Headlines Plugin

This plugin displays RSS feeds from news sites. Use it to build news portals that show headline news.

Note: Syndic8.com ( http://www.syndic8.com/ ) is a good site listing many RSS feeds.

HeadlinesPlugin Global Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, for example, %HEADLINES_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

• One line description, shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Build news portals that show headline news based on RSS news feeds from news sites.

• Set DEBUG to 1 to get debug messages in data/debug.txt. Default: 0
  • Set DEBUG = 0

• Refresh rate in minutes for cached feeds. Disable caching: 0, default: 30
  • Set REFRESH = 30

• Maximum number of items shown. Default: 100
  • Set LIMIT = 25

• Default header: (variables are explained in the syntax rules)

      * Set HEADER = | *[[$channellink][$channeltitle]] [[$imagelink][<img src="$imageurl" alt="$imagetitle" border="0" />]]* |

• Default format of one item: (variables are explained in the syntax rules)

      * Set FORMAT = | [[$link][$title]] |

Syntax Rules

The %HEADLINES{...}% variable gets expanded to the content pulled from an RSS feed.

Examples

Write %HEADLINES{ href="http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf" }% to get the latest Slashdot news in table format:

Write %HEADLINES{ href="http://www.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?o=rss&c=Aerospace%20and%20defense%20industry%20news" header="   * [[$channellink][$channeltitle]]:" format="      * [[$link][$title]] ($description)" }% to get Aerospace and defense industry news rendered as a bullet list:

• Moreover Technologies - Aerospace and defense industry news:
  • aerospace and defense industry in Encyclopedia - Sponsored Link (Ad - www.thefreedictionary.com Nov 21 2008 3:20PM GMT)
  • Northrop makes first AESA flight with SABR sensor (Flight International Nov 21 2008 3:20PM GMT)
  • U.S. Coast Guard chooses Thales HF-ALE radios for surface ships (Military and Aerospace Nov 21 2008 3:20PM GMT)
  • Research and Markets: This Report on B/E Aerospace, Inc. and the U.S. Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing Industry is Now Available (Globe Investor Nov 21 2008 3:19PM GMT)
  • Ethiopian Airlines buys eight Bombardier planes (Interactive Investor International Nov 21 2008 3:15PM GMT)
  • UAE: Aerospace composite plant (Meed Nov 21 2008 3:11PM GMT)
  • Ahead of the Bell: Aerospace cos. downgraded (CNBC Nov 21 2008 2:45PM GMT)
  • Vicor Introduces MIL-COTS High-Voltage Bus Converter For Aerospace & Defense Applications (Power Pulse.Net Nov 21 2008 2:43PM GMT)
  • Romania extends bid deadline for state plane maker (Interactive Investor International Nov 21 2008 2:22PM GMT)
  • Base Technologies, Inc. Awarded Defense Health Information Management Systems Contract to Support In-Theater Deployed Tele-Radiology Systems (Yahoo! Canada Nov 21 2008 2:19PM GMT)
  • Dassault to build aerospace-factory Sims (The Register Nov 21 2008 2:12PM GMT)
  • Base Technologies, Inc. Awarded Defense Health Information Management Systems Contract to Support In-Theater Deployed Tele-Radiology Systems (Street Insider Nov 21 2008 2:07PM GMT)
  • CRTC asked to intervene in fight over Bell Canada's military contract (National Post Nov 21 2008 1:41PM GMT)
  • Commerical aerospace looks wobbly to FBR (MarketWatch Nov 21 2008 1:22PM GMT)
  • Dassault to build aerospace-factory <em>Sims</em> (The Register Nov 21 2008 1:18PM GMT)
  • Rolls-Royce consults with employees on future employment (AviTrader Nov 21 2008 1:06PM GMT)
  • Globe/wire say Bombardier sells eight Q-400s (Stockwatch Nov 21 2008 1:06PM GMT)
  • Rolls-Royce modifies early Trent 900s to meet EASA directive (Flight International Nov 21 2008 1:01PM GMT)
  • Boeing breaks ground on expansion of China (Steel Guru Nov 21 2008 12:59PM GMT)
  • *Interview: Major General Mart De Kruif, Commander, ISAF's Regional Command South (Janes Defence Weekly Nov 21 2008 12:54PM GMT)
  • Bombardier Transportation Honoured With 2008 Frost & Sullivan Company of the Year Award for the Global Rail Market (Houston Chronicle Nov 21 2008 12:52PM GMT)
  • *Dassault well placed to make a move on Thales (Janes Defence Weekly Nov 21 2008 12:50PM GMT)
  • Alenia Aeronautica select Fiper from SIMULIA for simulation integration and collaboration (Ferret.com.au Nov 21 2008 12:49PM GMT)
  • Bombardier gets Ethiopian order (Times Colonist Nov 21 2008 12:46PM GMT)
  • UK MoD selects preferred TSV bidders (Janes Defence Weekly Nov 21 2008 12:45PM GMT)

Known issues

• Topic load time depends on timeit takes to load the RSS feed. A future version might include some caching to improve performance.
• This plugin uses the undocumented TWiki::Net::getUrl() function. The plugin might break in a future TWiki release.
• URLs on virtual hosts cannot be read, for example, TWiki:Codev/TWikiSyndication does not work. This is a limitation of TWiki::Net::getUrl()

Plugin Installation Instructions

Note: You do not need to install anything on the browser to use this plugin. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the plugin on the server where TWiki is running.

• Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
• Unzip HeadlinesPlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

  File:	Description:
  data/TWiki/HeadlinesPlugin.txt	Plugin topic
  lib/TWiki/Plugins/HeadlinesPlugin.pm	Plugin Perl module

• Test if the plugin is correctly installed:
  • Check if above example shows a news feed instead of variable.

Plugin Info

Related Topics: TWikiPreferences, TWikiPlugins

-- PeterThoeny - 02 Aug 2002
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