Thomas Tempelmann | Importing Safari's RSS feeds into Google Reader (OPML export)

I'm usually using Safari 5 as my RSS reader.

For an upcoming trip, I wanted to be able to read the feeds on my iPhone and iPad.

Unfortunately, I could not find an app that could import Safari's feed bookmarks. I certainly did not want to manually add my feeds again, though, either.

Eventually I created a little application that helps with this: It creates an RSS feed file in OPML format by reading the .inetloc files that Safari can create from any of its bookmarks.

These OPML files can be then imported by many more feed readers, apparently (I've only tested this with Google Reader so far, though).

Download

Here's the program, ready for OS X: SafariFeedToOPML_1.0.2.zip

(There's also the source code, which requires REAL Studio, though: SafariFeedToOPML.rbp.zip)

Change history

Aug 1, 2010: v1.0, first release.
Aug 2, 2010: v1.0.1, uses Unix (LF) instead of Classic Mac (CR) line endings in opml file now.
Sep 14, 2010: v1.0.2, fixes titles and URLs that Google Reader's import does not like (such as quotation marks and ampersands) and also allows the drop of entire folders containing .inetloc files.

Usage:

Create a new folder on your disk, e.g. on the Desktop, name it what you like. That's where the exported bookmarks will temporily go.
Export the desired RSS bookmarks from Safari: From its menu, use Bookmarks -> Show All Bookmarks. On the left pane, switch to All RSS Feeds. Then select which feeds you want to export (for all, just press Command-A), then drag them to the folder created in step one.
Launching my app (Safari Feed to OPML.app), then open the folder from step 1 and drag all its files into my app's window, or just drag the folder's icon. The app should then list all these RSS bookmarks in its window.
Finally, click on the ''Write OPML..." button and choose a folder where to save the new file. I suggest using the Desktop folder again.

Now you have a OPML file and you can delete the folder created in step 1 again.

You can then import this OPML file into Google Reader (go to its Reader settings, then to its Import/Export tab).

Hope that helps. Enjoy.