[Slashcode-general] 'javascript' headline syndication

[Bruno P. <br...@po...>]

This is an alternative system for syndicating news headlines from a
slash site, in addition to the existing rss and rdf methods.

Here's an example, paste this snippet of javascript into a normal html
document and open it with a javascript enabled web-browser (sorry this
isn't a slash-site, the one I'm working on isn't public yet):

    <script type="text/javascript" language="JavaScript"
    src="http://mkdoc.com/headline.js"></script>

The effect is to pull in the current headlines and display them in the
page like a slashbox. We have this system working successfully with
another (non-slash) news site <http://www.labourstart.org/>

There's a little explanation of what is going-on in this page here:
<http://mkdoc.com/help/howto/syndicate_news/>

We've tried encouraging people to use rss feeds to fetch headlines and
failed almost entirely. At least with this, anyone with a html editor
can simply and easily embed your headlines in their site.

Disadvantages:

- javascript is such a naff technology.

- if your server is down, it breaks everyone else's site.

- rdf is a cool technology, javascript headlines discourage people from
  doing the job properly.

- it only works for people who have javascript enabled.

- it increases the number of hits on your server, as javascript isn't
  cached by any browser except opera (which never clears it).

- YMMV, don't blame me if it all goes wrong.

Bruno
-- 
http://bruno.postle.net/