Having used Google Reader daily (via Reeder and Flipboard), I was disappointed at the decision to close it, and so was looking for an alternative that would be less prone to implosion. Fever is a web-based feed reader with knobs on written by Shawn Inmann of Mint fame and includes an API, meaning it can work with client software other than web browsers. It offers ‘as expected’ features like feed management, but also ‘valued added’ features—notably the automated detection of how ‘hot’ links/stories are based on frequency of occurrence across all the feeds to which you subscribe. Fever is built around a PHP script that you host on your own server space, in conjunction with a MySQL database. All done in 6 simple steps :-)
Step 1: Run the Fever compatibility package
I have a low-end Synology DiskStation (the DS112). I created a directory in the web root directory of that server called ‘fever’, and used Coda to chmod permissions to 777. Into this directory I put the files comprising the Fever Server Compatibility Suite, downloaded here. In Safari I visited /fever/boot.php and delighted to see all the checks get a green tick: the Synology server environment was fully compatible :-)
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
© Shaun Inmann
Step 2: Create a MySQL database
I logged into phpMyAdmin and created a MySQL database to contain the fever settings and data, taking note of the database user permissions.
Step 3: Activate and install Fever
It was then a case of following the on-screen instructions back in the Compatibility Suite, handing over the $US30 to Shaun via PayPal, and then using the provided activation code to download the full package and complete installation. You need to create an account (e-mail address and password) with which to access Fever, much as you did with Google Reader.
Step 4: Import feeds via OPML
I used Google’s ‘takeaway’ server to download my feed list (including groups) as an XML (OPML) format file, which was loaded into Fever via the Import menu in Settings. It took a wee while, but soon all my feeds were listed, organised as they had been in Reader.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Hot: Links from all of your feeds are weighted by frequency and disposition of the linking feed, then ordered by temperature using the normal body temperature of 37° as a base.
Kindling: Kindling is a supergroup containing all of your non-Spark feeds. These are your must-reads.
Saved: Unlike other items which are automatically deleted after ten weeks saved items are never deleted (until you unsubscribe from the item’s feed). See the Sharing tab in Preference to publish an RSS feed of your saved items.
Sparks: Sparks are inessential feeds that increase the temperature of links in the Hot view. Their unread items will never appear in the Kindling supergroup or in any of your custom groups. Link blogs and sites that frequently repost content are excellent candidates for Sparks.
Step 5: Automate Fever refresh
Fever will refresh when you visit yourdomain.com/fever and you can ask it to refresh before syncing in the iOS Reeder client (see below). However, this is painfully slow. A better idea is to have your Synology perform a behind-the-scenes refresh. I couldn’t be bothered trying to figure out how to edit cron via the command line, but DSM 4.2 has a new Task Scheduler built-in (seemingly a response to customer feedback). That seems to work well: I created a new task ‘Refresh Fever’ to run the following user script:
sh /volume1/web/user_script.shWhere user_script.sh is a text file (created in BBEdit and uploaded to the web root directory) containing the following:
#! /bin/sh
curl -L -s "http://yourdomain.com/fever/?refresh"Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
In the Schedule tab of the Task Scheduler, I set the command to run daily and every hour (often enough for me; if you want Fever to refresh more frequently you might need to tackle crontab).
As here, to check your script is working telnet into the DiskStation and run /tmp/synoschedtask --get to get the ID of your script (e.g. 3), then /tmp/synoschedtask --run id=3 to make sure it runs without errors. You may also need to make sure the script is executable (via checking permissions in Coda or via telnet by running chmod +x /volume1/web/user_script.sh.
Step 6: Set up Fever clients
A web browser is easiest: all you do is navigate to yourdomain.com/fever, log in and start reading.
A Fever account is also supported in Reeder for iPhone (and anticipated to arrive for the Mac and iPad versions of Reeder in the not-to-distant future). I’ve enabled Sync on Start in my Fever account settings within Reeder for iPhone, but now have Refresh on Server disabled.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Reeder is my preferred RSS reader on iPhone, but I don’t care much for the iPad version: Flipboard is too perfect for that device. I’ll use Reeder on iPad if I must for my RSS feeds, but this would be in conjunction with Flipboard for consumption of other content. If Flipboard were so kind as to support Fever accounts (no technical reason why they can’t), this would be the icing on the cake.
Update 26.07.13: I have abandoned Reeder (due to lack of timely updates) and moved to ReadKit (excellent GUI on OSX) and Sunstroke (rough and cluttered GUI on iOS, but at least it works!).
Update 07.08.13: I have abandoned Fever, because my DiskStation (a DS112) is apparently incapable of multitasking (it cannot, for example, run Surveillance Station at the same time as Photo Station without tipping over). Synology support have confirmed my lowly model isn’t capable of running many services and/or packages simultaneously, causing it to use swap memory and become virtually unresponsive for 2-3 days at a time. Their advice was to ‘turn off services’ or upgrade to a model with 2GB RAM at significant cost. I have therefore migrated to Feedly to reduce the strain on my home server; no reflection on Fever itself.