_enabled=None, new=None)

Count all or some of the feeds.

See get_feeds() for details on how filtering works.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only count the feed with this URL.
tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only count feeds matching these tags.
broken (bool or None) – Only count broken / healthy feeds.
updates_enabled (bool or None) – Only count feeds that have updates enabled / disabled.
new (bool or None) – Only count feeds that have never been updated / have been updated before.

Return type:

FeedCounts

Raises:

StorageError –

Changelog

New in version 2.6: The new keyword argument.

New in version 1.11.

set_feed_user_title(feed, title, /)

Set a user-defined title for a feed.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The feed URL.
title (str or None) – The title, or None to remove the current title.

Raises:

FeedNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed and title arguments are now positional-only.

enable_feed_updates(feed, /)

Enable updates for a feed.

See update_feeds() for details.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The feed URL.

Raises:

FeedNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.11.

disable_feed_updates(feed, /)

Disable updates for a feed.

See update_feeds() for details.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The feed URL.

Raises:

FeedNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.11.

update_feeds(*, feed=None, tags=None, broken=None, updates_enabled=True, new=None, workers=1)

Update all or some of the feeds.

Silently skip feeds that raise ParseError.

By default, update all the feeds that have updates enabled.

Roughly equivalent to for _ in reader.update_feeds_iter(...): pass.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only update the feed with this URL.
tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only update feeds matching these tags.
broken (bool or None) – Only update broken / healthy feeds.
updates_enabled (bool or None) – Only update feeds that have updates enabled / disabled. Defaults to true.
new (bool or None) – Only update feeds that have never been updated / have been updated before. Defaults to None.
workers (int) – Number of threads to use when getting the feeds.

Raises:

StorageError –

Changelog

New in version 2.6: The feed, tags, broken, and updates_enabled keyword arguments.

Changed in version 2.0: Removed the new_only parameter.

Changed in version 2.0: All parameters are keyword-only.

Changed in version 1.15: Update entries whenever their content changes, regardless of their updated date.

Content-only updates (not due to an updated change) are limited to 24 consecutive updates, to prevent spurious updates for entries whose content changes excessively (for example, because it includes the current time).

Previously, entries would be updated only if the entry updated was newer than the stored one.

Changed in version 1.11: Only update the feeds that have updates enabled.

update_feeds_iter(*, feed=None, tags=None, broken=None, updates_enabled=True, new=None, workers=1, _call_feeds_update_hooks=True)

Update all or some of the feeds.

Yield information about each updated feed.

By default, update all the feeds that have updates enabled.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only update the feed with this URL.
tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only update feeds matching these tags.
broken (bool or None) – Only update broken / healthy feeds.
updates_enabled (bool or None) – Only update feeds that have updates enabled / disabled. Defaults to true.
new (bool or None) – Only update feeds that have never been updated / have been updated before. Defaults to None.
workers (int) – Number of threads to use when getting the feeds.

Yields:

UpdateResult – An (url, value) pair; the value is one of:

a summary of the updated feed, if the update was successful
None, if the server indicated the feed has not changed since the last update
an exception instance

Currently, the exception is always a ParseError, but other ReaderError subclasses may be yielded in the future.

Raises:

StorageError –

Changelog

New in version 2.6: The feed, tags, broken, and updates_enabled keyword arguments.

Changed in version 2.0: Removed the new_only parameter.

Changed in version 2.0: All parameters are keyword-only.

Changed in version 1.15: Update entries whenever their content changes. See update_feeds() for details.

New in version 1.14.

update_feed(feed, /)

Update a single feed.

The feed will be updated even if updates are disabled for it.

Like next(iter(reader.update_feeds_iter(feed=feed, updates_enabled=None)))[1], but raises the ParseError, if any.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed) – The feed URL.

Returns:

A summary of the updated feed or None, if the server indicated the feed has not changed since the last update.

Return type:

UpdatedFeed or None

Raises:

FeedNotFoundError –
ParseError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed argument is now positional-only.

Changed in version 1.15: Update entries whenever their content changes. See update_feeds() for details.

Changed in version 1.14: The method now returns UpdatedFeed or None instead of None.

get_entries(*, feed=None, entry=None, read=None, important=None, has_enclosures=None, feed_tags=None, sort='recent', limit=None, starting_after=None)

Get all or some of the entries.

Entries are sorted according to sort. Possible values:

'recent'

Most recent first. That is:

by published date for entries imported on the first update (if an entry does not have published, updated is used)

by added date for entries imported after that

This is to make sure newly imported entries appear at the top regardless of when the feed says they were published, while not having all the old entries at the top for new feeds.

Note

The algorithm for “recent” is a heuristic and may change over time.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.1: Sort entries by added date most of the time, with the exception of those imported on the first update. Previously, entries would be sorted by added only if they were published less than 7 days ago.

'random'

Random order (shuffled). At at most 256 entries will be returned.

Changelog

New in version 1.2.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only return the entries for this feed.
entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry or None) – Only return the entry with this (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
read (bool or None) – Only return (un)read entries.
important (bool or None or str) – Only return (un)important entries. For more precise filtering, use one of the TristateFilterInput string filters.
has_enclosures (bool or None) – Only return entries that (don’t) have enclosures.
feed_tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only return the entries from feeds matching these tags; works like the get_feeds() tags argument.
sort (str) – How to order entries; one of 'recent' (default) or 'random'.
limit (int or None) – A limit on the number of entries to be returned; by default, all entries are returned.
starting_after (tuple(str, str) or Entry or None) – Return entries after this entry; a cursor for use in pagination. Using starting_after with sort='random' is not supported.

Yields:

Entry – Sorted according to sort.

Raises:

StorageError –
EntryNotFoundError – If starting_after does not exist.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.5: The important argument also accepts string values.

New in version 1.12: The limit and starting_after keyword arguments.

New in version 1.7: The feed_tags keyword argument.

New in version 1.2: The sort keyword argument.

get_entry(entry, default=no value, /)

Get an entry.

Like next(iter(reader.get_entries(entry=entry))), but raises a custom exception instead of StopIteration.

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
default – Returned if given and the entry does not exist.

Returns:

The entry.

Return type:

Entry

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The entry and default arguments are now positional-only.

get_entry_counts(*, feed=None, entry=None, read=None, important=None, has_enclosures=None, feed_tags=None)

Count all or some of the entries.

See get_entries() for details on how filtering works.

Parameters:

feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only count the entries for this feed.
entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry or None) – Only count the entry with this (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
read (bool or None) – Only count (un)read entries.
important (bool or None or str) – Only count (un)important entries. For more precise filtering, use one of the TristateFilterInput string filters.
has_enclosures (bool or None) – Only count entries that (don’t) have enclosures.
feed_tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only count the entries from feeds matching these tags.

Return type:

EntryCounts

Raises:

StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.5: The important argument also accepts string values.

New in version 1.11.

set_entry_read(entry, read, /, modified=no value)

Mark an entry as read or unread, possibly with a custom timestamp.

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
read (bool) – Mark the entry as read if true, and as unread otherwise.
modified (datetime or None) – Set read_modified to this. Naive datetimes are normalized by passing them to astimezone(). Defaults to the current time.

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.5: Do not coerce read to bool anymore, require it to be True or False.

Changed in version 3.0: The entry and read arguments are now positional-only.

New in version 2.2.

mark_entry_as_read(entry, /)

Mark an entry as read.

Alias for set_entry_read(entry, True).

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The entry argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.18: Renamed from mark_as_read().

mark_entry_as_unread(entry, /)

Mark an entry as unread.

Alias for set_entry_read(entry, False).

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The entry argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.18: Renamed from mark_as_unread().

set_entry_important(entry, important, /, modified=no value)

Mark an entry as important or unimportant, possibly with a custom timestamp.

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
important (bool or None) – Mark the entry as important if true, as unimportant if false, or as not set if none.
modified (datetime or None) – Set important_modified to this. Naive datetimes are normalized by passing them to astimezone(). Defaults to the current time.

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.5: important can now be None.

Changed in version 3.5: Do not coerce important to bool anymore, require it to be True or False or None.

Changed in version 3.0: The entry and important arguments are now positional-only.

New in version 2.2.

mark_entry_as_important(entry, /)

Mark an entry as important.

Alias for set_entry_important(entry, True).

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The entry argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.18: Renamed from mark_as_important().

mark_entry_as_unimportant(entry, /)

Mark an entry as unimportant.

Alias for set_entry_important(entry, False).

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The entry argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.18: Renamed from mark_as_unimportant().

add_entry(entry, /)

Add a new entry to an existing feed.

entry can be any Entry-like object, or a mapping of the same shape:

>>> from types import SimpleNamespace
>>> reader.add_entry(SimpleNamespace(
...     feed_url='http://example.com',
...     id='one',
...     title='title',
...     enclosures=[SimpleNamespace(href='enclosure')],
... ))
>>> reader.add_entry({
...     'feed_url': 'http://example.com',
...     'id': 'two',
...     'updated': datetime.now(timezone.utc),
...     'content': [{'value': 'content'}],
... })

The following attributes are used (they must have the same types as on Entry):

feed_url (required)
id (required)
updated
title
link
author
published
summary
content
enclosures

Naive datetimes are normalized by passing them to astimezone().

The added entry will be added_by 'user'.

Parameters:

entry (Entry or dict) – An entry-like object or equivalent mapping.

Raises:

EntryExistsError – If an entry with the same id already exists.
FeedNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The entry argument is now positional-only.

New in version 2.5.

delete_entry(entry, /, missing_ok=False)

Delete an entry.

Currently, only entries added by add_entry() (added_by 'user') can be deleted.

Parameters:

entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry) – (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
missing_ok (bool) – If true, don’t raise EntryNotFoundError if the entry does not exist.

Raises:

EntryNotFoundError – If the entry does not exist, and missing_ok is false.
EntryError – If the entry was not added by the user.
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The entry argument is now positional-only.

New in version 2.8: The missing_ok argument.

New in version 2.5.

enable_search()

Enable full-text search.

Calling this method if search is already enabled is a no-op.

Raises:

SearchError –
StorageError –

disable_search()

Disable full-text search.

Calling this method if search is already disabled is a no-op.

Raises:: SearchError –

is_search_enabled()

Check if full-text search is enabled.

Returns:: Whether search is enabled or not.
Return type:: bool
Raises:: SearchError –

update_search()

Update the full-text search index.

Search must be enabled to call this method.

If make_reader() was called with search_enabled='auto' and search is disabled, it will be enabled automatically.

Raises:

SearchNotEnabledError –
SearchError –
StorageError –

search_entries(query, /, *, feed=None, entry=None, read=None, important=None, has_enclosures=None, feed_tags=None, sort='relevant', limit=None, starting_after=None)

Get entries matching a full-text search query.

Entries are sorted according to sort. Possible values:

'relevant'

Most relevant first.

'recent'

Most recent first. See get_entries() for details on what recent means.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.1: Sort entries by added date most of the time, with the exception of those imported on the first update. Previously, entries would be sorted by added only if they were published less than 7 days ago.

New in version 1.4.

'random'

Random order (shuffled). At at most 256 entries will be returned.

Changelog

New in version 1.10.

Note

The query syntax is dependent on the search provider.

The default (and for now, only) search provider is SQLite FTS5. You can find more details on its query syntax here: https://www.sqlite.org/fts5.html#full_text_query_syntax

The columns available in queries are:

title: the entry title
feed: the feed title
content: the entry main text content; this includes the summary and the value of contents that have text/(x)html, text/plain or missing content types

Query examples:

hello internet: entries that match “hello” and “internet”
hello NOT internet: entries that match “hello” but do not match “internet”
hello feed: cortex: entries that match “hello” anywhere, and their feed title matches “cortex”
hello NOT feed: internet: entries that match “hello” anywhere, and their feed title does not match “internet”

Search must be enabled to call this method.

Parameters:

query (str) – The search query.
feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only search the entries for this feed.
entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry or None) – Only search for the entry with this (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
read (bool or None) – Only search (un)read entries.
important (bool or None or str) – Only search (un)important entries. For more precise filtering, use one of the TristateFilterInput string filters.
has_enclosures (bool or None) – Only search entries that (don’t) have enclosures.
feed_tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only return the entries from feeds matching these tags; works like the get_feeds() tags argument.
sort (str) – How to order results; one of 'relevant' (default), 'recent', or 'random'.
limit (int or None) – A limit on the number of results to be returned; by default, all results are returned.
starting_after (tuple(str, str) or EntrySearchResult or None) – Return results after this result; a cursor for use in pagination. Using starting_after with sort='random' is not supported.

Yields:

EntrySearchResult – Sorted according to sort.

Raises:

SearchNotEnabledError –
InvalidSearchQueryError –
SearchError –
StorageError –
EntryNotFoundError – If starting_after does not exist.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.5: The important argument also accepts string values.

Changed in version 3.0: The query argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.12: The limit and starting_after keyword arguments.

New in version 1.7: The feed_tags keyword argument.

New in version 1.4: The sort keyword argument.

search_entry_counts(query, /, *, feed=None, entry=None, read=None, important=None, has_enclosures=None, feed_tags=None)

Count entries matching a full-text search query.

See search_entries() for details on how the query syntax and filtering work.

Search must be enabled to call this method.

Parameters:

query (str) – The search query.
feed (str or tuple(str) or Feed or None) – Only count the entries for this feed.
entry (tuple(str, str) or Entry or None) – Only count the entry with this (feed URL, entry id) tuple.
read (bool or None or str) – Only count (un)read entries. For more precise filtering, use one of the TristateFilterInput string filters.
important (bool or None) – Only count (un)important entries.
has_enclosures (bool or None) – Only count entries that (don’t) have enclosures.
feed_tags (None or bool or list(str or bool or list(str or bool))) – Only count the entries from feeds matching these tags.

Return type:

EntrySearchCounts

Raises:

SearchNotEnabledError –
InvalidSearchQueryError –
SearchError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.5: The important argument also accepts string values.

Changed in version 3.0: The query argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.11.

get_tags(resource, /, *, key=None)

Get all or some tags of a resource as (key, value) pairs.

resource can have one of the following types:

Feed or str or (str,)

A feed or feed URL (possibly enclosed in a tuple).

Entry or (str, str)

An entry or a (feed URL, entry id) pair representing an entry.

() (empty tuple)

Special value representing the global tag namespace.

Parameters:

resource – The resource to get tags for.
key (str or None) – Only return the value for this key.

Yields:

tuple(str, JSONType) – (key, value) pairs, in undefined order. JSONType is whatever json.dumps() accepts.

Raises:

StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The resource argument is now positional-only.

Changed in version 2.10: Support entry and global tags.

Changed in version 2.10: Removed support for the (None,) (any feed) and None (any resource) wildcard resource values.

New in version 2.8.

get_tag_keys(resource=None, /)

Get the keys of all or some resource tags.

Equivalent to sorted(k for k, _ in reader.get_tags(resource)).

See get_tags() for possible resource values. In addition, resource can have one of the following wildcard values:

(None,)

Any feed.

(None, None)

Any entry.

None

Any resource (feed, entry, or the global namespace).

Parameters:: resource – Only return tag keys for this resource.
Yields:: str – The tag keys, in alphabetical order.
Raises:: StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The resource argument is now positional-only.

Changed in version 2.10: Support entry and global tags.

New in version 2.8.

get_tag(resource, key, default=no value, /)

Get the value of this resource tag.

Like next(iter(reader.get_tags(resource, key=key)))[1], but raises a custom exception instead of StopIteration.

See get_tags() for possible resource values.

Parameters:

resource – The resource.
key (str) – The key of the tag to retrieve.
default – Returned if given and no tag exists for key.

Returns:

The tag value. JSONType is whatever json.dumps() accepts.

Return type:

JSONType

Raises:

TagNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The resource, key, and default arguments are now positional-only.

Changed in version 2.10: Support entry and global tags.

New in version 2.8.

set_tag(resource, key, value=no value, /)

Set the value of this resource tag.

See get_tags() for possible resource values.

Parameters:

resource – The resource.
key (str) – The key of the tag to set.
value (JSONType) – The value of the tag to set. If not provided, and the tag already exists, the value remains unchanged; if the tag does not exist, it is set to None. JSONType is whatever json.dumps() accepts.

Raises:

ResourceNotFoundError –
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The resource, key, and value arguments are now positional-only.

Changed in version 2.10: Support entry and global tags.

New in version 2.8.

delete_tag(resource, key, /, missing_ok=False)

Delete this resource tag.

See get_tags() for possible resource values.

Parameters:

resource – The resource.
key (str) – The key of the tag to delete.
missing_ok (bool) – If true, don’t raise TagNotFoundError if the tag does not exist.

Raises:

TagNotFoundError – If the tag does not exist, and missing_ok is false.
StorageError –

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The resource and key arguments are now positional-only.

Changed in version 2.10: Support entry and global tags.

New in version 2.8.

make_reader_reserved_name(key, /)

Create a reader-reserved tag name. See Reserved names for details.

Uses reserved_name_scheme to build names of the format:

{reader_prefix}{key}

Using the default scheme:

>>> reader.make_reader_reserved_name('key')
'.reader.key'

Parameters:: key (str) – A key.
Returns:: The name.
Return type:: str

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The key argument is now positional-only.

New in version 1.17.

make_plugin_reserved_name(plugin_name, key=None, /)

Create a plugin-reserved tag name. See Reserved names for details.

Plugins should use this to generate names for plugin-specific tags.

Uses reserved_name_scheme to build names of the format:

{plugin_prefix}{plugin_name}
{plugin_prefix}{plugin_name}{separator}{key}

Using the default scheme:

>>> reader.make_plugin_reserved_name('myplugin')
'.plugin.myplugin'
>>> reader.make_plugin_reserved_name('myplugin', 'key')
'.plugin.myplugin.key'

Parameters:

plugin_name (str) – The plugin package/module name.
key (str or None) – A key; if more than one reserved name is needed.

Returns:

The name.

Return type:

str

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The plugin_name and key arguments are now positional-only.

New in version 1.17.

property reserved_name_scheme

Mapping used to build reserved names. See make_reader_reserved_name() and make_plugin_reserved_name() for details on how this is used.

The default scheme (these keys are required):

{'reader_prefix': '.reader.', 'plugin_prefix': '.plugin.', 'separator': '.'}

The returned mapping is immutable; assign a new mapping to change the scheme.

Changelog

New in version 1.17.

Type:: dict(str, str)

Data objects

class reader.Feed(url, updated=None, title=None, link=None, author=None, subtitle=None, version=None, user_title=None, added=None, last_updated=None, last_exception=None, updates_enabled=True)

Data type representing a feed.

All datetime attributes are timezone-aware, with the timezone set to utc.

Changelog

Changed in version 2.0: datetime attributes are now timezone-aware; prior to 2.0, they were naive datetimes representing UTC times.

url: The URL of the feed.

updated = None: The date the feed was last updated, according to the feed.

title = None: The title of the feed.

link = None: The URL of a page associated with the feed.

author = None: The author of the feed.

subtitle = None: A description or subtitle for the feed.

Changelog

New in version 2.4.

version = None

The feed type and version.

For Atom and RSS, provided by feedparser (e.g. atom10, rss20); full list.

For JSON Feed:

json10: JSON Feed 1.0
json11: JSON Feed 1.1
json: JSON Feed (unknown or unrecognized version)

Plugins may add other versions.

Changelog

New in version 2.4.

user_title = None: User-defined feed title.

added = None: The date when the feed was added.

Changelog

New in version 1.3.

last_updated = None: The date when the feed was last retrieved by reader.

Changelog

New in version 1.3.

last_exception = None: If a ParseError happend during the last update, its cause.

Changelog

New in version 1.3.

updates_enabled = True: Whether updates are enabled for this feed.

Changelog

New in version 1.11.

property resource_id: Alias for (url,).

Changelog

New in version 2.17.

class reader.ExceptionInfo(type_name, value_str, traceback_str)

Data type representing information about an exception.

Changelog

New in version 1.3.

type_name: The fully qualified name of the exception type.

value_str: String representation of the exception value.

traceback_str: String representation of the exception traceback.

class reader.Entry(id, updated=None, title=None, link=None, author=None, published=None, summary=None, content=(), enclosures=(), read=False, read_modified=None, important=None, important_modified=None, added=None, added_by=None, last_updated=None, original_feed_url=None, feed=None)

Data type representing an entry.

All datetime attributes are timezone-aware, with the timezone set to utc.

Changelog

Changed in version 2.0: datetime attributes are now timezone-aware; prior to 2.0, they were naive datetimes representing UTC times.

property feed_url: The feed URL.

id: The entry id.

updated = None: The date the entry was last updated, according to the feed.

Changelog

Changed in version 2.5: Is now None if missing in the feed; use updated_not_none for the pre-2.5 behavior.

Changed in version 2.0: May be None in some cases. In a future version, will be None if missing in the feed; use updated_not_none for the pre-2.0 behavior.

title = None: The title of the entry.

link = None: The URL of a page associated with the entry.

author = None: The author of the feed.

published = None: The date the entry was published, according to the feed.

summary = None: A summary of the entry.

content = (): Full content of the entry. A sequence of Content objects.

enclosures = (): External files associated with the entry. A sequence of Enclosure objects.

read = False: Whether the entry was read or not.

read_modified = None: The date when read was last set by the user; None if that never happened, or the entry predates the date being recorded.

Changelog

New in version 2.2.

important = None: Whether the entry is important or not. None means not set. False means “explicitly unimportant”.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.5: important is now an optional bool, and defaults to None.

important_modified = None: The date when important was last set by the user; None if that never happened, or the entry predates the date being recorded.

Changelog

New in version 2.2.

added = None: The date when the entry was added (first updated) to reader.

Changelog

New in version 2.5.

added_by = None

The source of the entry. One of 'feed', 'user'.

Other values may be added in the future.

Changelog

New in version 2.5.

last_updated = None: The date when the entry was last updated by reader.

Changelog

New in version 1.3.

original_feed_url = None

The URL of the original feed of the entry.

If the feed URL never changed, the same as feed_url.

Changelog

New in version 1.8.

feed = None: The entry’s feed.

property resource_id: Alias for (feed_url, id).

Changelog

New in version 2.17.

property updated_not_none

Like updated, but guaranteed to be set (not None).

If the entry updated is missing in the feed, defaults to when the entry was first added.

Changelog

New in version 2.0: Identical to the behavior of updated before 2.0.

get_content(*, prefer_summary=False)

Return a text content OR the summary.

Prefer HTML content, when available.

Parameters:: prefer_summary (bool) – Return summary, if available.
Returns:: The content, if found.
Return type:: Content or none

Changelog

New in version 2.12.

class reader.Content(value, type=None, language=None)

Data type representing a piece of content.

value: The content value.

type = None: The content type.

language = None: The content language.

property is_html

Whether the content is (X)HTML.

True if the content does not have a type.

Changelog

New in version 2.12.

class reader.Enclosure(href, type=None, length=None)

Data type representing an external file.

href: The file URL.

type = None: The file content type.

length = None: The file length.

class reader.EntrySearchResult(feed_url, id, metadata=<factory>, content=<factory>)

Data type representing the result of an entry search.

metadata and content are dicts where the key is the path of an entry attribute, and the value is a HighlightedString snippet corresponding to that attribute, with HTML stripped.

>>> result = next(reader.search_entries('hello internet'))
>>> result.metadata['.title'].value
'A Recent Hello Internet'
>>> reader.get_entry(result).title
'A Recent Hello Internet'

feed_url: The feed URL.

id: The entry id.

metadata: Matching entry metadata, in arbitrary order. Currently entry.title and entry.feed.user_title/.title.

content: Matching entry content, sorted by relevance. Any of entry.summary and entry.content[].value.

property resource_id: Alias for (feed_url, id).

Changelog

New in version 2.17.

class reader.HighlightedString(value='', highlights=())

A string that has some of its parts highlighted.

value = '': The underlying string.

highlights = (): The highlights; non-overlapping slices with positive start/stop and None step.

classmethod extract(text, before, after)

Extract highlights with before/after markers from text.

>>> HighlightedString.extract( '>one< two', '>', '<')
HighlightedString(value='one two', highlights=(slice(0, 3, None),))

Parameters:

text (str) – The original text, with highlights marked by before and after.
before (str) – Highlight start marker.
after (str) – Highlight stop marker.

Returns:

A highlighted string.

Return type:

HighlightedString

split()

Split the highlighted string into parts.

>>> list(HighlightedString('abcd', [slice(1, 3)]))
['a', 'bc', 'd']

Yields:: str – The parts (always an odd number); parts with odd indexes are highlighted, parts with even indexes are not.

apply(before, after, func=None)

Apply before/end markers on the highlighted string.

The opposite of extract().

>>> HighlightedString('abcd', [slice(1, 3)]).apply('>', '<')
'a>bc<d'
>>> HighlightedString('abcd', [slice(1, 3)]).apply('>', '<', str.upper)
'A>BC<D'

Parameters:

before (str) – Highlight start marker.
after (str) – Highlight stop marker.
func (callable((str), str) or none) – If given, a function to apply to the string parts before adding the markers.

Returns:

The string, with highlights marked by before and after.

Return type:

str

class reader.FeedCounts(total=None, broken=None, updates_enabled=None)

Count information about feeds.

Changelog

New in version 1.11.

total = None: Total number of feeds.

broken = None: Number of broken feeds.

updates_enabled = None: Number of feeds that have updates enabled.

class reader.EntryCounts(total=None, read=None, important=None, has_enclosures=None, averages=None)

Count information about entries.

Changelog

New in version 1.11.

total = None: Total number of entries.

read = None: Number of read entries.

important = None: Number of important entries.

has_enclosures = None: Number of entries that have enclosures.

averages = None: Average entries per day during the last 1, 3, 12 months, as a 3-tuple.

Changelog

New in version 2.1.

class reader.EntrySearchCounts(total=None, read=None, important=None, has_enclosures=None, averages=None)

Count information about entry search results.

Changelog

New in version 1.11.

total = None: Total number of entries.

read = None: Number of read entries.

important = None: Number of important entries.

has_enclosures = None: Number of entries that have enclosures.

averages = None: Average entries per day during the last 1, 3, 12 months, as a 3-tuple.

Changelog

New in version 2.1.

class reader.UpdateResult(url, value)

Named tuple representing the result of a feed update.

Changelog

New in version 1.14.

url: The URL of the feed.

value

One of:

UpdatedFeed

If the update was successful; a summary of the updated feed.

None

If the server indicated the feed has not changed since the last update without returning any data.

ReaderError

If there was an error while updating the feed.

property updated_feed: The updated feed, if the update was successful, None otherwise.

Changelog

New in version 2.1.

property error: The exception, if there was an error, None otherwise.

Changelog

New in version 2.1.

property not_modified: True if the feed has not changed (either because the server returned no data, or because the data didn’t change), false otherwise.

Changelog

New in version 2.1.

class reader.UpdatedFeed(url, new=0, modified=0, unmodified=0)

The result of a successful feed update.

Changelog

Changed in version 1.19: The updated argument/attribute was renamed to modified.

New in version 1.14.

url: The URL of the feed.

new = 0: The number of new entries (entries that did not previously exist in storage).

Changelog

Changed in version 3.2: This field is now optional, and defaults to 0.

modified = 0: The number of modified entries (entries that existed in storage, but had different data than the corresponding feed file entry.)

Changelog

Changed in version 3.2: This field is now optional, and defaults to 0.

unmodified = 0: The number of unmodified entries (entries that existed in storage, but had the same data in the corresponding feed file entry.)

Changelog

New in version 3.2.

property total: The total number of entries in the retrieved feed.

Changelog

New in version 3.2.

class reader.EntryUpdateStatus(value, names=None, *, module=None, qualname=None, type=None, start=1, boundary=None)

Enum representing how an entry was updated.

Changelog

New in version 1.20.

NEW = 'new': The entry did not previously exist in storage.

MODIFIED = 'modified': The entry existed in storage, but had different data from the one in the feed file.

Exceptions

exception reader.ReaderError(message=''): Base for all public exceptions.

exception reader.FeedError(url, /, message='')

A feed error occurred.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The url argument is now positional-only.

Subclass of ReaderError.

property resource_id: Alias for (url,).

Changelog

New in version 2.17.

exception reader.FeedExistsError(url, /, message='')

Feed already exists.

Subclass of FeedError.

message = 'feed exists': Message; overridable.

exception reader.FeedNotFoundError(url, /, message='')

Feed not found.

Subclass of FeedError and ResourceNotFoundError.

message = 'no such feed': Message; overridable.

exception reader.ParseError(url, /, message='')

An error occurred while getting/parsing feed.

The original exception should be chained to this one (e.__cause__).

Subclass of FeedError and ReaderWarning.

exception reader.InvalidFeedURLError(url, /, message='')

Invalid feed URL.

Changelog

New in version 2.5.

Subclass of FeedError and ValueError.

exception reader.EntryError(feed_url, id, /, message='')

An entry error occurred.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: The feed_url and id arguments are now positional-only.

Changed in version 1.18: The url argument/attribute was renamed to feed_url.

Subclass of ReaderError.

property resource_id: Alias for (feed_url, id).

Changelog

New in version 2.17.

exception reader.EntryExistsError(feed_url, id, /, message='')

Entry already exists.

Changelog

New in version 2.5.

Subclass of EntryError.

message = 'entry exists': Message; overridable.

exception reader.EntryNotFoundError(feed_url, id, /, message='')

Entry not found.

Subclass of EntryError and ResourceNotFoundError.

message = 'no such entry': Message; overridable.

exception reader.StorageError(message='')

An exception was raised by the underlying storage.

The original exception should be chained to this one (e.__cause__).

Subclass of ReaderError.

exception reader.SearchError(message='')

A search-related exception.

If caused by an exception raised by the underlying search provider, the original exception should be chained to this one (e.__cause__).

Subclass of ReaderError.

exception reader.SearchNotEnabledError(message='')

A search-related method was called when search was not enabled.

Subclass of SearchError.

exception reader.InvalidSearchQueryError(message='')

The search query provided was somehow invalid.

Subclass of SearchError and ValueError.

exception reader.TagError(resource_id, key, /, message='')

A tag error occurred.

Changelog

Changed in version 3.0: Signature changed from TagError(key, resource_id, ...) to TagError(resource_id, key, ...).

Changed in version 3.0: The resource_id and key arguments are now positional-only.

Changed in version 2.17: Signature changed from TagError(key, object_id, ...) to TagError(key, resource_id, ...).

New in version 2.8.

Subclass of ReaderError.

exception reader.TagNotFoundError(resource_id, key, /, message='')

Tag not found.

Changelog

New in version 2.8.

Subclass of TagError.

message = 'no such tag': Message; overridable.

exception reader.ResourceNotFoundError(message='')

Resource (feed, entry) not found.

Changelog

New in version 2.8.

Subclass of ReaderError.

property resource_id: The resource_id of the resource.

exception reader.PluginError(message='')

A plugin-related exception.

Subclass of ReaderError.

exception reader.InvalidPluginError(message='')

An invalid plugin was provided.

Changelog

New in version 1.16.

Subclass of PluginError and ValueError.

exception reader.PluginInitError(message='')

A plugin failed to initialize.

The original exception should be chained to this one (e.__cause__).

Changelog

New in version 3.0.

Subclass of PluginError.

exception reader.ReaderWarning

Base for all warnings emitted by reader. that are not DeprecationWarning.

Changelog

New in version 2.13.

Subclass of UserWarning.

Type aliases

reader.types.TristateFilterInput

Possible values for options that filter items by an optional boolean attribute (one that can be either true, false, or not set).

None selects all items. True and False select items based of the attribute’s truth value (a None attribute is treated as false).

For more precise filtering, use one of the following string filters:

attribute values	string filter	optional bool filter
True	istrue	True
False	isfalse
None	notset
False, None	nottrue	False
True, None	notfalse
True, False	isset
True, False, None	any	None

Changelog

New in version 3.5.

alias of Literal[None, True, False, ‘istrue’, ‘isfalse’, ‘notset’, ‘nottrue’, ‘notfalse’, ‘isset’, ‘any’]

Constants

reader.plugins.DEFAULT_PLUGINS = ['reader.ua_fallback']: The list of plugins make_reader() uses by default.