Headlines Plugin

Description

This plugin displays RSS feeds from news sites. Use it to build news portals that show headline news.

Note: Syndic8.com ( http://www.syndic8.com/ ) is a good site listing many RSS feeds.

Subject Images

subject image alternative amd   anime   announce announcements aol   apache apimac apmedia apple bsd biotech   biz   books bug   business   caldera   censorship   classic   cluster   clusters   components communications   corel   database   debian   development   displays   doj   ed   educationtraining   entertainment   encryption   ent   fps   games   gimp   gnome   gnu   google   gov   government   graphics   graphicstools   grid   gridcomputing   gui   humor hardhack   hardware   ibm   id   ie   imac intel   itmgmt   internet   java laptops   legal linux linuxbiz   lotr   management   mandrake   matrix   media mediaall   microsoft money monitors   movies mozilla   music   ms netadmin   netscape   networking   news officesoftware opensource   os   osx   patents   pcgames   perl   personalcomputing peripherals php pilot   politics   portables   portablegames   productannouncements printers privacy   programming   ps2   quake   quickies   redhat   robotics   rpg   science   security servers   scifi   software starwars   storage   space   spam supercomputing   suse   sun   tech toys   tradeshows   trends turbolinux   tv   unix upgrades   usa   utilities   webhosting   webservices   webdevelopment   windows wireless   worms   xbox   ximian   xmas   x

Syntax Rules

The %HEADLINES{...}% variable gets expanded to the content pulled from an RSS feed.

%HEADLINES% Parameter	Explanation
href	URL of RSS feed
refresh	Refresh rate in minutes for caching feed; "0" for no caching
limit	Maximum number of items shown
header	Header. Can include these variables: - $channeltitle, $title: title of channel (channel.title) - $channellink, $link: link of channel (channel.link) - $channeldescription, $description: description (channel.description) - $channeldate, $date: publication date of the channel (channel.pubDate) - $rights: copyrights of the channel (channel.copyright) - $imagetitle: title text for site (image.title) - $imagelink: link for site (image.link) - $imageurl: URL of image (image.url) - $imagedescription: description of image (image.description)
format	Format of one item. Can include these variables: - $title: news item title (item.title) - $link: news item link (item.link) - $description: news item description (item.description) - $date: the publication date (item.pubDate, item.date) - $category: the article category (item.category)

The header and format parameters might also use variables rendering the dc, image and content namespace information. Note, that only bits of interest have been implemented so far and those namespaces might not be implemented fully yet.

Rendering the dc namespace

The following variables are extracting the dc namespace info, that could be used in header and format. Nnote, that some of the variables are already used above. This is done by purpose to use different feeds with the same formating parameters. If there's a conflict the non-dc tags have higher precedence, i.e. a <title> content </title> is prefered over <dc:title> content </dc:title> .

• $title: channel/article title (dc:title)
• $creator: channel creator (dc:creator)
• $subject: subject text; this will also add an image according to the subject hash list , see above (dc:subject)
• $description: ... (dc:description)
• $publisher: the channel/article publisher (dc:publisher)
• $contributor: ... (dc:contributor)
• $date: ... (dc:date)
• $type: ... (dc:type)
• $format: ... (dc:format)
• $identifier: ... (dc:identifier)
• $source: ... (dc:source)
• $language: ... (dc:language)
• $relation: ... (dc:relation)
• $coverage: ... (dc: coverage)
• $rights: ... (dc: rights)

Rendering the image namespace

An image:item is converted into an <img> tag using the following mappings:

• src: image url (rdf:about attribute of the image.item tag)
• alt: image title (title)
• width: image width (image:width)
• height: image height image:height)

Rendering the content namespace

The variable $content is refering to the <content:encoding> content </content:encoding> .

Examples

see http://nats-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/NewsFeeds

HeadlinesPlugin Global Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, for example, %HEADLINES_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

• One line description, shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Build news portals that show headline news based on RSS news feeds from news sites.

• Set DEBUG to 1 to get debug messages in data/debug.txt. Default: 0
  • Set DEBUG = 0

• Refresh rate in minutes for cached feeds. Disable caching: 0, default: 30
  • Set REFRESH = 30

• Maximum number of items shown. Default: 100
  • Set LIMIT = 100

• Default header: (variables are explained in the syntax rules)

      * Set HEADER = <div class="headlinesChannel"><div class="headlinesLogo"><img src="$imageurl" alt="$imagetitle" border="0"/>%BR%<from><input type="button" style="color:blue" value="Refresh" onclick="window.location.href='%SCRIPTURL%/view/%WEB%/%TOPIC%?refresh=on';" /></form></div>$n<div class="headlinesTitle">$n<h1>[[$link][$title]]</a></h1>$n<div class="headlinesDate">%SERVERTIME{$yea-$mo-$day, $hour:$min:$sec}%</div>$n<div class="headlinesDescription">$description</div><div class="headlinesRight">$rights</div></div></div>

• Default format of one item: (variables are explained in the syntax rules)

      * Set FORMAT = <div class="headlinesArticle"><div class="headlinesTitle"><div class="headlinesSubject">$subject</div>[[$link][$title]]<span class="headlinesDate">$date</span> <span class="headlinesCreator"> $creator</span>$n</div>$n<hr/><div class="headlinesTeaser"> $description</div></div>

Known issues

• Topic load time depends on timeit takes to load the RSS feed. A future version might include some caching to improve performance.
• This plugin uses the undocumented TWiki::Net::getUrl() function. The plugin might break in a future TWiki release.
• URLs on virtual hosts cannot be read, for example, TWiki:Codev/TWikiSyndication does not work. This is a limitation of TWiki::Net::getUrl()

Plugin Info

Plugin Author:	PeterThoeny
Plugin Version:	02 Aug 2002 (V1.001)
Change History:
02 Aug 2002:	Implemented caching of feeds, thanks to TWiki:Main/RobDuarte
11 Jun 2002:	Initial version (V1.000)
11 Nov 2004:	big rewrite TWiki:Main/MichaelDaum
CPAN Dependencies:	none
Other Dependencies:	none
Perl Version:	5.004
Plugin Home:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/HeadlinesPlugin
Feedback:	http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/HeadlinesPluginDev

Related Topics: TWikiPreferences, Plugins