Google Chrome Plugins and Themes

TPGoogleReader project page with download link and issue tracker


I started creating this extension before I found out that there's a lot of Google Reader extensions out there. But still I do not regret as I have not found any version save for my own that does all I want a Google Reader extension to do!

What makes this one so special?

Key features:

• The extension can show the number of unread items, as all of them do, or you can check a checkbox and then the extension automatically opens all new items in new background tabs, and marks them as read in GR. It's really great - you just find new things to read just appear, without even clicking anything! Also, at least for me, reading items in their full version by navigating to the item's link is much more enjoyable than reading the abbreviated, style-less version directly in GR.
• When working in the normal mode where new items do not get opened automatically, clicking on the items counter opens the first unread item and marks it as read.
• In the feed-auto-opening mode, number of automatically opened tabs appears on the toolstrip. When you switch to one of the opened tabs, the number is automatically decremented. You can also reset it manually by clicking on it.
• When a website has a feed, an icon appears on the right of the omnibox (page action). Click on it to open the feed in GR (does not subscribe, just opens and lets you view it). If there are multiple feeds on the webpage, you will see a list of all feeds, with the ability to subscribe to the one of your choice.
• When you navigate directly to an RSS or Atom page (like this one: http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/feeds/news.rss) normally Chrome displays a mess. With TPGoogleReader you will get the page displayed in a monospace font and with preserved formatting. See the screenshot. Clicking on the icon will open the feed in GR.

Some details:
Each Chrome window has a toolbar (see the screenshot) with GR icon (click to open GR), a checkbox (when checked, all new item will open automatically in this window) and number of unread items. If the box is checked, it is the number of unseen automatically opened tabs; if it is not checked, it is the number of unread items in GR.

If there are more Chrome windows opened, only one of them can have the checkbox checked, checking it on one of them will uncheck it in all other. So you can have two windows - one where you have the tabs that you normally use, and second with the checkbox checked. You'll see in the toolbar of both windows the number of tabs that were automatically opened in the second window!

The extension does not need your Google credentials, it just works using your current cookies so you simply need to be logged into GR for this to work. This works just like most of the other GR extensions.

Problems and possible improvements:
Sometimes something does not work as it should. Especially the page actions. The icon sometimes does not appear, or it does but does not react to clicks. But for me most of the time everything works as advertised :) And opening new items in tabs and marking them as read works 100/100 for me.

The extension will only work with Chrome 3.0.195.1+.

TPReal.

Attached Images

   

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TPChromeExtensions, Blog

Wow ! I'm impressed !

Thanks for sharing this with us. I hope you continue to add new features to this extension so that it can eventually become the ultimate reference in Google Reader extension !

Awesome work.

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ChromeGestures

@TP ..

As someone new to Google Reader, but not this forum (or computing in general) I was prompted to give GR a try predominaantly because of the number of posts on this site to do with extensions to enhance the GR experience.

So armed with a bit of advice (thanks LucVN) and a bit of research I decided to give GR a try ...

In addition I installed your extension and an extension to enable GR subscriptions http://code.google.com/p/gtools-for-chrome/)

From my limited experience with GR I have to say your extension is quite cool (really like the open feature) :-)

However there is one issue (which I wouldn't have found if I hadn't installed the other extension) ...

Your extension opens the first feed it finds ...

The other extension I tried recognises there are multiple feeds available and lists them for you to make a choice ...

This is the website ... http://www.soft32.com/

If you can implement this feature in your extension it would, IMO, make it almost perfect :-D

Thank you for the kind words.

Yes, this is true that it opens just the first feed it finds. For now this is enough for me, as the first feed is usually the one I want to subscribe to, and if not, I can just click on the link to the feed I want so that it opens in the TPGR feed viewer, and then subscribe to it.

Anyway, I'm planning to make it possible to select a particular feed. I'm quite sure I'll do it sooner or later, when I find time, and also the right way to do it

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TPChromeExtensions, Blog

It was more by luck than judgement I found it ...

Just happens to be one of the sites I visit every now and again for old versions of software ...

The first feed is for Windows software anyway :-D

Just checking something at the moment, would it be possible that extensions could conflict with each other ?

Hi TP ...

Just a small question, is it possible to move the icon and check box closer together ?

While I'm here can you clear something up for me ...

You don't need to have GR open in a tab (or window) for your extension to update ?

Hello. I just corrected some sort-of-bugs and moved the icon and the checkbox closer to each other as you suggested. The new download is under the same link (in the first post), version 0.2 now.

No, you don't have to have GR opened. You only need to have the authorisation cookies from GR saved in Chrome, and this happens when you log into GR. After that, you can close the tab, and the cookies will remain on your machine.

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TPChromeExtensions, Blog

@TP ...

Thanks for this it really is bordering on awesome ...

I noticed you didn't need to have GR open for it to update, in actual fact your extension actually updates faster than the count on your GR tab if you've got it open :-)

I would strongly suggest you update your extension to take account of multiple feeds on a page, I came across quite a few this morning when I was messing about ...

At the moment I'm using that other extension (I mentioned in my previous post) to subscribe ...

For instance one site I visited this morning had 4 feeds ....

All content, All content without ads, Top stories only and full comment

I was able to choose Top stories only, whereas yours would have chosen All content.
I know I could change it once I got to the page but it would be so much cooler if you could pre-empt that step ...

Keep up the good work :-D

Finally, how ever did I exist without GR !!!

PS - Looks better now you've moved the icon and check box closer together ;-)

hi, i hope you have seen this already, yesterday your extension was featured on the blog as well. I have now updated it with version 0.20. Enjoy!!

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I just checked it by installing the extension from the link that I gave, and for me it works as expected.

The count does not show only if any of the open windows has the check box checked. So if you have two windows and the check box is checked in one of them, then the other will not show the count as well - this is different from the version 0.1, but makes more sense now.

If you still believe that something is wrong, could you please go to chrome://extensions and click Inspect next to tpgr_ts.html (open all of them if there more than one), and click Show console, and see if there are any errors there?

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TPChromeExtensions, Blog