June 14, 2007
OPML Powered Dashboards
Since posting about the OU Institutional Dashboard Using Pageflakes, I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about this sort of surface and how they could be used to both manage and display OPML feeds:
In the first case - OPML feed management - feeds displayed on a dashboard tab could be made available via a derived OPML feed. (Netvibes allows you to export your whole feed collection, but not generate an OPML feed corresponding to the panels on a particular tab, I think?)
For example, here’s a an OPML version of the OU News tab:
(Here’s the actual OPML feed; and here’s one for the OUt There tab.)
This code is derived (handcrafted) from the feed panels contained on the corresponding tab of the OUseful Dashboard. It would be nice to see this sort of OPML feed made available from each tab.
I’ve actually grouped the feed links into folders that represent the columns on the PageFlakes page, to make explicit the intention being that surfaces like PageFlakes should also be able to display OPML files. Round-tripping could then be provided in two ways:
- An OPML file could be used to import a set of feed links into a tab. Pageflakes sort of offers this at the moment - an OPML file can be uploaded to a tab, wherein the OPMLd feed links are bookmarked and can then be placed on the tab as individual panels. I suggested to the PageFlakes chaps that as well as OPML file upload, import from an OPML URL should also be supported (as it is in OPML Manager, for example), so that may be on the cards some time soon?
By exporting as well as importing OPML, this also provides an ad hoc mechanism for grabbing a copy of a particular dashboard tab. - An OPML file could be used to feed a live set of feed URLs into a tab, turning the tab into an OPML reading list viewer. Grazr already does this, of course, but it doesn’t offer the dashboard style view that PageFlakes and Netvibes do. Subscribing to an OPML feed could then populate a tab from the OPML feed contents. The feed linked to above shows how it’s also possible to add a small amount of structure (which column to put each feed panel into) to the feed, albeit in a clumsy, clunky way. OPML feeds can also be used to define the contents of several tabs, as this (evolving) OUseful Dashboard OPML feed (via Grazr) demonstrates.
At the moment, I have just used the OPML to transport feed URLs around, but OPML as currently defined also allows you to transport HTML around inside an OPML item. This would be ideal for populating a simple HTML note panel, for example.
Being able to add functional items to a panel would also be possible by making use of something like GrazrScript. (For example, GrazrScript is used to define the OpenLearn search widget that appears on the first OUseful Dashboard tab.
Now there’s a thought: PageFlakes and Grazr joining forces...
In the meantime, how hard could it be to generate a panelled display from an OPML feed using something like Chris Ravensroft’s "Create your own WebTop in php/js in no time" approach? ;-)
Posted by ajh59 at June 14, 2007 12:25 PM