And so it seem that Yahoo Pipes, a tool I first noted here (February 08, 2007), something I created lots of recipes for (see also on the original, archived OUseful site), ran many a workshop around (and even started exploring a simple recipe book around) is to be retired (end of life annoucement)…
It’s not completely unexpected – I stopped using Pipes much at all several years ago, as sites that started making content available via RSS and Atom feeds then started locking it down behind simple authentication, and then OAuth…
I guess I also started to realise that the world I once imagine, as for example in my feed manifesto, We Ignore RSS at OUr Peril, wasn’t going to play out like that…
However, if you still believe in pipe dreams, all is not lost… Several years ago, Greg Gaughan took up the challenge of producing a Python library that could take a Yahoo Pipe JSON definition file and execute the pipe. Looking at the pipe2py project on github just now, it seems the project is still being maintained, so if you’re wondering what to do with your pipes, that may be worth a look…
By the by, the last time I thought Pipes might not be long for this world, I posted a couple of posts that explored how it might be possible to bulk export a set of pipe definitions as well as compiling and running your exported Yahoo Pipes.
Hmmm… thinks… it shouldn’t be too hard to get pipe2py running in a docker container, should it…?
PS I don’t think pipe2py has a graphical front end, but javascript toolkits like jsPlumb look like they may do much of the job. (It would be nice if the Yahoo Pipes team could release the Pipes UI code, of course…;-)
PPS if you you need a simple one step feed re-router, there’s always IFTT. If realtime feed/stream processing apps are more your thing, here are a couple of alternatives that I keep meaning to explore, but never seem to get round to… Node-RED, a node.js thing (from IBM?) for doing internet-of-things based inspired stream (I did intend to play with it once, but I couldn’t even figure out how to stream the data I had in…); and Streamtools (about), from The New York Times R&D Lab, that I think does something similar?
OUseful.Info, the blog... 
A bit more versatile alternative to IFTTT I’ve been playing around with lately is Zapier (https://zapier.com). Still have to figure out how robust it is in modifying RSS feeds, but I might give it a try for recreating some of my Yahoo Pipes.
@bianca Ah – that’s interesting… and new to me. Yahoo Pipes on the one hand, and feed publishers and consumers on the other, made playful combination of services, and the automated flow of data between them, possible. Zapier looks as if it has that glue logic feel about it… The only issue is, with times as they, if data the data has to flow through a third party, what are they doing with it as it does pass through?
Hey,
You recommend pipes2py but it’s actually not working! There are issues installing it (doesn’t recognize the dependencies).
I’ve tested this on Windows 7, 8, Debian and Ubuntu server, impossible to install successfully.
If you could try yourself and report back, maybe even describe how you did it, it’d be so awesome, I have so many pipes to export.
Hi All – perhaps not so elegant but very simple to set up and use – add your RSS feeds, blogs, publications, YouTube channels and other topics to Feedly – it is free for non-commercial use htps://feedly.com
I know there are lots of other collator/ consolidator products about and I’ve only used the free version but it’s very reliable and works for me ;-)
It also works on mobile devices and is synchronized across your devices. With the Pro version $3.75/month you can save to OneNote, Evernote etc, conduct searches and set up alerts and with the Team version ($12.00/mth) you can collaborate and share comments on each topic.