# I had to stop myself signing up for the beta of the next version of Ulysses. The main issue I've had with it in the past is its handling of code blocks but version 13 looks to be sorting that, and adding syntax highlighting. The nerd in me got excited and had to be reminded I stopped using it for a reason!
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# I think I might have worked around my RSS feed compatibility issues for title-less posts (seeing as how many feed readers don't handle them elegantly.)
The RSS 2.0 spec states:
"An item may also be complete in itself, if so, the description contains the text (entity-encoded HTML is allowed; see examples), and the link and title may be omitted."
But, as we already know, it the item title is empty or not present, many readers will use the description as a fallback which can cause the problem of HTML tags appearing in the text used for the title.
To get round this I have now set up a custom template and trimmed the description to just the first 10 words of the post content with the code below:
<?php $content = get_the_content_feed('rss2'); ?>
<description><?php echo htmlentities(wp_trim_words($content, 10)); ?></description>
This gets the first 10 actual words, excluding tags, and adds an ellipsis.
When a title exists feed readers should use the <content:encoded> element which contains the full, entity-encoded text.
Hopefully, this will make things look just a little better in all cases until more readers adequately support title-less posts.
Updated to include htmlentities()
# As I’m using a custom RSS template I’ve also thrown in a check for post format so it completely excludes the title element for a status post.
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# I thought I was good to go but Feedbin wouldn't pick up my last two posts. Running the new feed through a validator it was complaining about the single quotes in the description so I've wrapped it within htmlentities() and it's working again.
# I got sidetracked with the whole RSS thing today. I had made some notes for a post and had planned to flesh it out but that will have to wait. It'll probably do me good to ruminate on it for a while longer.
I've been doing that a bit more lately. I've got a number of items in Feedbin that I've kept unread for a while because I want to consider them more deeply before commenting. Maybe nothing will come of it but I want to at least give it half a chance.
@colinwalker I signed up. I don’t feel I use it enough. Just trying to see if I can have word targets that exclude blocks of text...
I decided to simplify my workflow as Drafts 5 is so much more powerful now. I found myself only using Ulysses once in a blue moon so the sub just wasn’t worth it.
@colinwalker But isn’t Drafts more for notes, and Ulysses for longer writing?
@roelio The way Drafts 5 has developed the lines are more blurred than ever. It’s perfectly capable of handling longer text.
@colinwalker I understand that the next version of writeroom is suppose to be designed to handle mega text length and be super responsive but no idea how far off launch that is.
@adamprocter I’ve never tried that. Any good?
@colinwalker it was excellent, foldingtext (no longer same dev) and taskpaper are very cool. Plus @jessegrosjean is a good guy ?
@colinwalker Oh? I really have to look into Drafts 5 then. Thanks for the tip!
@colinwalker I also struggled to justify the cost of a Ulysses subscription when they moved to that business model. I still feel it's a great app and I look forward to seeing enough new features to make paying for the sub worthwhile. still using the last version from before the change. Still syncs, does most of what I need.
@andrewford I struggled with it too. I have it now as part of SetApp and appreciate that (I wouldn't have bought it separately). Like @colinwalker I'm finding Drafts 5 great, but I use Ulysses to sync with specific Dropbox folders which isn't something Drafts is designed to do.
@andrewford I was happy to pay the subscription while I used it heavily but I found myself opening it very infrequently for a singular purpose (which I’ve managed to workaround since) so it just wasn’t worth it. And being able to reduce my app footprint is always a bonus.