June 14, 2007
OPML Powered Dashboard Prototype - sort of...
Picking up on the previous post on OPML Powered Dashboards, I couldn't resist seeing how easy it would be to build a demonstrator OPML powered dashboard using pre-existing components pulled off the web.
A quick search turned up an OPML2HTML Javascript routine, which I complemented with this XML import routine and the Google AJAX Feed API. The feed API loads feeds into a page with a single line of code, via an RSS2JSON proxy (which gets around security issues), as well as offering display routines.
So here it is (only tested in Firefox...): minimal OPML powered dashboard.
The feed displayed currently needs to reside on the local server in accordance with browser security policies. For the three column display to work properly, the OPML file must be of a particular form, in particular using the column:left, column:middle, column:right naming convention referred to in the previous post.
Other layout strategies are possible of course (e.g. just trundling through the OPML file and distributing the feed panels across each column).
At the moment, the only OPML elements that are recognised are the column outline elements and elements that point to RSS feeds. As mentioned in the previous post, it should also be easy enough to display straghtforward text/HTML in a simple text panel.
More of a challenge would be trying to handle GrazrScript... ;-)
All told, it took no longer than a couple of hours of tinkering to get the demo together, including finding the code resources and a basic 3 column CSS style. Sorting out the styling is the next challenge, and one I always have to battle with. Checking the code for cross-browser Javascript and CSS gripes is also required.
Posted by ajh59 at June 14, 2007 09:10 PM