Subhash TweetsToRSS
app for Android, Linux, Mac & Windows

Introduction

Subhash TweetsToRSS Server is a lightweight localhost readonly server (not client) for Twitter. You can run it as a personal Twitter webserver on your Android devices using the app version or on your Linux/Windows/Mac machines using the Desktop version. It runs in the background and you can access it from any browser or RSS newsfeed reader program. Theoretically, it can be hosted on a LAN computer and made available to other users and applications.

TweetsToRSS generates rich RSS feeds and clutter-free web pages for Twitter. It is useful for those who don't have much to post and/or would like to (anonymously) follow Twitter users and topics. It is also great for archiving Twitter feeds on an e-mail client or RSS feed reader. TweetsToRSS server can create RSS feeds and web pages for any user timeline, hashtag or search query.

The RSS feeds can be accessed from feedreader applications such as browsers (Firefox, Seamonkey, IceApe, Internet Explorer, Opera 12.x), e-mail clients (Thunderbird, Seamonkey, IceDove, Microsoft Outlook), feed reader extensions (Bamboo) and dedicated feed reader applications (RSS Owl, Liferea). (It cannot be used with online services, as it is a private localhost/Intranet service and is not available to the Internet.)

Video Demos

TweetsToRSS in Linux, Mac or Windows
TweetsToRSS in Android
- TweetsToRSS works best with my Subhash Browser & Feed Reader app for Android app.
- The information about TweetsToRSS begins at 7 minutes into the video.
- This video was in part inspired by news reports of cannibalistic attacks caused by inappropriate use of bath salts.

Usage

To generate RSS feeds for your feed reader, you need to perform a search for a username (say @SubhashBrowser) or a hashtag ("#GlobalCooling") or even a simple phrase ("gold price"). For your search, TweetsToRSS will generate a localhost URL (web address). You need to add this URL to your feed reader. When the feed reader accesses this URL, TweetsToRSS will query Twitter, generate an updated RSS feed and give it to you feed reader. (If localhost does not work, use 127.0.0.1 in the URLs.)

Desktop Version

The desktop version is available for Linux, Mac and Windows. As it is a Java application, you need to have OpenJDK or Oracle Java already installed.

Installation is simple. Extract the contents of the ZIP file to some convenient location and then run the installer. This will create a shortcut/launcher on your desktop. You can click this shortcut whenever you want to run it. TweetsToRSS runs from the system tray. It can also be run as a terminal program without an UI.

Download
subhash-tweetstorssserver-for-desktop.zip
for Linux, Mac & Windows (1.78 MB)

Android Version

You will have to first enable installation of non-store apps from the Android menu:

Settings » Security » Unknown Sources or
Settings » Apps and notifications » Special access » Install other apps

You can then download and run this APK installer. After completing the installation, you should disable the above setting.

Download
tweetstorss.apk
for Android (2.6 MB)

Twitter App Authorization

This is a one-time requirement. Click the launcher/shortcut. TweetsToRSS will open a text box asking you enter a Twitter authorization PIN. (DO NOT enter your Twitter password in the text box.) Simultaneously, TweetsToRSS will open a Twitter login page. Login to a valid Twitter account, choose to authorize TweetsToRSS and copy the PIN generated by Twitter. Paste the PIN in the text box displayed by TweetsToRSS. This would complete the authorization. Log out of the Twitter page.

Authorization provides TweetsToRSS access to the "tweets" and followers of that account. However, TweetsToRSS does not access this information. It will not even retrieve your feed unless you make the app to do it. You do not have to use your personal Twitter account for authorization. Any valid account will do fine.

TweetsToRSS does not do any spying, logging, error collection, etc. Like all my software products, it does what it is stated to be doing - nothing more and nothing less. All my software are no-nonsense applications. No nags, no advertisements, no registration, no reminders - nothing of that kind.

Advanced Options (for the desktop version)

By default, TweetsToRss Server runs on port 8080. If you have some application already listening on this port, then you can use 8081 instead or anything from 39000 to 65000. For example:

java -jar Subhash-TweetsToRss-Server.jar 42123

If you are on Linux/Unix/Mac, then you can get color-coded console output by passing the "color" option to the java command.

java -jar Subhash-TweetsToRss-Server.jar color

You can also enable the display of trending topics and "hashtags" on the search page by using the "trends" option to the java command. This option is not enabled by default as it quickly exhausts Twitter API rate limits of your installation of this app.

java -jar Subhash-TweetsToRss-Server.jar trends

If you don't want the system tray icon and need a console interface, use the "nogui" option.

java -jar Subhash-TweetsToRss-Server.jar nogui

Logging is disabled by default. You can enable it by using the "logenabled" option.

java -jar Subhash-TweetsToRss-Server.jar logenabled

On a home LAN environment, TweetsToRss server can be hosted on a computer and you can access it on other network-enabled devices such as a TV or gaming console by replacing the "localhost" with name/IP address of that computer. For example:

http://192.168.1.2:8080/

IMPORTANT: Commercial or Internet deployment of this app is against Twitter TOS.

You can use the option "help" for an up-to-date list of options.

Errors

TweetsToRSS will throw errors ("No authentication challenges found") if the time and date of your device is not correct. Fix the time/date, clear the browser cache and try again.
Although most desktop RSS feed readers work with TweetsToRSS, many mobile phone/tablet RSS reader apps do not. These apps wrongly assume that localhost URLs (such as those generated by TweetsToRSS) are not valid URLs. Instead of them, you can use my app Subhash Browser, which has a built-in RSS feed reader and a settings option to automatically and unobtrusively start TweetsToRSS in the background.

Meanwhile, you can contact the developer of your favorite RSS reader or newsreader app and file a bug report. Tell them not to invalidate localhost URLs. Instead of the domain-name-checking route, ask them to make their apps first request the typed URL and if the app receives a valid RSS/Atom response, then make the app add the URL as a valid feed.

Changelog

A history of updates to TweetsToRSS is maintained at:
https://vsubhash.wordpress.com/tag/subhash-tweetstorss

You can also follow the development blog via RSS:
https://vsubhash.wordpress.com/tag/subhash-tweetstorss/feed/

Subhash TweetsToRSSapp for Android, Linux, Mac & Windows