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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/ ) is a good site listing many RSS feeds.

Syntax Rules

%HEADLINES{"..."}%

Parameter Explanation Default
"..." source of RSS feed; this can be an url (starting with http) or a web.topic location for internal feeds None; is required
href="..." (Alternative to above) N/A
refresh="60" Refresh rate in minutes for caching feed; "0" for no caching Global REFRESH setting
limit="12" Maximum number of items shown Global LIMIT setting
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)
Global HEADER setting
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)
Global FORMAT setting

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

Write

%HEADLINES{"http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf" 
  header="*[[$link][$title]]:* $description" 
  format="$t* [[$link][$title]]"
}%
to get the latest Slashdot news as a bullet list format:

Write

%HEADLINES{"http://www.business-opportunities.biz/feed" limit="3"}%

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

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:27:45 +0000
The original blog about business opportunities and business ideas for small business entrepreneurs

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:26:03 +0000 Dane Carlson

Sf Lgflag

I know I have a number of readers in South Africa, but I don’t have any contacts there. If you read this site and live in South Africa, say hi!



Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:53:11 +0000 Dane Carlson

Stop Lice

That was fast.

Larada Sciences, makers of the LouseBuster™, mentioned in this previous post, also offer LouseBuster as a business opportunity.

Larada Sciences is a science-based medical technology company dedicated to the safe elimination of human head lice infestations. Our revolutionary new product, the LouseBuster device, is a breakthrough medical device that provides a safe, fast and highly effective way to kill all stages of head lice without using chemicals.

Our goal is to have this exciting new product available around the world. We are seeking individuals who are interested in running their own mobile or salon-based business using the LouseBuster device.

To continue our rapid growth we are looking for independent partners who are seeking new, profitable business opportunities by becoming LouseBuster service providers!

Candidates must be passionate about helping families get rid of head lice, have business experience, the financial strength to own a business, and have the energy and focus to market this unique service to potential customers. Key contacts may include: school nurses, pediatricians and general practitioners, hair salons, summer camps and many others.

Explanatory video below.

For more info, call 877-781-0999 or fill out this form.

Photo by lantapix/ShutterStock.



Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:43:15 +0000 Dane Carlson

End of the World

ABC News:

The never-ending hysteria over a Doomsday cometh has sparked a growing movement of people called “preppers,” who prepare for the end of the world as we know it — and in some cases, make a profit.

Tim Ralston, a married father of two from Arizona, is one such “prepper.”

“There’s a lot of different things that could happen,” Ralston said. “For me, I look at prepping as kind of like insurance. You have car insurance, health insurance, life insurance.”

Call it Apocalypse insurance. Ralston turned his family’s two-car garage into a staging area. Inside is a trailer, which he keeps packed and ready to go at all times, stockpiles of freeze-dried food, including cartons of canned chicken with a shelf life of 15 years, survival gear, such as a system for purifying polluted water, first aid kits and lots of weapons and ammunition.

Tim Ralston’s website, where he profits from the end of the world, is gearupcenter.com.

Video after the jump.

Photo by iQoncept/ShutterStock.


Plugin 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.

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

  • Maximum number of items shown. Default: 100
    • Set LIMIT = 40

  • 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

  • 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>$n<hr /><span class="headlinesDate">$date</span> <span class="headlinesCreator"> $creator</span> <span class="headlinesSubject"> $subject </span>$n<div class="headlinesText"> $description</div></div>

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)
      • headlineText: article text (div)

Plugin Installation Instructions

  • Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
  • Unzip HeadlinesPlugin.zip 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
  • Test if the plugin is correctly installed: Check if above examples show a news feed instead of variable.

Plugin Info

Plugin Author: TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny, TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum
Plugin Version: v2.01
Change History:  
03 Feb 2006: off-by-one: limit="n" returned n+1 articles; make FORMAT and HEADER format strings more robust
23 Jan 2006: released v2.00
05 Dec 2005: internal feed urls must be absolute
02 Dec 2005: added web.topic shorthand for internal feeds
29 Nov 2005: fixed CDATA handling
21 Nov 2005: added ATOM support; extended RSS support; added dublin core support; added content support; optionally using LWP to fetch feeds to follow redirections; corrected CPAN dependencies ; recoding special chars from html integer to entity encoding to increase browser compatibility; added css support; use getWorkArea() if available
11 May 2005: TWiki:Main.WillNorris: added DevelopBranch compatability
31 Oct 2004: Fixed taint issue by TWiki:Main.AdrianWeiler; small performance improvement
29 Oct 2004: Fixed issue of external caching if mod_perl or SpeedyCGI is used
02 Aug 2002: Implemented caching of feeds, thanks to TWiki:Main/RobDuarte
11 Jun 2002: Initial version (V1.000)
CPAN Dependencies: CPAN:LWP::UserAgent, CPAN:Digest::MD5
Other Dependencies: none
Perl Version: 5.004
TWiki:Plugins/Benchmark: GoodStyle 100%, FormattedSearch 99.5%, HeadlinesPlugin 94%
Plugin Home: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/HeadlinesPlugin
Feedback: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/HeadlinesPluginDev
Appraisal: http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/HeadlinesPluginAppraisal

-- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 11 May 2005
-- TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum - 03 Feb 2006


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