Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I am wondering if it is a good idea to offer these stories like a news feed where other sites can choose the random stories that they want through criterias like:
Topic (from Jokes, poems, holidays, harry potter, etc)
Rating (we rate every single story 1-5)
Date (by month,year)
Country
Age range
If I do it via javascript code, I can allow the user to configure the layout, colors, etc and I am able to insert a link back to my site. This requires a minimum of effort from the part of the linker. All they have to do is to cut and paste the javascript to their page and will get the random stories.
If I do it via XML, I have no control over the display, attribution or link back to me.
I would appreciate any feedback at all. Thanks in advance.
My users will most likely be personal webs, classroom sites, mom and pop sites. Not everyone is a hotshot webmaster who can use RSS. They just need something simple they can cut and paste code into their web page and off they go.
They don't need to be if you write the code for them. :)
In order to pull that data and use it on on a remote site they'll either need to have direct access to your db using a uname/pwd (NOT a good idea) or you'll need to provide them some means of accessing it using one of the data distribution methods like SOAP, RSS, and RPC. Alternately you could build them a web page that they can call.
The point here is that while cabbagehead's suggestion may seem simplistic, it is a viable option among others - all of which would require programming knowledge (with the exception of you building a page) on the part of whoever wants to display your data - unless you write the Client for them.
If you wrote the Client for them (don't forget you'll need to write the Server too) then you'll have made their lives that much easier. But then, there's the question of if their webserver will support the Client you write (not every webserver is equally endowed) or maybe they'll just try it and email you if it doesn't work. I'm guessing here.
But I think if you wrote a simple PHP XML-RPC Client/Server tool and formatted the Client in a handful of ways (so they have different display options - think Google/Amazon ads) then that should work well.
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I was thinking in line with amazon/google ads style of inserting data. I am happy to do that even though it is a bit of work on my part.
It seems to be the only way that I can ensure that the user inlcude a link back to my site. Is that right?
Can you ensure a link back in any other way like RSS, etc?
Javascript versions have an automatic link back, but with RSS versions, I just request that people link back - I can't force them.
Most people are pretty good at doing this, although generally people go for the Javascript option anyway, simply because it's easier.
How about writing a system that can extract the data, and allow you to output it in pretty much any format you like. Offer only the Javascript version on the site, but make it clear you have other options for getting the feeds, and asking people to contact you for details.
That way you get to speak to anyone thinking of including your data in larger sites and build a relationship with them beforehand. You'd have a better chance of getting them to link back to you, and be better able to track where the data is going.
A feed that can be integrated directly into a site via something other than Javascript is probably more valuable to you if you can encourage people to link back - search engines can follow the links, you can build PageRank, and users have the chance to cache the data locally rather than requesting a new copy for every user that goes to their site.
Thanks for that. It was useful and interesting to know that people will choose javascript anyway.
I think I will start off with the Javascript option first and see if anyone asks for the RSS/xml version.
Would you be able to sticky mail me your url so that I can have a look at how you present your javascript?
A feed that can be integrated directly into a site via something other than Javascript is probably more valuable to you if you can encourage people to link back - search engines can follow the links, you can build PageRank, and users have the chance to cache the data locally rather than requesting a new copy for every user that goes to their site.
Are you saying that a javascript include link will not be treated as a link from that page by a search engine?
Are you saying that a javascript include link will not be treated as a link from that page by a search engine?
Correct - search engines don't parse Javascript, so won't see the link. However you will still get traffic from visitors to the person's site who click on your link.
True for the most part but we we told at the last PubCon that Google was working on this. In any case, encasing your link within javascript does make it very difficult for a bot to follow.
Had a look at Domramsay's site and he has a good RSS feed going with a nice feedback on who's using it. I will use that feature...
