dnews

√app«dnews

Web Developer News

Using PHP and MagpieRSS to present Dynamic News Feeds

In my ongoing quest to demonstrate how the resources I review using the drx application are both pragmatic and worthwhile, I present RSS News feeds for Web developers from a number of different sources, and in several categories. I tweak this list often, so stay tuned. Suggestions are also welcome.

Although wrapping dnews as an application object took a little work, the engine behind actually fetching the news items is the MagpieRSS PHP feed parser (via Expat). Magpie supports RSS 0.9x, 1.0, 2.0 and most Atom format feeds. Installing and getting it working was incredibly easy. The Magpie library is very simple to use, but be warned of the old adage “garbage in = garbage out,” meaning pick your sources carefully and check them out by hand before plugging the results into your own pages. This is especially important if you are using XHTML like I am, or you can easily break your site.

On the bright side, since the results are cached, once an update is fetched (by anyone, not necessary you), the items are displayed very quickly. Not only does this improve the quality of the user’s experience, it is also good practice in order to avoid hammering your sources with requests.

On an even brighter note, I spent approximately one afternoon implementing this application. In addition to MagpieRSS, Feedview and the RSS Feed Validator were also very useful while developing dnews. Enjoy.

By popular demand, I have published a document which describes how this application was built. Visit the Howto MagpieRSS tutorial for more information.

RSS Channel Selector

Developer Blogs

1. Poll: Is RSS Mainstream?

Could RSS be crossing over into the mainstream? New data about RSS readers from one of the web's biggest blogs might suggest that it is. But data from one blog, no matter how large, isn't a big enough sample size, so vote in our poll and let us know what you think.
Published: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:56:00 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=e47201ae1b1c05058e83c9c7534592c7
2. Why The data: URI Scheme Could Help Save Your Slow Site

Slow page loads getting you down? The data: URI scheme could be the solution! While not supported in all browsers yet, data: URIs allow you to embed images within an HTML documents, thus reducing the need for an http request. As Meitar describes, it couldn't be easier to use—whether you're calling images for content within your HTML, or for background decoration from your style sheet.
Published: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:22:08 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=d575ce536d7ed80dca0a49fcdb4eeb74
3. Google To Launch Customizable Search Tonight

Google tonight will be opening up to the public an experimental feature they've been testing for a few months called SearchWiki, which lets users reorder and remove results, and leave comments on specific links.
Published: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 00:05:26 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=713e8333132fa7a82df37e6ef51cc476
4. 10 Must Have Tools for Communicating with Clients

Communicating your clients is a necessary evil of contract web development, design, programming, writing, or any other freelance art form. Our round up of ten must have web-based tools below will help you better communicate with clients, and and help you keep your sanity.
Published: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:09:05 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=fddfc5e85f67deeb765dd8c629ffe1bb
5. HelpingKind.org: A Pay It Forward Marketplace

People helping other people is an old idea, but in today's hustle-bustle, impersonal world of online communications, it may actually seem novel. The idea certainly has legs, though, says Dave Dalton, which is why he started a marketplace for people to trade good deeds.
Published: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:19:01 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=fc27746c68c2c1669c3789141470b68e
6. If Twitter Charges, Users Would Pay: Survey

Would you pay to use Twitter? An unscientific survey conducted today found that about 50% of users would pay $5 per month or more for the service. Another survey found that a quarter of users would pay to remove ads if the service started putting them in feeds. How about you?
Published: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:53:31 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=e8a70cbea3d9f2fd4049c874d6406ee7
7. NASA Tests First ‘Deep Space Internet’

What do you get when you mix Vint Cerf, NASA, and a spacecraft zipping around space 20 million miles from Earth? The first interplanetary Internet, of course! NASA reports today on the successful trial of the first deep space Internet communications network.
Published: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 05:10:53 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=7350883a6703e0847d819621729ffc4b
8. Yahoo! Launches BrowserPlus, Plans to Open Source It

Yahoo!'s cross-browser RIA platform BrowserPlus official crawled out into the public today, promising a way to enable "in-browser desktop applications," which is a fancy way of saying that it allows developers to add desktop-like functionality to web-based apps.
Published: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 04:05:33 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=3dc4bb69f226a56e4afa10bf4bc01b2e
9. 6 Steps to Professional Podcast Publishing

A couple of weeks ago, I offered up 8 Professional Podcast Production Tips. If you followed those, you should have a professional-sounding show all ready for the world to hear. But how do you get it out there?
Published: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:09:36 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=0cd57422647aeef41d5aa896f2cdeea7
10. The Downside of Free

The freemium revenue model, in which limited versions of web services are given out for free with more feature rich versions sold for a price, can make you a lot of money as an app developer. But there are some pitfalls you should be aware of.
Published: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:29:57 GMT
URI:http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?i=7dcab1bb99942ce2a1277dfc2eef0445