Best Ever Albums

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

albummaster — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 15:03:33 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 02/14/2011 20:03

Just as a postscript to this thread, we now have our own dedicated page which lists all of our RSS feeds.

We also have a Resources page which contains a widget that you can use to share your chart on the social networks.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

albummaster — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:19:43 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 04/18/2010 18:19

I like how the chart looks on your spaces site, it's a shame that the title hyperlink doesn't render correctly. I might drop a note to Microsoft as we can't be the only people who want that functionality.

EDIT: I've now sent a suggestion to Microsoft but am not holding my breath.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

RFNAPLES — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:51:52 GMT

Author: RFNAPLES

Posted: 04/18/2010 17:51

Yes I agree it is the fault of spaces.live.com not BEA. Spaces only reports item titles/links, not chanel title/link. I hope my placement of BestEverAlbums.com in the title is adequate source notification for this site.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

albummaster — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 13:20:28 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 04/18/2010 17:20

I think that is a flaw with Microsoft's RSS parser and not with the above code. The link is in the correct place within the schema but MS are choosing not to render it. I'll look at creating some widgets people can use on external websites.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

RFNAPLES — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:57:42 GMT

Author: RFNAPLES

Posted: 04/18/2010 16:57

Works now! Still can't display chanel title with hyperlink.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

RFNAPLES — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:52:57 GMT

Author: RFNAPLES

Posted: 04/18/2010 16:52

albummaster wrote:

In the meantime, we've changed the feeds slightly, the file format remains the same (as this is the RSS standard) but instead of the URL that I gave earlier (with the .php extension), we now provide the following:

Individual chart feeds:

Code:

http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/BestEverAlbumsdotCom_[YourUserName]_BestAlbums.xml

e.g. http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/Bes...Albums.xml

(If your user name contains one or more spaces, replace each space with a hyphen.)

Your example works, but when I insert my shortcut (copied directly from my chart) it doesn't work. When I click on the rss logo it doesn't work either. The old code worked fine with the exception of not reporting the chanel title.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

albummaster — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 12:04:39 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 04/18/2010 16:04

We'll look into creating some gadgets for the more popular social networking sites. In the meantime, we've changed the feeds slightly, the file format remains the same (as this is the RSS standard) but instead of the URL that I gave earlier (with the .php extension), we now provide the following:

Individual chart feeds:

Code:

http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/BestEverAlbumsdotCom_[YourUserName]_BestAlbums.xml

e.g. http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/Bes...Albums.xml

(If your user name contains one or more spaces, replace each space with a hyphen.)

Overall chart feed:

Code:

http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/BestEverAlbumsdotCom_OverallChart.xml

e.g. http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/Bes...lChart.xml

Chart feed for any year:

Code:

http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/BestEverAlbumsdotCom_BestAlbumsOf[Year].xml

e.g. http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/Bes...Of1968.xml

Chart feed for any decade:

Code:

http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/BestEverAlbumsdotCom_BestAlbumsOfThe[Decade]s.xml

e.g. http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/Bes...e1990s.xml

The individual charts will update every time you change your chart. The aggregated chart feeds will update once per day.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

RFNAPLES — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:14:00 GMT

Author: RFNAPLES

Posted: 04/18/2010 13:14

My website is at http://rfnaples.spaces.live.com/ Microsoft uses some kind of RSS feed module that can display up to 10 items from the feed web address along with a non-hyperlinked feed name-not the chanel title and link. I guess some type of Windows Live Galery gadget could be written to provide a dynamic feed name link.

It would be nice also to have an easy method to show the feeds in MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.

Anatomy of the RSS feeds

albummaster — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 03:42:53 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 04/18/2010 07:42

Hi guys, thanks for the feedback.

HyperBully, these are exactly the things that we would like to help create. A Facebook app sounds a great idea but shouldn't be too difficult to do so we'll have a look at their API and see what's involved.

RFNAPLES, it's very interesting you've tried to do this already. I'll paste below a snippet of the RSS schema:

Code:

<?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="http://www.besteveralbums.com/bea.css" ?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>BestEverAlbums.com - Best Albums of 2000 RSS feed</title>[color=red]<link>http://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=2000&src=rss</link>[/color]
<description>RSS feed listing the best albums of 2000 as determined by their overall aggregate performance on BestEverAlbums.com.</description
<ttl>60</ttl>

<item>
<title>1. Kid A - Radiohead</title>
<link>http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=1002&src=rss</link>
<guid>http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=1002</guid><description><![CDATA[<table><tr><td rowspan="2" valign="top"><a title="Click to see the rankings for 'Kid A' by Radiohead " href="thechart.php?a=1002"><img alt="Album" height="65" width="65" src="http://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_small_1002.jpg"></a> </td><td><b>Kid A - Radiohead</b></td></tr><tr><td>Buy Kid A by Radiohead: <a class="buyitunes" target="_blank" title="Click to buy Kid A from iTunes" href="http://itunes.apple.com/es/album/Kid+A/id280367135?partnerId=30&siteID=l8BTHAOCzhU"> </a> <a href="http://www.besteveralbums.com/jump.php?s=amazon&id=1002&type=album" class="nav2">Amazon</a> <a class="buyebay" rel="nofollow" title="Click to buy from eBay.es" href="http://www.besteveralbums.com/jump.php?s=ebay&id=1002&type=album"> </a></td></tr></table> View this chart on BestEverAlbums.com: <a href=http://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=2000&src=rss>Best Albums of 2000</a>]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title>2. The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem</title>
<link>http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=99&src=rss</link>
<guid>http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=99</guid><description><![CDATA[<table><tr><td rowspan="2" valign="top"><a title="Click to see the rankings for 'The Marshall Mathers LP' by Eminem " href="thechart.php?a=99"><img alt="Album" height="65" width="65" src="http://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_small_99.jpg"></a> </td><td><b>The Marshall Mathers LP - Eminem</b></td></tr><tr><td>Buy The Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem: <a class="buyitunes" target="_blank" title="Click to buy The Marshall Mathers LP from iTunes" href="http://itunes.apple.com/es/album/The+Marshall+Mathers+LP/id362114?partnerId=30&siteID=l8BTHAOCzhU"> </a> <a href="http://www.besteveralbums.com/jump.php?s=amazon&id=99&type=album" class="nav2">Amazon</a> <a class="buyebay" rel="nofollow" title="Click to buy from eBay.es" href="http://www.besteveralbums.com/jump.php?s=ebay&id=99&type=album"> </a></td></tr></table> View this chart on BestEverAlbums.com: <a href=http://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=2000&src=rss>Best Albums of 2000</a>]]></description>
</item>

<item>
<title>3. Parachutes - Coldplay</title>
<link>http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=68&src=rss</link>
<guid>http://www.besteveralbums.com/thechart.php?a=68</guid>
<description><![CDATA[<table><tr><td rowspan="2" valign="top"><a title="Click to see the rankings for 'Parachutes' by Coldplay " href="thechart.php?a=68"><img alt="Album" height="65" width="65" src="http://albumart.besteveralbums.com/albumart/album_small_68.jpg"></a> </td><td><b>Parachutes - Coldplay</b></td></tr><tr><td>Buy Parachutes by Coldplay: <a class="buyitunes" target="_blank" title="Click to buy Parachutes from iTunes" href="http://itunes.apple.com/es/album/Parachutes/id250524932?partnerId=30&siteID=l8BTHAOCzhU"> </a> <a href="http://www.besteveralbums.com/jump.php?s=amazon&id=68&type=album" class="nav2">Amazon</a> <a class="buyebay" rel="nofollow" title="Click to buy from eBay.es" href="http://www.besteveralbums.com/jump.php?s=ebay&id=68&type=album"> </a></td></tr></table> View this chart on BestEverAlbums.com: <a href=http://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=2000&src=rss>Best Albums of 2000</a>]]></description>
</item>

</channel>
</rss>

As you can see above, each feed comprises of a single channel element and one or more item elements:

Channel
Title - the title of the RSS feed
Link - a link to the relevant web page for this RSS feed (RFNAPLES, this is where the link is located back to your chart)
Description - a description of this RSS feed
TTL - number of minutes a channel can be cached before refreshing from the source (no need to refresh this feed more times than this as the data is unlikely to change. Data should be cached on the calling website in-between calls).

Following the 'channel' section. there are one or more 'item' sections in every chart feed. Each 'item' represents the albums/ranks within a chart.

item
Title - will always be a name of an album and its rank within the chart. The feed will always be in the correct sequence (the top-ranked album will be at the beginning of the feed).
Link - URL to the relevant album on BEA
Guid - Unique ID of this item within the feed (an album is unique within a chart hence using the URL again here)
Description - this is a HTML formatted representation of an album/rank but you may choose to ignore this on your own website and render your own version using the Item->Title element.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

RFNAPLES — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 21:26:46 GMT

Author: RFNAPLES

Posted: 04/18/2010 01:26

albummaster wrote:

I'm not sure if everybody is aware or not, but if anyone wants to syndicate any of the lists on this site onto other websites, you are welcome to do so, so long as there is an acknowledgment or a link back to this site.

We have RSS feeds for any of the individual charts on this site, for any year or decade; and for the overall chart.

It is possible to use these RSS feeds from BEA to create a dynamically changing list on other websites e.g. display rss feed on website.

albummaster

I have syndicated my individual chart by using the RSS feed from BEA to create a dynamically changing list on my website. Unfortunately, other than showing BestEverAlbums.com in the feed title, I can't display links back to the site title page or my chart, just to the 10 individual albums listed.

Re: RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

HyperBully — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:15:12 GMT

Author: HyperBully

Posted: 04/17/2010 21:15

Is it at all possible to embed your chart on a Facebook page? It could be a little application box on the side of your profile page that displayed your top 5 or so albums and provided a link back to the site for the rest of the chart. Or it could be an app with it's own tab on your profile that displayed your full chart and provided a link to the rest of the site. Sorry if anything like this is already available, I was just wondering.

RSS feeds and syndicating content to other websites

albummaster — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:12:18 GMT

Author: albummaster

Posted: 04/17/2010 18:12

I'm not sure if everybody is aware or not, but if anyone wants to syndicate any of the lists on this site onto other websites, you are welcome to do so, so long as there is an acknowledgment or a link back to this site.

To save re-keying the charts on this site (which are always changing) your external site could subscribe to a RSS feed which will automatically update when a chart changes e.g. http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/Bes...Of1972.xml (best albums of 1972) or http://www.besteveralbums.com/feeds/Bes...lChart.xml (overall chart).

We have RSS feeds for any of the individual charts on this site, for any year or decade; and for the overall chart.

It is possible to use these RSS feeds from BEA to create a dynamically changing list on other websites e.g. display rss feed on website.

I'd love to help create some widgets to allow people to share the content on this site so if anybody has any ideas or wants some assistance, then please ask here.

albummaster