Comments on: recipe for a social learning platform - #14 - news feeds http://wt.similibus.org/2008/03/09/recipe-for-a-social-learning-platform-14-news-feeds/ Just another voice in the EduBlogging universe Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:47:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: admin http://wt.similibus.org/2008/03/09/recipe-for-a-social-learning-platform-14-news-feeds/#comment-13 admin Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:30:28 +0000 http://wt.similibus.org/2008/03/09/recipe-for-a-social-learning-platform-14-news-feeds/#comment-13 addendum - I'm not terribly happy with the feedapi module - the Aggregation module appears to run circles around it. Here's a workaround, which permits the single Aggregation module to serve both to aggregate users' distributed content into the community blog, and to create separate aggregated news feeds on the site. Once again, this relies on the flexibility of the Views module. set up a user "rss_admin", and give this "user" privileges to manage feeds imported news feeds (as node type "Feed", using the Aggregation module) need to be authored by "rss_admin" - you can do this as admin, by entering this username in the "authored by" field under Authoring Information, when setting up the feed (you don't need to log in as this user, but can do this from your administrative login). News pages now need to use the node type "feed item" - which is the node type generated by the Aggregation module. In the <em>Community Blog views</em>, add a field "Node: author name" and set this to "is none of" "rss_admin". In the <em>News Feed views</em>, add a field "Node: author name" and set this to "is one of" "rss_admin". Now - so long as all News Feeds are "authored" by the "user" rss_admin, they will show up on the news pages you create, and will not show up in the community blog. This does require that news feeds be administered centrally, by someone with access to the "rss_admin" user account. For my platform this works out OK - I'm wishing to avoid "feed gloat" in the news feeds section anyway. Individual users still have the ability to add feeds from their own distributed content, which will show up in the Community Blog views. I'll continue to play with this using both the feedapi module, and using the Aggregation module, and report back my experiences with these. addendum -
I’m not terribly happy with the feedapi module - the Aggregation module appears to run circles around it.
Here’s a workaround, which permits the single Aggregation module to serve both to aggregate users’ distributed content into the community blog, and to create separate aggregated news feeds on the site. Once again, this relies on the flexibility of the Views module.

set up a user “rss_admin”, and give this “user” privileges to manage feeds
imported news feeds (as node type “Feed”, using the Aggregation module) need to be authored by “rss_admin” - you can do this as admin, by entering this username in the “authored by” field under Authoring Information, when setting up the feed (you don’t need to log in as this user, but can do this from your administrative login).
News pages now need to use the node type “feed item” - which is the node type generated by the Aggregation module.
In the Community Blog views, add a field “Node: author name” and set this to “is none of” “rss_admin”.
In the News Feed views, add a field “Node: author name” and set this to “is one of” “rss_admin”.
Now - so long as all News Feeds are “authored” by the “user” rss_admin, they will show up on the news pages you create, and will not show up in the community blog.

This does require that news feeds be administered centrally, by someone with access to the “rss_admin” user account. For my platform this works out OK - I’m wishing to avoid “feed gloat” in the news feeds section anyway. Individual users still have the ability to add feeds from their own distributed content, which will show up in the Community Blog views.

I’ll continue to play with this using both the feedapi module, and using the Aggregation module, and report back my experiences with these.

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