What do I want in an aggregator?
Jevon has requested that I talk about what I want in an aggregator, as opposed to what’s already out there. Ok, fair enough, here’s the list of features I would like to see developed:
1. Multiple categories – give me the ability to assign certain feeds to certain categories (that I define), and show each category on a seperate page, tabbed for easy access.
2. Feed options – Given that a feed includes all text and 10 or more items in the original, give me the option to only aggregate the titles or the full feed, the option to show only “X” number of items, or even only new items since the last time I picked up the feed. Let me change the options on a feed-by-feed basis.
3. All links open in new windows, so the aggregator is always up for me to refer to.
4. RSS Auto-discovery for sites that have set that up.
5. The ability to run the aggregator and push a copy of the resulting HTML out as a file to be shared across a network. (For example, if I open the aggregator and the HTML shows at 127.0.0.1:8888, take that file and make a copy in the folder that is called “news.html”, or even “news.xml” that I can share with others, or push to my own website, that updates everytime I open the aggregator. (I’m willing to have to republish the website seprately, at each new start, but I want something like “My latest headlines” to be created out of the feeds I read the last time I accessed the aggregator, that I can then post online or on an intranet.)
6. While you’re at it, make each “category” page a different XML page so that I can push out different categories to different users over the intranet.
7. If you could make this done with options, instead of coding it myself, you’d be a god!
8. Anyone else got some features that I’m missing?
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