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Thursday, March 28 2024

RSS Roundtable

Apple

I came across this tidbit at ranchero.com, the home of my favorite weblog tool, NetNewsWire:

DrunkenBlog: RSS for Mac OS X Roundtable: "I'm a big fan of RSS, and while ago I decided I wanted to do one of my chats with the author behind one of the RSS aggregators for Mac OS X, and hit a conundrum: there were too many cool apps to choose from."

It's a chat with the authors of NetNewsWire, NewsFire, NewsMac, PulpFiction, and Shrook."

posted by Loki on Thu, 21 Oct 2004 22:57:37 -0500Read More...

Post-1.1 snapshot

XML-Weblog

I've made a new post-1.1 snapshot available on the xml-weblog ftp site, which includes all of the (relatively minor) changes to date.

HTML "<b>" and "<i>" tags have been replaced with "<strong>" and "<em>" respectively, a new <xwl function="name"/> tag has been added to support post-XSLT processing (currently replacing and much cleaner than the %enter_text% and %cdata_[open/close]% hacks). A "publish" bit has been added to the article object, that determines if an article appears on the home page or not (allowing for drafts), which is utilized by the XML-RPC API to support the flNotOnHomePage flag (used by Radio UserLand). A corresponding block "enable" bit has been added as well. To support Firefox 1.0, an RSS <link> tag has been added to the default style, so you get the nifty RSS button at the bottom of the page. Finally, I've added a 1.1-1.2 upgrade script that automates the back-end database changes.

Note that to get full functionality from the XML-RPC interface, select "Radio UserLand" as the back end system in NetNewsWire (or whatever blogging tool you use). An added bonus, the <xwl function="split"/> tag allows you to split long articles. (with Read More...)

Warning: if you do use the snapshot, you will most likely have to manually update your database as the upgrade script will only work for the official 1.1 release. However, you should be able to accomplish this by modifying the upgrade script.

You can download the new snapshot using the link below.

Download

posted by Loki on Tue, 21 Sep 2004 17:28:27 -0500

xml-weblog 1.1 released!

XML-Weblog

After nearly 2 years, xml-weblog 1.1 is complete!

Although some (none, actually) of the features originally planned for version 1.1 didn't make the cut (non-admin user logon, custom views/settings for users, article submission), enough work has been done to merit a point release.

Some changes from 1.1 have already been previously announced, but the major changes can be summarized as: new object-based code structure, RSS support, and the most cool new feature, an XML-RPC interface to post/edit/delete articles using the Blogger and MetaWeblog APIs, which means you can use tools like NetNewsWire to edit your site!

You can download xml-weblog 1.1 from my ftp site, or Read More for a complete list of changes.

posted by Loki on Sun, 11 Jul 2004 15:50:02 -0500Read More...

Oops! ftp access fixed.

Announcements

Oops... due to an oversight on my part, all of the download links to my ftp server were broken, inbound ftp connections were being blocked. This has been fixed, tested, and downloads are now working again.

Download away!

posted by Loki on Thu, 04 Dec 2003 13:56:20 -0600

New snapshot available

XML-Weblog

We're still edging closer to a 1.1 release; I have recently completed a number of fixes & minor updates, enough that merits a new snapshot release.

Database image storage & retrieval has been re-implemented and now works, and the installation page has been updated as well. The entire site now runs on the new architecture, and the last remaining code from the 1.0 architecture has been removed. The login code has been significantly enhanced, and now tracks login/logout state using cookies, while retaining basic authentication (with optional SSL support to prevent sending passwords in the clear). Finally, in preparation for user story submission, a couple of properties have been added to the user object & basic XML validation has been added to the forms routine. A number of minor bugs have been squashed as well.

You can download the new snapshot using the link below.

Download

posted by Loki on Mon, 01 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0600

Progress on xml-weblog 1.1

XML-Weblog

After a long leave of absence, I have completed a major architecture revision to the xml-weblog code and made some steps towards a 1.1 release. The latest code can be downloaded below (still covered by a 4-clause BSD license).

Support for images stored in the database is currently broken, but this will be fixed before the 1.1 release. The preferred imgage format has switched from PNG to GIF now that GIFs are patent-free; all exisiting images & icons have been converted to GIF since PNGs don't work in some ancient browsers. Non-administrator login is now supported, but, without the user customization/story submission features, it's not that useful (yet). Finally, both avantgo (avantgo.php) and RSS (rss.php) support have been added, and support for the Blogger and MetaWeblog APIs through XML-RPC will be included in the 1.1 release.

For those who are interested, the back-end code changes involve moving code into an object-based/library structure. All pages with the exception of the icon/image & install pages have been changed to fit into the new architecture, with the remaining scheduled to be fixed for 1.1. However, after 1.1 is released it is likely that the arcitecture will need to be reviewed again.

Download Snapshot

posted by Loki on Thu, 06 Nov 2003 13:00:00 -0600

CSS Bugs Me.

Bugs

I've decided to give up on a couple of CSS bugs that have been driving me bonkers.

There is no workaround for the IE bug, other than to not use floats, which I'm not willing to do, since the alternative, absolute positioning, has problems of its own. I did fix the Mozilla bug by changing the padding in the problem boxes from relative (em) to fixed (px).

Apparently, floats are also problematic for Opera 5, to the point where they're unusable. I've decided that people with oddball browsers like this will just have to live with it if they don't work properly. I'm learning what it's like to live in web developer hell.

posted by Loki on Fri, 15 Nov 2002 17:34:49 -0600

Improved XHTML/CSS in xml-weblog-snapshot

XML-Weblog

The XHTML/CSS display code has been significantly cleaned up in the -current version of xml-weblog. Pre-CSS and older CSS clients (4.0 browsers) are now presented with a simplified version of the web page, and "modern" browsers all properly render the site (at least as far as I could test.

(Older clients load a basic CSS1 style sheet without the 2/3 column layout, and display a compatibiltiy note at the top of the page.)

Also, images have been moved out of the database (significantly faster), although the image/icon tables remain, to support image uploads. The latest version incorporating all these changes is available at ftp://ftp.technomagik.net/pub/xml-weblog/xml-weblog-snapshot.tar.gz

posted by Loki on Fri, 15 Nov 2002 14:04:49 -0600Read More...

CVS Snapshots

XML-Weblog

Since I am still in the "rapid development" phase of xml-weblog, I will not (yet) be releasing bug-fix versions (1.0.x) of xml-weblog, unless a really nasty bug is found. Instead, I have made a CVS snapshot (pre-1.1) available at ftp://ftp.technomagik.net/pub/xml-weblog/. If you want the most current and bug-free version, download xml-weblog-snapshot.tar.gz insead of the 1.0 release.

posted by Loki on Tue, 12 Nov 2002 17:25:56 -0600

xml-weblog 1.0 released!

XML-Weblog

xml-weblog 1.0 is now complete, and ready for download! The source code can be downloaded below; it is covered by a four-clause BSD-style license.

Currently, there is no public CVS repository available, but I would appreciate any feedback, bug reports, corrections, etc. You can send them to me at: loki@technomagik.net

Download

posted by Loki on Fri, 01 Nov 2002 13:04:12 -0600Read More...