Import Medium Following RSS Feeds into Feedly via Python

3 min readJun 25, 2024

I am a long-time fan and user of RSS feeds. Back in the days of Google Reader and the debut of Feedly, RSS feeds were a great way to read the internet. However, since then, I haven’t found them all that useful since I’m less often scouring the web for information. But due to Generative AI and finally springing for a Medium subscription (which is well worth it), I now have the desire to add many Medium RSS feeds to Feedly. But how?

Ideally, I’d want to have a single RSS feed of everyone I’m following that I can easily pull into Feedly without needing to use a password. I find password-protected RSS feeds to be a nuisance. Thus, how to import many author feeds into my Feedly? Enter Python and ChatGPT’s coding prowess.

Step-by-Step Guide to Create RSS Feeds from Medium Following List

1) Visit Your Following List:

First, visit the list of people you follow on Medium. Mine is located at: https://medium.com/@reynmike/following.
To get there, click on your profile pic, go to your profile, then under “Following” click “See all”.

2) Save the HTML Page:

Save this HTML page to your folder (e.g., C:\Users\yourname\yourfolder\Medium).
Once it’s done saving, which might take some time due to downloading all the avatar pics, rename the file to following.html.
It’s then okay to delete the folder with all the additional downloaded content you won’t need.

3) Leverage this Python script:

Below is the Python script I used to extract Medium usernames from the saved HTML, convert them to feed URLs, and manage them.

import os
import re

# Define the directory and file paths
directory = r"C:\Users\yourname\yourfolder\Medium"
followers_txt = os.path.join(directory, "followers.txt")
followers_prior_txt = os.path.join(directory, "followers_prior.txt")
followers_new_txt = os.path.join(directory, "followers_new.txt")
followers_new_opml = os.path.join(directory, "followers_new.opml")
following_html = os.path.join(directory, "following.html")

# Step 1: Extract unique username mentions from following.html
if os.path.exists(following_html):
    with open(following_html, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as f:
        html_content = f.read()
    
    # Extract usernames using regex
    usernames = set(re.findall(r'https://medium\.com/@(\w+)', html_content))
    
    # Convert to feed URLs
    feed_urls = sorted(f"https://medium.com/feed/@{username}" for username in usernames)
    
    # Write the sorted unique feed URLs to followers.txt
    with open(followers_txt, 'w') as f:
        for url in feed_urls:
            f.write(url + '\n')

# Step 2: Compare followers.txt with followers_prior.txt and write new usernames to followers_new.txt
if os.path.exists(followers_txt) and os.path.exists(followers_prior_txt):
    with open(followers_txt, 'r') as f:
        current_followers = set(f.read().splitlines())
    
    with open(followers_prior_txt, 'r') as f:
        prior_followers = set(f.read().splitlines())
    
    new_followers = current_followers - prior_followers
    
    # Write new followers to followers_new.txt
    with open(followers_new_txt, 'w') as f:
        for url in sorted(new_followers):
            f.write(url + '\n')

# Step 3: Copy followers.txt to followers_prior.txt to prepare for the next time
if os.path.exists(followers_txt):
    with open(followers_txt, 'r') as f:
        followers_content = f.read()
    with open(followers_prior_txt, 'w') as f:
        f.write(followers_content)

# Step 4: Transform followers_new.txt into an OPML file
if os.path.exists(followers_new_txt):
    with open(followers_new_txt, 'r') as f:
        new_followers = f.read().splitlines()
    
    opml_header = """<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opml version="1.0">
  <head>
    <title>New Followers</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <outline text="New Followers">
"""
    opml_footer = """
    </outline>
  </body>
</opml>
"""
    opml_body = ""
    for url in new_followers:
        opml_body += f'      <outline type="rss" text="{url}" xmlUrl="{url}"/>\n'
    
    with open(followers_new_opml, 'w', encoding='utf-8') as f:
        f.write(opml_header + opml_body + opml_footer)

print("Script execution completed.")

4) Load the OPML File into Feedly:

To load the OPML file into Feedly, follow these steps:

Log in to your Feedly account.
Click on your profile icon and select “Organize”.
Click “Import OPML” and upload the followers_new.opml file.
Your new Medium RSS feeds should now be added to Feedly.

Happy reading!

Import Medium Following RSS Feeds into Feedly via Python

Step-by-Step Guide to Create RSS Feeds from Medium Following List

Written by Mike Reynolds