Devlog #3: Live RSS News Telemetry & TV Dashboard Optimization

🛠️ Summary & Overview

Elevated the RoomOps Zero ecosystem into a 24/7 ambient TV control station by integrating a real-time RSS news telemetry service.

This update includes:

• A dedicated Google News RSS parsing module for the FastAPI backend.
• In-memory response caching to reduce CPU and RAM usage on the Raspberry Pi Zero W.
• A high-visibility, auto-rotating news widget optimized for lean-back TV dashboard viewing.

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⚙️ Key Technical Updates

1. Google News RSS Integration & In-Memory Caching

Files: services/news.py · main.py

• Integrated feedparser to extract and process localized Google News RSS feeds.
• Added dynamic location-based news queries through:
  GET /api/news/{city}
• Implemented server-side in-memory caching with a 900-second (15-minute) cache duration.
• Reduced redundant external network requests and unnecessary CPU usage on the Raspberry Pi Zero W.
• Added a non-blocking asynchronous API route returning sanitized headlines as JSON.

2. TV Dashboard UI & Headline Rotator

File: templates/index.html

• Designed a dark-themed, high-contrast TV news card optimized for long-distance readability.
• Added an asynchronous JavaScript headline rotator.
• Headlines automatically change every 12 seconds.
• Added smooth CSS opacity transitions using fade-in and fade-out effects.
• Configured automatic background synchronization every 20 minutes to retrieve updated headlines without interrupting the active UI state.

3. 24/7 TV Display Safeguards

• Optimized DOM rendering by displaying only the currently active headline instead of rendering a large vertical list.
• Added fallback status handling with the “Εκτός σύνδεσης” message.
• Improved resilience during temporary local network outages.
• Kept the dashboard lightweight for continuous 24/7 operation.