Dave Winer issues a call for an RSS redirection module,
Also, I realize there’s a need for a RSS module for redirection. . . . Not everyone can control their server enough to program an HTTP-level redirect.
Okay, it may not be a particularly sexy feature, but Conversant has an excellent redirection page type.
Recently, for example, I moved the location of several of my RSS feeds. Then I simply created a new redirection page with the same name as the old feeds, and filled out a form telling the system the URL to redirect to.
The redirect is seamless to RSS aggregators. I am still using the old URL in my Radio subscriptions, and the feed keeps being updated regularly with no problems.
Redirection may be a relatively small feature, but it certainly has saved me from myself numerous times.
And, in case anyone cares, this is how I do RSS feeds for my topical-oriented pages in Conversant. I should emphasize that there are a number of different ways to do multiple RSS feeds in Conversant, and this is probably the most complicated. But it offers a number of advantages, including the fact that the results can be cached.
First I set up an Advanced Query page for each topic. If I were doing page on PETA, for example, I’d create an AQP called peta.rss, and then I’d assign it a page title of “PETA” and a navigation title of “PETA – RSS Feed.”
Then I configure the Query Options to search for bound URLs and set the cache period to 180 minutes (since I rarely make updates more than once or twice a day).
In the Query Defaults, I set the AQP to search for messages labeled as “Articles” and then only those messages where I’ve set the “Organization” custom field to “PETA.”
Here are the templates I then use in the Results tab to output an RSS channel:
Page Content Template
<b>[Site Name]</b> – <!--#pageTitle-->[Link to Topical HTML Page]RSS Feed of Articles about en-us Copyright 2002, Brian Carnell [email protected] (Brian Carnell)
So now, I’ve got an RSS feed. The next trick is to have the topical pages include both a link tag to that RSS channel in the header area, and also display an XML icon in the right hand-column.
To do this, I first created a Long Text custom field called “RSS.” When I’ve configured an RSS channel for a specific topical page, I just go back to that topical page, edit it, and then past the URL for the RSS channel into the text entry box for the “RSS” custom field.
Then I modified two templates. In the template I use to control the header information, I added this:
“>
This tests to see if the message in question has a value in the “RSS” custom field, and if so it grabs that and uses it in the link tag.
To get the XML graphic to display and link to the correct page I use this:
Again, this tests to see if the message in question has a value in the “RSS” custom field, and if so it inserts the icon and grabs the “RSS” value for the link.
I finally managed to put up a page of pictures at my daughter’s site of her and her baby brother at the hospital — including one of Emma showing off her kung fu moves.
Seth Dillingham sent me an e-mail the other day that reminded me I had started but never finished a project to create RSS feeds for pretty much every topical page on this site. Well, now I can cross that off of my to do list.
Almost all of the topical pages now have their own RSS feed. The little orange “XML” graphic on the right provides a link to the particular RSS feed and there is also a link tag embedded in the header information for all pages that have their own RSS feed.
For example, if you really want to read the next thing I write about Zimbabwe, simply visit the Zimbabwe page and copy and paste the XML channel location into whatever RSS newsreader you’re using.
Is it overkill to have 150 RSS feeds for a personal weblog? Probably, but Conversant makes it so easy to set up that there wasn’t much point in not doing it.
I would post this pithy observation at BlogRoots.Com, but their verification system for posting never actually e-mails me a verification URL despite numerous attempts.
Anyway, the folks over there are discussing a silly online “report” that claims weblogging is strictly a rich, western, white male preserve. But nobody has noted the odd contrast with the directly preceding item on BlogRoots’ front page which is about young Iranian women using weblogs to get around the official regiment of Islamic censorship.
Now the last time I checked, young Iranian women are not privileged Western rich white males.
Henry Hanks links to this New York Times article that suggests the planning for the 9/11 attacks may have originally included five planes, with the fifth plane targeting the White House.
Ramzi Muhammad Abdullah bin al-Shibh, who is now in custody in Pakistan, applied to enter the United States to obtain training at a Florida flight school but was denied entry into this country. While living i n Germany, bin al-Shibh shared an apartment with Mohammed Atta.
According to The Times,
But investigators said suspicions were growing that Mr. bin al-Shibh may have intended to lead a fifth hijacking group. Their belief is based on other information, including interviews of other Qaeda detainees and Mr. Lindh, the American who was sentenced on Friday to 20 years in prison for fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and whose credibility is still being weighed. Mr. Lindh told the authorities that he had heard that five attacks were planned.
. . .
In addition, investigators have examined more closely Mr. bin al-Shibh’s unsuccessful efforts to obtain a visa to enter the United States, where he had signed up for flying lessons at a Florida aviation academy. In August 2000, he paid $2,200 as a deposit for flight training, an amount officials said was enough to convince them that Mr. al-Shibh seriously intended to learn to fly.