SubToMe
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SubToMe is a button that content publishers can put on their sites which enables users to subscribe to their feed in whatever reader they choose — sort of a universal follow button.
Why
If my personal site has both a Twitter "Follow" button and a feed, it’s currently orders of magnitude easier to follow me on Twitter than to add my feed to a reader or any kind.
SubToMe aims at make following open web feeds (whether h-feed, Atom, or RSS) as easy as following a Twitter profile.
It does that by storing the subscriber's preferred subscriptions in his browser's LocalStorage, so that it does not promote service X or Y which may disappear while still making things as easy to use for the subscriber.
Adding a button to your site is quite easy and can be fully customized.
See How below for code to copy & paste!
How
example follow button with Woodwind default reader
This example creates a button, that when clicked subscribes the user to the site "example.com" with Woodwind as a suggested default.
It specifies the following:
- data-subtome-resource - the site URL
- data-subtome-feeds - the feed URL for the site ( for Woodwind, which understands mf2, you don't need and RSS/Atom feed )
- data-subtome-suggested-service-name - this is what specifys Woodwind as a service
- data-subtome-suggested-service-url - Woodwind internal URL specifying the resource to subscribe for
Code example (assuming https://example.com/ is your home page with an h-feed):
<a onclick="(function(btn){var z=document.createElement('script');document.subtomeBtn=btn;z.src='https://www.subtome.com/load.js';document.body.appendChild(z);})(this)"
value="Subscribe"
data-subtome-resource="https://example.com/"
data-subtome-feeds="https://example.com/"
data-subtome-suggested-service-name="Woodwind"
data-subtome-suggested-service-url="http://woodwind.xyz/subscribe?origin={feed}"
href="#"
title="subscribe to https://example.com/">Follow</a>
For details in the button configuration please see subtome.com/publishers.
Indieweb Examples
IndieWeb community members currently using SubToMe buttons on their personal sites:
- Superfeedr Blog. The buttons have been put at the end of each blog post.
Kyle Mahan's https://kylewm.com has a "Subscribe" link at the bottom of each h-feed.
Bret Comnes includes after the recent posts block in the pre-footer.
Pelle Wessman includes it at the bottom of his blog's front pageChristian Weiske has a follow button at the top of the index and each tag page.
gRegor Morrill is experimenting with a "Follow My Notes" button at the bottom of http://gregorlove.com/notes/ with Woodwind as the suggested reader.
Chris Aldrich includes one on in right rail on most pages. Also experimenting with wrapping the code around a traditional RSS icon for possible improved UX/UI, so users can add feeds to their favorite reader rather than being taken to a page of parsed data.
René has a feed link at the bottom with a traditional RSS image, with a fallback to standard RSS link. Suggested reader service is Woodwind
Anthony Ciccarello has a SubToMe feed link on a /subscribe page as of 2022-11-10- add yourself here
IndieWeb community members using feed readers with SubToMe support:
- Kyle Mahan added a SubToMe provider for Woodwind on [1]. The provider is activated just by visiting the site.
Demo
SubToMe can be tried as a subscriber out on the project homepage: SubToMe. Many feed readers already implement it, but you can also pick your favorite subscription tool on the SubToMe store.
FAQ
Is SubToMe another service to depend on
Q: Is SubToMe another service to depend on?
A: SubToMe is just a convenient "domain" used to obtain a 'namespace' in the subscriber's browser when storing their preferred reader. You can host its open source code yourself on your site!
SubToMe is only static (HTML + JS + CSS) and can actually be served from any HTTP server.
- but should not, because then you lose the shared configuration across all sites
The only constraint is the use of https for security purposes. The code is available as open source on github.