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3.13 RDFs

RDFs let you import headlines from any other site that generates an RSS feed in some way. Almost any news source, weblog, or monkeys-with-typewriters do this, so you've got a good selection. Once they're configured, users can select which ones they want to see, and submit new ones to the admins.


3.13.1 Usage

When you first install Scoop, it'll include a couple of feeds that you can use as examples to start learning the RDF admin screen right away. Basically, at the top there's a table listing all of the feeds in the database, with a checkbox for each one so that you can perform actions on several at once. After the checkbox is the name of the site that exported the feed, and after that the URL to the feed itself. Clicking the name will take you to the site, while clicking the URL will show you a preview of the feed. Following those is who submitted the feed (or none if an admin added it), and finally if it's enabled or not. An enabled feed can be viewed by anyone, while one that isn't can only be viewed by admins with the rdf_admin permission.

Below the table is a link to preview all feeds, so you can check all of them out at once. After that is a text box so you can add a feed, and finally several radio buttons, one per action. Follows is a list of the actions, and a summary of their purpose. Generally, the names explain themselves.

AddAdds whatever URL is in the text box to the DB. This will also fetch and parse it, so that it's ready for use right away.
DeleteRemoves all of the selected feeds.
Re-fetchImmidently fetches and parses all of the selected feeds.
Clear ListingThis will remove all of the headlines from each selected feed. Note that they will re-appear next time it's fetched (either manually, or automatically by the cron (3.14) job).
Enable/DisableThis will toggle the enabled status of all selected feeds. If a feed is enabled, then it can be seen by anyone, while a disabled feed is only visible to admins.
ApproveApproves a feed. If an RDF feed has been submitted by someone, then the row for it will be a different color. Selecting thost feeds and using this action will make them useable by users. If you don't want to approve a feed, then delete it.


3.13.2 Notes

The feeds from other sites change, and because of this you'll want to setup cron (3.14) to fetch feeds every once in awhile. Most sites don't appreciate their bandwidth being wasted by someone repeatedly downloading an RDF file, so you probably don't want the rdf_fetch job to run more than once every two or so hours.

Also, RDF feeds will not work if you're Apache hasn't been compiled with ``-disable-rule=EXPAT''. Instead, any time you attempt to fetch, the Apache child will segfault. See the Installation Instructions (2.2) for more on this.

To use the actual feeds, visit your Display Preferences, where you can choose which feeds you want to see. Once you've chosen, they'll appear wherever you have the rdf_feeds box set to display.

Since you're importing other site's headlines, you'll probably also want to export yours. To do this, setup the rdf cron job. This will generate an RDF file every time it's run using the last rdf_max_stories and only showing from the last rdf_days_to_show. Then it will save this into rdf_file. You'll want to make sure this file is readable and writeable by Apache, and also that users can access it (hint: either configure Apache to serve the file, or stick it in your images/ directory).


3.13.3 Relevant Vars

Everything in the RDF section. Note that some of them apply to generating an RDF file, and others apply to importing feeds. Read the descriptions to see which is which.


3.13.4 Relevant Perms

rdf_admin, submit_rdf


next up previous
Next: 3.14 Cron Up: 3 Administration Previous: 3.12 Groups