106 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
106 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
# Howto create a bridge
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A bridge is an interface that allows rss-bridge to create a RSS feed from a website.
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The bridge is a PHP file, located in the `bridges/` folder.
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##Specifications
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A rss bridge must extend the `BridgeAbstract` class, and implement the following functions :
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* The `loadMetadatas` function, described below,
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* The `getCacheDuration` function, describing the time during which rss-bridge will output cached values instead of re-generating a RSS feed.
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* The `collectData` function, also described below.
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##The `collectData` function
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This function takes as a parameter an array called `$param`, that is automatically filled with values from the user, according to the values setted in `loadMetadatas`.
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This function is the place where all the website scrapping and the RSS feed generation process will go.
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The RSS elements are stored in the class variable `items[]`.
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Every RSS element is an instance of the `Item` class.
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##The `loadMetadatas` function
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This function is the one used by rss-bridge core to determine the name, maintainer name, website, last updated date... of the bridge, and the user parameters.
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### Basic metadatas.
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The basic metadatas are the following :
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```PHP
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$this->maintainer
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$this->name
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$this->uri
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$this->description
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$this->update
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```
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The default values are the following :
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```PHP
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$this->name = "Unnamed bridge";
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$this->uri = "";
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$this->description = 'No description provided';
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$this->maintainer = 'No maintainer';
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```
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### Parameters
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Parameters use a JSON-like format, which is parsed and transformed to HTML `<form>` by rss-bridge.
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These datas goes into the `$this->parameters` array, which is not mandatory if your bridge doesn't take any parameter.
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Every possible usage of a bridge is an array element.
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The array can be a key-based array, but it is not necessary. The following syntaxes are hereby correct :
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```PHP
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$this->parameters[] = ...
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$this->parameters['First usage of my bridge'] = ...
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```
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It is worth mentionning that you can also define a set of parameters that will be applied to every possible utilisation of your bridge.
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To do this, just create a parameter array with the `global` key.
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### Format specifications
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Every `$this->parameters` element is a JSON array (`[ ... ]`) containing every input.
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It needs the following elements to be setted :
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* name, the input name as displayed to the user
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* identifier, which will be the key in the `$param` array for the corresponding data.
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Hence, the most basic parameter definition is the following:
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```PHP
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$this->parameters =
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'[
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{
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"name" : "Username",
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"identifier" : "u"
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}
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]';
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```
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####Optional parameters
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Here is a list of optional parameters for the input :
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Parameter Name | Parameter values | Description
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---------------|------------------|------------
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type|text, number, list, checkbox| Type of the input, default is text
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required| true | Set this if you want your attribute to be required
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values| [ {"name" : option1Name, "value" : "option1Value"}, ...] | Values list, required with the 'list' type
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title| text | Will be shown as tooltip when mouse-hovering over the input
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#### Guidelines
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* scripts (eg. Javascript) must be stripped out. Make good use of `strip_tags()` and `preg_replace()`
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* bridge must present data within 8 seconds (adjust iterators accordingly)
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* cache timeout must be fine-tuned so that each refresh can provide 1 or 2 new elements on busy periods
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* `<audio>` and `<video>` must not autoplay. Seriously.
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* do everything you can to extract valid timestamps. Translate formats, use API, exploit sitemap, whatever. Free the data!
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* don't create duplicates. If the website runs on WordPress, use the generic WordPress bridge if possible.
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* maintain efficient and well-commented code :wink:
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