Hello Sheps83
These news sections are usually either displayed from the site's own
database or delivered by a third party. By the sound of it in your
case you would probably have to use a third party source.
Perhaps the most common way of doing this is by utilizing an RSS or
XML feed from a website (perhaps you have seen small orange links
called RSS or XML when you have been surfing the net). These feeds
are small concise summaries of the website they are found on and can
be used by anyone (as long as they abide by certain rules).
The feeds give you the data you need and you simply have to tell your
website how to read this data; this can be done in a number of ways
the most common being by adding a small dynamic language script (eg
PHP, ASP, CGI) to your existing site or a small piece of javascript.
There are some very useful links here that discuss how you can display
these RSS/XML newsfeeds on your site (it is a little too complicated
and time consuming to discuss here):
http://weblogs.about.com/od/rssfeedsdisplay/
http://www.creativyst.com/Prod/18/
http://www.vbwm.com/art_2001/XML05/
http://www.newsclipper.com/
There are also several directories on the net that allow you to search
for or create new RSS/XML feeds. I would recommend looking at these
sites for this:
http://www.syndic8.com
http://www.feedster.com
http://www.myrss.com
http://www.newsisfree.com
Like most written text, stories or information that appear on websites
are usually copyrighted so you must make sure you have the owners
permission before taking any information you need. Things like stock
price and horoscope newsfeeds would normally be ones you would have to
pay for...
You may also find this Google link useful which will point you towards
free dynamic content sites:
://www.google.com/search?q=%22free+dynamic+content%22+webmaster
Many of the examples on these sites are as simple as adding a line or
two of text to your site.
Personally I would refrain from using javascript examples as they
usually rely on other websites being online, if they are slow or not
online this can degrade the performance of your site.
I hope this answers some of your questions, it is a very large topic
which I can only touch upon in the time I have available. If you have
any further questions on this subject please ask for clarification and
I will do my best to help. |
Request for Answer Clarification by
sheps83-ga
on
19 Jul 2004 10:50 PDT
But who does refdesk.com use?
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
19 Jul 2004 11:04 PDT
As I am not affiliated with refdesk.com I cannot say. Judging from
their website I would guess they use a number of different locations
and compile it on their servers before you get to see anything.
You can ask their chief webmaster here:
http://www.refdesk.com/cgi-bin/feedback.cgi
More specific information about refdesk.com can be found here:
http://www.refdesk.com/welcome.html
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Request for Answer Clarification by
sheps83-ga
on
22 Jul 2004 06:01 PDT
But ive been doing research and have been finding that the rss feed is
only to put on your desktop and not for a website. for example look at
what cnet wrote http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10088_7-5143688.html?tag=nav
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Request for Answer Clarification by
sheps83-ga
on
22 Jul 2004 06:07 PDT
also look at this http://www.howstuffworks.com/rss-feeds.htm/printable
rss and xml is disigned to have on your desktop not on your website.
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
22 Jul 2004 07:59 PDT
This is not correct, RSS or XML can be used on either your desktop or
on your website. For instance on the Newsisfree.com website it
states: "Put news on your website or in your desktop aggregator" (this
is clearly displayed on the left hand column of the page).
Also, the following website can convert RSS files to HTML for use on
your websites (this is one of many):
http://freshmeat.net/projects/rss2html/
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Clarification of Answer by
palitoy-ga
on
22 Jul 2004 09:09 PDT
Some other links you may be interested in:
http://www.freevbcode.com/ShowCode.asp?ID=5665
http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/
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