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