June 20, 2007
OPML Dashboard View: A Glanceable Display of Recent Social Bookmarks
Having got the OPML Dashboard Display prototype posted, I had a quick look around some of my previous OPML generating tools to see which ones would obviously benefit from a dashboard view. First up is the Social Bookmarks Feed Roller, which allows you to generate an OPML feed containing links to user-specified tagged feeds from some of the most popular social bookmarking sites.
OUseful web page application: new, improved social bookmarks feed roller ;-)
What this tool does is let you generate an online OPML file that points to a set of RSS feeds from one or more social bookmarking systems using one or more user names and tags.
For example, you can generate links to feeds from several different tags on you own social bookmarking account to provide you with a birds eye view of the latest links you have save to those particular tags (use a single user name and several tags to generate the OPML). Here's an example with half a dozen tags from my delicious account: single user, multiple tags demo.
Alternatively, if you a part of a group that is collecting resources using the same group tag on personal accounts across one or more social bookmarking sites, you can easily generate a feed that will provide you with an overview of the latest bookmarks from each individual (use several user names and a single tag to generate the OPML; note that at the current time, a link to the feed from each individual on each selected social bookmarking site will be generated). Here's an example with the same tag from half a dozen delicious users (identified from my delicious network): multiple users, single tag demo (OPML Dashboard), multiple users, single tag demo (Grazr).
To create the current version of the app I tweaked the original Social Bookmarking OPML Feed Roller app by adding a couple links of OPML feed display tool links. In particular, it's now possible to open an automatically generated online OPML feed for a particular profile directly into an OPML Dashboard display, as well as a Grazr widget view.
Once you have opened the dashboard display, you can of course bookmark the page and revisit it for live bookmark updates whenever you choose.
More complex OPML files an be created on-page by generating an OPML Roll from a set of selected profiles. In order to view this compound OPML feed, you will have to select the OPML code, save it to a file, and upload it to an OPML hosting site such as Grazr.com.
Try it out here: Social Bookmarking Service OPML Feed Roller.
You can also find a link to the service from the main OPML Dashboard homepage.
Posted by ajh59 at June 20, 2007 12:47 AM