Library clips

This is a follow up to the new BlogBridge reading lists, after reading Robin’s interview with Pito, I have a few queries.

When you import an OPML file into BlogBridge can you choose it to be a static list or a dynamic list, or is subscribing to a dynamic list a different process, in that you don’t import an OPML file, you subscribe to a URL of an OPML file?

Also Robin asks if you can make a smart feed (search feed) from a reading list?…this seems to be asking can you create a search feed within a folder from your subscriptions in your RSS reader (Bloglines does this at the whole account level, not at the folder level)
…if BlogBridge can create search feeds at the folder level, then this is great.
Another way to create a search feed from an OPML file is to use Feedster OPML URL search feature.

Provided each folder in BlogBridge has an OPML file URL, like Feedmarker, then using the advanced search in Feedster is possible, unless it can be done in BlogBridge itself.

Since you can override a reading list in BlogBridge, the OPML file URL for that folder (if there is one) will now contain different stuff then the original OPML file URL (reading list)…so you can choose to create a search feed at Feedster from the original OPML file URL or from the modified version in your BlogBridge folder.

If each folder in an RSS reader has an OPML…

If it is a local file, your friend will have to email you the .opml file and you can save it on your PC, then import it into your RSS reader.

If each folder has an OPML URL, this is even better as you can import that straight into your RSS reader, no fuss.

What if you don’t like a lot of the feeds, well just delete them once they are imported…another way is to do this before the import, is by downloading the OPML file to your PC or save the OPML URL to your PC in notepad with the .opml extension.

Now you can look in the file and take out, if you know what you are doing, the feeds you don’t want, then re-save the file, and import this modified version (note this will now give the OPML a new file name).
(This is handy with importing a Bloglines account, just save the OPML file to your PC first, then delete unwanted feeds, then import this modified OPML file into your RSS reader)

Another way to do this with an easier interface (rather than looking at the code) is to import the OPML file or OPML URL into an outlining tool like OPML Manager (note this will now give the OPML a new file name).
Once it is imported you can see a tree outline of the OPML, it’s much easier to delete undesired feeds, or even enter new feeds…then import this new OPML URL into your RSS reader.

Another way is using the OPML Generator…just select the feeds and add them to this list, hit the button and it generates code for an OPML file, just cut ‘n paste this into notepad…you know the rest.

So this is how you can take an OPML, alter it, then import a modified version.

Dynamic circle

The great thing about BlogBridge is that not only is it the only RSS Reader so far that can subscribe to dynamic reading lists, but that (I’m guessing) every folder in your BlogBridge account is a reading list itself.

So if you subscribe to a reading list (OPML URL) and don’t override anything, and then someone subscribes to the OPML of the folder in your BlogBridge account that contains this reading list, it will have exactly the same contents (even though your OPML URL is different than the original OPML URL).

But if you decide to override the feeds in the reading list you subscribe to, then someone subscribing to your reading list (OPML of a folder in BlogBridge) will now receive different content, than if they were subscribing to the original reading list.

And if this person subscribing to your reading list makes some alterations, then their subscribers will see altered content…it just goes on.

And I’m assuming when you import an OPML into BlogBridge that you don’t have to take any of the intermediate steps above to modify the OPML file, as you can probably choose which feeds you would like from the OPML file before finalising your subscription, or I suppose you could delete them after the fact.

On the fly

Wouldn’t it be good if you could create an OPML on the fly…just go to a feed directory or someones public RSS reader and check a box to select the feeds you like, which will then generate an OPML file to download to your PC (once you import this OPML as a folder in your RSS reader, then it can have an OPML URL, provided you use Feedmarker or BlogBridge).
This is a feature in Bloglines that is limited to “Tell a friend”…you can select feeds from your account to send to a friend, and when they set up an account, it will be populated with these feeds
…only if this was developed into an OPML on the fly feature for anyone to create for any purpose.

At the moment you have to subscribe to each feed manually or create an outline of your own to import into your RSS reader, but why do this extra step when you can enter them all in manually anyway…well you will have an OPML file version as well…but if all folders in RSS readers begin to have OPML file’s then we won’t need an outline as much for this purpose.

But the idea is, if all public RSS readers or feed directories, or even the search results next to the source name in RSS engines had a check box, we could make this process so much quicker.

I suppose this is liking asking a similar question like having an RSS check box next to each source on search engine results so we can make a spliced feed on the fly.

The only difference with the OPML on the fly is that the search engine won’t have to offer a permanent URL, you can save the temporary OPML URL, and download it to your PC with notepad using the .opml extension, then import this into your RSS reader, once this is done the temporary OPML from the search engine can disappear.

Whereas with spliced feeds even if they are synthetic (ie. there isn’t a HTML version, just the XML version…I think this is what it means) you still need a permanent URL.

[ADDED: As long as you could create an OPML file on the fly, then you could convert this into a spliced feed using a service like OPML2RSS, or maybe Feed Digest in the future.]