[BUG] RSS Feeds do not refresh when feed contains only single paper

[nakulz]

Describe the bug
RSS Feeds do not refresh

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Go to Feeds
2. Right Click on any rss feed that you might have added previously
3. Scroll down to click 'Refresh'
4. Pop-up in the bottom left corner of the app that says
   "Feed
   Failed to refresh feeds: ai
   TypeError: e is not iterable at l4.parseRSSItems (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Res...
   "

Screenshots or Log
21:26:08.958 › [Feed] Failed to refresh feeds: ai
21:26:08.958 › TypeError: e is not iterable
at l4.parseRSSItems (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-f93563e5.js:16:4258)
at l4.parse (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-f93563e5.js:16:4139)
at l4.fetch (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-f93563e5.js:16:3861)
at async n (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-f93563e5.js:16:10306)
at async file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-744bc545.js:395:59031
at async Promise.allSettled (index 0)
at async i81 (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-744bc545.js:395:58970)
at async rr.refresh (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-f93563e5.js:16:10286)
at async a.constructor.name.i.value (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-744bc545.js:56:42943)
at async o.constructor.name.s.value (file:///Applications/Paperlib.app/Contents/Resources/app.asar/dist/assets/index-744bc545.js:56:52837)

System (please complete the following information):

• OS: macOS Sonoma 14.6.1
• Paperlib Version 3.1.9 (3.1.9)

Additional context
I absolutely love this application. It will be awesome if you guys can 1) add a "refresh all" feeds option and 2) improve the documentation associated with RSS feeds.

[GeoffreyChen777]

I cannot reproduce this bug.

I guess the reason is related to your RSS source.

You don't need to refresh manually. The RSS Feeds are automatically refreshed every day.

[nakulz]

Hi. That's strange. I have done nothing new since I updated the app so I'm wondering what's unique about my setup that might be causing the feeds to break. Anything I can share to try and triangulate?

BTW this is the 2-3 time this issues has happened. Previous times that it happened, I basically removed and traded all the feeds again.

[GeoffreyChen777]

You can give me an example from your subscribed RSS URL.

[nakulz]

I wanted to include the link in the bug I filed but I'm not aware of how the url for a subscribed feed can be viewed/copied. Can u tell me how I can do that?

[GeoffreyChen777]

1. open developer tool

2. input: (await feedService.load("name", "desc")).toJSON();, press enter

[GeoffreyChen777]

I'm going to close this as it's inactive for a while. feel free to reopen.

[JunzheShen]

You can give me an example from your subscribed RSS URL.

Hi, thanks for your great work! I believe I've encountered the same problem as in this issue, and my RSS URL is https://rss.arxiv.org/rss/cs

[tinynag]

Apologies for commenting on a closed issue, but I believe I’ve identified a way to reproduce the bug.

The issue occurs when an RSS feed contains only a single item. This happens frequently for me, as I use several custom feeds that return only the articles I need. These feeds work correctly in other RSS readers, such as Reeder on macOS, but not in Paperlib.

I suspect the parser fails because there’s no list for it to iterate over when only one feed item is present. Below is an example XML to illustrate the issue:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" version="2.0">
  <channel>
    <title>Hacker News: Newest</title>
    <link>https://news.ycombinator.com/newest</link>
    <description>Hacker News RSS</description>
    <docs>http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification</docs>
    <generator>python-feedgen</generator>
    <lastBuildDate>Thu, 30 Jan 2025 07:41:46 +0000</lastBuildDate>
    <item>
      <title>Apple researchers reveal the secret sauce behind DeepSeek AI</title>
      <link>https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-researchers-reveal-the-secret-sauce-behind-deepseek-ai/</link>
    </item>
  </channel>
</rss>

[GeoffreyChen777]

Apologies for commenting on a closed issue, but I believe I’ve identified a way to reproduce the bug.

The issue occurs when an RSS feed contains only a single item. This happens frequently for me, as I use several custom feeds that return only the articles I need. These feeds work correctly in other RSS readers, such as Reeder on macOS, but not in Paperlib.

I suspect the parser fails because there’s no list for it to iterate over when only one feed item is present. Below is an example XML to illustrate the issue:

<title>Hacker News: Newest</title> https://news.ycombinator.com/newest Hacker News RSS http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification python-feedgen Thu, 30 Jan 2025 07:41:46 +0000 <title>Apple researchers reveal the secret sauce behind DeepSeek AI</title> https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-researchers-reveal-the-secret-sauce-behind-deepseek-ai/

@tinynag Thanks, will fix soon