Web comic aggregator RSS feed general questions?

Beta Testing HTML5
#1

Hello,I am trying to create a web comic aggregation website using HTML 5, CSS 3, and JavaScript. I would like users to be able to view comics of different dates from different websites all in one place. After some research, it seems like I’m probably going to need to use an RSS feed to accomplish this. However, I don’t fully understand the capabilities and usage of an RSS feed.

 

First, would it be possible to pull images from comic websites in an automated and orderly fashion using an RSS feed? Or would I need to use something else? Or would it not be possible at all? If it is possible with an RSS feed, I’m also confused somewhat about the general implementation. Would the code for the feed be in HTML, or JavaScript, or both? Would I need to use existing libraries and or APIs? Is their existing code with a similar enough function that I could use it as a starting point?

 

Thanks

#2

RSS is basically a text based XML feed with well-defined elements. RSS is also extended by various others to give it more flexibility. The gist of it is you’re going to get URL’s for images 99% of the time in the feed. You would fetch the RSS feed, scan it, construct a list of “stories/items” where each item has multiple attributes like title, description, URL to the original source, URL’s to media items. Then you would use network.request() calls to fetch the image from the URL and display it.

We have a “Business App” sample on our github repo that handles RSS feeds. You might want to look at it:

https://github.com/coronalabs-samples/business-app-sample

Rob

#3

Okay, thanks for the info. After reading your answer and a few other similar questions on other forums, I have some follow-up questions:

First, I am concerned about the overall availability of RSS feeds, or at least of those that output what I want. After doing some research on various web comics to see if they included RSS feeds, I found that they almost overwhelmingly did, although some of them seem to include crippled feeds that don’t actually include any images–they just have links to each individual comic on the original website. I also read somewhere else that this is becoming a trend (to make sure users see advertisements from the original website). I was wondering if there is any way around this kind of thing? Because the whole point of my website idea is to make the comics easy to read and all on one webpage, not to include a bunch of different links to different webpages.

Second, I am still a little confused as to the capabilities of RSS feeds. Do these feeds provide content for articles and comics in only a range of recent dates? Or can a typical RSS feed access all articles/comics from the original website across its entire history? Because most of what I’m reading online refers to RSS feeds as a way to get daily updated news articles. Don’t get me wrong, I would like my website to update comics daily, but I would also like users to be able to access very old comics, so I’m wondering if a typical RSS feed will provide this capability.

Third, I have heard a lot of suggestions to try to develop this kind of thing with a combination of server-side and client-side code, and I’m wondering about the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. For example, I have heard that writing a website in this way benefits a website in search engine rankings, but I’m not exactly sure how. Are there other advantages? 

Finally, I’m curious about the general implementation of a combination of server-side and client-side code in a website. After some research it looks like I would have to use a different language for the server-side code, like PHP or Ruby or whatever, and I was wondering how the different languages interact? Would it be like the interaction between HTML, CSS, and JavaScript? For example, would I “iinclude” the server-side code file inside the client-side HTML file?

Thanks again

#4

Before I answer your questions, I think there is a little misunderstanding that needs cleared up. These forums are for Corona Labs customers (Corona SDK, Corona Enterprise, and CoronaCards). We have previously been exploring having Corona SDK work for building HTML5 apps. That is the forum you posted to.

This is not a general HTML/JavaScript/CSS Web technologies forum. When I answered I was under the assumption you would be using Corona SDK to build a mobile app that would read RSS feeds, but the more I read your response, I get the feeling you’re looking at building a web page to aggregate your sources into one site.

I’m going to provide my experience to answer your questions above, but going forward, if you don’t plan on using a Corona Labs product, this will not be the best forum for you.

  1. Avaiaiblity of RSS Feeds: You are right. They will vary from site to site. The content creator deserves to get paid for their work and depriving them of their ad revenue is a problem.

  2. Content of an RSS feed:  Find a URL for a feed or two that you’re interested in and go to it in your web browser. Then right click and do a “View Source”. This will show you the XML of the RSS feed and the fields available. Given that there are no media standards for RSS, all things are added in through competing name spaces, you won’t find consistency.

  3. You can do a lot with Javascript and AJAX to bring him content, but there may be times where it’s better to use PHP on a server and have it read the various feeds parse it and write out HTML that would hyperlink the <img> tags correctly and such.

  4. Server side scripting comes in a variety of forms. Sometimes you’re limited by what your host provides  you to work with. For instance my personal web host I have PHP as my main choice. I can’t really start up my own “servers” on it, I have to use the stock server’s they provide. This means I can’t run a node.js server (a web server that lets you script in javaScript for instance). It all depends on what tools you have avaialble.

But going forward, we do need to focus this on how to get RSS feeds in to Corona Labs products.

Rob

#5

You are correct; I was looking for a general HTML/web development help forum, sso I will venture elsewhere now. However, I appreciate the help. Thank you

#6

RSS is basically a text based XML feed with well-defined elements. RSS is also extended by various others to give it more flexibility. The gist of it is you’re going to get URL’s for images 99% of the time in the feed. You would fetch the RSS feed, scan it, construct a list of “stories/items” where each item has multiple attributes like title, description, URL to the original source, URL’s to media items. Then you would use network.request() calls to fetch the image from the URL and display it.

We have a “Business App” sample on our github repo that handles RSS feeds. You might want to look at it:

https://github.com/coronalabs-samples/business-app-sample

Rob

#7

Okay, thanks for the info. After reading your answer and a few other similar questions on other forums, I have some follow-up questions:

First, I am concerned about the overall availability of RSS feeds, or at least of those that output what I want. After doing some research on various web comics to see if they included RSS feeds, I found that they almost overwhelmingly did, although some of them seem to include crippled feeds that don’t actually include any images–they just have links to each individual comic on the original website. I also read somewhere else that this is becoming a trend (to make sure users see advertisements from the original website). I was wondering if there is any way around this kind of thing? Because the whole point of my website idea is to make the comics easy to read and all on one webpage, not to include a bunch of different links to different webpages.

Second, I am still a little confused as to the capabilities of RSS feeds. Do these feeds provide content for articles and comics in only a range of recent dates? Or can a typical RSS feed access all articles/comics from the original website across its entire history? Because most of what I’m reading online refers to RSS feeds as a way to get daily updated news articles. Don’t get me wrong, I would like my website to update comics daily, but I would also like users to be able to access very old comics, so I’m wondering if a typical RSS feed will provide this capability.

Third, I have heard a lot of suggestions to try to develop this kind of thing with a combination of server-side and client-side code, and I’m wondering about the advantages and disadvantages of this approach. For example, I have heard that writing a website in this way benefits a website in search engine rankings, but I’m not exactly sure how. Are there other advantages? 

Finally, I’m curious about the general implementation of a combination of server-side and client-side code in a website. After some research it looks like I would have to use a different language for the server-side code, like PHP or Ruby or whatever, and I was wondering how the different languages interact? Would it be like the interaction between HTML, CSS, and JavaScript? For example, would I “iinclude” the server-side code file inside the client-side HTML file?

Thanks again

#8

Before I answer your questions, I think there is a little misunderstanding that needs cleared up. These forums are for Corona Labs customers (Corona SDK, Corona Enterprise, and CoronaCards). We have previously been exploring having Corona SDK work for building HTML5 apps. That is the forum you posted to.

This is not a general HTML/JavaScript/CSS Web technologies forum. When I answered I was under the assumption you would be using Corona SDK to build a mobile app that would read RSS feeds, but the more I read your response, I get the feeling you’re looking at building a web page to aggregate your sources into one site.

I’m going to provide my experience to answer your questions above, but going forward, if you don’t plan on using a Corona Labs product, this will not be the best forum for you.

  1. Avaiaiblity of RSS Feeds: You are right. They will vary from site to site. The content creator deserves to get paid for their work and depriving them of their ad revenue is a problem.

  2. Content of an RSS feed:  Find a URL for a feed or two that you’re interested in and go to it in your web browser. Then right click and do a “View Source”. This will show you the XML of the RSS feed and the fields available. Given that there are no media standards for RSS, all things are added in through competing name spaces, you won’t find consistency.

  3. You can do a lot with Javascript and AJAX to bring him content, but there may be times where it’s better to use PHP on a server and have it read the various feeds parse it and write out HTML that would hyperlink the <img> tags correctly and such.

  4. Server side scripting comes in a variety of forms. Sometimes you’re limited by what your host provides  you to work with. For instance my personal web host I have PHP as my main choice. I can’t really start up my own “servers” on it, I have to use the stock server’s they provide. This means I can’t run a node.js server (a web server that lets you script in javaScript for instance). It all depends on what tools you have avaialble.

But going forward, we do need to focus this on how to get RSS feeds in to Corona Labs products.

Rob

#9

You are correct; I was looking for a general HTML/web development help forum, sso I will venture elsewhere now. However, I appreciate the help. Thank you