notifier.py

import requests
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET

# url of news rss feed
RSS_FEED_URL = "http://www.hindustantimes.com/rss/topnews/rssfeed.xml"	

def loadRSS():
	'''
	utility function to load RSS feed
	'''
	# create HTTP request response object
	resp = requests.get(RSS_FEED_URL)

	# return response content
	return resp.content

def parseXML(rss):
	'''
	utility function to parse XML format rss feed
	'''
	# create element tree root object
	root = ET.fromstring(rss)

	# create empty list for news items
	newsitems = []

	# iterate news items
	for item in root.findall('./channel/item'):
		news = {}

		# iterate child elements of item
		for child in item:

			# special checking for namespace object content:media
			if child.tag == '{http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/}content':
				news['media'] = child.attrib['url']
			else:
				news[child.tag] = child.text.encode('utf8')
		newsitems.append(news)

	# return news items list
	return newsitems

def topStories():
	'''
	main function to generate and return news items
	'''
	# load rss feed
	rss = loadRSS()

	# parse XML
	newsitems = parseXML(rss)
	return newsitems