Gator

Gator is a multi-user command-line RSS feed aggregator written in Go. It allows users to add and follow RSS feeds, aggregate the posts, and browse them efficiently. The program utilizes a PostgreSQL database for storage and supports user authentication to manage personal feed subscriptions.

Features

• User Authentication: Register, login, and manage user sessions.
• RSS Feed Management: Add and follow RSS feeds.
• Feed Aggregation: Periodically fetch RSS feed data.
• Post Browsing: View recent posts from followed feeds.
• Database-backed Storage: Uses PostgreSQL for data persistence.

Installation

Prerequisites

Ensure you have the following installed:

• Go (1.24+)
• PostgreSQL

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/bsuvonov/gator.git
cd gator

Set Up Environment Variables

Create a configuration file in your home directory:

touch ./.gatorconfig.json

Edit the file and add:

{
    "db_url": "postgres://user:password@hostname:5432/gator",
    "current_user_name": ""
}

Replace user, hostname, password, and gator with your PostgreSQL credentials.

Run database migrations

# Install goose to handle database migrations
go install github.com/pressly/goose/v3/cmd/goose@latest

# Run `up` migrations
goose postgres "postgres://user:password@hostname:5432/gator" --dir sql/schema up

Replace the PosgtreSQL connection string with a correct one.

Build and Run

To build the project:

go mod tidy
go build -o gator

Run the program:

./gator <command> [args]

Commands

Command	Description
register <name>	Register a new user
login <name>	Login to existing user
reset	Reset users and their feeds
users	List existing users
addfeed <name> <url>	Add a new RSS feed
feeds	List all created feeds
follow <url>	Follow a specific feed
following	List feeds the user follows
unfollow <url>	Unfollow a feed
agg <duration>	Fetch new posts from subscribed feeds periodically
browse [limit]	Browse recently published posts (default: 5 posts)

Example Usage

1. Register a user:

./gator register alice

2. Login as the user:

./gator login alice

3. Add an RSS feed:

./gator addfeed TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com/feed/

4. Follow an existing feed:

./gator follow https://techcrunch.com/feed/

5. Start fetching feeds every 10 minutes:

./gator agg 10m

6. Browse the latest posts:

./gator browse 10

Database Schema

This application uses PostgreSQL with the following main tables:

• users: Stores registered users.
• feeds: Stores added RSS feeds.
• feed_follows: Tracks which users follow which feeds.
• posts: Stores posts from feeds.