Headlines Plugin

Description

Note: Syndic8.com ( http://www.syndic8.com/ ) is a good site listing many RSS feeds.

Syntax Rules

%HEADLINES{"..."}%

The header and format parameters might also use variables rendering the dc, image and content namespace information. Note, that only bits of interest have been implemented so far and those namespaces might not be implemented fully yet.

Rendering the dc namespace

• $title: channel/article title (dc:title)
• $creator: channel creator (dc:creator)
• $subject: subject text; this will also add an image according to the subject hash list, see above (dc:subject)
• $description: ... (dc:description)
• $publisher: the channel/article publisher (dc:publisher)
• $contributor: ... (dc:contributor)
• $date: ... (dc:date)
• $type: ... (dc:type)
• $format: ... (dc:format)
• $identifier: ... (dc:identifier)
• $source: ... (dc:source)
• $language: ... (dc:language)
• $relation: ... (dc:relation)
• $coverage: ... (dc: coverage)
• $rights: ... (dc: rights)

Rendering the image namespace

• src: image url (rdf:about attribute of the image.item tag)
• alt: image title (title)
• width: image width (image:width)
• height: image height image:height)

Rendering the content namespace

Examples

Write

%HEADLINES{"http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rdf" 
  header="*[[$link][$title]]:* $description" 
  format="$t* [[$link][$title]]"
}%

Write

%HEADLINES{"http://www.business-opportunities.biz/feed" limit="3"}%

to get the latest postings on the "Business Opportunities" weblog:

Business Opportunities Weblog

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:30:51 +0000

The original blog about business opportunities and business ideas for small business entrepreneurs

Today in Entrepreneurial History: May 21

---

Mon, 21 May 2012 17:30:51 +0000 Dane Carlson

On this day in in 2000, Mark Hughes, the founder and CEO of Herbalife died. Herbalife is a global nutrition, weight management and skin-care company who’s products are marketed through a network of 2.1 million independent distributors.

In February 1980, Mark Hughes began selling the original Herbalife weight management product from the trunk of his car. Hughes often stated that the genesis of his product and program stemmed from the weight loss concerns of his mother Joanne, whose premature death he attributed to an eating disorder and an unhealthy approach to weight loss. His goal was to change the nutritional habits of the world.

His first product was a protein shake designed to help people manage their weight. He structured his company using a direct-selling, multi-level marketing model which attracted thousands of distributors (Herbalife Independent Distributors) who sold its products door-to-door or through word-of-mouth, without relying on commercial distribution in retail stores.

The company’s slogan, “Lose Weight Now, Ask Me How”, became a marketing theme for distributors, featuring heavily on badges, flyers and posters. Early methods to recruit distributors included seminars, which would feature distributors giving health and weight loss testimonials on the Herbalife products and a keynote address by Hughes. By 1982 Herbalife had reached USD 2 million in sales and had expanded into Canada.

Mark Hughes died at age 44 of an accidental overdose.

via Wikipedia.

Starlite: Material That Could Change The World

---

Mon, 21 May 2012 06:30:19 +0000 Angela Shupe

Mail Online:

Scientists still say they are desperate to learn the secret of ‘Starlite’ – and the inventor’s family may have it.

The material was the invented by the eccentric English inventor and former hairdresser Maurice Ward who had no formal scientific training and claimed he put it together on his kitchen table with a food processor.

It was unveiled to the world on the BBC TV show 'Tomorrow's World' in 1991 during which he held a Starlite-coated egg up to a blowtorch.

Despite the extreme heat it was barely warm to the touch and was still runny inside.

Experts immediately realised its possibilities for things like aeroplanes, fire doors, spacecraft and dozens more possibilities.

Mr Ward, however, refused to play ball.

Over the following few decades his paranoia, capriciousness and need for absolute secrecy ruined all attempts to get it onto the market.

Photo by Emilian Robert Vicol

Going Back In Time: Turning The Modern iPad Into An 80′s Toy

---

Mon, 21 May 2012 06:00:44 +0000 Angela Shupe

Mail Online:

Now the Etch-a-Sketch, that beloved toy which started life in the 1960s and amused children for the next three decades, is coming back – thanks to the help of the iPad.

Inventor Ari Krupnik has created an almost exact replica sleeve of the Etch-a-Sketch, including those two big twiddly buttons with which you can sketch on your designs on the grey screen.

Plug an iPad into the belly and – hey, presto! – everyone’s favourite toy has come back to life.

For the re-birth of Etch-a-Sketch, Ari worked on the software side, emulating all those beloved features to make this identical to the original – so shaking your iPad will clear your image just as before.

Although there is a nod to modern times – you can share your pictures via Facebook or Flickr – or even send a timelapse video to YouTube.

Plugin Settings

Plugin settings are stored as preferences variables. To reference a plugin setting write %<plugin>_<setting>%, for example, %HEADLINES_SHORTDESCRIPTION%

• One line description, shown in the TextFormattingRules topic:
  • Set SHORTDESCRIPTION = Build news portals that show headline news based on RSS news feeds from news sites.

• Refresh rate in minutes for cached feeds. Disable caching: 0, default: 60
  • Set REFRESH = 60

• Maximum number of items shown. Default: 100
  • Set LIMIT = 100

• Use LWP::UserAgent, or fallback to TWiki's internal getUrl() method, Default: yes
  • Set USELWPUSERAGENT = yes
• Timeout fetching a feed using the LWP::UserAgent, Default: 20
  • Set USERAGENTTIMEOUT = 20

• Default header: (variables are explained in the syntax rules)

      * Set HEADER = <div class="headlinesChannel"><div class="headlinesLogo"><img src="$imageurl" alt="$imagetitle" border="0" />%BR%</div><div class="headlinesTitle">$n---+!! <a href="$link">$title</a></div><div class="headlinesDate">$date</div><div class="headlinesDescription">$description</div><div class="headlinesRight">$rights</div></div>

• Default format of one item: (variables are explained in the syntax rules)

      * Set FORMAT = <div class="headlinesArticle"><div class="headlinesTitle"><a href="$link">$title</a></div>$n<hr /><span class="headlinesDate">$date</span> <span class="headlinesCreator"> $creator</span> <span class="headlinesSubject"> $subject </span>$n<div class="headlinesText"> $description</div></div>

Style sheets

• headlinesRss: output of the HeadlinesPlugin (div)
  • headlinesChannel: channel header (div)
    • headlinesLogo: channel logo (div)
    • headlinesTitle: channel title (div)
    • headlinesDate: channel date (div)
    • headlinesDescription: channel description (div)
    • headlinesRight: channel copyright (div)
  • headlinesArticle: one news item (div)
    • headlinesTitle: article title (div)
    • headlinesDate: article date (span)
    • headlinesCreator: author of article (span)
    • headlinesSubject: subect category of the article (span)
    • headlineText: article text (div)

Plugin Installation Instructions

• Download the ZIP file from the Plugin web (see below)
• Unzip HeadlinesPlugin.zip in your twiki installation directory. Content:

  File:	Description:
  data/TWiki/HeadlinesPlugin.txt	Plugin topic
  pub/TWiki/HeadlinesPlugin/style.css	default css
  lib/TWiki//HeadlinesPlugin.pm	Plugin Perl module

  Check if above examples show a news feed instead of variable.
• Optionally, run HeadlinesPlugin_installer.pl to automatically check and install other TWiki modules that this module depends on. You can also do this step manually.
• Alternatively, manually make sure the dependencies listed in the table below are resolved.

  Name	Version	Description
  Digest::MD5	>=2.33	Required. Download from CPAN:Digest::MD5
  LWP::UserAgent	>=5.803	Optional. Download from CPAN:LWP::UserAgent

Plugin Info

-- TWiki:Main.PeterThoeny - 11 May 2005
-- TWiki:Main.MichaelDaum - 10 Mar 2006