http://decafbad.com/blog/2006/03/26/on-ignorant-feed-handling It's all spinning wheels and self-doubt until the first pot of coffee. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:15:55 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7-beta3-9771 hourly 1 http://decafbad.com/blog/2006/03/26/on-ignorant-feed-handling/comment-page-1#comment-9097 Dave Johnson Sun, 26 Mar 2006 18:40:20 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/2006/03/26/on-ignorant-feed-handling#comment-9097 <p>The MS Feeds API does some weird things because it tries to normalize the commonly used funky RSS elements like , and to Microsoft Common Feed Format (based on RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0). I do have some hope that they'll get that right in the end, but they're clearly not there yet. However, it's important to note that the Feeds API <em>does</em> preserve that which it does not understand (such as iTunes, GeoRSS, extensions you add, etc.).</p> The MS Feeds API does some weird things because it tries to normalize the commonly used funky RSS elements like , and to Microsoft Common Feed Format (based on RSS 2.0 and Atom 1.0). I do have some hope that they’ll get that right in the end, but they’re clearly not there yet. However, it’s important to note that the Feeds API does preserve that which it does not understand (such as iTunes, GeoRSS, extensions you add, etc.).

]]> http://decafbad.com/blog/2006/03/26/on-ignorant-feed-handling/comment-page-1#comment-9092 Bob Aman Sun, 26 Mar 2006 15:03:05 +0000 http://decafbad.com/blog/2006/03/26/on-ignorant-feed-handling#comment-9092 <p>I'd say FeedTools also falls into the "Ignore but Retain" model. But I actually do translate into local data structures. There are obvious limitations, yes, but since I also maintain the full original XML within the data structure, those limitations are largely defined by how much you care about what I chose to ignore. The only really big problem comes in when you hit the generation methods, because of course, generation on such a data structure will ignore any elements that I don't explicitly include. So you potentially get some silent data loss, though not unexpected data loss. Although, I did also supply hooks into the generation code so that additional generation code could be inserted on the fly, so you're once again only limitted by what you actually needed to support. The only person who really loses out is the guy down the line if you republish stuff. And 99% of the time, he's not going to care so long as you give him the important stuff.</p> I’d say FeedTools also falls into the “Ignore but Retain” model. But I actually do translate into local data structures. There are obvious limitations, yes, but since I also maintain the full original XML within the data structure, those limitations are largely defined by how much you care about what I chose to ignore. The only really big problem comes in when you hit the generation methods, because of course, generation on such a data structure will ignore any elements that I don’t explicitly include. So you potentially get some silent data loss, though not unexpected data loss. Although, I did also supply hooks into the generation code so that additional generation code could be inserted on the fly, so you’re once again only limitted by what you actually needed to support. The only person who really loses out is the guy down the line if you republish stuff. And 99% of the time, he’s not going to care so long as you give him the important stuff.

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