This software is an RSS reader that scans a group of pre-set URLs representing RSS feeds, and produces a summary of the information.
Curn (Customizable Utilitarian RSS Notifier) is an RSS reader that, by default, keeps tabs on individual items in each feed with an on-disk cache. When utilizing the built-in cache, the software won't show information for items that it has already processed, but this behavior can be disabled. Curn is a command-line utility, not employing a graphical user interface, and is intended to run periodically through command scheduling software like cron(8) or the Windows Scheduler Service.
The software is written in Java, and can read RSS feeds from any URL supported by Java's runtime. When accessing HTTP sites, curn utilizes the If-Modified-Since and Last-Modified headers to avoid accessing feeds that have not been updated. The software will additionally ask that the remote HTTP server gzip XML before sending it, minimizing network bandwidth and demonstrating the software's kindness to remote RSS servers.
Curn can be customized to use any RSS parser, using the Rome parser by default, which can handle RSS feeds in Atom format and RSS formats 0.91, 0.92, 1.0, and 2.0. Additionally, curn easily adapts to any Java-based RSS parsers, adding an adapter to a new underlying RSS parser technology is relatively simple with Java interface implementation and extending Java abstract classes.
The software supports several output formats, with one or more output handlers able to be configured in curn's configuration file. Curn's HTML output sample and the software's plain text output sample can be found online. The FreeMarker template engine is internally supported by curn, enabling users to generate another output format easily. Users are also able to write their output handlers in Java or any scripting language supported by the javax.script API or Apache Jakarta Bean Scripting Framework.
Curn has been tested on a range of systems, including Mac OS X with the Apple-supplied JDK 1.6, FreeBSD with native FreeBSD JDK 1.5.0, Fedora Core Linux (FC 6), with the Sun Linux 1.5.0 JDK, and CentOS 4 Linux utilizing the Sun Linux 1.5.0 JDK.
The software is written in Java, and can read RSS feeds from any URL supported by Java's runtime. When accessing HTTP sites, curn utilizes the If-Modified-Since and Last-Modified headers to avoid accessing feeds that have not been updated. The software will additionally ask that the remote HTTP server gzip XML before sending it, minimizing network bandwidth and demonstrating the software's kindness to remote RSS servers.
Curn can be customized to use any RSS parser, using the Rome parser by default, which can handle RSS feeds in Atom format and RSS formats 0.91, 0.92, 1.0, and 2.0. Additionally, curn easily adapts to any Java-based RSS parsers, adding an adapter to a new underlying RSS parser technology is relatively simple with Java interface implementation and extending Java abstract classes.
The software supports several output formats, with one or more output handlers able to be configured in curn's configuration file. Curn's HTML output sample and the software's plain text output sample can be found online. The FreeMarker template engine is internally supported by curn, enabling users to generate another output format easily. Users are also able to write their output handlers in Java or any scripting language supported by the javax.script API or Apache Jakarta Bean Scripting Framework.
Curn has been tested on a range of systems, including Mac OS X with the Apple-supplied JDK 1.6, FreeBSD with native FreeBSD JDK 1.5.0, Fedora Core Linux (FC 6), with the Sun Linux 1.5.0 JDK, and CentOS 4 Linux utilizing the Sun Linux 1.5.0 JDK.
What's New
Version 3.2.2: N/A