Building a Content Aggregator and Working With RSS in Python

11/19/21 • 57 min

Have you wanted to work with RSS feeds in Python? Maybe you’re looking for a new project to build for your portfolio that uses Django, unit tests, and custom commands. This week on the show, we have Real Python author Ricky White to talk about his recent step-by-step project titled, “Build a Content Aggregator in Python.”

Ricky has been authoring the Real Python interview series for several years and was formerly our Community Manager. He talks about what inspired him to create this project and the Python technology and libraries to build it. He also shares advice about adding tests to personal portfolio projects.

We start the show by discussing Python’s GIL (Global Interpreter Lock) and the efforts to potentially remove it in future versions of Python. This change could make a significant impact on Python code running on multi-core processors. We talk about two recent articles covering the developments.

Course Spotlight: Get Started With Django: Build a Portfolio App

In this course, you’ll learn the basics of creating powerful web applications with Django, a Python web framework. You’ll build a portfolio website to showcase your web development projects, complete with a fully functioning blog.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:02:07 – Citizenship
00:03:52 – Ricky’s Real Python interviews
00:05:55 – Upcoming interview with Eric Wastl about Advent of Code
00:08:05 – Notes From the Meeting On Python GIL Removal
00:18:41 – Sponsor: Cloudsmith
00:19:26 – Build a Content Aggregator in Python
00:20:28 – Django background
00:23:37 – What web technologies were you using before Python?
00:25:07 – What motivated the project?
00:26:46 – Technical hurdles
00:30:52 – Including tests in a portfolio project
00:32:56 – Django custom commands
00:37:02 – Video Course Spotlight
00:38:16 – RSS Feeds - Really Simple Syndication and Podcasts
00:42:16 – Working with django-apscheduler
00:47:06 – Taking the project further and CSS frameworks
00:51:04 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
00:53:58 – What do you want to learn next?
00:55:52 – Shoutouts and social connections
00:56:57 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

Course Spotlight: Get Started With Django: Build a Portfolio App

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:02:07 – Citizenship
00:03:52 – Ricky’s Real Python interviews
00:05:55 – Upcoming interview with Eric Wastl about Advent of Code
00:08:05 – Notes From the Meeting On Python GIL Removal
00:18:41 – Sponsor: Cloudsmith
00:19:26 – Build a Content Aggregator in Python
00:20:28 – Django background
00:23:37 – What web technologies were you using before Python?
00:25:07 – What motivated the project?
00:26:46 – Technical hurdles
00:30:52 – Including tests in a portfolio project
00:32:56 – Django custom commands
00:37:02 – Video Course Spotlight
00:38:16 – RSS Feeds - Really Simple Syndication and Podcasts
00:42:16 – Working with django-apscheduler
00:47:06 – Taking the project further and CSS frameworks
00:51:04 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
00:53:58 – What do you want to learn next?
00:55:52 – Shoutouts and social connections
00:56:57 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

Previous Episode

The Legacy of OLPC and Charismatic Pitfalls in Teaching Programming

Do you remember the One Laptop Per Child program? What went wrong, and what can we learn from the program’s failure? What are the potential pitfalls of charismatic technology, and how can we avoid them when introducing students to programming? This week on the show, former guest Al Sweigart and author Morgan Ames are here to talk about her book “The Charisma Machine - The Life, Death, and Legacy of One Laptop per Child.”

We discuss the OLPC program and how idealized visions of our programming backgrounds can become traps. Morgan explains how these utopian visions are still used to attempt to disrupt education. Along with this cautionary tale, we also talk about educational programs that are working and how entry points to programming are changing.

Course Spotlight: Using Pandas to Make a Gradebook in Python

With this course and Python project, you’ll build a script to calculate grades for a class using pandas. The script will quickly and accurately calculate grades from a variety of data sources. You’ll see examples of loading, merging, and saving data with pandas, as well as plotting some summary statistics.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:02:13 – Morgan’s background
00:02:58 – Computer Science and Information Science
00:04:46 – Early introduction of computers to schools
00:08:25 – What was the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Program?
00:12:32 – Turtle art and Scratch
00:16:34 – Sponsor: CData Software
00:17:15 – What is the global south?
00:19:12 – How does charisma apply to objects and technology?
00:28:30 – Python language design and Learn to Code
00:34:53 – Media technology scares and the self taught coder
00:40:35 – Video Course Spotlight
00:41:41 – Technically precocious boys and exclusion of others
00:43:47 – Minecraft and technology maintenance skills
00:49:08 – Skewed utopian visions and lack of ongoing support
00:52:54 – Shifting feminine vs masculine perceived roles in computing
01:02:41 – Changing entry points for programming
01:09:00 – The why of “learn to code” and empowerment
01:13:13 – Metaverse, nostalgia, and dystopia
01:14:45 – The Diamond Age and Code Hero Kickstarter
01:16:53 – Avoiding future charismatic traps
01:18:28 – Shoutouts and social connections
01:21:04 – Thanks and goodbyes

Show Links:

Next Episode

Discussing Type Hints, Protocols, and Ducks in Python

There seem to be three kinds of Python developers: those unaware of type hints or have no opinion, ones that embrace them, and others who have an allergic reaction at the mention of them. Python is famously a dynamically typed language, but there are advantages to adding type hints to your code. This week on the show, we have Luciano Ramalho to discuss his recent talk titled, “Type hints, protocols, and good sense.”

Luciano was not a fan of type hints. He’s only recently come around to their potential with the introduction of protocols in PEP 544. Python has adopted a gradual type system that is optional at all levels. We discuss the advantages, pitfalls, and recent developments around type hinting in Python.

We also talk about the second edition of Luciano’s book Fluent Python. He researched type hints in-depth for the book, which led to his recent conference talks on the subject. He also shares his experience with adding opinionated asides to the book in a fun and unique way.

Course Spotlight: Python Type Checking

In this course, you’ll look at Python type checking. Traditionally, types have been handled by the Python interpreter in a flexible but implicit way. Recent versions of Python allow you to specify explicit type hints that can be used by different tools to help you develop your code more efficiently.

Topics: