RSS & Atom Feeds
Modern Syndication with RSS & Atom
Lion Reader supports all major web feed formats: RSS 2.0, Atom 1.0, and JSON Feed. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) and Atom are XML-based syndication formats that allow you to subscribe to websites and receive updates automatically. Simply paste any URL and Lion Reader will discover available feeds by checking HTML <link> tags and common feed paths like /feed, /rss, and /atom.xml. You can preview the feed’s title, description, and sample entries before subscribing.
Efficient Polling & Smart Scheduling
Lion Reader uses HTTP conditional requests to avoid wasting bandwidth on unchanged content. When checking for updates, it sends If-Modified-Since and If-None-Match headers so servers can respond with a lightweight 304 Not Modified status if nothing has changed. The polling schedule respects Cache-Control headers from the server while enforcing reasonable bounds: feeds are checked between once every 10 minutes (with a server-provided cache hint) and once every 7 days.
Graceful Error Handling
Lion Reader handles HTTP redirects intelligently: it tracks 301 permanent redirects and updates the feed URL after a 7-day confirmation period, while following 302 and 307 temporary redirects without updating the stored URL. HTTP-to-HTTPS upgrades are applied immediately. If a feed fails to fetch, exponential backoff is applied with a maximum retry interval of 7 days. This approach ensures Lion Reader is a good citizen of the web while keeping your feeds up to date.
Fast & Memory-Efficient Parsing
All feeds are parsed using htmlparser2 in SAX (streaming) mode, which provides excellent performance and low memory usage even for large feeds. This architectural choice allows Lion Reader to handle feeds of any size efficiently.