xml

Chris Cagle asked me to talk about his newly launched GetSimple CMS which is geared toward small-business use. I suppose I must be a sucker in talking and promoting new CMS projects as I get a lot of these type of requests. I know there are folks from the enterprise content management perspective that wish I wouldn't because a brand spanking new CMS isn't something they would ever consider. However, there is always a place for these niche applications.

Probably the first thing you will notice is that GetSimple CMS does not use a SQL database but instead uses XML files for database storage. While GetSimple may be simple, it does have some nice features that you wouldn't expect for a new project. For example, almost everything action in the CMS can be undone and there are backup features (revision) for your pages. The CMS can also generate an XML Sitemap which can be used by most search engines for indexing purposes. Also, the CMS has an integrated support ticket system that allows you to submit a help ticket to the GetSimple developers.

GetSimple CMS is a PHP application designed for Apache running on a Unix or Linux system. Download links are available from the project's download page. A demo of the content management system is available at opensourceCMS.

I'm looking forward to evaluating the new FeedAPI module for Drupal. Though one feature I haven't seen in any of the aggregators I've seen so far for Drupal...a way to snip the original RSS feed. Some sites provide you the entire post in the RSS feed with no teaser. This may be great for the reader, but I'm not sure everyone is happy to see their entire post on someone else's site.

From time to time, I've hacked the core to get me closer to how I would like the content from an RSS feed to display at my site. There has to be another way and perhaps FeedAPI could by my solution...

Development Seed: FeedAPI 1.0 Released -

After being in development for about seven months, we released FeedAPI 1.0 nearly two weeks ago! This is really exciting for me and everyone else who has been craving a more flexible aggregator for Drupal.

A post by Nick Lewis, Drupal and XML: Looking Forward, caught my attention. In his post he discusses work on developing the CAP XML format (Common Alerting Protocol).

In preparation for my /Nick Lewis/ trip to Washington D.C. next month, I’ve begun to develop a module that integrates the CAP XML format (Common Alerting Protocol) with drupal’s node, location, google map, category, and CCK modules.

Put plainly, the CAP format seeks:

“[to standardize] the content of alerts and notifications across all hazards, including law enforcement and public safety as well as natural hazards such as severe weather, fires, earthquakes, and tsunami. Systems using CAP have shown that a single authoritative and secure alert message can quickly launch Internet messages, news feeds, television text captions, highway sign messages, and synthesized voice over automated telephone calls or radio broadcasts.”

The United States' National Weather Service provides a listing of current watches, warnings, and advisories in CAP. While I've been curious about the CAP format, I've only used the RSS feeds from the NWS. I have not used the CAP format for two simple reasons:

• I currently don't have a clear understanding to the advantages of CAP over generic RSS feeds. Though if I cared to look into the format, I'm sure there are some advantages to the format for the purpose of emergency management.
• Until recently, there hasn't appeared to be much interest in the open source community to work with CAP.

A Drupal module providing the ability to parse information from CAP feeds would really be a huge benefit for those connected with emergency management.

Ian Ward, Development Seed, not only makes some good points about the inclusion of CSS within an RSS feed, but he also that the "look" of the feed varies from RSS reader to RSS reader. Hopefully, in the future the Internet gods will be kind. I personally don't want to worry about how my CMS looks in a browser and an RSS reader.

Development Seed: Optimizing the look of your syndicated content - Just like the large number of different web browsers that you need to design for (you have Internet Explorer, Netscape, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla, Safari, Mac Firefox, Mac Internet Explorer, etc.), there are also a ton of RSS readers. On top of that, RSS readers can be desktop based or web based – similarly to email with desktop email like Outlook or Lotus Notes and web-based email like Gmail or Hotmail. From a web designer's or content publisher's perspective, a person in these trades needs to be aware that the content they are publishing on their site will look good no matter where a user sees it. [Planet Drupal]