## Moogle - A curses based google reader client

Moogle is a curses client for google reader, influenced by the best MUA ever,
[Mutt][].  Like mutt moogle has keybindings for everything, and supports limit
expressions to restrict what you're shown.

Moogle was written to [scratch an itch][] - there were console rss
readers\[[1][], [2][]\] and GUI rss readers which can sync to google
reader\[[3][]\] and [Google Reader][] proper but no console reader which could
sync to google reader: enter moogle.

Moogle's not for everyone, as [Zed said][] (though he was talking about [newsbeuter][]):

> Now, I’m sure tons of people will scoff at the idea of not having graphics in
> their feed.  They’ve gotta have that curvy candy coated interface with the
> flash video about Steampunk Buttplugs posted by BoingBoing blaring right in
> their fucking face or else they don’t feel alive.  They don’t feel young.
> Dammit, they want to augment that Nerd ADD with a feed reader that goes to
> eleven!

If that sounds like you, maybe you won't like moogle.

[scratch an itch]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar
[Mutt]: http://www.mutt.org
[Zed said]: http://www.zedshaw.com/essays/i_want_the_mutt_of_feed_readers.html

[Google Reader]: http://google.com/reader
[1]: http://kiza.kcore.de/software/snownews/
[2]: http://www.newsbeuter.org/
[newsbeuter]: http://www.newsbeuter.org/
[3]: http://liferea.sourceforge.net/

### Screenshot
<img src="moogle.png" alt="Moogle Screenshot"/>

### Features

Why should you use moogle? 

 * Google Reader synchronisation 
 * Curses interface
 * Powerful limit expressions
 * Offline cache support
 * Configurable keybindings
 * Built in python command line
 * Mutt-like tagging of items

### Getting Started

Using setting up moogle is simple: there are no configuration options, and only
one required configuration file, `~/.moogle/cred` which should contain your
google reader credentials in the form:

	username@google.com,password

Moogle is a work in progress - to get going try `python frontend.py` in the
moogle directory, simple help is available by pressing "?".

### Commands

The default set of commands is:

	<space>:  Select the next unread item.
	*:  Toggle 'star' state of the selected item.
	::  Execute python command in the context of this program.  DANGEROUS
	?:  Show help.
	J:  Scroll the current item down.
	K:  Scroll the current item up.
	N:  Select the next message.
	O:  Toggle the online state.
	P:  Select the previous message.
	R:  Mark all tagged items as read.
	T:  Toggle the 'tagged' state for all items matching expr.
	d:  Print a debug summary of the selected item.
	j:  Scroll the current item down.
	k:  Scroll the current item up.
	l:  Limit the display of items according to an expression.
	n:  Select the next message.
	o:  Open the currently selected item
	p:  Select the previous message.
	q:  Quit.
	s:  Save the current items for offline reading.
	t:  Toggle 'tagged' state of an item.
	x:  Force an update.

Most commands are simple, and do exactly what you'd expect.  Keybindings can be
created and modified at run time by using `Config.bind(key, function)`.

### The Limit Command
Limit accepts a python expression and uses it to [filter][] the feed items
shown.  To only show items from the BBC try `Limit: "BBC" in item.feed` or to
show only items labelled "comics" `Limit: "comics" in item.labels`.  A full
list of item attributes can be seen in the [source][], or in the debug output
(bound to "d" by default).

[filter]: http://docs.python.org/library/functions.html#filter
[source]: http://joe.milbourn.org.uk/git?p=moogle;a=blob_plain;f=moogle.py;hb=HEAD

Any python expression returning a boolean can be used as a limit expression,
but probably you'll want to limit based on some property of the each item.  Common attributes for an item are:

 * `item.feed`:  The feed source
 * `item.body`:  The body of the item, formatted as markdown
 * `item.author`:  The author of the item
 * `item.title`:  The item title
 * `item.labels`:  A list of this item's labels
 * `item.link`:  The link to the full version of this item
 * `item.date`:  A [datetime][] object representing the time this item was written
 * `item.entry`:  A [feedparser][] object representing this object

[datetime]: http://docs.python.org/library/datetime.html
[feedparser]: http://www.feedparser.org/

### Config Save/Restore

Moogle now supports the saving and restoring of configuration to and from the
file `~/.moogle/config` in [YaML][].  Moogle will load an existing config file
during initialisation, to create a config file run 
`Config.save(filename="~/.moogle/config")`, and to run a new config run 
`Config.restore(filename="~/.moogle/config")`.  The default configuration looks
 like:

	browser: x-www-browser
	headers:
	- labels
	- author
	- date
	- feed
	- title
	history_file: /home/joe/.moogle/history
	index_length: 5
	keybindings:
	  '*': star
	  ':': command
	  <down>: scroll_down
	  <space>: next_unread_message
	  <up>: scroll_up
	  '?': help
	  J: scroll_down
	  K: scroll_up
	  N: next_message
	  O: online
	  P: previous_message
	  R: read_tagged
	  T: tag_set
	  d: debug_dump_item
	  j: scroll_down
	  k: scroll_up
	  l: limit
	  n: next_message
	  o: open_item
	  p: previous_message
	  q: quit
	  s: save
	  t: tag
	  x: update

The keys `<up>`, `<down>`, and `<space>` are mapped to `curses.KEY_UP`,
`curses.KEY_DOWN`, and `curses.KEY_SPACE` respectively.

[YaML]: http://www.yaml.org

### Download

No packages yet - grab a [tarball](http://joe.milbourn.org.uk/git?p=moogle;a=snapshot;h=HEAD;sf=tgz) or clone your own from [git](http://joe.milbourn.org.uk/git/projects/moogle).