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mweinberger
Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 9
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 Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 7:41 pm |
 
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Hi All,
I looked at the export feature and although nice, it wasn't what I had in mind. FFA now creates "static" html documents that it can base on a template.
What I had in mind is what like Sharon recommended me, whereby FFA could provide a RSS-to-JavaScript tool to convert the news feed live to a web feed. For the immediate moment, I implemented
RSS-to-JavaScript.com
They don't provide much in the way of templates and they stick in a "powered by..." message. Could you add such a converter to ffa in a future release? I'd love that, especially if it had templates, where I could doctor up the look.
Thanks again and great product.
Martin A. Weinberger
ButterflyVista[/i]
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mweinberger
Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 9
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Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:38 pm |
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Hi All,
I just found out that RSS-to-Javasript is not really live. It does the conversion once and that is all. Maybe, I would assume, that there might be the possibility of a future update, but it definitely isn't live. Back to the drawing boad. This would be a great add on feature for FFA. I'll look through the others tomorrow. Don't have time today.
Is my feedback helpful?
-Martin.[/i]
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Guest
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Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 8:47 pm |
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Hi Martin,
There are some online tools that do it as well. The benefit to using java is that it is dynamic and updates when the feed is updated. The downside to java is that search engines don't see it as content for spidering. :-(
At some we'll have java you can put on a page that could pull info from feeds but I don't know how short term that will be.
Your feedback is VERY helpful please keep up the good work! :-)
Sharon
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mweinberger
Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 9
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Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 9:01 pm |
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Hi Sharon,
I lied. I tried one more today (Feed2JS). This one doesn't put a "powered by" at the bottom but is also just as bad. I see the RSS file display nicely, but any updates to the RSS feed do not appear on the rendered page. The site claims a dynamic conversion, but that obviously is not the case. I could delete the RSS file and still see the news feed! At least it is a start.
Additonal commnents:
1. You're mising Alt key support. I tried to look for "Alt+F, S" to save and noticed that FFA doesn't support keyboard shortcuts.
2. The list of feeds should scroll or be multi-column. Currently you display the path in your ListBox but only the first n characterss display, so I don't see the actual file name or the name of the feed. I would recommend the following.
* Show a user friendly name (and/or)
* show the file name, not the complete path. If a user hovers the mouse over the line, then display the full path. Seeing, "C:\Documents\Businesses\ButterflyVi" in the ListBox for several feeds is not very helpful.
* I hate to sound like an old fart, especially since I'm not, but the image that you use for the save is not obvious, even though I know it. I would recommend using the industry starndard "floppy" convention. I've been trained to immediately see that out of the corner of my eye. A folder with a dot (or whatever it is) looks cute but misses the point of being functional. I shouldn't have to think about how to save. No?
-Martin
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mweinberger
Joined: 29 Aug 2004
Posts: 9
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Posted: Tue Aug 31, 2004 9:43 pm |
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This second service does update the feed, but not immediately. It takes about an hour. They also provide source code for free, which I can upload. As soon as I get a chance, I'll do that. Anyways, my issue is now almost solved, although it still might be a nice addition to FFA.
Another suggestion, offer users various icons (RSS icons) that they can include in their website, so that user's can click on the icon to access the XML file. Maybe you could offer html code that includes the icon and explanation of RSS for user. Just a thought.
-Martin
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