Blog syndication format: the future are Interface Markup Languages

Frederick Giasson

What I wrote yesterday could be defined as a lost of time. It is another garage made code that try to cope with something that is not built for it.

Blogs has evolved in past years. However, feeds are stock into the past. More and more users are using these syndication technologies, and these new users ask for much. So, how could we give them much? Actually by making garage code like the one I do yesterday.

This is just another demonstration of the specifications problem. Things move slowly. The only way that things move faster is that someone with influence gets the bull by the horns and does it.

By example, personally I would like to have a “comment” tag where to put the comments of my readers.



However, will I call every feed reader companies to tell them to take these new tags into account, and to display them properly in their application? I do not think so.

RSS 2.0 support XML namespaces. However, who cares? I mean, feed readers will have access to the structured information; however, they will not display it if they do not care about.

It is why technologies such as XForms are interesting. What is an XForm? It is an XML based form. The purpose is to give me the power to build my custom forms with a simple XML script. Then with an XForm, I can create my custom web form that will send me the retrieved information in an xml format I previously specified. Plus, I am sure that the form will be displayed by the presentation software (a browser or anything else) the way I want it to be presented.

Now what I want is something that does the same thing as XForm but more presentation oriented. The W3C answered the needs with the XFDL specification. Then, as a blogger, if I want that my posts and comments be seen in a traditional Usenet readers interface, the only thing I need to do is to add a “simple” snippet of script into my blog’s feed. Then I will be sure that all my readers, platform and software independent, will see the information I broadcast as I want them to see it.

I think that this is one of the only way to see the future. The feed readers will only have to replace their “Web Browser Layer” by a “XFDL (or any other interface markup languages) Layer”. Then everybody will be able to do exactly what they want, without caring about the compatibility with all the softwares on the market.

Right now, such modules are only available as plug-ins for current web-browsers. Sometime they work, other time they do not. When the guys in the IE or Firefox teams will integrate it and make it available to other developers through some API, the whole landscape of web feeds publishing certainly will change.

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Experimental RSS feed: comments directly available in posts

Frederick Giasson

Some months ago I was asking a question: “Comments are integral part of posts. Why blog systems, like Radio Userland, do not take this fact into account?”

Fred, do not wait until somebody do it, otherwise you will wait for a long time I think… So I got an hour of my time today to test the concept. I hacked the b2Evoltuion blog system to build such a RSS feed.

The premise of the experience is that comments leaved by readers are integral part of blog posts. In fact, if someone leave a comment, most of the time it is to add something new to the blog’s post, something that have an informative value. I know it because my readers are good at it. I wanted to reflect that fact in my feeds content. So, it is what I do.

There is what it look like.



  1. The comments are placed at the end of the post
  2. The header of the comment section
  3. The permalink of this specific comment
  4. The number of the comment in the thread
  5. The name of the comment’s author and a link to his URL
  6. A link that will redirect the reader to the place where he could add his comment
  7. The comment in question
  8. The list of comments continue bellow

Simple no? Now the feed subscribers do not only have access to the post but also to the comments wrote about the post, by other readers, all that in the feed reader of their choice.

You want to have a look at that feed? You only have to subscribe to this URL:
https://fgiasson.com/blog/xmlsrv/rss2.feedwithcomments.php?blog=4

Advantages:

  • It reflects the fact that comments are an integral part of posts
  • Each time a post is commented, feed subscribers will be notified. It is sure that it depends on the feed reader, if the feed reader check if a change has been performed on an entry, then the reader will be notified, otherwise he will not.

Disadvantages:

  • It adds information to the web feed and it become much more voluminous.

What do you think of it? Could you be interesting in subscribing to such a feed? Do you think that it could be a good information to have in a blog feed?

Note

It is really ease to add this feature to your blog. If you are using b2Evolution, you only have to download this php file and to put it in your /blog/xmlsrv/ directory. After that you will have access to it at that url:

yourdomainname.com/blog/xmlsrv/
rss2.feedwithcomments.php?blog=X

where X is the number of the blog where you would like to implement the feature.

Thank to Jack Vinson to remember me that I already wanted such a feature.

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Timothy Findley

Frederick Giasson

 
“Someone once said to Clive: do you think we will ever be forgiven for what we’ve done? They meant their generation and the war and what the war had done to civilization. Clive said something I’ve never forgotten. He said: I doubt we’ll ever be forgiven. All I hope is — they’ll remember we were human beings.”

— Timothy Findley