Re: [syndication] html parsing as a horror story

[Morten Frederiksen <mof-syndication@mfd-consult.dk>]

Hi there,

On Saturday 20 July 2002 00:00, Kevin wrote:
<snip context="RSS 0.92 description encoding"/>
> I won't bring up the security issues present with the possible syndication
> of encoded <script> elements...
I don't suppose this problem will go away with mod_content?

> On the peerfear link, notice the use of images for each <item>. This is
> done with a mod_itemimage RSS 1.0 module I am about to propose.
This does look interesting. Suggestion: It looks as if there's just the one 
image element defined in this module, how about adding at least a link 
element as well, this way it could be used for category links, /.-style.
Or maybe this belongs in a categorization module?
/thinking out loud/... maybe a full rss:image container could be used in some 
way, instead of several separate elements?

> RSS 0.92 feeds (notice the lack of title with all structure encoded within
> a <description> element as HTML)
This is indeed ugly and close to unusable, but your point pushes me to point 
out an issue I have with your feed: The item description contains the entire 
item content, although HTML is stripped, but what is the point of this when 
you use mod_content? Isn't the description element - in any case - supposed 
to contain a *description* of the item, an abstract of sorts, not the item 
itself?
I realize this is not against any formal rules or specs, but semantically I 
think it's wrong - and a waste of good bits, it currently can be derived from 
the mod_content content.


BTW: Kevin, I noticed you complained that Gordon Mohr doesn't have a weblog. 
As far as I can tell, he has two [1] [2]!

[1] http://gojomo.blogspot.com/
[2] http://www.oreillynet.com/weblogs/author/240


Regards,
Morten