WordPress.com Reader as a sync service?

App
1

Hi NetNewsWire team!

I’d like to ask if you would be interested in supporting the WordPress.com Reader as a sync service. I work for Automattic on the WordPress.com Reader implementation, and I have a first version on a branch, but before going further I want to check if this makes sense for you at all, and how/if you’d like to proceed.

Background

During Radical Speed Month ( Radical Speed Month — The Reader Meets the Fediverse – ActivityPub for WordPress ) we added a Google Reader compatible API to the WordPress.com Reader. The idea is that you can use WordPress.com as a sync backend and read in the app you like.

The endpoint is https://public-api.wordpress.com/wpcom/v2/reader/greader. You sign in with your WordPress.com username and an application password (how to set one up
( Use a third-party RSS reader with a WordPress.com account | WordPress.com Support )).

What the branch does

It adds WordPress.com as a new Reader API account, next to Inoreader, BazQux and The Old Reader. It uses the existing ReaderAPIAccountDelegate, so there is no new sync logic. The rest is the account type, an icon, and the sign-in screens for Mac and iOS.

Branch: GitHub - pfefferle/NetNewsWire at add-wordpress-com-reader · GitHub

To be honest: the code was written with the help of an LLM (Claude), and I don’t really understand how all of it works. I know this is not how your guidelines expect it, so I’d rather ask first.

How to proceed?

  • Is this something you want in NetNewsWire?
  • If yes, what would you need from me? Should I file an issue first?
  • Would it be better if someone who knows the codebase takes a look at the code, or should I dig into it myself first?

Thanks,
Matthias

2

Thanks!

Looks like it’s configuration rather than logic, which is cool.

The big question: will you be able to test it? I’m in favor of supporting all the various syncing systems, but I don’t have the bandwidth to do manual testing every time we add a system.

And if something happens in the future (on your end or on NetNewsWire’s end) would you be able to return to this and re-test?

3

I mainly worked on the Google Reader API support for WordPress.com and prepared the NetNewsWire PR because I want to use this as my main setup. So ideally, I will notice issues myself first. :slightly_smiling_face:

So yes, I think I can handle testing and fixes on the WordPress.com side, and with the help of Claude also on the NetNewsWire side.

I already have the Mac version running successfully. I just wanted to check if this is generally a feature you want before starting with the iPhone testing as well.

I’ll create a draft PR and start testing.

4

Great — thanks so much!