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I am looking for something like PubSubHubbub that does not depend on google app engine to run.

What I need is a tool that can track for me a big very large number of rss or atom feeds and issue events when they are updated.

Dan Lowe
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flybywire
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2 Answers2

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pubsubhubbub is a protocol, and, as such, does not depend on app engine. For example, superfeedr is another implementation of this protocol (I believe it's free for the first 1000 feeds, then something like 50 dollars a month for the next 1000 feeds, then decreasing gradually for even larger number of feeds).

Alex Martelli
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  • thanks, but pubsubhubbub comes with a default implementation, doesn't it? or at least it is a project in google code, so it must be something that can actually be run.... – flybywire Nov 11 '09 at 16:26
  • Flybywire : yes there is a default OSS hub you can find on GAE, but it doesn't do polling, which means it will only work for the feeds which are using PubSubHubbub on their end. – Julien Genestoux Aug 21 '10 at 22:40
  • @Julien, right -- pubsubhubbub _is_ "opt-in" at both ends, i.e., both the servers (feeds) and the clients (readers or more typically aggregators) must speak to it. I believe that `superfeedr` obviates this by adding (to the pubsubhubbub protocol itself) a "poll the servers" part for feeds that _don't_ explicitly sign up to give it info in pubsubhubbub ways, but that's just my impression (haven't seen their sources!). The reference implementation (for GAE) _does_ "depend on GAE" (or appscale or typhoonae of course;-), of course, and doesn't poll (does just the pubsubhubbub protocol itself). – Alex Martelli Aug 21 '10 at 23:23
  • So actually, the default hub (GAE) acts as the protocols specifies : it polls upon pings. The only difference for superfeedr is that we can poll even when there are no pings. – Julien Genestoux Aug 22 '10 at 09:16
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    @Julien, thanks for clarifying the detail! (I don't think of "poll upon ping" as _poll_ -- **polling**, to me, means a stream of periodical unprompted "are we there yet?" questions, while the exchqnge "we're there!" / "where?" is not a _poll_, to my way of thinking, but rather more reminiscent of an observable/observer design pattern;-). – Alex Martelli Aug 22 '10 at 14:56
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Here is Django library implementing this protocol.

Denis Otkidach
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