Welcome to the Boreal Owl - Preview of RSSOwl 2.0

RSSOwl 2.0 is still in its very early stages. We will update this site with new milestones once they are released. We plan to release a milestone every 1-2 months. The final release is planned for end of the year.

You can find a list of all enhancements that are planned for future milestones in our Bugzilla here.

In order to run RSSOwl 2.0, make sure that Java is installed.
We recommend using version 6, but version 5 is sufficient too.

1. Install Eclipse 3.3.1.1 or later if not yet done
2. Start Eclipse
3. Open the Menu "Help" and select "Find and Install" from the "Software Updates" item
4. In the dialog select "Search for new features to install"
5. Select "New Remote Site"
6. Choose any name for the site
7. Type in http://boreal.rssowl.org as URL and press "OK"
8. Press the "Finish" button
9. You will now see a list of downloads available for RSSOwl 2
10. Expand the elements of the list and put a mark into the RSSOwl 2.0 for Eclipse checkbox
11. Press the "Next" button
12. Read through the license agreement if you want, and accept it below
13. Press the "Next" button followed by the "Finish" button
14. Eclipse is now downloading RSSOwl 2.0 and will ask for a restart when done
15. Restart Eclipse and find a new perspective "RSSOwl"

Start rssowl using the command line argument "-data". Example: "rssowl.exe -data C:/profile" on windows.

The arguments are listed and explained here.

Given that RSSOwl 2.0 is still in development, some internal changes on how your data is stored may be required from one milestone to another. This was the case for the transition between M6 and M7 and from M7 to M8. However, we believe your data is important to you, so we intend to do our best to migrate it automatically. This will be done on the first time you run the new version and once that's done, it cannot be reverted. So, it's a good idea to backup your rssowl data folder:

• Windows: C:/Documents and Settings/<your.name>/.rssowl2
• Vista: C:/Users/<your.name>/.rssowl2
• Linux: <home.dir>/.rssowl2
• Mac: <home.dir>/.rssowl2

Note: Migrations are supported between final versions and between consecutive milestones. In other words, 2.0M7 to 2.0M8 and 2.0 to 2.1 are supported but 2.0M6 to 2.0M8 is not supported. In the latter case, you would need to launch 2.0M7 and then 2.0M8 to be able to use that version.

Note: In case of RSSOwl failing to migrate your data to the new version, try this:

• Stop RSSOwl
• Open RSSOwl.ini from the installation folder
• Replace '-Xmx192m' with a higher value, e.g. '-Xmx384m '
• Start RSSOwl again

During our internal testing, everything has worked, but if you find any problems, please report them at http://dev.rssowl.org.

RSSOwl provides a view to display the contents of the log file. Open it from Window | Show View | Other | Error Log. In case of a serious error, where RSSOwl would not even start, you can find the log file in the filesystem here:

• Windows: C:/Documents and Settings/<your.name>/.rssowl2/.metadata/.log
• Vista: C:/Users/<your.name>/.rssowl2/.metadata/.log
• Linux: <home.dir>/.rssowl2/.metadata/.log
• Mac: <home.dir>/.rssowl2/.metadata/.log

Note that using Mozilla as Browser in RSSOwl lacks quite some features over using Internet Explorer. If your only concern against using IE is it's vulnerability against JavaScript, then you should know that beginning with Milestone 9, JavaScript is disabled by default.

Note that you can only use the rendering engine of Mozilla inside RSSOwl. Any other feature of Mozilla or Firefox can not be used from within RSSOwl. Download XULRunner for your operating system:

• Windows: xulrunner-1.8.1.3.en-US.win32.zip
• Linux: xulrunner-1.8.1.3.en-US.linux-i686.tar.gz
• Mac: xulrunner-1.8.1.3.en-US.mac-cocoa-pkg.dmg

Then follow these short instructions on how to complete the installation after the download. Make sure to restart RSSOwl. It will use XULRunner from now on automatically until you uninstall it again.

Yes! Open "Tools" | "Preferences and expand the "Generals" node. Then select "Editors" and enable "Show multiple editor tabs". You should also disable "Close editors automatically" if you do not want to have Feeds close automatically if a certain limit is reached.

Just pass "-noSplash" to the rssowl launcher. Example: "rssowl.exe -noSplash" on windows.

Sometimes a computer crash or power-cut may cause RSSOwl's database to be corrupted. RSSOwl usually tries to recover from this by using the most recent back-up, but sometimes it does not succeed. In that case you might be able to do it yourself by following these instructions:

In case RSSOwl's database is corrupt, there is an easy way to restore a previous working version of the database. First, shutdown any running instance of RSSOwl 2 and then open the profile directory:

• Windows: C:/Documents and Settings/<your.name>/.rssowl2
• Vista: C:/Users/<your.name>/.rssowl2
• Linux: <home.dir>/.rssowl2
• Mac: <home.dir>/.rssowl2

From there, open the folder .metadata\.plugins\org.rssowl.core. The database is called rssowl.db and should be one of the files in that directory. Make sure to backup rssowl.db before making any changes.

RSSOwl performs frequent backups of the database. The most recent backups contain .onlinebak in their names, while the older ones contain .backup. You should start with the most recent backup by looking at the modified date and repeat the steps for each backup until RSSOwl is working again. Usually the most recent backup should bring RSSOwl back into a working state.

Rename the chosen backup to rssowl.db and start RSSOwl with a special startup parameter that will indicate the changes you made: -vmargs -Drssowl.reindex=true -Xmx512m. For instance rssowl.exe -vmargs -Drssowl.reindex=true -Xmx512m on Windows.

In case none of the backups can be restored, you can still recover your list of subscriptions and saved searches by importing either subscriptions.opml or subscriptions_weekly.opml from the profile directory. To do so, choose "File" | "Import Feeds..." and select one of these files. The former is a daily backup while the latter is a backup from up to 7 days in the past. When you import feeds, we recommend that you start from a new profile by deleting the profile directory before starting RSSOwl.

If RSSOwl still fails to work properly, consider opening a bug report at http://dev.rssowl.org. Make sure to attach the error log that you can find here.

Once RSSOwl 2 works again, make sure to start it as before without the extra startup parameters.

Support for reading Newsgroups in RSSOwl 2.0 can be installed from a separate extension.

Installation from RSSOwl: Open "Tools" | "Extensions" | "Get More Extensions" and select the newsgroup extension from the "RSSOwl Extensions" category. Follow the instructions and restart RSSOwl after the wizard closes.

Installation from Eclipse: Open "Help" | "Software Updates" | "Find and Install" and select "Search for new features to install". Press the "Next" button and open the "New Update Site" dialog by selecting "New Remote Site". Enter any name and use http://boreal.rssowl.org as URL and press "OK". Select the newsgroup extension from the "RSSOwl Extensions" category. Follow the instructions and restart Eclipse after the wizard closes.

1. Make sure to have the newsgroup extension installed
2. Bring up the "New Bookmark" dialog from the "File" | "New" menu
3. Use news://[server]/[group] as link (example: news://news.eclipse.org/eclipse.platform.swt)
4. Press the OK Button
5. The newsgroup will be loaded and a login dialog might show up asking for username and password if required
6. Read the newsgroup as if it was a newsfeed

Not yet. The support for newsgroups is currently limited to reading only.

RSSOwl 2.0 uses a couple of technologies that make it possible to add new features very easily and allows one to manage, search and read news in a way that is far beyond what RSSOwl 1.x supports.

Also keep in mind that this is a preview of what will later be RSSOwl 2.0. We are doing our best to make the final release as fast as possible and as memory friendly as possible.

If you are subscribed to more than 200 feeds, you will notice that RSSOwl 2.0 performs a lot better compared to RSSOwl 1.x

We are aware of this problem and have a solution that requires some work and investigation. That's why we are confident that the final release of RSSOwl 2.0 will not require more than 6-7 MB for the download.

We use Bugzilla to track suggestions and bug reports. Please report anything to http://dev.rssowl.org.

Yes it is. Contact us to receive more information.

Either contact Benjamin, or visit us in our IRC Channel #rssowl at irc.freenode.net. Also consider joining the public mailing list here.

The sourcecode is only available from our subversion repository at https://rssowl.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/rssowl.

Yes!

The Tengmalm's Owl, Aegolius funereus, is a small owl. It is known as the Boreal Owl in North America. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, Strigidae, which contains most species of owl. This bird breeds in dense coniferous forests across northern North America and Eurasia, and in mountain ranges such as the Alps and the Rockies. It lays 3-6 eggs in a tree hole. Read more at Wikipedia.



And the Boreal Owl is now also the name for this preview of RSSOwl 2.0 :-).