Re: [Fink-devel] Bug in fink news RSS 1.0 feed

[Tim Pritlove]

Hi,

sorry for not being a bit more verbose. Let me explain the problems.

I am talking about the feed at

	http://fink.sourceforge.net/news/news.rdf

If you look at the content, the following bugs show up:

1. The <channel> element does not include a <items> element.

The <items> element defines the actual content of the channel. It is  
expected to contain a <rdf:Seq> RDF Sequence of RDF List Items  
<rdf:li>. Each <rdf:li> element must have a rdf:resource attribute  
naming (pointing to) the URI of the item. This is what I referred to as  
"resource id", "resource uri" would have been more correct.

2. After the <channel> element a list of <item> is expected.

While these <item> elements are in fact there, they all have the same  
value for the rdf:about attribute which explains which resource this  
<item> refers to (again, the "resource id/uri"). Each item has the same  
URI "http://fink.sf.net/news/";. But because a URI is meant to identify  
the <item>, all items in fink's feed have the same ID, which makes it  
impossible for any standards-based RSS reader. In addition, there is no  
"channel" attribute.



The whole problem here is a basic misunderstanding of the structure of  
a RSS 1.0 feed. It actually looks more than a RSS 2.0 feed, which is a  
total different concept. For instance, the feed includes an element  
named <lastBuildDate> which has nothing to do with RSS 1.0.

Whoever generates the feed should take a close look at

	http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec

which explains the format in detail. I would not recommend switching to  
RSS 2.0 as it is neither an improvement to RSS 1.0 nor has anything to  
do with RDF (which RSS 1.0 is based on) at all.

Here is a basic sample on how the fink feed should look like  
(containing a single news item that is identified by its posting date  
and a sequence number), complete with logo. I have also replace the  
fink.sf.net domain with fink.sourceforge.net which latters  
automatically forwards to.

----------------------------------------------------

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#";
         xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/";
         xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"; >
  <channel rdf:about="http://fink.sourceforge.net/news/";>
    <title>Fink Project News</title>
    <link>http://fink.sourceforge.net/news/</link>
    <description>Fink Project News</description>
    <image rdf:resource="http://fink.sourceforge.net/img/mlogo.png"; />
	<items>
		<rdf:Seq>
			<rdf:li  
rdf:resource="http://fink.sourceforge.net/news/#2003-11 
-24%20More%20mirrors....pretty%20please%3F" />
		</rdf:Seq>
	</items>

  </channel>

  <item  
rdf:about="http://fink.sourceforge.net/news/#2003-11 
-24%20More%20mirrors....pretty%20please%3F">
    <title>More mirrors....pretty please?</title>
     
<link>http://fink.sourceforge.net/news/#2003-11 
-24%20More%20mirrors....pretty%20please%3F</link>
    <dc:date>2003-11-24</dc:date>
    <description>
        While we welcome our latest full mirror in Norway, sponsored by  
Havar Valeur,
        we crave more. To improve our service to all of you, we would  
like to ask that
        you evaluate carefully if you maybe do have the resources to  
become a mirror.
	</description>
  </item>

</rdf:RDF>

----------------------------------------------------

Please do not use the RSS validator at userland.com: it is outdated,  
buggy and written by the wrong person. feedvalidator.org is a lot  
better, but still does not check all RDF-related issues.

Hope this helps.

Greetings
Tim




On 25.11.2003, at 17:34, Benjamin Reed wrote:

Tim Pritlove wrote:

Hi,
the fink news RSS feed has a severe bug: all the items have the same  
resource ID "http://fink.sf.net/news/"; which makes it impossible for  
a RSS reader to distinguish between entries. This results in items  
being shown multiple times etc.
This should be fixed as it is not valid RDF/RSS 1.0.
Our RDF is based on some other examples I'd found.  What exactly is a  
"resource id", I see no such thing.  Unless you're referring to the  
link, which actually has a reference to an "a name" link inside the  
document (ie,  
<link>http://fink.sf.net/news/#2003-11 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</link>)

perhaps your news reader is truncating the #reference ?

or is there some other place I'm supposed to be making a unique  
identifier?

--
Benjamin Reed a.k.a. Ranger Rick -- http://ranger.befunk.com/
gpg: 6401 D02A A35F 55E9 D7DD  71C5 52EF A366 D3F6 65FE
xar!

------
Tim Pritlove, Discordian Evangelist
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://tim.geekheim.de/> <aim:timpritlove>
------
The Fifth Commandment:
A Discordian is Prohibited of Believing What he reads.


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