RSS feed parser

gistfile1.cs

/// <summary>
/// A simple RSS, RDF and ATOM feed parser.
/// </summary>
public class FeedParser
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Parses the given <see cref="FeedType"/> and returns a <see cref="IList&amp;lt;Item&amp;gt;"/>.
	/// </summary>
	/// <returns></returns>
	public IList<Item> Parse(string url, FeedType feedType)
	{
		switch (feedType)
		{
			case FeedType.RSS:
				return ParseRss(url);
			case FeedType.RDF:
				return ParseRdf(url);
			case FeedType.Atom:
				return ParseAtom(url);
			default:
				throw new NotSupportedException(string.Format("{0} is not supported", feedType.ToString()));
		}
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Parses an Atom feed and returns a <see cref="IList&amp;lt;Item&amp;gt;"/>.
	/// </summary>
	public virtual IList<Item> ParseAtom(string url)
	{
		try
		{
			XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(url);
			// Feed/Entry
			var entries = from item in doc.Root.Elements().Where(i => i.Name.LocalName == "entry")
						  select new Item
						  {
							  FeedType = FeedType.Atom,
							  Content = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "content").Value,
							  Link = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "link").Attribute("href").Value,
							  PublishDate = ParseDate(item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "published").Value),
							  Title = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "title").Value
						  };
			return entries.ToList();
		}
		catch
		{
			return new List<Item>();
		}
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Parses an RSS feed and returns a <see cref="IList&amp;lt;Item&amp;gt;"/>.
	/// </summary>
	public virtual IList<Item> ParseRss(string url)
	{
		try
		{
			XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(url);
			// RSS/Channel/item
			var entries = from item in doc.Root.Descendants().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "channel").Elements().Where(i => i.Name.LocalName == "item")
						  select new Item
						  {
							  FeedType = FeedType.RSS,
							  Content = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "description").Value,
							  Link = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "link").Value,
							  PublishDate = ParseDate(item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "pubDate").Value),
							  Title = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "title").Value
						  };
			return entries.ToList();
		}
		catch
		{
			return new List<Item>();
		}
	}

	/// <summary>
	/// Parses an RDF feed and returns a <see cref="IList&amp;lt;Item&amp;gt;"/>.
	/// </summary>
	public virtual IList<Item> ParseRdf(string url)
	{
		try
		{
			XDocument doc = XDocument.Load(url);
			// <item> is under the root
			var entries = from item in doc.Root.Descendants().Where(i => i.Name.LocalName == "item")
						  select new Item
						  {
							  FeedType = FeedType.RDF,
							  Content = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "description").Value,
							  Link = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "link").Value,
							  PublishDate = ParseDate(item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "date").Value),
							  Title = item.Elements().First(i => i.Name.LocalName == "title").Value
						  };
			return entries.ToList();
		}
		catch
		{
			return new List<Item>();
		}
	}

	private DateTime ParseDate(string date)
	{
		DateTime result;
		if (DateTime.TryParse(date, out result))
			return result;
		else
			return DateTime.MinValue;
	}
}
/// <summary>
/// Represents the XML format of a feed.
/// </summary>
public enum FeedType
{
	/// <summary>
	/// Really Simple Syndication format.
	/// </summary>
	RSS,
	/// <summary>
	/// RDF site summary format.
	/// </summary>
	RDF,
	/// <summary>
	/// Atom Syndication format.
	/// </summary>
	Atom
}

Awesome job, thank you! Even though SyndicationFeed came after your work, I had to incorporate your solution to process a lot of the non-standard RSS that the SyndicationFeed threw exceptions on.