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Subject: 
Re: Musings on an open-source Brickshelf replacement
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general
Date: 
Wed, 8 Jun 2005 20:10:04 GMT
Viewed: 
1442 times
  
In lugnet.general, Joe Strout wrote:
   In lugnet.general, Eric Kingsley wrote:

   For simplicities sake this type of stuff already exists all that would have to be done is the aggregator part. NELUG uses an open source product called Gallery...

http://gallery.sourceforge.net/

It allows our members to host image galleries on NELUG.org...

http://www.nelug.org/gallery/

Part of this software includes an RSS XML Feed...

http://www.nelug.org/gallery/rss.php

Thanks, this is very helpful. I notice that you’re using Gallery v1; from a quick browsing of the Gallery web site, it looks like v2 doesn’t yet support the RSS feed (though some people are working on it).

Well our Gallery installation is “out of the box” so to speek. Unlike the forums and blog software the Gallery is just the standard software and that feed is generated by our site so I guess I don’t know what they mean by the fact that it isn’t supported yet. It will take a little digging to see what gets included in the feed. If you notice at the bottom of each of our gallery pages there is a little “RSS” icon. Clicking this gives you the raw feed although at the moment what is returned is a little confusing.

  
I also note that the RSS feed doesn’t seem to include any useful descriptions or keywords. I don’t know whether this is a limitation of Gallery itself, or how it’s configured or used at NELUG, but it would make searching & categorizing difficult.

Well yes and no. We don’t (or havn’t yet) used the comment fields which are available in the feed. These could easily become required entry for inclusion in any aggregation.

  
   What would have to be written is a piece of software where people could submit their feed to and then that software would periodically go out to each feed and aggregate the data.

Right. This could be run as a web server (or CGI) or as a desktop app. There may even be aggregators already available that would fit the bill, or could be customized to do so. I’ve never used RSS much myself, but I believe that some people pretty routinely do this sort of thing to keep up with their favorite blogs, for example.

One issue to resolve is whether the RSS format used by Gallery is standard, or whether the aggregator would have to cope with different uses of RSS coming from different sites. Still, that’s probably not insurmountable.

Well according to the doc’s it is standard. Based on this RSS 2.0 Specification...

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss



  
BTW, I like this general approach of a regional LUG providing gallery space to its members -- this could be a good service that most LUGs would provide. Then, only people living in the boonies (with no regional LUG applicable to them) would have to find their own web space. Of course this assumes at least one computer geek in each LUG, but that’s not too hard to come by -- and we could share instructions and tips on how to set things up.

Yeah the one issue we are stuggling with is disk space. At the moment we only allow event pictures and not personal MOC photos. We may end up doing a dues supplement or something for folks that want to use this for MOC’s in order to cover our costs. Image galleries are just disk hogs and we have a current limit of 1.5G space for our site which we have already used close to a Gig.

We just went through the process of going to an open source system as opposed to straight HTML. With a little technical background it isn’t terribly hard to get a nice system that includes a BLOG, Forums, and this Gallery all using open source. What we like best is that it at the very least gives us a good backup plan should Brickshelf or LUGNET become compromised. We at least can fall back to the club site when needed.

  
I’ll do some more reading up on RSS and aggregators. Can you look into how/whether you can attach descriptions or keywords to your Gallery pictures?

Like I said, I think the best solution is to use the comment fields for this need. As an FYI I use an aggregator called Feedreader...

http://www.feedreader.com/

I had never tried the Gallery Feeds before but it appears it gives a thumbnail and a link to the gallery along with comments. My reader seemed to not update the image in every article but that has something to do with the reader and not the feed from what I can see. The links to the galleries were fine.


Eric



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Musings on an open-source Brickshelf replacement
 
(...) quick browsing of the Gallery web site, it looks like v2 doesn't yet support the RSS feed (though some people are working on it). I also note that the RSS feed doesn't seem to include any useful descriptions or keywords. I don't know whether (...) (19 years ago, 8-Jun-05, to lugnet.general, FTX)

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