[uf-discuss] Tentative proposal for "What's New" listings

Tue Sep 26 06:53:20 PDT 2006

> I'm getting errors for both feeds, on the validator. Using:
>
>         <http://xoxotools.ning.com/hatom2rss.php?xn_auth=no&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.westmidlandbirdclub.com%2Fnew.htm>
>
> in:
>
>         <http://feedvalidator.org/>
>
> gives:
>
>
>         <http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fxoxotools.ni
>         ng.com%2Fhatom2rss.php%3Fxn_auth%3Dno%26url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252F
>         www.westmidlandbirdclub.com%252Fnew.htm>
>
>         (aka <http://tinyurl.com/mrbf4>)
>
>
>         This feed does not validate.
>
>         line 121, column 66: guid values must not be duplicated within a
>         feed: http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/ladywalk/latest.htm (19
>         occurrences)
>                 <guid>http://www.westmidlandbirdclub.com/ladywalk/latest.
>                 htm</guid>

The converter currently blindly uses the permalink value as GUID, if
you use the same permalink twice in your hAtom you get this error.  It
does not affect most feedreaders, but if you can't change your page
and this is a big issue, I can try hacking a GUID creator into the
code for you :)

>
>
>         In addition, this feed has issues that may cause problems for
>         some users. We recommend fixing these issues.
>
>         line 245, column 44: title should not contain HTML: &quot; (6
>         occurrences)
>           Friends&amp;quot; section of our links page.

The title is drawn directly from entry-title.  This is not actually
invalid RSS, it's just something they don't reccomend, but if you want
it changed, change your hAtom.

>
>         line 389, column 3: item should contain a guid element

Again, GUID is blindly drawn from permalink.  No permalink, no GUID.
This again is not invalid, as the results say, only disreccomended.

>
> and for:
>
>         <http://xoxotools.ning.com/hatom2rss.php?xn_auth=no&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.westmidlandbirdclub.com%2Fladywalk%2Flatest.htm>
>
> I get:
>
>         This feed is valid, but may cause problems for some users. We
>         recommend fixing these problems.

Again, none of these are actual invalidities

>
>         line 17, column 3: item should contain a guid element (38
>         occurrences)

see above

>
>         line 74, column 17: description should not contain relative URL
>         references: ../biblio/BirdLife/1983-0506-42.htm" rel="bookmark"
>         title="letter in Bird Life magazine

This is in your code... nor is it invalid, just not perfect.  Not sure
if making this an absolute URL (since it's escaped HTML) is really the
converter's job

>
>         line 100, column 46: Implausible date: Wed, 31 Dec 1969 23:59:59
>         +0000 (8 occurrences)

This is probably because you use a different date format in your hAtom
(Y-m-d) instead of the full hAtom-reccomended datestamp
(Y-m-D\TH:i:sP).  My converter tries to work with alternate date
formats, but it seems that on a few of your dates Y-m-d is being
interpreted differently... I didn't write strtotime, but this code has
been tested with the full datestamp.  If in doubt, use that.

>
>
> >The second page seems to be coming through fine now as well.
>
> I'm still getting just the one date (in  FireFox's live bookmarks) and
> an XML Parse error (in Sage).

Firefox live bookmarks only show items that have a link.  Only one
item in that feed has a rel=bookmark, so only one shows up.  2rss and
other rss2txt stuff show all items just fine.

>
> >According to my understanding of hAtom, the title of the <abbr> tag in
> >your page is the date and the contents is the title, which is how the
> >processor treats it.
>
> >From source code (simplified):
>
>         <abbr class="updated entry-title" title="2006-09-20">20th</abbr>
>
> You're serving:
>
>         <title>20th:  </title>
>
>         <pubDate>Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate>
>
>
> (note also trailing space in title)

The trailing space has been fixed.  The rest of it is correct
according to my understanding of the hAtom spec.

>
>
> I would expect
>
>         <title>2006-09-20</title>
>
>         <pubDate>Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:00:00 +0000</pubDate>

As I said, the title="blah"  on the <abbr>  is assumed to go with the
date, not the title.

>
> >Also, last time I checked RSS 2.0 required a full datestamp in that
> >format for pubDate... nothing else should be legal
>
> That's annoying. If true, we should recognise that in the hAtom spec.

Why?  It's 100% irrelevant to microformats.  ATOM itself requires a
full timestamp.  Most formats do.  hAtom has it's own datestamp
requirements.  The converter's job is to make sure the RSS
requirements are met... which has nothing to do with you.  Your job is
to meet hAtom, the converter can change the date format just fine.  It
has no bearing on the hAtom spec, and no human being will ever see the
date as it is in the RSS unless for some reason they read the code or
have a feedreader that likes that dateformat.

>
> >let me know if there's any other issues :)
>
>
> Oh, I will!
>
> Speaking of which...
>
> You seem to be inserting an odd character, for instance in the first
> item on the "What's New" page (shown here as an asterisk):
>
>         <title>Recent  sightings at our*Ladywalk Reserve.</title>
>
> which shows up as a square in live bookmarks.

I've fixed this now, thanks for the heads-up :)

-- 
- Stephen Paul Weber, Amateur Writer
<http://www.awriterz.org>

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