dnews

√app«dnews

Web Developer News

Using PHP and MagpieRSS to present Dynamic News Feeds

In my ongoing quest to demonstrate how the resources I review using the drx application are both pragmatic and worthwhile, I present RSS News feeds for Web developers from a number of different sources, and in several categories. I tweak this list often, so stay tuned. Suggestions are also welcome.

Although wrapping dnews as an application object took a little work, the engine behind actually fetching the news items is the MagpieRSS PHP feed parser (via Expat). Magpie supports RSS 0.9x, 1.0, 2.0 and most Atom format feeds. Installing and getting it working was incredibly easy. The Magpie library is very simple to use, but be warned of the old adage “garbage in = garbage out,” meaning pick your sources carefully and check them out by hand before plugging the results into your own pages. This is especially important if you are using XHTML like I am, or you can easily break your site.

On the bright side, since the results are cached, once an update is fetched (by anyone, not necessary you), the items are displayed very quickly. Not only does this improve the quality of the user’s experience, it is also good practice in order to avoid hammering your sources with requests.

On an even brighter note, I spent approximately one afternoon implementing this application. In addition to MagpieRSS, Feedview and the RSS Feed Validator were also very useful while developing dnews. Enjoy.

By popular demand, I have published a document which describes how this application was built. Visit the Howto MagpieRSS tutorial for more information.

RSS Channel Selector

Developer Buzz

1. KNIME and beginners

I gave a presentation at OpenEye's CUP last week. More precisely, I was assigned a talk with the title "Evils of KNIME." I don't chose that sort of name, but the CUP organizers like to be a bit confrontational with presentation titles. I used my speaking slot as a platform for expressing my views on dataflow/visual languages. I don't like them,...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285758
2. Brazil announces it may break US patents on movies, music,...

Brazil may break US patents on films, music, drugs BRASILIA, Brazil â" Brazil says it may let local companies break U.S. patents on products including movies, music, pharmaceutical products and chemicals. The World Trade Organization says Brazil can take punitive action because the United States has failed to get rid of illegal subsidies...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285755
3. Minimalism, The New Innovative

There&#8217;s so much room for observations and analogies in the evolution of production trends. Analogies are not merely a candy for the brain. They bring along a deeper understanding of phenomena and ultimately are one of the greatest aides to align (or misalign) with mainstream. If we look back, to the 18-19th century - mass production was a...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285753
4. Don’t do that !!!

If I were to summarize my experience in Software development, that I have gathered over the last 10 years or so, it would be more of a collection of &#8220;Don&#8217;t do that&#8221; rather than &#8220;Do that&#8221;. In other words, I have learned more from doing things incorrectly rather than doing correctly. Why? I guess simply because [...]
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285751
5. Baidu shares jump on media reports Google nears decision o...

more images more images Baidu up on reports Google may end China search NEW YORK â" U.S.-traded shares of Baidu Inc. jumped Monday following media reports that rival Google Inc. is nearing a decision to close its search engine in China. China has the world's largest Internet population. Google holds about 35 percent of the country's search...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285749
6. Get Updates and Read Latest Manga Releases on Chrome

Earlier we have written about DomDomSoft, a free software to download latest anime Manga. Now for Chrome users it is easy to get manga updates and read them with Manga Lover extension. When installed the extension resides beside the address bar, clicking on this extension you will get list of sites from which you can get [...]Get Updates and...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285747
7. Notice: JavaOne Call for Papers Deadline Has Been Extended...

From the JavaOne team: Folks, Just in case daylight savings time got the best of you this weekend, we have extended the JavaOne Call for Papers by 48 hours. If you have not yet submitted a topic or have additional ideas, you have until 11:59pm Pacific Time on Tuesday, March 16th to get your abstracts in. Keep the submissions coming—this is...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285745
8. HTC Droid Eris Android 1.5-2.1 Got Rooted

Almost every Android based smartphone has been rooted to empower owners to do the things which are restricted by phone. It all depends on support from android developers community for that particular device. In some cases it may take some time to get root exploit and HTC Droid Eris is one such example. The long standing [...]
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285743
9. Direct Marketing Association spent $250,000 lobbying in 4Q...

Direct Marketing Assn spent $250K lobbying in 4Q WASHINGTON â" The Direct Marketing Association Inc., a global lobbying vehicle for marketers, spent $250,000 lobbying the government in the fourth quarter, according to a recent disclosure form. That's even with what the group spent in the third quarter of 2009 and in the year-ago period. The...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285741
10. SqueakDBX at ESUG 2009

Here's another ESUG 2009 video - Mariano Martinez Peck talking about SqueakDBX, a database layer (cross platform) for Squeak. To watch, click on the viewer below: If you have trouble viewing that directly, you can click here to download the video directly. You can also watch it on Vimeo: SqueakDBX from James Robertson on Vimeo. Technorati Tags:...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285739
11. Deny Permission to Access Files and Folders with File Secr...

There are many software that provide file and folder locking utilities but very few of them are free. Protecting our files from unauthorized access is important some times and we may need a quick solution. For this purpose FileSecrets is a good free utility that can be used to secure your files. FileSecrets is easy to [...]Deny Permission to...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285737
12. Palm Pre Overclocked to 700Mhz & 800Mhz with WebOS 1.3...

Linux Kernel based open source Android mobile operating system gives enough power to hackers to overclock, root or modify android based handsets like Google Nexus One which was overclocked from 1 Ghz to 1.5Ghz. However other smartphones based on proprietary operating system like PalmPre which is based on webOS are difficult to modify but that [...]
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285733
13. Facebook opening operations office in India to support glo...

more images more images Facebook opening operations office in India MUMBAI, India â" Social networking site Facebook is opening an operations office in India, its first in Asia, to help manage rapid growth in the number of users. The office, in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, will have advertising and developer support teams, the...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285731
14. Video and Summary of the World Tour

If you missed our recent worldwide tour, you can still see the entire thing: Watch the Videos of the presentations Download Niall Ross' typically detailed report (from the London event) Also, if you would like to see a similar event near you - drop us a line. While we can't guarantee anything, we do take Smalltalker interest...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285728
15. java.net Spotlight: Jersey 1.1.5.1 Has Been Released

This week&#039;s java.net Spotlight is on the GlassFish Jersey project. Jersey 1.1.5.1 was released last week, as reported by Paul Sandoz: We have just released version 1.1.5.1 of Jersey, the open source, production quality, reference implementation of JAX-RS. The JAX-RS 1.1 specification is available at the JCP web site and also available in...
Published: Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:09:20 GMT
URI:http://www.artima.com/forums/flat.jsp?forum=196&thread=285726