I was hoping to spend a little time tonight putting together a JSON-with-callback powered search page (background and links here) but it seems I can't the RSS2JSON feed to provide me with a JSON object:-(
As I don't have access to a permanent server when I'm not in work, (which means I can't pop up an RSS2JSON server of my own) this means I'm stuck...
And it means I can't provide you with a link to my searchroll/search lists demonstrator.
(You may guess though that the search roll is a list of URLs or sites that act as the focus for a search, and can be maintained via an RSS feed.)
One application area I can see for search lists is in constrained search activities for info skills development, where students are provided with a search list to search over, and they thus get to test their keyowrd/search term selection skills over a set of resources chosen by the instructor.
Thiis set of resources (the searchlist) may contain just high quality sources, or it may also contain low quality or irrelevant info sources that contaminate the resaults and help the student tune their search strategy.
Search Lists also potentially add value to recommended reading lists by allwoing the user to search within preselected texts in an effortless way.
NB when I realised that the RSS2JSON service wasnlt working for me, I did consider popping over to Ning, not to see if they had an RSS2JSON server but to see if I could build the system server side using off-the-peg Ning RSS components.
However, at first glance, it appeared there was nothing that looked immediately relevant, which got me thinking about a wishlist for Ning features.
Here's a few of them:
- simple to use RSS components;
- OpenSearch components (reminded me of this for some reason);
- components for linking into Library services - Z39.50 handler/wrappers perhaps? Or OpenURL constructors? 'cos it's taking libraries forever to open up their information to web 2.0... and with a few little tools in Ning, it'd make it much easier to assemble services...(Btw, is there a public directory of public SOAP or RESTful library services I can play with? Shame this appeared to stall);
- rss aggregator tools, for mixing results from different feeds, clearing out redundant links etc.;
- a mash creator tool - Ning has apps that wrap APIs to Google, Yahoo, Amazon, eBay etc., but I didnlt see a mash-app creator that lets you click two or three check boxes (say, Yahoo and Amazon) and then loads inthenecessary code libraries for you...
It's the simple tools I want, little things that do little things but that work together to allow you to do loads...
Posted by ajh59 at February 19, 2006 02:12 AM