Parsing hReviews from RSS feeds
During my recent talk at WebDD I discussed using RSS as a means for distributing structured content within microformats. So over the weekend I thought it was time for a practical demonstration.
The WebDD backnetwork site allows users to create reviews about the event. What I have done is to add a hReviews parser to the RSS aggregator. If a blog post created by a delegate is both tagged with the event name and it contains a hReview it is now added to the reviews section of the site automatically.
Once it was in place it immediately found hReviews in post by Rob Crowther and Ross Dargan adding them directly into the reviews section. I am pleased with the functionality; as it is in line with the original ethos of backnetwork which was to leave content ownership with the delegates.
The parser is very simple as there is implied relationships between the review, ownership and the event. I created it to only gather the information I needed. I could of built something more complex, but it was not required for this task.
This is an interesting way of passing information it creates a loosely coupled syndication between sites. I think it's worth further investigation.
Comments
1
Joshua Brewer
Quick question: Have you given any thought to releasing the Backnetwork out into the wild? I am so interested in how you pulled all these things together and made them spit out such wonderfulness.
Posted 15 March 2007 21:26
2
Glenn Jones
Joshua, although we do allow web community events to use backnetwork for free, it actually belongs to my company. The code base on which it’s based is being used on a number of commercial projects and Madgex does not want to release the code. I have given talks about how the project is constructed, but unfortunately at the moment I can’t go as far as releasing the code. I have talked to my fellow Director’s and I am hoping that in the future to be able to release some code examples.
Posted 30 March 2007 15:23
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