RumpelstiltskinRSS is a web based RSS reader for your Gengo Jobs RSS. After some one-time steps, you can use any browser on any device to alert you for new jobs. As a bonus, RumpelstiltskinRSS does some filtering for you so you will only be alerted if the size and level of the job meet your preferences, taking the time of day into account.
I optimized RumpelstiltskinRSS for my own needs, but tried to make it so that it can be used by all translators. You can find RumpelstiltskinRSS at http://rumpelstiltskin.appje.nl/rss/. For a description how to use it, follow the Introduction link.
Note that you can set the refresh interval to either 31 or 62 seconds. Use 31 for optimal chances to grab a job, without breaching Gengo's demand to access your Jobs RSS at most twice per minute. Or use 62 to test if RumpelstiltskinRSS suits you, while still running your current RSS reader (set to check at most once per minute) on another device.
336 comments
Hi jwspaans1995,
Technically speaking, the combination should work fine. My tool simply loads a web page, wich has an instruction in its HTML code to refresh after the interval you specified (31 or 62 seconds).
To play the game according to the rules of Gengo, though, the combination of the tools you use should check at most twice per minute. If you set the interval for my tool to 62 seconds and for RSS Feed Reader to 1 minute or more, there should not be any problem.
Note that you can run my tool on as many devices as you wish simultaneously without breaching Gengo's rules, because Gengo's info for your feed is cached on my server for the specified interval.
Hi Alexander, thanks for clearing that up! I'm now up and running with the tool. Even if you play within the rules it's good to note that in some cases I got noted about a job a good couple of seconds earlier than normal :). Thank you so much!
I modified both the server scripts and the app to address the problem I mentioned on February 03, 2017 21:37, and the fix seems to work fine for the beta testers. I plan to submit this version to the App Store this weekend, and expect it will be available in the course of next week.
As for the Android version, I wasted quite some time trying to get a sample app running in the simulator. The problem I experience (a timeout while launching the simulator) is discussed in several places on the internet, but none of the suggested solutions works for me. So I finally bought myself a real Android device, and the sample app runs fine. I plan to modify the sample app little by little to include all features I need (most of which I can copy from other sample apps).
Furthermore, I plan to extend RumpelstiltskinRSS's functionality with push notifications. I already figured out how to do it under iOS, and I am currently using the app as an alarm, triggered by my server. This alarm feature will NOT be an option in the release version, though. :-)
Push notifications have several benefits. First of all, this "don't call us, we'll call you" approach means you don't have to keep the app running, not even in the background! What's more, I will be in control of the traffic to and from my server. Some people mentioned problems recently that I ascribe to too many users accessing the server at the same time. I checked with my provider, and while on average the number of simultaneous requests is well below the allowed maximum, that maximum is actually reached from time to time during random peaks.
Despite the benefits, I did not implement push notifications in the iOS version yet for two reasons. The most important one is that I have to rethink the basic design of my server functionality. I plan to do that along with creating the Android version. So the Android version will support push notifications from the beginning, and I will implement it in the iOS version soon thereafter.
The other reason is that push notifications are only possible under iOS 8 and later. Currently, my app supports iOS 7 as well. If you are still using iOS 7 and for some reason cannot upgrade to iOS 8, please let me know. If no one seems to be in this situation, a few months from now RumpelstiltskinRSS will no longer run under iOS 7.
One user reported a crash in the latest iOS app version. I created a beta test version which seems to solve this issue.
If the app crashes on your device as well, contact me so I can send you this beta test version.
Depending on further test results, I will probably submit this version next week to the App Store.
As mentioned on a different forum, Gengo recently added info about the language pair to the RSS feed. I updated the scripts on my server to use this info both in the browser and in the app version.
On your Preferences page, look for the new box "Language pair(s)". The default settings result in the same behaviour as before, except that for every job that is found, the language pair is displayed. If you are in a single pair, you may find this "information" boring and therefore want to uncheck "Show the language pair for each job".
Also if you are in a single pair, leave the other box unchecked and stop reading this forum post.
Since you are still reading this, I assume you are in multiple language pairs. Here is where the fun starts.
Make sure you have multiple RumpelstiltskinRSS accounts, one for each language pair. For each account, on its Preferences page check "Apply the preferences of this account to the pair ... only. For jobs in my other pair(s), use the preferences of my other account(s)". Also, use the popup menu to tell which language pair you want to associate with this particular account. Make sure all other settings are correct for this particular language pair, including your Jobs RSS. Exception: the settings under "Alerts for browser version" and "Alerts for iOS app" are only relevant in your main account (the one you are logged into when you run RumpelstiltskinRSS).
After you have thus specified your preferences for each language pair in its own account, when you run RumpelstiltskinRSS, each job is checked against the relevant preferences to decide if it is an interesting one (in terms of units count, level, and if you can complete it within the allotted time given the time of day). If an interesting job is found, you will be notified the way you specified under "Alerts for browser version" or "Alerts for iOS app" in your main account.
It is not really necessary to use multiple accounts for multiple pairs. If you are happy with a single set of preferences for all pairs, you can leave "Apply the preferences of this account to ..." unchecked. But this refinement allows you to be notified for Pro jobs only in one pair, and for all jobs in another one. Or you can set different preferences in terms of units count, which may be helpful if one of your source languages is words based and another one is character based.
Speaking of character based languages, it would be nice if some of you could for a handful of jobs tell me the character count and the allotted time. For words based source languages, I know the relationship between units count and allotted time in quite some detail from my own feed, but for character based source languages I can only make a wild guess. The guess I use in my scripts is that the allotted time to translate N characters equals the allotted time to translate N/1.6 words, though I forgot how I ever arrived at that guess, let alone have any idea how close this is to truth.
Like I promised a few days ago, I submitted a new version to the App Store to solve the crash that one user experienced. I expect it will be available for download within a few days.
Before you install this new version, be sure to make a backup of your device. (The user who reported the crash learned the hard way there is otherwise no way to downgrade if the App Store version doesn't work for you.)
Bonus info (like 'Bonus +30%') is now displayed as well. You can turn it off by unchecking 'Show bonus info' under 'Sundry' on your Preferences page.
Update about the Android version: after spending far more time than I had expected on getting familiar with the basics of Android app development (Android Studio is powerful but overwhelming, and the way code is organised is not immediately clear), I am now making fast progress in the actual coding of the app. I will probably publish an initial release in the course of July.
I just pressed the 'publish' button for the Android app version. RumpelstiltskinRSS should be visible in the Google Play Store within a few hours.
Please be aware what it means that this is the initial release: while it works fine on my test device (running Android 5.1.1), no doubt it has some quirks, like any software in its initial version. Please contact me if you hit on any problem and I will see what I can do about it.
I ask a small fee for the app itself, just to put off people who download anything that is free and would cause unnecessary load on my server. After overcoming the teething problems in the Android app, I will start asking a monthly fee for both the Android and the iOS version.
Other than I promised before, I did not yet include push notifications. Given the time I already spent on creating this initial version in the first place, I thought it wise to postpone push notifications to a (near) future release. I am aware that push notifications is for many users the major feature they are waiting for, and plan to implement it in both the iOS and the Android version before I start asking a monthly fee.
Also, the only alert options in this release are a sound and vibration (if your device supports it). The good news is that it keeps running when your device is in sleep mode and automatically recovers from problems like when there is an interruption in the internet connection.
Thank you for your hard work, Alexander! This is great news and I can't wait to download this app.
Since I'm not fully versed in technological stuff, let me see if I understood correctly: since it doesn't have push notifications, it won't work in the background and alert me that a job is available. I would have to keep it in the foreground, as I believe was the case in iOS (I had it, then my iPhone got stolen :(( but I didn't use it much because of this. Is this correct?
Hi Val,
Yes, you understand it correctly. Like the iOS app, the Android version blocks you from using your device for other tasks. Being able to run in the background would be a solution, but relying on push notifications is better for several reasons. I opted not to spend time on a feature that will soon be obsolete.
While RumpelstiltskinRSS can not truly run in the background, it will keep running (and alerting for jobs by a sound) when your screen goes dark (after the interval you set in the system preferences, or after you press the sleep button). For many people, this is already very useful. That's why I decided to release this version even though it does not yet support push notifications. Stated differently, you may consider the current version a pre-release of the real thing, which I plan to publish later this year. :-)
Hi, Alexander
Despite your last comment, RumpelstiltskinRSS is alerting me about jobs without keeping it in what for me is "the foreground". I keep the app open, but do other things with my phone, and a very loud sound plays when there's a job. As long as it is running, if I close it, it stops. What happens is that if I click on the link, it will get "stuck" there, maybe it will even play the sound again when I open it again. Even hours after the fact. And if I ignore it, it will refresh and (presumably) continue checking for jobs. I don't know if it works all the time, but there have been instances where I was able to grab jobs like this. It would be useful if it would come to the foreground when a job is available, like it does on Chrome.
(Disclaimer: I am not sure if I'm using the correct terminology.)
Hi Val,
I am surprised to read you can do other things with your phone while RumpelstiltskinRSS is running. Either this is a bug (and I will not hurry to fix it!) or I am missing some feature of the Android OS.
In my understanding of Android, you can run only one app at a time. But perhaps this is true for old Android versions, not for recent ones. Which Android version are you using? I tested under 5.1.
How do you start another app while RumpelstiltskinRSS is running?
I uploaded a new Android app version to the Google Play Store. This version can run 'in the background'. (From a technical point of view this is not really true. This 'background' mode is actually a foreground process, but who cares?) Here's the user experience:
- launch the app
- log in to your RumpelstiltskinRSS account
- quit the app
and Rumpelstiltskin no longer blocks you from using your device for anything else. You can launch another app, or put your device to sleep, while a process keeps checking for jobs 'in the background'. You can tell the process is active by the presence of a tiny icon in the status bar. To stop that process, do this:
- launch the app
- log out
- quit the app
and notice the tiny icon in the status bar has disappeared.
This feature brings the app to the level that to my taste is worth a monthly fee, so a near future version will probably be subscription based. However, if any bugs show up due to this 'background' mode I will fix those first, of course.
Hi Alexander, RumpelstiltskinRSS has been nothing short of amazing for me and I'd like to thank you for your efforts in creating such an effective, useful tool!
The only problem I have encountered lately is that it does no longer do popup notifications in Google Chrome - it will just process to the translation page without notifying me. Is there anything I can do to ensure I get notified again?
Many thanks in advance,
Jan Willem
Hi Jan Willem,
It's nice to know RumpelstiltskinRSS is helpful to you, or at least has been helpful until you hit on this issue.
Which notification mechanisms work and which don't, is dependent on your browser and OS version. I suggest you do a bit of experimenting with the settings under "Alerts for browser version" on your Preferences page. If there are currently no jobs, check "Insert dummy job (to trigger demo alert)" so you can still test which settings work for you.
If you checked a combination of notifications (like popup + go to workbench), try checking only one of them to see if there is a conflict. Perhaps the conflict is solved when you change the time interval in "When a new job is found, after .. seconds go to workbench and halt".
In the past, users have reported issues with the sound notification. If "Play sound to alert for new job(s)" doesn't work, try checking "To play the alert sound, use mechanism adapted to iOS 6 and later" as well (even if you're not using iOS). After clicking "Start checking for jobs", you may have to click the "Play sound" link once to load the sound into memory.
Since there are so many combinations of browser and OS versions out there, it's not possible for me to support all of them. If the browser version of RumpelstiltskinRSS doesn't work for you, I suggest you switch to the iOS app version or the Android app version. While I haven't found time recently to work on these, I plan to put more features in them, which will be more reliable because I am more in control of the details.
RumpelstiltskinRSS now supports the "Edit" category Gengo introduced recently. By default, you will be alerted for any Edit jobs in your RSS feed. If that is not what you want, alter the settings on your Preferences page.
Google just notified me they removed RumpelstiltskinRSS from Google Play due to a policy violation:
"Google Play requires developers to provide a valid privacy policy when the app requests or handles sensitive user or device information. We’ve identified that your app collects and transmits the Android advertising identifier, which is subject to a privacy policy requirement."
Please rest assured that I don't abuse your Android advertising identifier. In fact, I don't even know what it is :-) but as soon as I have figured it out I will take the steps Google requires to put the app back into the store.
About the only sensitive information collected by RumpelstiltskinRSS that I am aware of, is your Jobs RSS, which it obviously needs to do its work and from which nobody (outside Gengo's offices) can infer your name, address or any other personal data.
I'm not sure yet when I will submit a corrected version to Google Play. I haven't much time this week to work on it, plus I want to take the opportunity to make a few more modifications.
Meanwhile you can keep using the Android app version (or the iOS app version or the browser version) of my tool. The only thing you cannot do right now is buy it at Google Play.
If you have any question about this issue or anything else related to RumpelstiltskinRSS, just let me know via this forum or the contact page on my site.
Today, one user notified me that when RumpelstiltskinRSS finds a job, the corresponding link is redirected to the dashboard.
I tested it with a job in my own feed. The correct link starts with https://gengo.com/ (note the s in https), but the link RumpelstiltskinRSS uses starts with http://gengo.com/ (http without s). This worked fine in the past, but apparently, Gengo now requires https.
I updated the scripts on my server to meet this requirement. If you still experience this (or any other) problem, please let me know.
I uploaded a new Android app version to the Google Play Store.
The feature set has not changed, I just modified a few details under the hood so Google no longer complains about this "Android advertising identifier" issue I mentioned in my post of October 1. Again, my app does not collect or transmit this identifier, it just looked to Google like it did.
Also, this version targets Android 8.0 Oreo, as required by Google starting November 1, 2018. This means that if your device runs Android 8.0 Oreo or later, you benefit from certain security and performance features that are only available in these recent Android versions. Nevertheless, you can still run RumpelstiltskinRSS under most older Android versions. (I tested the app under Android 5.1.1 Lollipop, and I have reason to believe you can even run it under Android 3.2 Honeycomb.)
Sorry it took so long to fix this. It has been almost a year since I last worked on the app, and I had difficulties retrieving the source code. The files I had labeled "release version" back then turned out to be incomplete, so I had to dig in my archive to collect the missing ones.
Today, one user notified me that on the Preferences page, under Language pair(s), where it says "Reminder: you have .. other accounts", several account names were visible that actually belong to other users.
While only the account names and the language pair for each of those accounts were visible, which in my eyes is not sensitive personal information, this is not exactly a desirable situation either.
Alas, I was unable to reproduce this bug, and the person who reported it via the contact page did not include an email address in the message.
If you experience the same issue (or if you are the person who reported this today), please send me a message including your email address and I will have a closer look at it.
I think I identified the cause of the issue mentioned yesterday and fixed it.
Under "Reminder: you have .. other accounts", all other accounts are listed that have the same value in their Jobs RSS field as the current account. This works fine as long as this field is filled. However, in some situations the Jobs RSS field is empty. This may happen if the preferences file was somehow corrupted, or if someone started creating an account but never completed it. Also, users may for their own reasons manually clear the Jobs RSS field.
The bug was that all accounts with empty Jobs RSS field were supposed to belong to the same user, and the obvious fix was to check if the Jobs RSS field is filled before drawing conclusions.
If this was actually the cause of the issue mentioned yesterday, then I have no reason to believe this bug had any side effects that could have been really harmful. Again, about the only information on my server that may be considered sensitive is your Jobs RSS itself, which as far as I can see was never disclosed to other users. And even if it was, nobody outside Gengo's offices is able to infer your name, address or any other personal data from it.
One reason why people may manually clear the Jobs RSS field is that they stop using an account. Since there is currently no way to manually delete an account, clearing this field may feel like the second best thing to do.
If you want your account to be deleted entirely, just contact me and I'll be happy to help you. Also, I recently implemented a process that automatically deletes about a dozen accounts per week that haven't been used for a while. Nobody has complained yet, so I believe it works reliably and I plan to speed it up. So if you stop using an account, it will silently disappear at some point in the future.
Part of the current RumpelstiltskinRSS functionality is that if you work in multiple language pairs, you can specify different preferences for each pair. While this seemed a good idea when I first implemented it, I am not so happy about it anymore, so I plan to disable it.
Please let me know if you rely on this feature and I will keep it enabled for you. For all others, I will disable this feature by the end of this month.
One user contacted me today via the contact form but did not supply an email address, so I'll post the answer here.
Yes, I did update the server scripts recently (last Sunday, to be precise), but no, this did not cause the sound to stop working. At least it still worked in a short test I did right now due to your message.
I am not aware of any sound issue in the iOS and Android app versions, so I assume you are using RumpelstiltskinRSS in the browser mode. In that case, if you checked 'To play the alert sound, use mechanism adapted to iOS 6 and later' (under 'Alerts for browser version'), try using (while the tool is running and checking for jobs) the 'Play sound' link near the top. (Under tight memory conditions, the sound is erased from memory. Clicking this link reloads it.) You should hear the sound within seconds, and don't have to use the link again untill the problem returns.
If the problem persists, please contact me again, this time mentioning your email address. :-)
Hi, it was me (email: [removed due to public nature of the forums -- Lara])! I do use the browser version. I don't have the 'play sound' button any more, it seems to have disappeared. If I have the demo/dummy job set to go, I do have a small sound window where I can play the sound, This is what it looks like. I have it set to go to the workbench in 1 second, and that works fine, but still no alert sound when doing so.
Hi Cheryl,
Sorry to hear it still doesn't work for you.
I forgot to mention that in the browser version, some combinations of notification options may not work properly, depending on the browser and OS versions you are using. This is one reason why I created the Android and iOS app versions, where I have more control over the details.
I suggest you uncheck every notification option except "Play sound to alert for new job(s)" and "Insert dummy job (to trigger demo alert)". You should hear the sound within seconds after pressing the "Start checking for jobs" button. If not, also check "To play the alert sound, use mechanism adapted to iOS 6 and later". After pressing the "Start checking for jobs" button again, you will see the "play sound" link which should make it work.
If the sound still doesn't work, please contact me directly. If it does work, you could try checking "When a new job is found, after .. seconds go to workbench and halt" again, this time using a longer interval (say 5 seconds) so the browser has a decent chance to start playing the sound and still open the workbench by the time you made the mental switch to have a look at it.
Hi, there, It has already been two days that rmpl.nl is not working. Could you please help me with this? Thank you so much.
Hi supeinjin01,
What exactly do you mean by rmpl.nl "is not working"?
If you don't hear the sound when RumpelstiltskinRSS finds a job, you may find the relevant section on the FAQ page helpful.
If you don't see any jobs at all, it may be there simply are no jobs right now in your pair or they are already taken very quickly.
If this information doesn't help you, please contact me directly so I can have a closer look at the issue.
Hi Alexander -- it looks like RumpelstiltskinRSS was down for a couple of days (I tried accessing it when the previous comment regarding it not working came in and it wouldn't load for me either). Seems to be working fine now :)
Hi Lara,
Thank you for the extra information. I don't think RumpelstiltskinRSS has been entirely down, at least not when I read this post by supeinjin01, because the first thing I did was a short test how it worked for me (it showed a few jobs).
However, in the log files I occasionally read about problems reaching Gengo's server. Perhaps these issues are related to slow connections anywhere between Gengo's server, rmpl.nl and the end user.
If I hear about more people experiencing similar problems, I will have a closer look at it.