Using Auto-detectable Feed Links

by Destry Wion  ::  published 13 August 05    

In this article I am going to explain how to subscribe to my journal feed so that articles I write are fed to your Web browser rather than you having to remember to come here to read them.

I am going to explain the process just like I do it myself when I read syndicated content from other Web sites; by way of the Firefox Web browser and the Sage feed reader extension. This is not the only way to accomplish things but it is certainly an efficient, effective, and absolutely free method. In the course of this explanation I will clarify a few terms I just used, such as “subscribe” and “feed,” as well as introduce a few others, such as content syndication. I will also explain how Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is implemented in Wion Design, and suggest why it is a better implementation with respect to users of my site.

Let’s go over some of the basics first.

What is content syndication?

Very simply, and with the understanding that we are talking about Web content here, content syndication is the process of producing content (whether text or multimedia) at a given source location and pushing that content by way of Extensible Markup Language (XML) protocols to anyone else in the world who has an interest in using that content, whether to read it, listen to it, or watch it.

You might be saying to yourself, “hey, I can go to any Web site and read, listen, or watch anything I want already, what’s the difference?” The difference is that you have to physically do that; you have to go somewhere else on the Web, and if you have a lot of favorite places, then your information hunting-and-gathering process can be quite time-consuming. Even more, you are likely to forget all the places you would like to go; the Internet is a very distracting place, to say the least. On the other hand, by taking advantage of content syndication, you don’t have to go searching anywhere or remember to do anything; the content of your liking is fed to you, right to your browser or desktop application for you to skim and choose as you desire.

How does Web content syndication work?

To be sure, content syndication does not just happen by magic, though technology can seem pretty magical at times; there needs to be two things in place to make it work.

First, a Web site that is producing content needs to have a particular XML file in place. This XML file is often referred to as a “news feed,” or simply just “feed” (I will call it a feed from hereon). The feed is what does the content feeding, naturally, and “feeding” simply means making content available for collection by a particular application that can interprete (read) the feed.

The application I speak of is the other technical component that needs to be in place to make syndication work, and this needs to be in the possesion of the content user (the person reading the articles being published). The technical word for these applications is “aggregator,” but they are more easily understood and often referred to as feed readers, because that is what they do—they read the feed being fed from the content source Web site.

Okay, so we have a feed on the source Web site that is created for one reason, to provide published content to users, and we have a user in possesion of a feed reader—now what? Well now it’s easy; the person with the feed reader initially visits the source Web site to introduce the two technical components. The introduction can happen in two ways, and largely depends on how the source Web site implemented the feed to begin with.

On the one hand, if the feed was implemented in a given source Web site to be auto-detectable, then a user’s feed reader can automatically detect the feed when the site is visited, and the feed can be easily added to the feed reader’s collection of links by a simple click (or two) of the mouse. This is the good way, the best way, the easiest scenario for the user. Unfortunately, it’s not the way most Web site owners implement their feeds, whether out of laziness or lack of knowledge.

On the other hand, if the feed was implemented in the source Web site as a direct link to the XML file (the more common situation), then a user would need to know how to use the link that points to the feed file in such a way as to add it manually to a feed reader. Sound complicated? Yeah, it can be, which is why the auto-detectable method above is much better. In fact, it is somewhat irresponsible for a content syndicator to not implement their feed as auto-detectable; not only is this an extra step on the part of the user (which is never ideal), but it also risks confusing potential first-time feed users, as they may not know what to do with the linked file (which is nothing, it’s actually just the link to the file that a user has to manually deal with, not the file itself). Even more, users might not realize they are supposed to do anything at all, and since most content syndicators don’t provide information about how to use their feeds, this is bad for everyone.

Where does Wion Design fit into this?

Wion Design has implemented feeds for the journal part of this site using the better method, auto-detectable feeds. The rest of this article describes how to take advantage of auto-detectable feeds, here at Wion Design, or anywhere else.

Collecting “Auto-detectable” Feeds, Sage Style

There are many kinds of feed readers available, both free and at cost, Web-based and desktop, and for all operating system types, but that is all out of scope here. As mentioned in the beginning of this article, I’m going to explain how to use a feed reader exactly as I do it myself when reading content from other sites. I am going to discuss feed reading with respect to using a nifty reader called Sage. If you follow the method I am about to describe, you should not be disappointed.

Step 1: Installing the Firefox Web Browser

To begin, you are going to need to download—and start using—the Firefox Web browser (if you are not already using it) because Sage can only be used with Firefox. When downloading, simply follow the Firefox download wizard and do everything it suggests. Be sure to indicate that you want Firefox to be your “default” browser when the wizard asks you this question. (Again, let me remind you, Firefox is 100% free, and it should take all of 5 minutes to download, install, and start using.)

Step 2: Installing and setting-up the Sage feed reader

When you have Firefox in place, the next thing you need to do is download Sage. Sage happens to be an extremely satisfying feed reader. As with the Firefox download, simply use the download wizard to install Sage and do everything the wizard suggests.

After you have successfully installed Sage, you will need to close Firefox (if you have it open) and relaunch it again; this will initiate Sage as an integrated extension accessible from the “Tools” menu in the Firefox menu bar.

However, you can make Sage even more accessible than that; you can actually add the attractive Sage button to the button bar so that using Sage is just a button click away. To do this, simply use your mouse and right click anywhere in the Firefox menu bar where nothing is occupying space (e.g. to the right of the ‘Help’ menu). You will see a small pop-up with three items; click the last one called ‘Customize’. A window will appear that gives you button options that you can add or remove from the button bar. Look for the button that has a single, green sage leaf (looking a bit more like a green feather)... . Add the button to the button bar by simply dragging it to the position you want it to be.

For example, Figure 1 shows all the buttons I am currently using in Firefox; you can see my Sage button positioned between the browser ‘Home’ button (white house with yellow roof) and the ‘New Tab’ button (white tab with green plus sign).

Congratulations, you have just installed the fabulous Firefox browser and Sage feed reader. Now, let’s put them to work.

Step 3: Introducing Sage to my feed link

Here at Wion Design, I have my feed file implemented in such a way that your Firefox Web browser will automatically detect the file. This is a good thing, and we will use this auto-detection to initially introduce your Sage feed reader to my feed file; thereafter, all content I write will be immediately available in your feed reader for quick and easy reading.

First, use Firefox and return to Wion Design, if you are not already there. You can either be on the home page, the journal page, or the journal archives page, it makes no difference. On any of these pages, look to the top of the Web browser, in the Web address bar, and specifically to the right side of the bar next to the dropdown arrow button. You should see a little, orange button that looks like this .

Move your cursor over the the little orange button and hold it there a second. You will see a popup title that reads “Add Live Bookmark…” Click the little, orange button; another popup will appear having to lines of text that read as follows…

Add 'Wion Design Journal' as Live Bookmark...
Add 'STC-SIG Reading and Use' as Live Bookmark...
Add 'Textpattern Insights' as Live Bookmark... 

Each line represents a different feed that I’m serving from my site. You have the option of picking either of these feeds, or both (one at a time). The first feed serves all articles that I post in the journal, the other two are feeds for particular journal categories. For each feed you select, another popup window appears that allows you to save the feed’s “Live” link to your Bookmarks folder, in whatever folder you want to create.

It is very good practice to organize all Live links you collect under one top level folder so you can easily find them in your Bookmarks list later. I simply have a top-level folder called “Sage” which I organize all my Live links under, in separate subfolders if necessary.

First, click on the feed link title indicated above; a popup window called ‘Add Bookmark’ will appear that allows you to save the feed’s link to your Bookmarks directory (Figure 2). We still need to create your ‘Sage Feeds’ folder, so click the browse-to-folder button at the far right of the popup (Figure 2 indicates the button with a green circle).

A new ‘Add Bookmark’ popup will appear that gives you the ability to create a new folder in your Bookmarks directory (Figure 3). Click the ‘New Folder…’ button at the bottom of the popup (Figure 3 indicates the button with a green oval).

A third popup window will appear called ‘Properties for “New Folder”, which has a place for adding a folder Name and a folder Description (Figure 4). You only need to give your folder a name, the description is optional. In the Name field, replace the words New Folder by typing in *Sage Feeds*, then click the ‘OK’ button. The previous popup will reappear (Figure 3), but this time your new folder will be added to the list of Bookmarks and highlighted as well; simply click the ‘OK’ button and the TCT feed link will be added to your new Sage Feeds folder in the Bookmarks directory.

You now have the ability to collect Live feed links from any site you visit, so long as the site has Live feeds available. You will know whether or not they do by seeing the little orange button on their site (this is the auto-detect process taking effect between Sage and the feed).

If you have not already, save one of the Wion Design feed links in your Bookmarks.

Step 4: Seeing Sage in action

Now, to see Sage in its full glory, click the Sage button you added in step 2. Your Firefox browser window will be divided into two regions, the right will remain a Web page view, and a new left region (much narrower) will be a folder/file tree view of all the Sage links you have collected to date. (If your just doing this for the first time, then the only link you should see is the one for Wion Design that you just created above.) Click the Wion Design link in the left folder view. The right Web view will change, producing a very organized reading list of all the Wion Design articles being served by the given feed. The articles will be sequentially numbered in the view (1, 2, 3, ... et cetera), the first number represents the most recent article published in the journal, or the most recent article in a journal category, depending on which feed link you saved. The second numbered article is the second latest article published, and so forth.

At this point it should be pretty clear what the benefits are here; as long as you have a Live link bookmarked, Sage will henceforth communicate with the source Web site and always update your article feeds (this is the Live aspect, and is why the link is called a “Live” link). Never again will you have to go to a Web site to see if there is new content; you simply start Firefox, check your Sage feed links, and see from a quick glance if new content has been published; if it is, you read it right where you are at. This is Web content syndication at its simplest!

What if there’s no auto-detectable feed?

If a site you visit does not have the little orange feed button, but you know they have a feed link (indicated by way of another RSS, Atom, or XML link somewhere in their Web site), you can add their link manually to your Bookmarks list which then makes it Live for you thereafter. To do this, see Manually Adding Feed Links to Firefox.

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