Comments on: Enable your repository to feed the world http://blog.stuartlewis.com/2008/12/15/enable-your-repository-to-feed-the-world/ Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:02:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: Les Carr http://blog.stuartlewis.com/2008/12/15/enable-your-repository-to-feed-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-1726 Les Carr Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:20:46 +0000 http://blog.stuartlewis.com/?p=205#comment-1726 Colin said: "rather than have results appear in the order in which they were added to the repository, choose instead to have them ordered by publication date or item type" I'd take the view that a feed can be "fed" from anything. A feed from a website would list the recent "pages", a feed from a repository lists the recent "items" and a feed from an individual's career might list their recent "publications". You apply the semantics you want. Having thought about it for a few weeks, I think that a centralised repository RSS service might be better off synthesising its own RSS feeds directly from repository data (OAI-PMH and OAI-ORE). There's a big variation in what different platforms (and different versions of different platforms) will put in an RSS feed, and it would be nice to present all repositories on an even footing - preview images and all. Colin said: “rather than have results appear in the order in which they were added to the repository, choose instead to have them ordered by publication date or item type”

I’d take the view that a feed can be “fed” from anything. A feed from a website would list the recent “pages”, a feed from a repository lists the recent “items” and a feed from an individual’s career might list their recent “publications”. You apply the semantics you want.

Having thought about it for a few weeks, I think that a centralised repository RSS service might be better off synthesising its own RSS feeds directly from repository data (OAI-PMH and OAI-ORE). There’s a big variation in what different platforms (and different versions of different platforms) will put in an RSS feed, and it would be nice to present all repositories on an even footing – preview images and all.

]]> By: Colin Smith http://blog.stuartlewis.com/2008/12/15/enable-your-repository-to-feed-the-world/comment-page-1/#comment-1719 Colin Smith Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:57:25 +0000 http://blog.stuartlewis.com/?p=205#comment-1719 One of the things I would like to be able to do with feeds is enable individual users to tailor them to suit their needs. For example, rather than have results appear in the order in which they were added to the repository, choose instead to have them ordered by publication date or item type. For users interested in embedding a publication list in their personal website that dynamically updates this would be invaluable. When you click on the RSS or Atom logo to set up your feed, it would be really nice if you could be presented with a set of preferences for your feed. We have worked hard recently to make sure our repository 'looks nice' for linking to, e.g. changing code in EPrints to reflect Harvard style referencing and making sure 'browse by author' views are in chronological order (as you would expect for a publicatons list on your website or a CV). This is great, but I would like the options for outputting from the repository (by RSS) to be as good as those for linking to. Is this a theoretical possibility, or am I dreaming? My limited understanding of RSS is that it is a global standard that has little scope for customisation, but being a non-techie I could be completely wrong! One of the things I would like to be able to do with feeds is enable individual users to tailor them to suit their needs. For example, rather than have results appear in the order in which they were added to the repository, choose instead to have them ordered by publication date or item type. For users interested in embedding a publication list in their personal website that dynamically updates this would be invaluable. When you click on the RSS or Atom logo to set up your feed, it would be really nice if you could be presented with a set of preferences for your feed.

We have worked hard recently to make sure our repository ‘looks nice’ for linking to, e.g. changing code in EPrints to reflect Harvard style referencing and making sure ‘browse by author’ views are in chronological order (as you would expect for a publicatons list on your website or a CV). This is great, but I would like the options for outputting from the repository (by RSS) to be as good as those for linking to. Is this a theoretical possibility, or am I dreaming? My limited understanding of RSS is that it is a global standard that has little scope for customisation, but being a non-techie I could be completely wrong!

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