Any need for RSS generator?

[Rarst]

First huge thanks for this great program. I use it alot and like it alot.

Only thing it lacks for me - RSS functionality (even forum search only gives few dusty topics). So I made small program that generates RSS feed with links and such for folders shared in my HFS. Programming language used - AutoIt v3 ( http://www.autoitscript.com/ ). It's bit messy since I made it for myself but it works and produces valid RSS 2.0 feeds.

So I decided to ask:

1. If someone interested in such feed generator?
2. If HFS author ok with me posting source code for my prog here (in case someone wants it which depends on first question )?

[Foggy]

1. If someone interested in such feed generator?

I have no need for one currently but someone else might.

2. If HFS author ok with me posting source code for my prog here (in case someone wants it which depends on first question )?

I highly doubt rejetto would have any problems with that.

What is contained in the rss feed?

[Rarst]

What is contained in the rss feed?

Each RSS item (message) has file name, file size, file creation date and http link to file.

Can scan few directories into one feed, include files by mask, exclude files by mask, exclude files by date (only include created in last X days). Can create feed and exit or sleep in tray, updating feed in specified intervals.

That's current state (which of course might change for better).

Main downside - it's hardly one-click setup. User has to setup at least few paths (local and website) and there is bunch of optional RSS tags as well.
I am currently rewriting it for reading options from ini file - much friendlier than hardcoded values I used at first.

[Foggy]

Each RSS item (message) has file name, file size, file creation date and http link to file.

Can scan few directories into one feed, include files by mask, exclude files by mask, exclude files by date (only include created in last X days). Can create feed and exit or sleep in tray, updating feed in specified intervals.

You can code most of those features into the template of the latest hfs beta versions with the help of template macro's. That way you could always get a live rss feed but it would take a fair bit of work to code.

if that interests you take a look in the hfs wiki in the macro section to get an idea of the power hfs has.

[Rarst]

Macros are beta feature... And they look even less human language than average programming language... I looked through section and probably understood nothing except that HFS has macro...

[Rarst]

Yep, I understood that much (that macroses are... well macroses ).

But I don't have slightest clue how could I use them to produce RSS feed.

Roughly my algorithm is:
1. Generate header section (big, plenty of tags)
2. Generate footer section (tiny, just closing xml tags)
3. Scan directory, generate <item>s for each file that matches criteria (included, not excluded, not expired). Replace characters that are invalid in xml (spaces and such). Repeat for few directories if needed.
4. Glue everything together into complete feed, write feed to file.

Is it possible with macro? What amount of pain would it be to write? Would it be to give final result to another user? I want to make few friends use it and they are much less tech-savvy.

[Foggy]

Yeah, it is possible.

do you understand how the template system works, with the different sections?([file],[files],etc)

for the end user it could be as simple as loading a template into hfs.

except instead of saving it to file it would be created each time it is requested.

[Rarst]

I hadn't tried changing template (had no need) but looked at it and I understand concept (I know html/css).

Main template purpose seems to be controlling existing page elements, what should I read in docs on how to generate files with it?

One more important thing - RSS requires time stamps in RFC822 format and it's huge pain since it uses words for day and month (Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:04:25 +0200). HFS seem to operate with time in OS format, would I be able to convert in RFC822?

[Foggy]

at first I was thinking you could modify the main template but I remembered about files.lst which is a seperate template for when you append ~files.lst to the url.

ill have a look at the RFC822 format.

http://www.rejetto.com/wiki/index.php?title=HFS:_Hidden_things

the example in the url is the default list. try accessing it in your hfs to understand how it works.

edit: I cant see a way of finding out the day of the week but it should be possible to convert the rest of the time/date.

[Rarst]

Reference link for RFC822 (RSS allows 4 digit year, but the rest must be strictly by format)
http://asg.web.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc822.html#sec-5

I'll poke that template bit later today.

[Rarst]

Ok, I have made rough filelist template (can't test it properly at work):

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<channel>
<title>%host%%folder% directory feed</title>
<description>Files in %host%%folder% directory</description>
<link>http://%host%</link>
<atom:link href="http://%host%%folder%~files.lst?recursive" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
%files%
</channel>
</rss>
[files]
%list%
[file]
<item>
<title><![CDATA[%item-name%]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[%item-name% (%item-size%)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://%host%%folder%%item-url%]]></guid>
</item>

It seems that's as far as symbols can get it. HFS takes care of inclusion/exclusion by filetype so that question gone.

What remains:
- feed generated - timestamp in RFC822
- file created - timestamps in RFC822 (btw I only found symbol for file modification date in wiki, no symbol for creation date?)
- exclusion by file creation date (otherwise feed is going to be huge for big folder)
- symbols seems to work with current folder, if I need few - I stack them in one and use ?recursive, right?
- %item-url% takes care of spaces, converting them to %20, but it is also needed to change square brackets [ ] to %5B %5D (maybe other symbols, but these three are only one that gave me trouble with validation so far)

PS template and symbols seem so much nicer and fluffier than those scary macros

[Foggy]

Ok, I have made rough filelist template (can't test it properly at work):

it seems to work

Code:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<channel>
<title>foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/ directory feed</title>
<description>Files in foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/ directory</description>
<link>http://foggy.dnip.net</link>
<atom:link href="http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/~files.lst?recursive" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
<item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep14.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep14.wmv (89.28 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep14.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep15.wmv]]></title>

<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep15.wmv (87.97 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep15.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep16.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep16.wmv (88.01 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep16.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep17.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep17.wmv (88.31 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep17.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep18.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep18.wmv (91.12 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep18.wmv]]></guid>

</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep19.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep19.wmv (89.27 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep19.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep20.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep20.wmv (88.17 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep20.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep21.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep21.wmv (88.12 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep21.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep22.wmv]]></title>

<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep22.wmv (90.96 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep22.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep23.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep23.wmv (91.10 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep23.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep24.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep24.wmv (93.05 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep24.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep25.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep25.wmv (94.43 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep25.wmv]]></guid>

</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep26.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep26.wmv (91.90 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep26.wmv]]></guid>
</item><item>
<title><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep27.wmv]]></title>
<description><![CDATA[chaser_2007_ep27.wmv (187.18 MB)]]></description>
<guid><![CDATA[http://foggy.dnip.net/Media/the chasers/chaser_2007_ep27.wmv]]></guid>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>

It seems that's as far as symbols can get it. HFS takes care of inclusion/exclusion by filetype so that question gone.

you can also specify filters in the url to only show certain files.

- exclusion by file creation date (otherwise feed is going to be huge for big folder)

you can sort by the creation/modified date and can combine that with a limit of X files.

- symbols seems to work with current folder, if I need few - I stack them in one and use ?recursive, right?

correct

[/quote]
- %item-url% takes care of spaces, converting them to %20, but it is also needed to change square brackets [ ] to %5B %5D (maybe other symbols, but these three are only one that gave me trouble with validation so far)
[/quote]

{.replace|[|%5B|]|%5D|%item-url%.}

PS template and symbols seem so much nicer and fluffier than those scary macros

yeah, they are a lot simpler but you cant do anything dynamic with them

[Rarst]

Ok, at home at can properly test it...

New issue - how do I make public feed for closed folder? Filelist seems to be treated as included in folder.
Another new one - it seems I can't set mime type for file list, even if I add *.lst application/rss+xml - it is still served as text/plain.

you can sort by the creation/modified date and can combine that with a limit of X files.

Sort as with sort=[ n | e | s | t | d ] Sort by [ Name | Ext | Size | Date | Hits ] ?

Sorting by date... Well it sorts by something but I can't find it related to dates in any way. Is it supposed to work on stable (wiki mentions that some of these are beta) ?

[Foggy]

Sort as with sort=[ n | e | s | t | d ] Sort by [ Name | Ext | Size | Date | Hits ] ?

Sorting by date... Well it sorts by something but I can't find it related to dates in any way. Is it supposed to work on stable (wiki mentions that some of these are beta) ?

It should work in all versions since it was introduced.
sort=t should sort by date. combine that with limit=X and you could display a feed of the 10 newest files, etc

[Rarst]

Crap, my bad. I assumed D stands for date without paying close attention.

But now it seems I can't use sort and limit at same time. They work separately but not when applied together.
Upd: and in file list limit is always ignored

Also I played with public/private and it seems that by HFS mechanics there will be no way to make public file list for private folder. File list is generating according to user rights, so even if user (@anonymous) gets file list - all private files he can't see in html won't appear in file list either.

It's interesting playing with file list template and it allows lots of customization but seems some hard-coded limitations prevent from using it as feed.