I'll admit to using a few cloud services in moderation, but I tend to choose privacy over storing my life on other people's computers. While I was on vacation at the end of 2016, I set up a Nextcloud server to replace my privately hosted and very outdated solutions for syncing contacts (Kolab over IMAP) and calendars (ICS over WebDAV). After setting it up, I was surprised to find a News app for Nextcloud that adds support for RSS/Atom feed subscriptions. Of course, there are also apps that provide access to those subscriptions from mobile devices. Stop allowing Feedly to monitor my online reading habits? That sounded like icing on the cake to me.
Nextcloud: A safe home for all your data
I'll assume that if you have a Nextcloud instance, you know (or can figure out) how to add the News app from the store. After it's installed, migrating your feed list is simple. Log into Feedly, go to settings (the gear icon beside Personal Feeds), scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the export OPML link. Then go to the News app in Nextcloud, select Settings, look in the Subscriptions (OPML) section, and click the Import button to browse for the file you downloaded from Feedly.
What about all the articles you've saved over the years? Feedly doesn't provide a way to export those, but it's easy with a little JavaScript. I've only tested this in Firefox and Chrome, so your mileage may vary in other browsers (if you're using IE, you're surfing wrong—stop before you hurt yourself). In Feedly, go to your Saved for later list and use the gear icon at the top of the page to set Presentation to one of these options:
- Magazine: This option uses less space in your Nextcloud database because it only downloads a summary of each article.
- Full Articles: Uses more space in your Nextcloud database, but it ensures you have a complete copy of the text even if an article is moved/deleted from the original site (or the site itself shuts down). Note that external assets such as images hosted on the original site are not copied to your server.
Next, open your browser's dev tools by pressing Ctrl + Shift + K in Firefox or Ctrl + Shift + I in Chrome and go to the Console tab. Both Firefox and Chrome allow you to enter JavaScript in the bottom or right side of the console, so copy the code below into the console and run it:
If everything goes as planned, a link will appear at the bottom of the Feedly page to download your saved articles. After downloading the file, return to the Nextcloud News app, select Settings, look in the Unread/Starred Articles section, and click the Import button to browse for the Feedly Saved Articles.json file you just saved. All of your saved articles from Feedly should now appear in the News app as Starred.
If this script helps you out or you run into trouble, let me know in the comments below. Since you have a shiny new RSS reader, maybe you should subscribe to my blog while you're here. ;-)
