the-feedus-scriptomatic

Home :: :: The Feed.Us Script-o-matic

If you're reading this we assume you've got your site setup with a directory and added the grabber files. If you're using .net or Rails, you've got everything ready to start having content flow into your site.

The Scriptomatic is the source for creating the code to show content on your site (or in your app).

In a nutshell, the Scripto creates Feed.Us URLs that go into the code on your pages. You tell Scripto what content to get, how to format it (what fields to use, how to style it) and your platform. Then Feed.Us gives you the code and a specific URL to use on your site files.

Here's a view of the Scripto: 

Here are the fields that you tweak to get your code:

1. Source: 

We can give you back your content in a variety of ways. By author name, by categories, by section. The most common is "by story". That will give you one specific post, like "homepage message" or "about us", that you've entered into Feed.Us.

2. Sort By: If you're returning a bunch of stories, then you can sort them by date, author name, etc. You can change the order or return a set number.

3. Platform: Php, Rails, .net, etc.

4. Layout:

Layout is where this gets a little more involved (some might say "confusing", we don't like that). Since Feed.Us stores your content in XML, the formatting here means XSL.

We provide you with a series of customizable XSL layouts. You can grab the title and the body of a post, just the body, etc. Also, there are more options to put Divs around your content so it can be nicely styled.

Eventually you'll want to make your own XSLs. We have a nice "how to" for making your XSLs. It's actually very easily to learn, especially if you're strong with CSS.

5. Publishing Group:

You can leave this blank. But if you've got a larger site you'll want to arrange your content into groups which will allow you to publish content to specific parts of your site. More on this later.

6. Advanced options:

You can set the cache to expire for specific times. This is useful for imported content and content that's being submitted by less-technical users.

7. PREVIEW: hit the button.

The result is a preview page with your copy/paste code and a URL to use on your site files. Paste that code into your site files where you want the content to show.

Does this make sense? Was this helpful? What's confusing?

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