Rss

Put Aggregators on a Diet

As a host containing thousands of weblogs, Weblogs.Com has to deal with one of the big scaling issues with syndication feeds: Once an aggregator subscribes to a feed, it could be checking the file multiple times a day, even when the site hasn't changed in years. For example, Java.Weblogs.Com hasn't been updated since 2001. A single user who subscribes to its RSS feed could be requesting that 13K file a dozen or more times a day. If the site has 20 subscribers, they could potentially be using ... (read more)

2004/06/13

Wanted: Gluttonous RSS Feeders

Using MySQL and PHP, I'm cobbling together a server-based RSS aggregator/publisher that makes it insanely fast to skim feeds, choosing items for publication without much descriptive text or editing. The code makes use of two terrific open source PHP projects: the Magpie RSS and Atom parser and Edd Dumbill's XML-RPC for PHP. Erik Thauvin uses this approach on Linkblog, checking a mind-boggling 1,600 feeds for technology and programming links and choosing the best 15-20 items each day. His site ... (read more)

2004/06/10

My Agenda: Really Simple

Now that I've accomplished something tangible as a member of the RSS Advisory Board -- when the history books are written, let this serve as notice that Rogers Cadenhead authored the RSS 2.0 example file -- I think it's time to reveal my hidden agenda. I'm finding that I can't talk about RSS or Atom any more without arousing suspicion about my motives. I joined the RSS board for three reasons, not counting ego gratification: RSS 2.0 is a simple, successful format that I use all the time as a ... (read more)

2004/06/05

I Shot the Albatross

When I wrote a few months ago about a disclosure issue in The Guardian, I didn't expect that the complaint would still be rattling around on weblogs two months later. Perhaps I would feel more strongly if I were quoted in the piece, but to me it's simply a bad judgment call that should have been made differently at the time. I don't want to hang it around the writer's neck like an albatross. I am surprised that editors at The Guardian either don't feel like it was an error or won't admit it, ... (read more)

2004/06/02

Feeding the Feed Validator

I submitted a change to the Feed Validator documentation that was picked up by Sam Ruby this evening: a new answer to the question "How do I make Movable Type output valid RSS 2.0?" that includes a revised RSS 2.0 template. Some old RSS 0.91/2.0 templates in Movable Type produce invalid RSS because date values aren't correctly formatted. The new RSS 2.0 template in Movable Type 3.0 doesn't have this problem, but it includes a new date tag attribute, format_name="rfc822", that isn't supported in ... (read more)

2004/06/01

Atom May Not Be My Type

One of the distinct differences between RSS 2.0 and Atom Syndication Format 0.3 is the ability to declare the kind of information an Atom element holds. In an Atom feed, elements such as weblog entries can have a type attribute that identifies the MIME media type of the content: <p>Kalina, an 18-year-old killer whale at SeaWorld Orlando, gave birth to her fourth calf.</p> Although I originally regarded this as a plus for Atom, as an expert in the format for two going on three days, ... (read more)

2004/05/26

Publishing MySQL Data in RSS 2.0

I'm upgrading all of my syndication feeds to RSS 2.0 so the other syndication format evangelists won't make fun of me. On sites that I publish using PHP and MySQL, I've been offering extremely simple RSS 0.92 feeds that blow up when unusual characters like "¿" are used. I've updated my RSS PHP code, released it into the public domain, and written an article on publishing from a MySQL database to RSS 2.0. Here's example output. ... (read more)

2004/05/22

Avoid Really Skewed Semantics

In an interview with eWeek, Evan Williams of Blogger uses the terms Atom and RSS interchangeably: ... we're certainly excited about RSS. I've actually been using "RSS" as a generic term internally because for a lot of people, it's exactly what you said: That's what you hear about. Of all the positions that can be taken in the RSS/Atom debate, Williams may have discovered the worst. Using the term "RSS" to describe Atom piles more confusion on a subject that a lot of people already find ... (read more)

2004/05/21

I'm On Board with RSS

I've accepted an invitation to join the RSS Advisory Board, the group that evangelizes the RSS 2.0 specification. Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, RSS 2.0 isn't owned or controlled by vendors. The specification has been released under a Creative Commons license and the format it represents has no trademark or copyright claims. My new job has very little actual power associated with it, sadly enough, and only one groupie. The Advisory Board's primary task is explaining why the ... (read more)

2004/05/12

Improving Movable Type's RSS 2.0 feed

People involved in RSS and Atom development spend too much time bickering about the past and too little trying to move things forward in a constructive way. I'm as guilty of this as anyone -- there's only a small group of cranks who understand this stuff well enough to get angry about it, and I like arguing with most of them. Now that I'm becoming familiar with Movable Type for reasons I can't talk about yet, I can wade into the long-running controversy over the software's default RSS 2.0 ... (read more)

2004/05/03

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