Mailing List Archive: Wikipedia: Wikitech

RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews

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codedriller at gmail

Jul 8, 2008, 5:42 PM

Post #1 of 6 (377 views)
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RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews

Hi everybody,

First of all, thanks to all MediaWiki developers for such a useful program. I have been using it for many years and it's really amazing.

I recently developed a MediaWiki extension, that allows to export news in RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 format in easy manner. First I developed it for my own site, but I thought it could be useful for other projects, especially for Wikinews. I talked to Wikinews enthusiasts on their mailing list, and they agree, that it's a good idea. It's really better than current system - now they use some external tool, but only headlines are exported without actual content, Atom format is not supported, and sometimes it stops updating.

My extension is called "News Channel" and is available at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:News_Channel. Basically, when user or aggregation program requests a feed, the extension gets specified number of latest articles from some specified news categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]]), exports it to RSS/Atom feed format and sends to user. Articles's title will be the headline and article's text will be the description of news item. It's possible to combine and exclude categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]] + [[Category:Sports]] - [[Category:Disputed]]) to get specific news only.

What steps should now be taken to install that extension on Wikinews project?

Thanks in advance,
with best regards,
Iaroslav Vassiliev
_______________________________________________
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Wikitech-l [at] lists
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wiki at marcusbuck

Jul 8, 2008, 7:18 PM

Post #2 of 6 (354 views)
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Re: RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews [In reply to]

Iaroslav Vassiliev hett schreven:
> I recently developed a MediaWiki extension, that allows to export news in RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 format in easy manner. First I developed it for my own site, but I thought it could be useful for other projects, especially for Wikinews. I talked to Wikinews enthusiasts on their mailing list, and they agree, that it's a good idea. It's really better than current system - now they use some external tool, but only headlines are exported without actual content, Atom format is not supported, and sometimes it stops updating.
>
> My extension is called "News Channel" and is available at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:News_Channel. Basically, when user or aggregation program requests a feed, the extension gets specified number of latest articles from some specified news categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]]), exports it to RSS/Atom feed format and sends to user. Articles's title will be the headline and article's text will be the description of news item. It's possible to combine and exclude categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]] + [[Category:Sports]] - [[Category:Disputed]]) to get specific news only.
Sounds like a very useful extension. But: When I look at the
configuration settings at
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:News_Channel> it seems, as if
only one channel can be set up. Or do I misunderstand something? It
should be possible to define several feeds (e.g. special feeds for
science news, economy news or sports news). And then there are variables
like $authorizedEditors. Does that mean, you need to file a bug at
Bugzilla and wait for a person with shell access if you want to add a
user who can publish news? There should be an easier way. Like a tag,
that can be added in the wiki text of a category, defining the
properties of the channel which are in NewsChannel_body.php at the moment.

Marcus Buck

_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

vasilvv at gmail

Jul 9, 2008, 1:28 AM

Post #3 of 6 (356 views)
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Re: RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews [In reply to]

Iaroslav Vassiliev wrote:
> Hi everybody,
>
> First of all, thanks to all MediaWiki developers for such a useful program. I have been using it for many years and it's really amazing.
>
> I recently developed a MediaWiki extension, that allows to export news in RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 format in easy manner. First I developed it for my own site, but I thought it could be useful for other projects, especially for Wikinews. I talked to Wikinews enthusiasts on their mailing list, and they agree, that it's a good idea. It's really better than current system - now they use some external tool, but only headlines are exported without actual content, Atom format is not supported, and sometimes it stops updating.
>
> My extension is called "News Channel" and is available at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:News_Channel. Basically, when user or aggregation program requests a feed, the extension gets specified number of latest articles from some specified news categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]]), exports it to RSS/Atom feed format and sends to user. Articles's title will be the headline and article's text will be the description of news item. It's possible to combine and exclude categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]] + [[Category:Sports]] - [[Category:Disputed]]) to get specific news only.
>
> What steps should now be taken to install that extension on Wikinews project?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> with best regards,
> Iaroslav Vassiliev

1. You should get commit access to Wikimedia Subversion, so you can
easily maintain your extension
2. Extension are installed if there is a bug in the bugzilla and Brion
reviews it.
3. But before it is installed it have to be cleaned up:
* All configuration should be done by $wg* globals (some of it - to
MediaWiki: messages)
* You should get channel language from $wgContLang
* System of "authorized editors" should be migrated to permissions
system ($wgGroupPermissions et al)
* You should use Feed classes instead of generating feeds by yourself
* Wikimedia uses MySQL 4, which doesn't support nested queries
* "Designed and tested on MediaWiki 1.8.2". No comments. We use 1.13 now
* Ah, and the last advice: remove your email address or spammers will
eat you.

--VasilievVV

_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

codedriller at gmail

Jul 9, 2008, 8:58 PM

Post #4 of 6 (347 views)
Permalink

Re: RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews [In reply to]

The feed is generated dynamically - all parameters are passed in URL, e. g.

.../index.php?title=Special:NewsChannel&format=rss20&limit=10&cat1=Published&excat1=Disputed& ...

So there will be no "real" channels, stored in XML files on disk - all channels will be "virtual", created dynamically. One "general" channel (preset in configuration) will be linked in HTML <head> section on every wiki page, like recent changes feed is linked now. This channel will use predefined set of categories (including "Category:Published" and excluding "Category:Disputed", as it was decided on Wikinews). If user wants to make feed out of other categories, or in different format, or with different number of items, then he goes to [[Special:NewsChannel]] page and uses a form there to configure his own virtual channel. And on every Wikinews' portal, there will be custom link with some other set of parameters, e. g. for sports news it will be

.../index.php?title=Special:NewsChannel&format=rss20&limit=10&cat1=Published&cat2=Sports&excat1=Disputed& ...

Using just that link, user can subscribe to any channel. That's how it works.

Therу is no need to restrict access on Wikinews, so $authorizedEditors setting will not be used there. Other settings are not likely to be changed often. But you're right that current configuration system is not very suitable - maybe I should modify it in some way.

Best regards,
Iaroslav Vassiliev
----- Original Message -----
From: Marcus Buck
To: Wikimedia developers
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 6:18 AM
Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews

Iaroslav Vassiliev hett schreven:
> I recently developed a MediaWiki extension, that allows to export news in RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 format in easy manner. First I developed it for my own site, but I thought it could be useful for other projects, especially for Wikinews. I talked to Wikinews enthusiasts on their mailing list, and they agree, that it's a good idea. It's really better than current system - now they use some external tool, but only headlines are exported without actual content, Atom format is not supported, and sometimes it stops updating.
>
> My extension is called "News Channel" and is available at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:News_Channel. Basically, when user or aggregation program requests a feed, the extension gets specified number of latest articles from some specified news categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]]), exports it to RSS/Atom feed format and sends to user. Articles's title will be the headline and article's text will be the description of news item. It's possible to combine and exclude categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]] + [[Category:Sports]] - [[Category:Disputed]]) to get specific news only.
Sounds like a very useful extension. But: When I look at the
configuration settings at
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:News_Channel> it seems, as if
only one channel can be set up. Or do I misunderstand something? It
should be possible to define several feeds (e.g. special feeds for
science news, economy news or sports news). And then there are variables
like $authorizedEditors. Does that mean, you need to file a bug at
Bugzilla and wait for a person with shell access if you want to add a
user who can publish news? There should be an easier way. Like a tag,
that can be added in the wiki text of a category, defining the
properties of the channel which are in NewsChannel_body.php at the moment.

Marcus Buck

_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

codedriller at gmail

Jul 9, 2008, 8:59 PM

Post #5 of 6 (347 views)
Permalink

Re: RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews [In reply to]

Thanks for such a detailed answer!

Let's begin with first clause: who can grant me commit access to Wikimedia Subversion?

Best regards,
Iaroslav Vassiliev
----- Original Message -----
From: VasilievVV
To: wikitech-l [at] lists
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 12:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews

Iaroslav Vassiliev wrote:
> Hi everybody,
>
> First of all, thanks to all MediaWiki developers for such a useful program. I have been using it for many years and it's really amazing.
>
> I recently developed a MediaWiki extension, that allows to export news in RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0 format in easy manner. First I developed it for my own site, but I thought it could be useful for other projects, especially for Wikinews. I talked to Wikinews enthusiasts on their mailing list, and they agree, that it's a good idea. It's really better than current system - now they use some external tool, but only headlines are exported without actual content, Atom format is not supported, and sometimes it stops updating.
>
> My extension is called "News Channel" and is available at http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:News_Channel. Basically, when user or aggregation program requests a feed, the extension gets specified number of latest articles from some specified news categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]]), exports it to RSS/Atom feed format and sends to user. Articles's title will be the headline and article's text will be the description of news item. It's possible to combine and exclude categories (e.g. [[Category:Published]] + [[Category:Sports]] - [[Category:Disputed]]) to get specific news only.
>
> What steps should now be taken to install that extension on Wikinews project?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> with best regards,
> Iaroslav Vassiliev

1. You should get commit access to Wikimedia Subversion, so you can
easily maintain your extension
2. Extension are installed if there is a bug in the bugzilla and Brion
reviews it.
3. But before it is installed it have to be cleaned up:
* All configuration should be done by $wg* globals (some of it - to
MediaWiki: messages)
* You should get channel language from $wgContLang
* System of "authorized editors" should be migrated to permissions
system ($wgGroupPermissions et al)
* You should use Feed classes instead of generating feeds by yourself
* Wikimedia uses MySQL 4, which doesn't support nested queries
* "Designed and tested on MediaWiki 1.8.2". No comments. We use 1.13 now
* Ah, and the last advice: remove your email address or spammers will
eat you.

--VasilievVV

_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

Simetrical+wikilist at gmail

Jul 10, 2008, 6:23 AM

Post #6 of 6 (339 views)
Permalink

Re: RSS/Atom news channel for Wikinews [In reply to]

On Wed, Jul 9, 2008 at 11:59 PM, Iaroslav Vassiliev
<codedriller [at] gmail> wrote:
> Thanks for such a detailed answer!
>
> Let's begin with first clause: who can grant me commit access to Wikimedia Subversion?

Tim Starling and Brion Vibber are the most likely candidates.

_______________________________________________
Wikitech-l mailing list
Wikitech-l [at] lists
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l

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