Content Syndication With RSS 78
Content Syndication With RSS | |
author | Ben Hammersley |
pages | 222 |
publisher | O'Reilly |
rating | 8/10 |
reviewer | Alex Moskalyuk |
ISBN | 0596003838 |
summary | Introduction and guide for RSS implementations |
The first three chapters are primarily discussing the multiplicity of RSS standards. While with some other technologies it might seem a bit excessive, remember that RSS is a forked project with the forks at this moment bearing little resemblance to one another. The abbreviations even have different abbreviations - RSS means Really Simple Syndication if you are using RSS 0.91 or RSS 0.92, that was developed by Dave Winer. RSS means RDF Site Summary if the version you're using RSS 1.0. The development credits in this case go to RSS DEV team. To confuse you even more, the RSS 2.0 standard is deciphered as... correct, Really Simple Syndication again.
Hence chapter 4 discusses Winer's implementation (simplistic and user-friendly), while chapter 6 focuses on RSS 1.0 (RDF-compliant and data-architect-friendly), and chapter 8 talks about RSS 2.0 (improved RSS 0.9x). Chapter 4 is available online as a PDF file. Section 4.4 is recommended for those interested in promoting their RSS feeds as it provides pretty good reference to meta data.
Chapter 9 is perhaps of special interest to Web developers and administrators out there. It presents several code samples to properly parse RSS and present the result in readable HTML. The examples include (a) parsing with XML::Simple in Perl, (b) parsing with Perl regular expressions, (c) parsing with XML::Simple and sending the headlines to cell phones via WWW::SMS, (d) parsing via XSLT transformation. Python, PHP and ASP folks might feel left out due to the abundance of Perl examples, but if you got so far in the book, you can probably apply the regular expressions example or search for appropriate support for RSS format in your preferred language.
Going beyond the standard itself, RSS directories, aggregators and readers are discussed. Author makes a distinction between the last two by classifying Meerkat-like services into aggregators and desktop or Web applications designed to present the information to the user into readers. The chapter also provides information about Syndic8, its API, and describes the feed registration process. OReilly's Meerkat is also discussed in chapter, together with reference table for its API (you can make Meerkat generate HTML or RSS news headlines on certain topic or using certain keywords by providing a right query to its Web interface).
The book is quite a smooth read for a text describing the details of data specification. The chapters are informative and the book is not overloaded with useless information just to increase the page count. The tips are quite useful for someone, who is knew to the field and answers some questions not covered by standards (e.g., how often should you request an RSS feed, what to do if you're being screen-scraped, etc.)
I like the way the author divided the chapters into RSS 0.9x/2.0 and RSS 1.0 and kept two worlds apart. Most of the time you probably won't be interested in developing a feed to support both standards, but would like to focus just on one. The examples in Perl are perfect with me, although for someone new to Perl or programming in general those examples with abundant regular expressions might look a bit convoluted. Kudos to the author for not expanding on the topic, like many do, and providing an example of a script for RSS manipulation in every possible language out there.
What's missing? I wish more pages were dedicated to desktop RSS readers. FeedReader, HotSheet, Syndirella, Beaver and SharpReader are excellent end user applications currently gaining some popularity among those who'd prefer to browse the favorite headlines at a glance, instead of going to a dozen of sites every morning. To be fair, there's a huge list of readers in Appendix, and some applications mentioned above only came around in the last few months, which was probably after the book hit the press. Some sites also didn't make it into the book. I like DailyRotation and FreshNews that borrow from Meerkat's versatility and provide their own feed portal.
Overall, the book is a pretty good developer's guide to RSS standard. Accompanied with helpful illustrations and numerous tips it's an excellent resource for those unfamiliar with RSS and a helpful reference for those who have been doing Web syndication for a while.
You can purchase Content Syndication With RSS from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Having used RSS for a while now... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Having used RSS for a while now... (Score:2)
That made me curious too. How much can there possibly be to say about RSS? 222 pages' worth? Hmm.
Re:Having used RSS for a while now... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Having used RSS for a while now... (Score:2)
Re:Cheaper (Score:1)
And it's even cheaper if you buy it here [addall.com], plus the advantages of not supporting companies that abuse the patent system, and not giving a commission to users who post self-serving adverts on slashdot.
Not sure about the book, but RSS is something (Score:5, Insightful)
I think the ability to easily transfer information in real time is just going to grow with time, this is not a fast fad.
Go calculate [webcalc.net] something!
Re:Not sure about the book, but RSS is something (Score:1)
Re:Not sure about the book, but RSS is something (Score:1)
However related to technology I believe XML, and RSS being a type of XML are going to catch on and stay with us, much like HTML.
Now go calculate [webcalc.net] something.
Re:Not sure about the book, but RSS is something (Score:1)
Woah, dude, that's like so deep. You should be a philosophy major and bring up those points in your 101 class, now *that* would be original.
is it just me? (Score:3, Interesting)
Presentation isn't everything, but it matters.
Re:is it just me? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've gone from manually k
Re:is it just me? (Score:2)
Re:is it just me? (Score:3, Informative)
On most MovableType sites, you can try "index.rdf" (the default), even if they don't link it up.
Re:is it just me? (Score:2)
RSS is largely useless. (Score:3, Interesting)
It is difficult for a non-professional or non-techie to implement someone else's feed on their site.
I have content that is updated all day long and there are probably hundreds (at a minimum) of users that would love to add my content to their site via an RSS feed. And it would drive a lot of people to my site, too.
Unfortunately, HTML is about as limited as most of these people get. A lot of them probably aren't even that far along - most likely using
Re:RSS is largely useless. (Score:3, Informative)
"...implement my feed on their site with no more difficulty than copying and pasting a few lines of pre-generated code"
There are utils which do precisely this.
It is done server-side in CGI or perl. The user is given a javascript snippet which pulls your RSS feed onto his or her website. Simple as that.
Here's one ready to go...
http://www.infinitepenguins.net/rss/
Best regards -Resprung
RSS is not useless with the right tools (Score:3, Informative)
Re:RSS is largely useless. (Score:2, Informative)
Easy as heck to use: Just drop it in the source directory, add 3 lines of php code to the html and you're good to go.
Re:RSS is largely useless. (Score:2)
Take a look at http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~simra/headline.html and view the page source. A few HTML comment lines fetch the rss source and then insert the links, titles, descriptions, etc any way you like. The down-side is that it's not automatic-- the html is static and must be generated by the headline script, which requires perl. The upshot is you can crontab that, and you don't need CGI capabilities on the web server.
We've also got screen-scraping capabilities for a few sites t
Re:RSS is largely useless. (Score:1)
No offence, but you cannot have looked very hard.
/. Feed (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:/. Feed (Score:2)
How is this a troll? (Score:1)
Re:How is this a troll? (Score:1)
No? Maybe it's just me then..
Meta-Slashdot! (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot
http://slashdot.org/
News for nerds, stuff that matters
en-us
Copyright 1997-2001, OSDN
2003-04-21T16:33:48+00:00
OSDN
pater@slas
Technology
hourly
1
1970-01-01T00:00+
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In 72 Hours, Your Ban Will Be Lifted
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Do Not Bother Contacting Us For 72 Hours
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So apparently we've not only succeeded in slashdotting Slashdot, we've gotten Slashdot to give us multiple duplicate posts! WE WIN!
What's the deal? (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you use Evolution? (Score:2)
I think 30 minutes is a bit harsh, given the fact that many
Re:Meta-Slashdot! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, RSS reader banning on /. is a bit extreme. Just trying to find the correct URLs to use got me banned for 72 hours.
JP
Revenue model for Semantic Web? (Score:5, Insightful)
How are sites that offer a Semantic Web interface such as RSS supposed to bring in revenue? They can't rely on advertising because the machines that browse the Semantic Web cannot be trusted to deliver advertising to a human eyeball.
Re:Revenue model for Semantic Web? (Score:2)
2) If your just linking to other people stuff, the RSS link will go to them -- do I really owe you advertising bucks if all you do is link?
3) If your linking to your stuff then the RSS link will go to your page which will presumably have ads on it if you care.
4) Alot of sites (the majority?) that offer RSS feeds are not designed to make money and those that do have better ways of doing it than ads (example: reading Jon Udels blog made me buy one of his books).
Search engine corruption (Score:1)
Text Ads
Are you saying put these in a separate section of the feed, where a machine can easily filter them out? Or would you put them in the main part of the feed itself, indistinguishable from a normal link, a practice which got a few search engines accused of corruption?
do I really owe you advertising bucks if all you do is link?
Try telling that to any major directory such as Yahoo!.
Alot of sites (the majority?) that offer RSS feeds are not designed to make money
In other words, the dot-com
Re:Search engine corruption (Score:2)
Yes, in a section that can be easily filtered. Anyone who cares can already filter out ads so why should this be different. People who care aren't going to buy you products on general principle so it's a wash.
Try telling that to any major dire
Re:Revenue model for Semantic Web? (Score:1)
Well, in the case of those who have to write "scrapers" to deliver content for other websites (that get the traffic via the links & thus get to "expose" any advertising they may run), it would be nice to have some way to generate revenue & recoup development time.
OTOH, my RSS's are popular with hacker types, geeks & computer security folks who might get,
Re:Revenue model for Semantic Web? (Score:1)
That said, a fair number of people, notably politicans & thieves, make their living stealing other people's stuff ;-)
djeaux
Take a page from CNN or USA Today (Score:2)
2) Publish advertisement on web site as a real news story.
3) ??????
4) Profit!
Easy (Score:4, Interesting)
In
The key is putting limited information, so you can draw the user to the site if you're trying to generate revenu from your content. Then, you better hope the internal link referenced in the feed has some advertising.
Re:Revenue model for Semantic Web? (Score:2)
Re:Revenue model for Semantic Web? (Score:1)
And oh yeah, if you want to use those RSS's, they're at djeaux.com [djeaux.com]. Free & free of advertising!
commercial feeds don't need advertising (Score:2)
ThinkGeek.com has an RSS feed
http://www.thinkgeek.com/thinkgeek.rdf
Where you can view all the latest stuff.
The advertising industry needs to get more up-to-date,
this isn't the 1950s anymore, and the general
advertising ballgame hasn't changed.
List of RSS feeds? (Score:2, Interesting)
Making an RSS feed is easy - I want to have RSS feeds of other more interesting sites avaiable to put in my own web pages. And that would benefit everyone, no?
Re:List of RSS feeds? (Score:2)
Why they don't provide one themselves is beyond me. Perhaps it's because they move as fast as a large dinosaur.
Diarist.com and passworded RSS Feeds (Score:5, Informative)
Diarist.com offers a HTTP Password protected RSS feed here. http://rsstest.diarist.com/
As I write this... There are only two RSS clients which can read it's passworded feeds.
1. NewsGator
2. A beta version of FeedReader
Re:Diarist.com and passworded RSS Feeds (Score:2, Informative)
And NewsIsFree http://www.newsisfree.com/
Web Based Aggregator (Score:2)
Check it out. [bengarvey.com]
(You need to register to edit the feeds you want to subscribe to)
I can't help but do a little astro trufing.... (Score:5, Informative)
Cheers,
Mike
Full RSS support scheduled for KDE 3.2 (Score:2, Informative)
This will include a RSS dcop service providing a powerful XML-RPC interface to www.syndic8.com, a new RSS konqueror sidebar and a rewritten knewsticker.
Currently everything is still under development but already quite useful (if you know how to deal with dcop...). Let's hope we will have everything finished before KDE 3.2.
Livejournal now supports RSS (Score:2)
www.livejournal.com/users/andrewducker/rss
but they syndicate over 1000 feeds in return. For instance you can add Slashdot to your friends list by adding user "Slashdot" or going to:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/slashdot/
I now read nearly all my news through syndication - you can see my total news feed at http://andrewducker.livejournal.com/friends/news
Syndication has my news gathering a whole lot easier.
Slashdot's Palm page (Score:1)
RSS Reader? (Score:1)
Re:RSS Reader? (Score:1)
Basically I have a list of URLs for stuff I like in my DB and use Magpie RSS to go get, cache and parse it all for output in xhtml.
Re:RSS Reader? (Score:2, Informative)
CafeRSS [tidakada.com] The one I'm using rigth now. Really easy.
OnyxRSS [readinged.com] More powerful, uses the XML parsing fetures of PHP
Rippy [sooke.bc.ca] Another one, I just don't know.
Have fun!
quake74
another news RSS reader site (Score:1)
Cheesegrater + Portalizer (Score:1)
Kind of useful, written entirely in Perl, and I've tried it on a Linux box with no problems. Not sure if it'll work with other OSes, but its worth a shot.
Go grab the two perl scripts and the cron job if need be.