Headlines Plugin

Description

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

Note: Syndic8.com ( http://www.syndic8.com/ ) lists many RSS feeds.

Syntax Rules

%HEADLINES{"..."}%

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

Slashdot News

Write

%HEADLINES{ "http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf" 
  header="*[[$link][$title]]:* $description" 
  format="$t* [[$link][$title]]"
  limit="4"
}%

Business Opportunities Weblog

Write

%HEADLINES{ "http://www.business-opportunities.biz/feed" limit="2" }%

to get the latest postings on the "Business Opportunities" weblog:

Business Opportunities Weblog

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 02:12:43 +0000

The original blog about business opportunities and business ideas for small business entrepreneurs

Someone Invent This Already: A Telephone DNS

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:40:11 +0000 Dane Carlson

I don’t want to call your phone. I want to call you. Why do I have to look in my phone book (whether in paper, on my phone or computer) to find your number? Why do I have to guess whether you’re at home, at work, or in the car? Why do I have to try that number, and if you don’t answer, leave a message? Why can’t I tell my phone to “Call Joe” and have my phone call you no matter where you are?

On the internet, when I want to go to Google, I don’t first look up Google’s IP address in my address book. I just type google.com into my browser. The browser then connects to something called the Domain Name Service (DNS for short) which converts the URL google.com into the IP address 74.125.224.115 and then it connects to it.

Photo by Refat/ShutterStock.

Five North Dakota Sisters Make Reality TV Pitch

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:29:33 +0000 Dane Carlson

Boomtown Girls from Lucky Dog Filmworks on Vimeo.

Grand Forks Herald:

Five sisters from a North Dakota boomtown are looking to make a bang on reality TV. A trailer for “Boomtown Girls,” featuring five Williston sisters who work alongside men in the Oil Patch, recently became an Internet sensation locally.

But few details are known about what will become of the four-minute video. Representatives from Atlanta-based Lucky Dog Filmworks say they can’t comment yet about “Boomtown Girls.”

The video shows the sisters – Kendel, LeAnna, Kelsey, Terrie and Heather – reflecting about how their hometown has changed with the latest oil boom. One of the sisters, Kelsey Nehring, said the filmmakers are pitching the reality show to various media companies.”

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, for example, %HEADLINESPLUGIN_SHORTDESCRIPTION%. Note: Don't modify the settings here; copy and customize the settings in Main.TWikiPreferences. For example, to customize the USERAGENTNAME setting, create a HEADLINESPLUGIN_USERAGENTNAME setting in Main.TWikiPreferences.

• One line description, shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Show headline news in TWiki pages based on RSS and ATOM news feeds from external sites

• Refresh rate in minutes for cached feeds. Disable caching: 0, default: 60
  • Set REFRESH = 60

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

• Use LWP::UserAgent, or fallback to TWiki's internal getUrl() method. Default: yes
  • Set USELWPUSERAGENT = yes

• Timeout fetching a feed using the LWP::UserAgent. Default: 20
  • Set USERAGENTTIMEOUT = 20

• Name of user agent. Default: TWikiHeadlinesPlugin/2.21

      * Set USERAGENTNAME = TWikiHeadlinesPlugin/2.21

• 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%</div><div class="headlinesTitle">$n---+!! <a href="$link">$title</a></div><div class="headlinesDate">$date</div><div class="headlinesDescription">$description</div><div class="headlinesRight">$rights</div></div>

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

      * Set FORMAT = <div class="headlinesArticle"><div class="headlinesTitle"><a href="$link">$title</a></div>$n<span class="headlinesDate">$date</span> <span class="headlinesCreator"> $creator</span> <span class="headlinesSubject"> $subject </span>$n<div class="headlinesText"> $description</div></div>

• Values taken from configure: (only supported if CPAN:LWP is installed)
  • $TWiki::cfg{PROXY}{HOST} - proxy host, such as "proxy.example.com";
  • $TWiki::cfg{PROXY}{PORT} - proxy port, such as "8080";
  • $TWiki::cfg{PROXY}{SkipProxyForDomains} - domains excluded from proxy, such as "intra.example.com, bugs.example.com";

Style Sheets

The default HEADER and FORMAT settings use the following styles. See the style.css file defining the default CSS properties (indentation illustrates enclosure).

• headlinesRss: output of the HeadlinesPlugin (div)
  • headlinesChannel: channel header (div)
    • headlinesLogo: channel logo (div)
    • headlinesTitle: channel title (div)
    • headlinesDate: channel date (div)
    • headlinesDescription: channel description (div)
    • headlinesRight: channel copyright (div)
  • headlinesArticle: one news item (div)
    • headlinesTitle: article title (div)
    • headlinesDate: article date (span)
    • headlinesCreator: author of article (span)
    • headlinesSubject: subect category of the article (span)
    • headlinesText: article text (div)

Plugin Installation Instructions

• Download the ZIP file.
• Unzip it in your twiki installation directory. Content:

  File:	Description:
  data/TWiki/HeadlinesPlugin.txt	plugin topic
  pub/TWiki/HeadlinesPlugin/style.css	default css
  lib/TWiki/HeadlinesPlugin.pm	plugin perl module
  lib/TWiki/HeadlinesPlugin/Core.pm	plugin core

  Check if above examples show a news feed instead of variable.
• Optionally, run HeadlinesPlugin_installer.pl to automatically check and install other TWiki modules that this module depends on. You can also do this step manually.
• Alternatively, manually make sure the dependencies listed in the table below are resolved.

  Name	Version	Description
  Digest::MD5	>=2.33	Required. Download from CPAN:Digest::MD5
  LWP::UserAgent	>=5.803	Optional. Download from CPAN:LWP::UserAgent

Plugin Info

-- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 29 Aug 2009