News Viewer - C++ Advanced Project

Project Overview

News Viewer is a comprehensive C++ application that fetches and displays real-time news headlines from NewsAPI. Built with modern C++ features and best practices, it showcases advanced programming concepts including multithreading, STL usage, and real-time UI updates.

Key Features

✔ Real-time News Fetching

• Live headlines from NewsAPI
• Background auto-updates every 5 minutes
• Smart caching system to reduce API calls

✔ Advanced User Interface

• Modern ImGui-based interface
• Dark/Light theme support
• Responsive article cards
• Rich article preview with images
• Toast notification system

✔ Search & Organization

• Keyword-based article search
• Favorites management system
• Persistent storage of user preferences
• Intelligent cache management

✔ System Architecture

• Multi-threaded design
• Thread-safe data handling
• Robust error handling
• Efficient memory management

Technical Implementation

1. STL Usage

// Vector management for articles
std::vector<NewsArticle> articles;

// Efficient caching with unordered_map
std::unordered_map<std::string, std::vector<NewsArticle>> searchCache;

// File operations with filesystem
namespace fs = std::filesystem;
if (fs::exists(CACHE_FILE)) {
    // Cache handling
}

2. Thread Management

// Background update thread
std::thread updateThread;
std::atomic<bool> isAutoUpdateRunning{false};

// Thread-safe operations
std::mutex fetchMutex;
std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(fetchMutex);

3. Cache System

• Intelligent caching with 1-hour expiry
• Reduces API calls and improves responsiveness
• Thread-safe implementation

const time_t CACHE_EXPIRY = 60 * 60; // 1 Hour cache expiry
bool isCacheExpired(const std::string& keyword);

4. Error Handling

• Comprehensive error catching and logging
• Graceful degradation on API failures
• User-friendly error messages

try {
    headlines = fetcher.fetchHeadlines();
} catch (const std::exception& e) {
    showMessage("Failed to load headlines", colors.error);
}

Architecture Overview

📦 NewsViewer
 ┣ 📂 src/
 ┃ ┣ 📜 main.cpp              # Application entry
 ┃ ┣ 📜 news_fetcher.cpp      # API & cache management
 ┃ ┣ 📜 news_storage.cpp      # Data persistence
 ┃ ┗ 📜 ui.cpp                # User interface
 ┣ 📂 include/
 ┃ ┣ 📜 news_fetcher.h        # API declarations
 ┃ ┣ 📜 news_storage.h        # Storage declarations
 ┃ ┗ 📜 ui.h                  # UI declarations
 ┣ 📂 assets/                 # Application resources
 ┗ 📜 CMakeLists.txt         # Build configuration

Build Requirements

• C++17 compiler
• CMake 3.14+
• OpenGL & GLFW
• OpenSSL

Dependencies

• ImGui - UI framework
• httplib - HTTP client
• nlohmann/json - JSON parsing
• STL - Core functionality

Build Instructions

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/HananelSabag/NewsViewerCpp.git
cd NewsViewerCpp

# Create build directory
mkdir build && cd build

# Configure and build
cmake ..
make

# Run the application
./NewsViewer

Key Components

1. News Fetcher

• Handles API communication
• Implements caching logic
• Manages background updates
• Ensures thread safety

2. News Storage

• Manages favorites system
• Handles data persistence
• Implements file I/O
• Validates data integrity

3. User Interface

• ImGui-based rendering
• Theme management
• Popup system
• Image loading and caching
• Toast notifications

Threading Model

1. Main Thread

   • UI rendering
   • User interaction
   • Event handling

2. Update Thread

   • Background fetching
   • Cache management
   • API communication

3. Image Loading Thread

   • Asynchronous image loading
   • Memory management
   • Error handling

Cache Management

struct CacheEntry {
    std::vector<NewsArticle> articles;
    std::time_t timestamp;
};

std::unordered_map<std::string, CacheEntry> searchCache;

• Smart caching with expiry
• Memory-efficient storage
• Thread-safe access

Future Improvements

🔹 Local offline storage
🔹 Advanced search filters
🔹 Multiple news sources
🔹 Custom theme editor
🔹 Analytics dashboard

Authors

• Hananel Sabag

  • Core architecture
  • Threading implementation
  • UI development

• Amit Cohen

  • Data management
  • Cache system
  • Error handling

Academic Context

This project was developed as part of the Advanced C++ course at JCE (Jerusalem College of Engineering), supervised by Mr. Harel Welch.

Course Requirements Met

✅ STL Implementation
✅ Thread Management
✅ UI Development
✅ Error Handling
✅ Modern C++ Features
✅ Third-party Library Integration

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.