.KEYWORD ceeditorial0799
.FLYINGHEAD FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
.TITLE Introducing the new Windows CE Power channels
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY We’ve been hard at work adding all sorts of interesting enhancements to Windows CE Power Magazine. This month, we added channels. Now you can display the latest Windows CE Power news headlines and article topics on your own Web site, view them through Carmen’s Headline Viewer, or read them on the My Netscape network.
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
We’ve been hard at work developing all sorts of interesting enhancements to Windows CE Power Magazine (and the other ZATZ publications). One of the most common requests we’ve gotten is for the ability to download ZATZ content to handheld devices. Unfortunately, this isn’t as simple as it might first seem.
Each month, we need to produce about 27 articles of 1,000 to 2,000 words each, 12 tip mailings, and about 240 news stories. We need to generate hundreds of pages of HTML and about 230,000 lines of HTML code. In order to make this possible, we developed an editorial production system called ZENPRESS that does all the heavy lifting for us. ZENPRESS is a tool that generates magazines online. Unlike a lot of the other HTML generators or production tools like, say Vignette’s StoryServer, ZENPRESS knows about the structure of certain kinds of publications. Although we use it primarily to generate magazines (including the front page, tables of contents, back issues, paginated pages, and so forth), ZENPRESS also knows how to make technical manuals (including cross-linking all the API calls) and hub sites.
The idea is that our writers and editors don’t need to worry about Web technology or HTML. They write their articles, determine the titles, sidebars, headers and such. Editors decide which articles are features and which are spotlighted on the home page. We can even decide when to throw a page break (which generates a new Web page with links backwards and forwards) and when to force a "keep", so the page doesn’t break. There are about two hundred more editor-friendly features, but this article isn’t about ZENPRESS specifically, so I’ll save that for another day.
In order to generate handheld content, we need to develop the capability within ZENPRESS. In particular, this is a rather large project because we need to tell ZENPRESS how to create a completely different set of pages intended for a handheld (including all of the formatting differences inherent in moving from an 800 x 600 pixel screen down to one that might be as small as 160 x 160).
One of the key aspects of this process was developing software around a concept called "shareables". ZENPRESS shareables are chunks of data that are derived from the original content of the journal but are now available to be shared by other systems. For example, to create a version of an article that’s to be downloaded to a handheld by AvantGo, we’d need to pull that article from it’s original form, modify it for AvantGo, and then share it so AvantGo could get to it.
Designing the shareables technology was a first step towards making true multi-purpose content possible and so we wrote this code first. While writing it and looking for ways to test it out, we discovered that there was an interesting side effect: we could also share our content with other Web sites and tools. This is called "syndication" and in the sense that certain elements of our site can be easily used on other sites, it’s much like the way newspapers syndicate columns or television producers syndicate TV shows. In fact, there were some simple standards designed to let us do just this.
So, we went ahead and built some "channels".
.H1 Introducing channels
Many portals use something called channels. This term was once a popular "push" concept, popularized by the "where are they now?" PointCast network. On portals like Netscape’s Netcenter, you can subscribe to the Top News channel, or the Financial News channel, or the Tech News channel. The channels contain a list of headlines which are updated throughout the day, and you can read the stories right there on the Netscape Web site.
But Netscape went one step further. They created a format, called RSS (which stands for RDF Site Summary), that site developers like us can use to create channels you can install on My.Netscape.Com. As a result, when you log into the My Netscape network, you can see our channels, along with those of other far-thinking Web developers, as shown in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Windows CE Power has two channels (News and How-Tos) on the My Netscape network. You can also see other ZATZ channels here as well.
If you’re a My.Netscape user, you can subscribe to our channels easily. Here are the subscribe links:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The Windows CE Power News channel is available at http://my.netscape.com/addchannel.tmpl?service=net.762.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The Windows CE Power How-To channel is available at http://my.netscape.com/addchannel.tmpl?service=net.761.
.END_LIST
Even earlier than Netscape’s RDF work, a fellow named Dave Winer (actually, my old boss–it’s a small world) developed a site syndication format for his My.Userland site. Userland also sells Frontier, the development tool used to build much of ZENPRESS. While his format was really the same XML-based (i.e., Extendable Markup Language) RSS format used by Netscape, he was a little more forgiving in his specifications. For example, My.Netscape limits you to nine items; Dave’s format did not. Thinking it would be interesting to see how a channel looked with both news headlines and article titles, we built a separate syndication file for Dave’s My.Userland.Com portal, as shown in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B You can get both news headlines and article titles on My.Userland.Com.
.H1 Carmen’s Headline Viewer
It’s interesting what happens once you start sharing information. One afternoon, I got an email from a programmer named Carmen. Interestingly, Carmen tells us she likes to present a mysterious aura to her many fans and would prefer we not print her last name. So from now on, she’s not only Carmen, she’s the Carmen.
In any case, Carmen has developed a neat piece of software called, appropriately, Carmen’s Headline Viewer. Carmen’s Headline Viewer lets you bypass the browser and view the headlines from popular sites in the window of a standalone application, as you can see in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C Carmen’s Headline Viewer lets you view Windows CE headlines.
We asked Carmen to help us understand why someone would want to use a standalone application instead of a web browser. Here’s what she told us:
.QUOTE Good question. A web browser is a very good general purpose client. It does a lot of things pretty well. It is good for viewing HTML and for interacting with simple sites in a fairly simple and unstructured way.
.QUOTE However, a dedicated application such as my Headline Viewer can be specialized to deal with specific types of content. Because it is structured, more is known about it and more automatic processing can be done. The same data can be presented in multiple views. It can be sorted, filtered, characterized, re-formatted, an so forth.
.QUOTE I see syndicated content and XML bringing some "law and order" to the Web in a way that is not at all heavy-handed. I do hope that the formats stay simple enough so that the barrier to entry is low. There are some big-ticket organizations getting interested in syndication, but that’s not where the fun is. The fun is when small sites with interesting and unusual information, gain a wider audience because their content becomes more accessible.
.QUOTE It may take a while, but I can see a time in the future where many of the "clients" on the Web are not humans sitting at Web browsers, but other programs that are locating and pulling down data on behalf of the user. The distinction is somewhat subtle. Right now most of the fetches from the Web are explicit. In my hypothetical future more of them will be implicit.
Carmen’s program is still in beta (version 0.8.0, as I write this) and there are a few minor gotchas with the Windows CE Power channel. Fortunately, they’re extremely easy to fix. Once you’ve downloaded her program (see Product Availability and Resources at the end of this article), you can launch her program. Then select Windows CE Power and click the Settings button. Next, click the Providers tab, as shown in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D You can add or change your channel information easily using the Providers tab.
You’ll need to change the Data URL field to:
.BEGIN_CODE
http:\//www.windowscepower.com/shares/userland-rss/channeldata.xml
.END_CODE
Next, change the Site URL to http:\//www.windowscepower.com.
Once you do this, Carmen’s Headline Viewer will show both the news headlines and article titles, as shown in Figure E.
.FIGPAIR E Carmen’s Headline Viewer now shows all the good stuff.
If you also want to view PalmPower and DominoPower Magazines using Carmen’s Headline Viewer, you won’t need to go through these changes. It all works fine "straight out of the box".
.H1 Windows CE Power headlines on your Web site
If you’re a Web site developer, you can now include the latest Windows CE Power news headlines and article titles on your site. This will add value to your site by showing your support for Windows CE Power, and by providing the latest information to your site’s visitors. To do this, we make available special "stub" files that you can incorporate into your Web site. Any time our publication is updated, these stub files are updated as well, so you can have the very latest information at all times.
You may notice that some of the URLs are not "clickable". That’s because these represent files that are read by programs running on Web servers, rather than files you can get to from your browser. If you can’t click it it means you weren’t intended to. Also, if you’re not a Web master, some of this may be a bit over your head. We don’t really have space in this editorial to go into what all of this means.
We provide a number of different formats, depending on your preferences, including Netscape RDF Site Summary format, XML, HTML, and plain text. The following sections describe how to use each.
.H2 Netscape RDF Site Summary format
If you’re using technology that’s compatible with Netscape’s RDF format (as used in my.netscape.com), you can use Windows CE Power’s syndicated RDF data. There are two available Windows CE Power RDF channels: news and articles (how-tos). Here are the URLs for both:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The News channel is http:\//www.windowscepower.com/shares/netscape-rss/headlines.rdf.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The How-Tos channel is http:\//www.windowscepower.com/shares/netscape-rss/articles.rdf.
.END_LIST
.H2 XML format
If you’re using technology that’s compatible with XML format (as used in my.userland.com), you can use Windows CE Power’s syndicated XML data. There’s a Windows CE Power channel that provides both news and how-to information. Here’s the URL you should use:
.BEGIN_CODE
http:\//www.windowscepower.com/shares/userland-rss/channeldata.xml.
.END_CODE
.H2 HTML format
Any Web site can use Windows CE Power’s syndicated HTML data. Our HTML syndication files are created without HTML wrapper information (i.e., the normal page starting and ending HTML tags) so that you can easily include our HTML stubs into your Web site’s HTML (you can even include this information in tables). There are three available Windows CE Power HTML channels: news, articles (how-tos), and a combination of both. Here are the URLs for all of them:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The News channel is at http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-html/news.html.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The How-Tos channel is at http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-html/articles.html.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET To display both channels, use http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-html/channeldata.html.
.END_LIST
If you don’t want to cut and paste the HTML information and you don’t use an automated production tool, consider using frames. You can create a frame whose data source is one of the above URLs and, in doing so, your page will automatically display the channel data from Windows CE Power.
.H2 Plain Text format
We also offer plain text format data. Our text syndication files are made available so that you can easily include our plain text files on your site. They’re also quite easy to parse if you use any automated production technology. There are three available Windows CE Power plain text channels: news, articles (how-tos), and a combination of both. Here are the URLs for all of them:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The News channel is at http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-text/news.txt.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET The How-Tos channel is at http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-text/articles.txt.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET To display both channels, use http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-text/channeldata.txt.
.END_LIST
.H2 Terms and conditions of use
You are welcome to include this information anywhere on your Web site. However, we do ask that you only include information provided from the URLs listed above. Please do not re-post or re-use actual articles or portions of our publication (doing so would be a copyright violation). We also ask that if you do use our headlines and/or article titles that you both credit the publication and include the publication’s URL (which is http://www.windowscepower.com).
.BEGIN_KEEP
.H1 Onward towards new development
Our new channels are exciting, but they’re only one step along the path of true multi-use content. We’re working hard on scaling our content so there’s a handheld version as well. Stay tuned. Oh, and if you use any of our channels on your site, let us know at info@windowscepower.com.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product Availability and Resources
You can download Carmen’s Headline Viewer from http://www.vertexdev.com/HeadlineViewer/.
Read more about the value of My.Netscape channels at http://www.rc3.org/outraged/. Although the URL says "outraged", in this case, the author’s pretty impressed.
.H2 Netscape formats
You can join the My.Netscape network at http://my.netscape.com.
You can subscribe to our news channel at http://my.netscape.com/addchannel.tmpl?service=net.762 and our how-tos channel at http://my.netscape.com/addchannel.tmpl?service=net.761.
Our Netscape RDF format news channel data file is at http:\//www.windowscepower.com/shares/netscape-rss/headlines.rdf.
Our article titles channel data file is at http:\//www.windowscepower.com/shares/netscape-rss/articles.rdf.
.H2 Userland format
You can join the My.Userland.Com service at http://my.userland.com. Dave’s also got lots of other interesting comments on channels (and just about everything else) at his Scripting News site at http://www.scripting.com.
Our longer XML format channel data file is at http:\//www.windowscepower.com/shares/userland-rss/channeldata.xml.
.H2 HTML format
Our wrapper-free HTML format channels are available at:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET News channel: http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-html/news.html.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET How-Tos channel: http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-html/articles.html.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Both channels: http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-html/channeldata.html.
.END_LIST
.H2 Plain Text format
Our Plain Text format channel files are available at:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET News channel: http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-text/news.txt.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET How-Tos channel: http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-text/articles.txt.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Both channels: http://www.windowscepower.com/shares/news-articles-text/channeldata.txt.
.END_LIST
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO David Gewirtz is Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of ZATZ:Pure Internet Publishing. With the fine ZATZ team, he publishes Windows CE Power, DominoPower, and PalmPower Magazines. He’s also the author of The Flexible Enterprise and Lotus Notes Revealed! He can be reached via email at david@zatz.com.
.END_KEEP
