Displaying XML Data on a Radio UserLand Weblog

Peter Backx has created a UserTalk script that displays random pictures on the homepage of his Radio UserLand weblog.

The script's a nice, straightforward example of how to use UserTalk to read XML data from a file and do something with it.

I have modified his script to create a random text link that can be displayed on any Radio Web page. The link will be updated each time the page is republished, displaying a different link from an XML file called randomtextlinks.xml

Here's the script:

on randomTextLink() {
«5/11/03; 11:08:43 AM by Rogers Cadenhead «http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench «Based on the randomLink script by Peter Backx «http://radio.weblogs.com/0118796/stories/2003/02/19/randomLinkForRadioUserland.html «Modified to support text links instead of pictures local (s = "", pc = file.getPathChar ()); local (f = user.radio.prefs.wwwfolder + pc + "gems" + pc + "randomtextlinks.xml"); local (table); xml.compile (file.readWholeFile (f), @table); local (adrlinks=xml.getAddress(@table, "links")); local (ltable=xml.getAddressList(adrlinks, "item")); local (i = random(1,sizeof(ltable))); local (name = xml.getAttributeValue(ltable[i],"name")); local (url = xml.getAttributeValue(ltable[i],"pagename")); s=""+name+""; return s; }

To use the script:

Download the file workspace.randomTextLink.ftsc.

Open the Radio application (in Windows, right-click Radio in the System tray and choose Open Radio).

In Radio, choose the menu command File, Open, then find and open the file you just downloaded.

Radio asks if the file should be imported as workspace.randomTextLink. Click OK.

In your /www/gems folder, create an XML file called randomtextlinks.xml that contains a URL and text for one or more links (or use mine).

After the script has been installed and the XML file has been created, you can put the text <%workspace.randomTextLink()%> on any Web page or page template to call the macro, which displays a randomly selected link.

Xml · Radiouserland · 2003/05/11 · 0 COMMENTS · Link