Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Catching the My.UserLand story flow

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:12/15/1999; 9:03:10 PM
Topic:Catching the My.UserLand story flow
Msg #:13652
Prev/Next:13651 / 13653

We switched implementations for doing an affiliate for the "My.UserLand" story flow. We will continue to support the XML-RPC interface for the sites that are already hooked into the flow.

The new method, which is based on polling a static XML file, is more reliable and easier to program on the affiliate.

The XML file that we're watching is here:

http://static.userland.com/myUserLandMisc/currentStories.xml

To implement an affiliate, start reading the file at 7 minutes after the hour, and keep reading it once a minute until it changes. A simple string equality test will suffice to determine if it changed.

When you detect a change, parse the XML, and add the stories to your local database. From there, you can write macros to algorithmically select content, based on channel ID perhaps or string matching, or provide a simple checkbox interface to allow an editor to choose stories for inclusion in a box on a home page. Or whatever else you might want to use the story flow for.

This method is open, the XML file is on a public server and does not require registration to be an affiliate.

If you have questions or comments, please post them here.

PS: The Frontier implementation of the affiliate is here.

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