RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication
Example RSS feed: http://www.notesninjas.com/A555F9/nn.nsf/rss091!openagent&.xml
For an explanation of RSS check out this great page: http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2002/11/19/rssfeedquality.html
The agent should be a of type "Run Once..." and to make the borwsers etc think it is xml, call it ny using:
-> http://dbpath/RSS!openagent&.xml
My agent code:
On Error Goto ErrHdlr
Print "Content-type: application/rss+xml\n\n"
Print "<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""ISO-8859-1"" ?>"
Print "<rss version=""0.91"">"
Print "<channel>"
Print "<title>Lotus Notes Ninjas</title>"
Print "<link>http://www.NotesNinjas.com</link>";
Print"<description>Lotus Notes tips hints and news Updated every few days - FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY</description>"
Print"<category>Lotus Notes</category>"
Print "<language>en-gb</language>"
Print "<ttl>720</ttl>" ' mins to wait until reloading
Print "<generator>http://www.NotesNinjas.com/#RSS</generator>"; ' what generated this
Dim dow(7) As String
dow(1)="Sun"
dow(2)="Mon"
dow(3)="Tue"
dow(4)="Wed"
dow(5)="Thu"
dow(6)="Fri"
dow(7)="Sat"
Dim mon(12)
mon(1)="Jan"
mon(2)="Feb"
mon(3)="Mar"
mon(4)="Apr"
mon(5)="May"
mon(6)="Jun"
mon(7)="Jul"
mon(8)="Aug"
mon(9)="Sep"
mon(10)="Oct"
mon(11)="Nov"
mon(12)="Dec"
Dim s As New notessession
Dim db As notesdatabase
Set db = s.currentdatabase
Dim v As notesview
Set v = db.getview("Hints_By_Title")
count=1
Dim doc As notesdocument
Set doc = v.getfirstdocument()
Dim niPubDate As notesitem
'pub date
Set niPubDate = doc.getfirstitem("DocCreated")
If Not(niPubDate Is Nothing) Then
Set ndt = niPubDate.datetimevalue
If ndt Is Nothing Then
'use default doc.created or doc.lastmodified
lslocaltime = doc.lastmodified
Else
lsLocalTime =ndt.lslocaltime
End If
Else
'use default doc.created or doc.lastmodified
lslocaltime = doc.lastmodified
End If
Print "<pubDate>" & dow(Weekday(Today)) & ", " & Day(Today) & " " & _
mon(Month(Today)) & " " & Year(Today) & _
" " & Right("0" & Hour(Now),2) & ":" & Right("0" & Minute(Now),2) & ":" & _
Right("0" & Second(Now),2) & " GMT" & _
"</pubDate>"
Print "<lastBuildDate>" & dow(Weekday(lsLocalTime)) & ", " & Day(lsLocalTime) & " " & _
mon(Month(lsLocalTime)) & " " & Year(lsLocalTime) & _
" 00:00:01 GMT" & _
"</lastBuildDate>"
Print "<copyright>Copyright: (C) Adam Foster, http://www.AdFos.com</copyright>";
Print "<docs>http://www.AdFos.com</docs>";
Print "<image>"
Print"<title>Lotus Notes Ninjas</title>"
Print "<url>http://www.notesninjas.com/A555F9/nn.nsf/32e1ea7a6b090c16802569e200807da8/$Body/0.43C!OpenElement</url>";
Print "<link>http://www.NotesNinjas.com</link>";
Print "</image>"
Dim ab As notesrichtextitem
'RSS spec 0.91 says that 15 is the maximum number of items
Do Until count>14 Or doc Is Nothing
Print "<item>"
Print "<title>" & doc.subject(0) & "</title>"
' In this code Abstract is a rich text item
Set ab = doc.getfirstitem("Abstract")
Print "<description>" & Left(ab.text,150) & "</description>"
'pub date
Set niPubDate = doc.getfirstitem("DocCreated")
If Not(niPubDate Is Nothing) Then
Set ndt = niPubDate.datetimevalue
If ndt Is Nothing Then
'use default doc.created or doc.lastmodified
lslocaltime = doc.lastmodified
Else
lsLocalTime =ndt.lslocaltime
End If
Else
'use default doc.created or doc.lastmodified
lslocaltime = doc.lastmodified
End If
Print "<pubDate>" & dow(Weekday(lsLocalTime)) & ", " & Day(lsLocalTime) & " " & _
mon(Month(lsLocalTime)) & " " & Year(lsLocalTime) & _
" " & Right("0" & Hour(lsLocalTime),2) & ":" & Right("0" & Minute(lsLocalTime),2) & _
":" & Right("0" & Second(lsLocalTime),2) & " GMT" & _
"</pubDate>"
'category
Print "<category>Lotus Notes</category>"
Print "<link>http://www.notesninjas.com/A555F9/nn.nsf/ByAlias/"; & doc.alias(0) & "</link>"
Print "</item>"
Set doc =v.getnextdocument(doc)
count=count+1
Loop
Print "</channel>"
Print "</rss>"
Print "<!-- Code: http://www.NotesNinjas.com/#RSS (c) Adam Foster -->"
End
ErrHdlr:
Print "</channel>"
Print "</rss>"
Print "<!-- Error:" & Err & " " & Error$ & " Line: " & Erl & " -->"
Print "<!-- Code: http://www.NotesNinjas.com/#RSS (c) Adam Foster -->"
End
RSS Specification
Here is a good description of the 2.0 Spec: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss
Checking your RSS Feed is well formed
A free online RSS feed checker: http://www.xml.com/pub/a/tools/ruwf/check.html
Using this I worked out that you cannot put & in your feed anywhere, which can be a problem with Lotus Notes URLs.
NB: Dates are supposed to be RFC 822 or RFC822 or RFC-822 however you denote it. I find this means that years need to be 4 digits.
I have written a function to code this date format: http://www.notesninjas.com/A555F9/nn.nsf/ByAlias/RFC882dates
Also: URLs cannot have spaces in.
It also allowed me to check syntaxes etc.
Try it in a free RSS Reader
I used the free reader at: http://reader.rocketinfo.com/desktop or at http://my.yahoo.com .
How to add your RSS feed into your main website as an alternative URL
Stick this in the head part of the webpage:
<link href="http://www.notesninjas.com/A555F9/nn.nsf/rss091!openagent&.xml"; rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="rss" />
This is how the bbc does it anyway:
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/
See: <link href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_uk_edition/front_page/rss091.xml"; rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="rss" />
You can test this by entering http://www.NotesNinjas.com into: http://www.skyzyx.com/rss/?feed
A Java RSS solution for Lotus Notes
There is a Java solution in the sandbox on http://www.Notes.net
An OPML for Notes blogs
See http://news4notes.com Linkk here: http://news4notes.com/lotus-links/domino.opml
A Lotus Notes Client RSS reader: http://falsepositives.blogspot.com/2003/07/lotus-notes-news-reader-v03.html
One good RSS readers is: Wizz RSS 2.0.6 available from: http://www.wizzcomputers.com
One usful feature is being able to save your feeds to their server, and retrieve, so you can keep it for use on different machines.
Ampersands (and other special characters) really mess up a feed. XML errors will occur, so add code to remove ampersands from item vvalues or replace them with their entity reference equivalents. See: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/sgml/entities.html
I have written a subroutine to covert these strings: http://www.notesninjas.com/A555F9/nn.nsf/ByAlias/XMLTextEncode
Complete Link A complete link is required in RSS standards. A relative link works in atom only. Lotusphere 2006 forum now use a complete link :)