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Re: [Slashcode-development] RSS 1.0
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From: Rael D. <ra...@or...> - 2000-12-15 19:18:42
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Howdy, A quick note about XML::RSS. I've patched it to be in compliance with RSS 1.0 Release and understand the Dublin Core and Syndication modules. I've submitted the patch to Jonathan Eisenzopf and am expecting him to release it any day now. So Slashcode will be able to emit (and parse) 0.9, 0.91, and 1.0 w/ modules. On Mon, 11 Dec 2000, Chris Nandor wrote: > >You need to determine what's necessary/useful from the rest of the fields, > >and it makes sense at least initially to put these into a slashcode module > >... again, see my sample below. At some point you might find that a > >more generalised module exists to house some of this, but that's not the > >case right now. Fact is that widespread use of an ad-hoc module will > >heavily influence any such generalised module. > > Yeah, we could either try to come up with a "Slash" module, or some more > general module. I think a Slash module would be a great start, afterwhich submitting it to RSS-DEV as direction for a more generalised Weblog/Slash/Portal module. > >Ok, so first a little mapping between the fields you've provided and > >the RSS core (rss), Dublin Core (dc), and Syndication (syn) modules, > >and a made-up Slashcode (slash) module... > > > >> site > >> ---- > >> URL rss:channel->rss:link > http://slashdot.org/ > > >> name rss:channel->rss:title > Slashdot > > >> language rss:channel->dc:language > en-us > > >> slogan (description) rss:channel->rss:description > News for Nerds. Stuff that matters. > > >> contact email rss:channel->dc:creator > so...@sl... Perfect. > >> stories > >> ------- > > I'll list three stories' worth of data for examples. > > > >> URL (story ID) rss:item->rss:link > http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/12/11/152211 > http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/12/09/2329239 > http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/12/09/1933249 > > >> title rss:item->rss:title > New P2P tool Using... IRC? > Gifts For Geeks > Could Tesla's Broadcast Power System Work? > > >> author rss:item->dc:creator > Hemos > CmdrTaco > Cliff > > >> section rss:item->dc:subject > articles > features > askslashdot > > >> topic rss:item->dc:subject (either/or/combined) > internet > xmas > news Topic does indeed seem a better fit for dc:subject. > >> department rss:item->slash:department > interesting-idea > cheesy-alliteration-is-where-it's-at > relevant-ideas-from-one-of-science's-greatest > > >> number of comments rss:item->slash:comments > 86 > 184 > 28 > > >> date rss:item->dc:date > 2000-12-11 15:11:51 > 2000-12-11 11:06:02 > 2000-12-10 23:01:49 > > > > >> other (probably not useful, or should not be included): > > As noted, I probably would not want any of the below included, but added in > all the story data we have just for kicks, in case I missed something. > > >> introtext rss:item->rss:description > >> bodytext (more content than metadata, but up to you) > > Technically, introtext is not necessarily metadata either. introtext is > what appears on the main page, which may be the entire text of the story. Then introtext would definitely be appropriate for description if there is bodytext beyond. > >> writestatus what is this? > > This is a flag determining whether a new static page should be written out > (the story has been changed since last time a static page has been written). > > >> hits rss:item->slash:hits > > How many hits the story has received. > > >> displaystatus what is this? > > Whether the story should be displayed on the home page, in a particular > section, or not at all. > > >> commentstatus what is this? > > Whether comments can be posted. Not used. > > >> hitparade what is this? > > A list of how many comments at each "score" level. So for > "86,58,37,18,5,4,2", that would mean there are 86 total comments, 58 > comments with scores of 0 and up, 37 1 and up, 18 2, 5 3, 4 4, and 2 at 5 > and up. > > This is the info you see when you are in a story and you click the > Threshold popup menu. > > > >> relatedtext sounds interesting... what is it? > > This is for the "Related Links" box next to a story. > > > >> extratext sounds interesting... what is it? > > This is not really used. > > > >I'm afraid I don't know what some of the above are or how useful they > >would be, but they'd probably be best in a Slashcode module if deemed > >useful/interesting. > > I don't think any of them would be too useful or interesting -- or we just > would not want to give out that information -- with the _possible_ > exception of hitparade. I believe the way to go would be to create a Slash module with all of this, yet decide on what (like HitParade) you'd like to make public. The rest could be included only for internal/cross-site use. Up to you, though. > >If section and story are mutually exclusive, then have the appropriate > >one be dc:subject. If they co-occur, have the most descriptive one > >be dc:subject and the one more for internal use by slash:{topic/section}. > > Well, topic is the most descriptive. Section is more for stuff like "Ask > Slashdot", where you can have separate sections on the site. Topic is what > is more like Subject. Then section would be better as slash:section and topic as dc:subject. > >The following sample template uses ${} to indicate the fields I've slotted > >in as mapped above... > > > ><?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> > ><rdf:RDF > > xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" > > xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" > > xmlns:slash="http://slashcode.net/rss/elements/1.0/" > > xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/" > >> > > > > <channel rdf:about="${site_url}"> > > <title>${site_name}</title> > > <link>${site_url}</link> > > <description>${site_slogan}</description> > > <dc:rights>Copyright 2000, ${site_name}</dc:rights> > > <dc:creator>${site_contact_email}</dc:publisher> > > <dc:publisher>${site_name}</dc:publisher> > > Actually, this would probably be "OSDN" in the case of Slashdot, since OSDN > is the publisher of the site. Makes sense. > > <dc:language>${site_language}</dc:language> > > > > <items> > > <rdf:Seq> > > <rdf:li rdf:resource="${story_url}" /> > > ... > > <rdf:li rdf:resource="${story_url}" /> > > </rdf:Seq> > > </items> > > So <items> lists the individual items which are then described further below? Yes. Think of it as a table of contents. It's the the only real RDF bit (matching items to channels via the rdf:about) in RSS 1.0. It's also incredibly useful when parsing the document as regular XML to determine whether or not anything is new without even going beyond <channel>. > > </channel> > > > > <item rdf:about="${story_url}"> > > <title>${story_title}</title> > > <link>${story_url}</link> > > <description>${story_intro_text}</description> > > Yeah, since in the case of Slashdot we don't want to give this text away, > we would probably at most give the first $n words or something. But > probably, we won't put this in at all, and just rely on > section/topic/department. The number one complaint (not that I can do much about it aside from point it out) from readers is the lack of descriptions on certain feeds. The title often is not quite enough to determine whether or not I'd like to follow the link. I'd _strongly_ suggest using introtext when there's a bodytext and the first 80-100 characters (minimum) of introtext when bodytext does not exist. > > <dc:creator>${story_author}</dc:creator> > > <dc:subject>${story_section}: ${story_topic}</dc:subject> > > Perhaps: > <dc:subject>${story_topic}</dc:subject> > <slash:section>${story_section}</slash:section> Yes. > > <dc:language>${story/site_language}</dc:language> > > Right now, we just have site language support. That's just fine if specified in the channel's dc:language element. > > <dc:date>${story-date}</dc:date> > > <dc:format>text/html</dc:format> > > <slash:department>${story_department}</slash:department> > > <slash:comments>${story_number_of_comments}</slash:comments> > > <slash:hits>${story_hits}</slash:hits> > > Yeah, we won't put hits in, that's private data. I'm assuming you mean story_hits, not the others? date will, along with subject, be the number one use of the Dublin Core module. Format isn't all that necessary since most RSS items are assumed to be text/html. Number of comments is nice and will be very useful in a more generalised popularity element in a more generalised module. > > ... > > </item> > > > > ... > > > ></rdf:RDF> > > > >Again, a template will be much easier to refine with a sample record or > >three from your database. And, of course, quite a bit of this needs > >only a little artistic license. > > > >Hope this provides a useful start. > > Yes, it does. I think what you've given us helps a lot. We need XML::RSS > to support 1.0 of course, Again, I'm just waiting on Jonathan's release of my update. What is the (even arbitrary) dealine? > but we also need to find a way to tell the RSS > what each topic (subject) and section means. How does that work? Do we > create some document that describes the possible sections and topics? This has been debated on RSS-DEV for some time -- using resources as subject rather than just string literals. For now, simply use string literals. The future of dc:subject is probably more along the lines of: <dc:subject> <rdf:Description> <taxo:topic rdf:resource="http://slashdot.org/search.pl?topic=internet" /> <rdf:value>internet</rdf:value> </rdf:Description> </dc:subject> This is akin to saying "the subject here is 'internet', as exemplified by the stuff you'll find at http://slashdot.org/search.pl?topic=internet". The same would be true for section in a slash module: <slash:section> <rdf:Description> <slash:topic rdf:resource="http://slashdot.org/index.pl?section=askslashdot" /> <rdf:value>askslashdot</rdf:value> </rdf:Description> </slash:section> "This story is in the "askslashdot" section, as exemplified by the stuff at http://slashdot.org/index.pl?section=askslashdot" This is termed "dumb down" and is the way the Dublin Core group are probably going. If you just need a string literal for your application, usethe rdf:value. If you want to provide a link, use the resouce provided. Again, this is still being worked out so as to be in accordance with DC and RDF in general, so don't worry about it for now. Meerkat, for instance, will map your categories to its own ontology and shuffle the stories about as appropriate. Please do let me know if there's any more info I can provide. Rael ------------------------------------------------------------------ Rael Dornfest ra...@or... Maven, http://www.oreillynet.com/~rael The O'Reilly Network http://meerkat.oreillynet.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
