Return partial RSS feeds

[msjyoo]

Hello,

You're using Option() for the RSS channel and item fields, but you fail the parse function when for example, the Channel Description is missing. I don't see why this should be necessary?

Why not simply set Option(None) and continue on with the parsing returning the partial results?

I've come across a site that this library refuses to work on (looking at you abc.net.au -_-) because I get a Err(ChannelMissingDescription).

Thanks!

[frewsxcv]

The RSS specification says that description is required:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html#requiredChannelElements

So, as per the specification, their RSS feed is not valid. What do you propose I do?

[frewsxcv]

It's also required in the RSS 1.0 spec (the link above is the RSS 2.0 spec)

http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec#s5.3.3

[msjyoo]

I understand that abc.net.au's feeds aren't RSS compliant, but if the library fails just because the given feed isn't strictly RSS compliant, it wouldn't be of much use in real life. Many websites are lazy and don't strictly follow the spec.

Since you are already using Some() on those fields, wouldn't it be as trivial as letting the value be None if the description or any other fields aren't detected?

[msjyoo]

Otherwise, what is the point of using the Result struct in the first place? It's only useful if the value can be omitted. Let me know what you think.

[frewsxcv]

Otherwise, what is the point of using the Result struct in the first place?

Which Result struct are you referring to?

[msjyoo]

@frewsxcv My bad, it was https://doc.rust-lang.org/std/option/enum.Option.html

[frewsxcv]

So if we want this to happen, there needs to be two parsers:

• One (the existing one) that is strict that matches the spec.
• The other one needs to be loose that has all Option fields.

Each of these parsers will result in a different struct. The strict parser should not have all Option fields.

What do you think?

[frewsxcv]

If it is the case that sounds good, I'm going to disclaim that I'm pretty busy right now and probably won't get around to implementing it anytime soon. If you do though, I'll very happily merge in patches.

[msjyoo]

@frewsxcv I'll give it a go :)

[msjyoo]

@frewsxcv Would it be okay to use conditional compilation to implement this? A new feature flag of rss_loose compiles the loose version of rss? Which, of course, defaults to false.

It's just that creating a separate struct of RssLoose results in a lot of code duplication (at least from what Rust I know).

    #[cfg(not(feature = "rss_loose"))]
    pub title: String,
    #[cfg(not(feature = "rss_loose"))]
    pub link: String,
    #[cfg(not(feature = "rss_loose"))]
    pub description: String,

    #[cfg(feature = "rss_loose")]
    pub title: Option<String>,
    #[cfg(feature = "rss_loose")]
    pub link: Option<String>,
    #[cfg(feature = "rss_loose")]
    pub description: Option<String>,

Thanks :)

[frewsxcv]

Great idea, sounds good

[jameshurst]

This should be fixed by #24. Any missing fields thats are declared as "required" by the RSS 2.0 Specification will default to an empty string.