FeedJournal Blog

Simplifications

2012-02-13T00:09:00.000+02:00

Yes, it is long overdue. I admit it, the start page has been cluttered and confusing.

Starting today, there is a new simple FeedJournal start page that will let you test the service without having to provide an e-mail address.

This serves as a new starting point for where FeedJournal is heading. Future work will involve social features and better integration with other services. Stay tuned for updates!

Controlling Headline Size

2010-11-24T23:14:00.001+02:00

In FeedJournal Publisher you now have better control over the headline size.

The headline size is a function of the article length and how it best fits into the page. Until today, the headline size could be 25% smaller and 25% larger than specified by the headline pixel size.

Now, you can set how by how many percent the headline size can be decreased or increased in the newspaper.

Improved Images Enables Ads, Cartoons

2010-11-07T23:56:00.001+02:00

One of the most requested features coming from FeedJournal Publisher customers and trial users is advertisement integration in the newspaper. Fact is, both traditional and online newspapers make their living from selling ad space. Up till now it has been difficult to use ads in a FeedJournal generated newspaper.

With today’s update, FeedJournal is taking the first step in this direction. By using a feed with only images, and no text, the image will be included without shrinking in size. Also, no meta-information, such as article title, author, or publishing date, is included for articles containing only an image and no text.

This feature also solves another commonly requested feature: cartoons in FeedJournal. For an example see the Dilbert strip in the sidebar image.

I am certain that there are many more interesting use cases for images, beside ads and cartoons. Please share in the comments how you like to use this new feature.

Why not try out the new feature and give feedback on how it is working for you and how you would like to see it evolve. And, perhaps you have some suggestions for great image feeds?

If you are trying out this feature in FeedJournal Reader, make sure that you enable Images both for the image feed (e.g., Dilbert) when you click the Generate Newspaper button.

Bringing a Little Color

2010-10-31T22:28:00.001+02:00

Users of FeedJournal Publisher is now able to tweak the different text areas of the article and page using color as well as standard font metrics. This way headlines can be green, page numbers grey, and article text black, as in the screenshot here.

This let’s you further brand your printable content to the color palette of your corporate profile, or logo.

These sections can now be fully customized by color, as well as font properties:

Article Headline
Article Text
Jump Headline
Jump Source
Submission Date
News Source
Page One Header
Page Number
Section

The Troublesome Slash

2010-05-24T23:39:00.001+03:00

When URLs became ubiquitous in published texts, the typographical problem of the non-breaking forward slash (/) also became more painful. In web browsers you often see URLs stretching beyond the intended line break, and sometimes rivers of text form (as in FeedJournal) because the slash character does not break the line.

In newspapers, this is a bigger concern because of the narrow columns used. Starting today, FeedJournal defines the forward slash character as a potential line breaker - an improvement that I hope will make it easier for you to read your newspaper. The screenshot below shows you how FeedJournal now breaks URLs.

FeedJournal on the iPad in HTML5

2010-05-08T09:35:00.001+03:00

Scribd, one of the major online document sharing sites has made a visionary move in replacing their Flash reader with HTML5. Scribd also announced their change, appropriately in HTML5 format. Now, anyone with a modern web browser can read documents uploaded to Scribd without the need for the Flash plug-in. This move is especially welcome for iPad users, who can’t use Flash technology on their devices.

The move diversifies the competition in a crowded market. Scribd becomes the iPad-friendly HTML5 option; Issuu is the option for an attractive reader; and doXtop is the enterprise option with SharePoint support. I love the move because it will drive innovation in the market. Many people will follow how this move plays out very closely.

But how does it affect FeedJournal, you ask? FeedJournal generates your personal newspaper in PDF format. Readers have so far needed a PDF reader, such as Adobe Reader to read and print the newspaper. Now, this is no longer the case. Now, you can upload the new FeedJournal issue to Scribd and have anyone with a modern web browser (such as in the iPad or for 97% of all PC users) read it or print it. We will soon make it even easier to upload PDF files to Scribd, Issue and doXtop.

For an example of how FeedJournal looks in HTML5, check out the May 6 issue of Liberty Newspost.

Curl Up with the Internet

2010-05-03T09:12:00.001+03:00

I enjoyed the tweet from travisbedard, suggesting FeedJournal can be used when you want to curl up with the Internet. That was exactly the use case that started off FeedJournal in the first place.

As time went by, we discovered so many more uses for the service, such as publishing your own material in PDF format, or going green and reading your material on an iPad or Kindle.

Reader Database Update

2010-04-26T08:51:00.001+03:00

The update of the FeedJournal Reader database is now complete, and we are happy to report that it’s blazing fast. This marks the last step of the server updates, and I hope that you enjoy the performance boost!

Now Running on Faster Servers

2010-04-20T23:48:00.001+03:00

FeedJournal is now running on a new host. We have redirected the feedjournal.com domain to point to the new servers so you should all soon run against more powerful machines.

The only thing that still runs against the old server is the FeedJournal Reader database, which will be migrated tomorrow.

All systems are go, and I hope you will enjoy the faster servers!

Hosting Issues

2010-04-11T07:56:00.001+03:00

FeedJournal is currently experiencing intermittent hosting issues, which we are working together with the hosting provider to resolve. Our sincerest apologies for any inconveniences that this are causing you. FeedJournal is also looking into switching providers to find the quickest solution to the problems.

New Hosting Platform

2010-04-10T18:58:00.001+03:00

FeedJournal’s hosting provider has upgraded their servers and users are typically reporting a snappier experience now. However, a few clients are experiencing problems to generate newspapers with the Publisher interface.

According to the server logs, there are errors due to some fonts that are no longer available. So, if you have trouble to generate a newspaper, please check that you are using fonts that are available in the dropdown menu for each font.

How TerPress Uses FeedJournal

2009-11-09T08:25:00.002+02:00

TerPress uses FeedJournal to generate weekly printable newspapers. The PDF newspaper is then freely hosted and embedded on the web using Issuu (other free options include doXtop and Scribd). TerPress is also printed and distributed to institutions, schools, universities, libraries and public locations.
TerPress is an Italian magazine that deals with culture, society, morality, and information on new contemporary languages. It has an editorial staff of 20 people and a constant stream of new visitors.

Only Publish Fresh Articles

2009-11-01T05:30:00.000+02:00

Up till today, FeedJournal Publisher users was limited to specifying a date, without time, when filtering articles from their feeds. For high-traffic feeds this was not inefficient. Also, when automating newspapers publishing, a hardcoded date is not appropriate.

Now, you can specify how old articles to include in the newspaper by entering an number of hours. For example, to include all feed articles published in the last 24 hours, you enter “–24h”. It’s as simple as that.

Let There Be Links

2009-10-25T23:46:00.001+02:00

One of the most requested features since the inception of FeedJournal has been hyperlink support in the generated PDF newspaper.

Now it is available!

Users of both the free FeedJournal Reader service and the commercial FeedJournal Publisher can today select the Show web-style links-setting to render links as blue underlined text. This is the default setting. Users who are primarily interested in a traditional paper reading experience can unselect the check box to hide the links. Regardless of this setting, links are always available in the PDF, and the reader sees the URL targets by hovering the linked text with the mouse pointer.

In addition to links inside the article, clicking the headline links to the web page where the full article is published. And in the byline, the feed name links to the web site where the articles are published. Article and feed links are always rendered as normal text, not as HTML links.

In addition to the new links, today’s update also includes better extraction of metadata for Atom feeds.

The new link feature has required large modifications of the code base, and much effort has gone into testing. However, should you run into any feed or articles where you notice abnormalities, please report them to support@feedjournal.com.

doXtop Press Release

2009-10-07T09:03:00.001+02:00

A new doXtop press release describes how FeedJournal Publisher let clients generate newspapers that doXtop hosts, distributes and adds social features to.

FeedJournal users can host, embed and collaborate on to their generated newspapers using a plethora of third-party services. DoXtop is a leading and professional provider in this area.

Recently, I’ve had the pleasure to talk to Paul Caspers, creator of doXtop, about how we can go forward and extend our integration to offer an excellent user experience. When the new Publisher interface will be unveiled later this year, you will all be able to see how all the pieces fit together.

Liberty Newsprint, recently featured on this blog, is a prime example of how content providers are using FeedJournal and doXtop. Please have a look at the press release, embedded below using doXtop.

Individual newspapers deployed on doXtop

Site Update: IE Compatibility (2009-10-06)

2009-10-06T22:32:00.001+02:00

Recent user feedback has helped us to weed out a couple of bugs in the FeedJournal Reader service. Most importantly, a recent update to Internet Explorer, caused the Reader service to fail to generate newspapers.

Another issue caused articles without a publishing date to not be included in the newspaper.

Both of these bugs did not affect the commercial Publisher service. The fixes were deployed earlier today, and are now available to all users.

Change log:

Newspapers could not be generated in Internet Explorer (Thanks, TerPress!)
Include documents that don't have a valid publishing date (Thanks, Gerald!)
Minor design change to the subscription list
Updated to YUI 2.8.0r4

How Liberty Newsprint Uses FeedJournal

2009-07-28T21:28:00.002+03:00

Joel Robinson at Liberty Newsprint kindly set aside some time for me to ask him how he uses FeedJournal to create new print-issues of the aggregated Internet newspaper.

What is Liberty Newsprint?

An experiment in content (news) distribution. I want to see if I can brand a compelling customized newspaper that people would be interested in reading, and eventually, quality content producers interested in contributing to.

What are you using FeedJournal for?

I'm using the FeedJournal application to assemble a variety of daily full-text RSS feeds into the Liberty Newsprint Daily Edition.

How has FeedJournal helped you?

Without FeedJournal it would be impossible to gather daily RSS feeds from the internet in such a readable newspaper format.

How do you plan to use FeedJournal in the future?

Eventually I see using FeedJournal as the application to print anything from the internet on a regular basis. Also, I see it as the application I'll use to customize news and information when I eventually buy an e-reader like the Kindle or any other future e-reader device.

What other ways do you see people using FeedJournal?

Any large to medium sized company that writes newsletters or has a bulletin board from a variety of sources would do well to use FeedJournal Publisher. FeedJournal could definitely help order and manage the flow of institutional information in a much more timely and efficient way. If you work for a large company think of how many e-mails you get about things that you'd rather read in an easy to read, up to date, RSS newsletter. For example, lunches, the company picnic, party, retirement... the list is long.

Private newspapers

2009-07-12T22:15:00.001+03:00

A week ago, Stuart contacted me to ask if it is possible to generate newspapers with the Publisher service that are not hosted on FeedJournal. He was concerned about the privacy of his clients’ proprietary information.

Thanks to Stuart’s suggestions, it is now possible to disable FeedJournal hosting of PDF files by simply deselecting the check box Host on FeedJournal in the Publisher management interface. This new feature is immediately available to all users of the FeedJournal Publisher service.

HP’s New Web-Connected Printer & FeedJournal

2009-06-24T21:38:00.001+03:00

How can you use HP’s new computer-less printer to get your FeedJournal newspaper?

That was the first question I asked myself when I read the press release for HP’s innovative new web-enabled printer, with the outlandish name “HP Photosmart Premium with TouchSmart Web”. I still don’t have a definite answer to the question, but I am eager to make it as easy as possible for FeedJournal users to get the latest version of their personalized newspaper.

HP’s strategy of launching Tabbloid suddenly becomes a little bit more clear, even though they have a long way to go until they will have something similar to FeedJournal’s offering.

HP says in their press release that developers can distribute applications for the printer using HP Apps Studio, but it will not be available until the end of 2009. Attempts to contact HP have been fruitless so far. Hopefully they will offer an early access or beta program soon.

Too bad for HP, since it will give the competing printer companies a chance to catch up with their own web printers and newspaper generating software.

Site Update: Member Services (2009-06-13)

2009-06-13T22:45:00.001+03:00

We have rolled out an update to FeedJournal Publisher, adding two new settings in the Member Services configuration interface for Gold members (Thanks, Matthew!):

Option to hide feed source name in article header
Option to hide submission date in article header

The Real Estate Market

2009-05-26T22:56:00.001+03:00

When real-estate agent Ryan Shaughnessy posted an article about FeedJournal on The Lafayette Report I was very pleased. But I didn’t expect a torrent of 80(!) comments on that blog post from other real- estate agents who were enthusiastic about how FeedJournal could help them.

The article is Customers with No Internet Access? Convert Blog Content to Printed Newspaper with FeedJournal. It gives a great overview of the FeedJournal service from the perspective of the real-estate professional.

Now, the question is: How can I cater for this looming market apparently full of opportunities? I will put on my thinking-hat and see what I come up with. If you have any suggestions, please share them!

In the meantime I have rolled out some small bug fixes for FeedJournal. The most important one is a bug fix for the image caching algorithm, which caused some images to not appear, if they were too small for another user’s paper format.

FeedJournal API Enters Private Beta

2009-02-26T23:54:00.001+02:00

A FeedJournal API is now available for private early beta testing. With the API, it will be possible to quickly build a white-label web site using the FeedJournal engine to generate newspaper PDF files from any RSS feeds. The API also gives you access to an engine and database for user management.

The beta release of the API is available from today to a limited number of strategic partners. If you would be interested in using or reselling such a solution, you are welcome to contact me.

E-Book Reader Optimized Newspapers

2009-02-16T20:25:00.001+02:00

One of many interesting user comments and feature requests accumulating at FeedJournal’s UserVoice page is to better cater for e-book readers, such as the Amazon Kindle, iRex iLiad and Sony Reader Digital Book devices. With today’s update to FeedJournal Reader it is even easier.

Those among us who read our FeedJournal newspaper on an e-book reader are prime examples that FeedJournal does not have to be consumed as a “dead-tree” newspaper.

Today’s update provides optimized page sizes for the most popular devices. Just log in to the Reader service (or create a free account if you are not yet registered) and set the newspaper page size to be optimized for your e-reader model in the Edit Profile page.

I plan to soon roll out many more features targeting e-book readers, so make sure you vote for the features that are most important to you!

If your device of choice is not listed, please let me know and I will add it ASAP.

For your reference, I am including a table of the optimal full-screen reading pixel resolutions for the most popular e-book reader devices. I never managed to dig up a similar table myself in my research, so I hope it will be of use to someone.

Gadget	Optimal Width (pixel)	Optimal Height (pixel)
Amazon Kindle	525	640
iRex iLiad	768	940
Sony Reader	584	754

Site Update: Basic Publisher (2009-02-08)

2009-02-08T22:52:00.001+02:00

I have rolled out a new update for FeedJournal Publisher, fixing a bug in the free basic level service:

Relaxed the URL validation, where feed addresses with non-standard characters produced errors (Thanks, Nico!)

Site Update (2009-02-06)

2009-02-06T00:50:00.001+02:00

I have rolled out a new update for FeedJournal Reader, improving the GUI and layout. These are the major changes:

Improved parsing of non-standard feed URLs (Thanks, Robert!)
Added web and feed URL to the web interface (Thanks, Tony!)
Repositioned the delete button so that new users won’t have to hunt it down.

In addition, I also updated the blog post links on the feedjournal.com to post to this blog.