The Joy of XML

Published on August 13, 2003 By _Martin_ In WinCustomize News

Scripting may seem daunting if you need to tweak something to your needs in DesktopX.

Yesterday, I received an email from Marcel Wijnberger in the Netherlands saying he wanted a Dutch newsfeed. Despite almost no scripting experienceHe decided to experiment and almost immediately it worked.

Why? XML.

The structure of XML means that script based on XML is very transferable. To quote:

"I just changed the url ... and to my total surprise: it works !!!!!!
I have now a tickertape with the latest newsheadlines from this dutch paper"

To see this in action for yourself download a sample newsfeed (https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=3&SkinID=2756) and change the URL in line 11 to a different XML newsfeed.

Where do you get these feeds? Try looking here: http://www.newsisfree.com/sources/

Check out an XML feed such as this one for the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/syndication/feeds/news/ukfs_news/england/rss091.xml

Each story, is wrapped in an tag, within which there is a and .

Look at this tech news http://www.anandtech.com/rss/newsfeed.cfm or the latest headlines in Iceland http://www.deiglan.com/xml-rss.php. Both follow the same format. Throw these URLs into the script and the object works with no modification!

The joy of XML

Comments

_Martin_

on Aug 13, 2003

Go get scripting!

craeonics

on Aug 13, 2003

a) What app are you talking about?

If you follow that first link you'll end up on a page with ODBC errors.

Markel

on Aug 13, 2003

Hi all,

Martin talks about an object i made for showing the headlines of a dutch newspaper called 'de telegraaf'. What i did was i just edited his DeviantArt object and edited the xml-feed. I also pointed him to a website called: www.newsisfree.com on which u can find xml-feeds to hunderds of news, sport, financials etc... sites on the web.

I haven't uploaded the telegraaf-object because i want to make the object more my own instead of copying the object from others. When i'm done (and hopefully made some more) i will upload them.

_Martin_

on Aug 13, 2003

craeonics:
a) "tweak something to your needs in DesktopX"

It's a concept. If that webpage has a temporary problem I'm sorry - it's working fine here.

Raszagal

on Aug 13, 2003

Well here is someone who knows nothing about XML (me) but im gonna try it out for swedish news. What i do know is some HTML and the reason the first link isn't working is the ) at the end of the link. so try https://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=3&SkinID=2756 instead and it works

Thanks for a great site. //Raszagal

Raszagal

on Aug 13, 2003

So, i got my swedish news scrolling around in there, but i cant see them.. i gues the background AND the text is black.. how do i chage this? Please enlighten me...

Adam Najmanowicz

on Aug 14, 2003

Shouldn't it be called the joy of RSS?

Adam Najmanowicz

on Aug 14, 2003

A great object. Now with the new object you've made, DX can probably replace most of those sidebars and other desktop floaters!

Adam Najmanowicz

on Aug 14, 2003

oops. Is there something wrong with WC or is it just me and Mozilla, since i get a VB error every time i post something? However the post is made.

_Martin_

on Aug 19, 2003

Raszagal: The script basically builds an html page so in the section you can define the text and background colours in the script just as you would in the web page.

_Martin_

on Aug 19, 2003

SS: Yes, it should be RSS

Also, yes it is just you - no errors here

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