Registering and publishing with RSS (5/5) - exploring XML

Registering and publishing with RSS

More publishing

Moreover.com

Moreover.com currently has over 250 publicly available free news categories, the headlines of each being available to read on their site, and for webmasters to use on their own sites or mailing lists. Moreover.com harvests news headline links from 1500 online news sources and use both human- and computer-editing to produce the newsfeed categories. Free newsfeeds are available in various formats such as JavaScript and XML:

• JavaScript with client side layout referencing content from Moreover. This is the format used by the Webfeed Wizard.
• WML feeds, for WAP-enabled mobile phones and devices.
• XML feeds - This is the preferred format for developers use for integration and is accessible via the View these headlines in XML button from each category page.
• XML category lists - IE5 and Netscape 6 can usually display these directly in the browser window - go to 'View Source' to see the full details, including the URL of the DTD. Users of other browsers will need to save the file to take a look.
• Open Content Syndication (OCS) - The OCS Directory format is designed to enable channel listings to be constructed for use by portal sites, client based headline software and other similar applications. Please note that the newsfeeds themselves are not available in this format.
• RSS feeds - suitable for integration into 'My Netscape'
• CDF feeds - used to make Active Channels in Internet Explorer.
• WDDX feeds - another format of XML. This XML flavor is useful for integrating Moreover headlines into an application where programs calling the headlines are calling each other.
• Cold Fusion feeds - another format of XML. This is the same as the WDDX feed above, except that it has a text/plain header to avoid a bug in Allaire Cold Fusion.
• pre-prepared WebPart XML files - suitable for inclusion with the Microsoft Digital Dashboard.
• Flash feeds - This is a text file output that allows direct integration with Macromedia Generator to produce dynamic content within 'Flash'.
• Scrolling Flash feeds - This is a secondary text file output format that allows direct integration with Macromedia Generator to produce dynamic content within 'Flash'.
• Tab Separated Values (TSV) - Some developers, who do not wish to use XML, have requested this simple ASCII format.

xmlTree

xmlTree offers multiple XML interfaces: On the import side of the syndication equation they import lists of XML channels from other sites, like Userland, or Groksoup (along with many others). Sometimes these lists just give the URL of the channel, in which case the channel behind the URL will be parsed to grab the directory information needed. Parsing is also used in the registration, so the user can simply enter the URL, and the content is parsed for the rest of the information.

On the export side of the syndication equation xmlTree provides a complete list of XML channels in the OCS format (a large file). If you wish to use this file, please limit access to once per day, and please provide attribution to xmlTree as requested in the license. This is used by other XML applications, like Carmen's Headline Viewer.

xmlTree also allows XML channel-based portals to syndicate our directory structure in XML, using their own look and feel. An example where the styling takes place on the server is WAPAW.com, the most comprehensive search engine for WAP content. Another example is provided by MyWebNews, which is styling XML on their server and dishing up regular HTML. This service is still being improved but there are several affiliates signed up.

Other services include Newsboy, which is email delivery of 1200 XML news channels. The channel is parsed whenever it changed and then formatted using XSL before emailing the content to the subscriber. You can subscribe yourself to xml.com and try it out.

Conclusion

RSS and similar technologies enable a whole new category of links between Web sites. By grouping a list of links and categorizing them into subjects a more structured approach to referencing Web pages and sites becomes possible. While aggregators provide the repository for managing these links, webtops and related browser and Web server software let us visualize and navigate these structures. If you own or run a Web site make sure your site is part of this brave new World Wide Web.

Produced by Michael Claßen
All Rights Reserved. Legal Notices.

URL: https://www.webreference.com/xml/column14/5.html
Created: Jul 03, 2000
Revised: Jul 03, 2000