Re: [syndication] locating syndication feeds

[Mark Nottingham <mnot@mnot.net>]

On Wed, Jul 11, 2001 at 07:33:31AM -0400, Morbus Iff wrote:
> >If a site has a number of syndication feeds, a channel
> >list should be identified for each separate feed.
> 
> I worry this doesn't scale well. What happens with a site that has a
> thousand feeds? They suddenly need to make a thousand extra files that
> represent these feeds? 

Use a CGI script.

> And then a matching webpage that links to all these
> thousand feeds in two different formats (<link> and user viewable?).

Nope; just links from the appropriate pages. This isn't designed to
be a directory function; just an opportunistic discovery mechanism.


> ><rss092:channel>
> ><rss1:channel>
> 
> I almost wish we could change those around to
> 
>    <channel:rss092>
>    <channel:rss1>
> 
> to make them more parent/child friendly. Would the various formats be
> hammered out as part of any sort of DTD, or could people start adding their
> own?
> 
>    <rss092:channel>
>    <rss1:channel>
>    <csv:channel>
>    <psv:channel>
>    <scriptingNews:channel>
> 
> And so forth?

I used namespaces to allow people to add their own, but upon
reconsideration, I think it might be better to do:

  <channel format="http://www.scripting.com/rss092";> ... </channel>

and so forth.


> I worry about the Content-type integration. How does that work for
> aggregators that use the browser for their own UI? We'd have to set
> the Content-type to the browser itself - can Content-type's be
> specifically redirected to URLs? In the case of AmphetaDesk, could
> I redirect a Content-type to:
> 
>   http://127.0.0.1:8888/add_channellist,xml?data=$data

You could set a helper application to redirect to that URI.


> The channellist.xml has no way of knowing what itself is. Say my
> aggregator downloads a channellist.xml, tries the various feeds and
> they all work perfectly. Suddenly, one fails. It tries another.
> Finally, after giving up on ALL the feeds located in
> channellist.xml, it has no other options. It'd be nice if there was
> a tag within channellist.xml that contained the URL to the
> channellist.xml - thus allowing the aggregator to get the newest
> locations. This allows webmasters to carefully care about only one
> URL, instead of dozens or hundreds. (Although, quite frankly,
> that's a pretty lazy webmaster).

Good point. "Lazy" is most Webmasters' middle name. ;)

-- 
Mark Nottingham
http://www.mnot.net/