TPGoogleReader

TPGoogleReader is a Google Reader extension for Chrome. It makes working with feeds (both reading and subscribing) easier and more enjoyable.

Download

Please download the extension from the Extensions Gallery: TPGoogleReader.

Visit the project's blog

TPGoogleReader is a part of the TPChromeExtensions project - Various Chrome extensions by TPReal. New releases and other useful information will be posted on TPChromeExtensions Blog. If you want to be updated, just go there and subscribe to the feed (using TPGoogleReader, of course).

Key features

Reading feeds

• The extension can show the number of unread items, as all of GR extensions do.
• If you switch to auto-opening mode (check a checkbox on the browser action popup) then the extension automatically opens all new items in new background tabs, and marks them as read in GR. That's a great thing - you 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), on the popup there are links for opening one, five, ten or twenty next unread items from Google Reader. The items will be automatically marked as read.
• In the automatic mode, number of automatically opened tabs is displayed on the browser action. When you switch to one of the opened tabs, the number is automatically decremented after a short (configurable) delay.

Subscribing to feeds

• When a website has a feed, the extension icon turns from green to orange. Click it to open the popup and see the list of feeds on the page. Click any of them to open it in GR (does not subscribe, just opens and lets you view it).
• When you navigate directly to an RSS or Atom page (like this one: Ruby News) normally Chrome displays a mess. With TPGoogleReader you will get the page displayed in a monospace font with preserved formatting. There is also a link to open the feed in Google Reader.

Screenshots

(I'm using the Brushed theme.)

17 items unread:

Now in auto-opening mode, 6 items waiting for me to view:

The icon is orange - there are feeds on this page (A is for auto-opening mode and no tabs opened):

Feed view - this is what is seen when you navigate to http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/feeds/news.rss:

Some details

Icon

Each Chrome window has a browser action with TPGR icon that opens a popup when clicked. There is a number displayed on the icon: when it's red, the extension is in normal mode and this is the number of unread items in GR (no number is displayed for zero items); when it's green, we're in the automatic mode, and this is the number of tabs that have been opened in the background and not yet viewed. A gray letter A means that the extension is in automatic mode but there is no unread automatically opened tab.

Popup

The popup contains a checkbox for switching between manual and automatic mode. 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 a common way of using TPGR is: you can have two windows - one where you have the tabs that you normally use, and the other with the checkbox checked. You'll see the number of tabs that were automatically opened in the second window displayed in green on icons on both windows, so you can switch to the second window when you decide there's enough new items collected.

Skipping already viewed items

Imagine the following scenario:

• A new item appears on page X that you are subscribed to in Google Reader, but Google Reader has not yet refreshed the feed so the new item is not visible in it.
• You visit the page (for whatever reason) and see the new item. You open the item and read it.
• Finally Google Reader refreshes the page's feed and the item that you've already read lands in your unread item.

In this situation, TPGoogleReader compares the item's URL against Chrome history and determines that you've already seen this entry, and automatically marks it as read without opening (both in auto and manual mode; it just marks it as read because it has been read). This simply saves you some hmm, I've already seen this impressions.

Account

The extension does not need your Google Reader credentials, it just works using your current cookies so you simply need to be logged into GR for this to work (but you don't have to have a GR tab opened all the time; just log into GR and close the tab). This works just like most of the other GR extensions. When you are not logged in, the extension is unable to fetch your feeds data. A question mark will be displayed on the TPGR icon.

Feedback

If you think you found a bug or have a suggestion, please check if it is already reported on the Issues List, and if not, add a New Issue (don't be shy, just do it).

Compatibility

TPGoogleReader is intended to work with the Dev Chrome releases. For information about how to switch to the Dev channel, see Early Access Release Channels. The extension is tested on Windows.

This is BETA

This software has to be considered BETA, simply because it works with Chrome Dev releases and not with the stable releases. From time to time Chrome releases break compatibility in the area of extensions API, so if you download the extension and see that something doesn't work, please submit an issue with the description of the problem. This will help me correct the problem and update the extension to work with latest Chrome version.