backenduserlandcom:
How to hook into UserLand.Com through XML, XML-RPC and SOAP.

 
XML

About

Home

RSS

OPML

XML-RPC

SOAP



Members
Join Now
Login

   

Formats for Blog Browsers

Author:   Dave Winer  
Posted: 11/25/2002; 5:23:46 AM
Topic: Formats for Blog Browsers
Msg #: 169 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next: 168/170
Reads: 104373

Listen up. I'd like to tell you a story about how I tripped over what may turn out to be a very interesting common feature of weblog software, otherwise known as a "standard."

The trail began with a new feature in development for Radio. I wanted to add a facility that would automatically back up all your weblog posts and settings/preferences every night at a time of your choosing. At first I thought I'd just use a binary format, I was tired of doing battle on the mail lists over XML-based formats, and just wanted to get the job done. But it bothered me that the data would require another translation step to get it into another application. So I changed my mind and went with an XML format. As I started to code it a lightning bolt hit me. "I bet RSS 2.0 could do this," I said out loud. And now that the code works, the answer is clear. It can.

Why RSS 2.0 is a perfect fit for weblog archives 

There are two reasons why RSS 2.0 works in this application:

  1. It's fuller than 0.91 and 0.92. Most of the attributes of a weblog post are already defined in the core of 2.0. There's no need to invent much that's new, because most of it has already been invented.

  2. And where the 2.0 spec is incomplete, because it is extensible through namespaces, it's easy to add fields that are not defined in RSS 2.0. This was necessary in writing the code for Radio, and it may well be necessary for other blogging tools. They may define fields that we don't understand. As there is a new namespace for Radio weblog posts, there may be one for Blogger, Movable Type, etc.

So, there was no reason to implement a new format. RSS 2.0 is a perfect fit for backing up weblog posts.

The guinea pig site 

So I finished the code, and tested it on Dave's Handsome Radio Blog (or DHRB), a weblog that goes back to Y2K.

It's where I test new features like this one before we release them to Radio users.

This is where the archives are at:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0001015/backups/posts/

One folder for each year. One RSS 2.0 file for each month.

Then another lightning bolt hit me.

The second lightning bolt 

What if someone made a browser that worked with this format?

Let's call them Blog Browsers, apps specially designed for reading weblogs.

And of course I knew just who to ask about that: Brent Simmons.

Brent and I have worked together closely for quite a few years starting in 1996 on the 24 Hours of Democracy project and through early versions of Frontier's content management system, the website framework, mainResponder, Manila, the outliner, Radio, etc etc. Now Brent is working on his own stuff, in exactly the right area for this, on a program called NetNewsWire, that makes it easy to browse RSS content on Apple's Mac OS X. It's a very popular program, deservedly so, it's got the fine Simmons Seal, or the Eye of Brent, or whatever you want to call it. It feels good.

I sent him an email. Hey Brent, look at these files. They're an archive for a weblog. Can you do a browser for it? (I also telegraphed the idea on Scripting News at roughly this time.)

He can, it turns out. Yesterday he sent me a link to a screen shot and a download for people to play with while he's on vacation for the Thanksgiving holiday. It looks beautiful. It's a sweet idea. Everyone who does a wizzy browser for RSS (and there are a few of them) should explore this. Now that I've explained the idea (hopefully) I'll spend the rest of this doc pointing to various resources and explaining how they work.

The gritty details 

Here's a folder that contains all the posts from DHRB.

The format is RSS 2.0, with several Radio-only elements coming from a namespace that's explained here.

The files validate. Here's an example.

A picture named krusty.gifIf you want to find out all the months for a weblog with urls to their archive, check out files.xml. There's no guarantee at this early date that the format of this file won't change. But for now, if you want to get started implementing, this format will do. If you have suggestions or comments, post them in the discussion group here. Brent is on vacation this week, so don't expect much help from him. I may have to go to NY later in the week. Such is life at the end of November in the US.

Here's a screen shot of Brent's app. It's so pretty!

Brent's app 

Download it here. Mac OS X only.

Caveats from Brent. "It's just a proof-of-concept at this stage. Lots of UI glitches etc. It has been tested with the archive for Dave's Handsome Radio Blog only (no other weblog archives)."

How to use it. "It comes with the URL of the Dave's Handsome Radio Blog archive already filled in. Click the Open button. It downloads the files, then populates the outline. It displays HTML when you change the outline selection."

Radio code 

It's not ready for testing yet. Soooooon.

Comments? 

Professional and respectful comments are requested here.

Warning: We delete comments that are personal and/or paranoid. If you want to flame us, pick any one of a number of Syndication mail lists. Many of them seem to accept flames about UserLand.

There are responses to this message:


Last update: Monday, November 25, 2002 at 11:19:41 AM Pacific.

This is a Manila site.