The RSS Template is a Freemarker template.
The output from the template can can be streamed without the Alfresco GUI using the Template Servlet
You must ensure that this template and the space where it resides and applies to is readable by Guest (Invite the Guest user) as you will need anonymous Guest access to allow RSS readers to use the template URL without going through the Alfresco login page.
So, to build a Template Servlet URL that exposes the result of the RSS template, you need to do a little setup work. Firstly, you need to edit the 'RSS_2.0_recent_docs.ftl' file and change the name of the hostname to the external name of your Alfresco server:
<#assign hostname="http://localhost:8080/alfresco">
to something like:
<#assign hostname="http://myserverurl:8080/alfresco">
As RSS clients will need to be able to see your Alfresco server!
Secondly, you need to build the URL for the Template Servlet to execute. As the Wiki page above explains, this URL is built of 2 NodeRef elements. The first NodeRef is the reference to the template we want to execute (e.g. the RSS 2.0 template) and the second NodeRef is the reference to the space you want to execute the template against.
So you need to find the NodeRef for the template file (copy it from from the files Details page 'Alfresco Node Reference' link) and the NodeRef for the space you want to be your RSS feed source (also copy it from the Details page).
Once you have the NodeRefs, you can build the URL to the content servlet, so it will be something like this:
http://yourserver:8080/alfresco/template/workspace/SpacesStore/5e242b42-b028-11da-9d9b-85c44443370e/...
We are nearly done, however for an RSS client to understand the feed, we need to tell the Template Servlet to return the result as an XML mimetype, and also we need Guest access on the URL so the RSS client won't be presented with the Alfresco login page. So the final URL will look something like this:
http://yourserver:8080/alfresco/template/workspace/SpacesStore/5e242b42-b028-11da-9d9b-85c44443370e/...
You can paste this URL into an RSS feeder such as Thunderbird and it will work great.
So the URL is long and complicated yes - but in the future we will provide an RSS button on a space that does all this work for you! But for now it shows the power of combining the templating functionality with Guest access and a little bit of cunning.
Hope this helps,
Kevin
The output from the template can can be streamed without the Alfresco GUI using the Template Servlet
You must ensure that this template and the space where it resides and applies to is readable by Guest (Invite the Guest user) as you will need anonymous Guest access to allow RSS readers to use the template URL without going through the Alfresco login page.
So, to build a Template Servlet URL that exposes the result of the RSS template, you need to do a little setup work. Firstly, you need to edit the 'RSS_2.0_recent_docs.ftl' file and change the name of the hostname to the external name of your Alfresco server:
<#assign hostname="http://localhost:8080/alfresco">
to something like:
<#assign hostname="http://myserverurl:8080/alfresco">
As RSS clients will need to be able to see your Alfresco server!
Secondly, you need to build the URL for the Template Servlet to execute. As the Wiki page above explains, this URL is built of 2 NodeRef elements. The first NodeRef is the reference to the template we want to execute (e.g. the RSS 2.0 template) and the second NodeRef is the reference to the space you want to execute the template against.
So you need to find the NodeRef for the template file (copy it from from the files Details page 'Alfresco Node Reference' link) and the NodeRef for the space you want to be your RSS feed source (also copy it from the Details page).
Once you have the NodeRefs, you can build the URL to the content servlet, so it will be something like this:
http://yourserver:8080/alfresco/template/workspace/SpacesStore/5e242b42-b028-11da-9d9b-85c44443370e/...
We are nearly done, however for an RSS client to understand the feed, we need to tell the Template Servlet to return the result as an XML mimetype, and also we need Guest access on the URL so the RSS client won't be presented with the Alfresco login page. So the final URL will look something like this:
http://yourserver:8080/alfresco/template/workspace/SpacesStore/5e242b42-b028-11da-9d9b-85c44443370e/...
You can paste this URL into an RSS feeder such as Thunderbird and it will work great.
So the URL is long and complicated yes - but in the future we will provide an RSS button on a space that does all this work for you!
But for now it shows the power of combining the templating functionality with Guest access and a little bit of cunning.Hope this helps,
Kevin
Nevermind. I figured it out. I modified RSS_2.0_recent_docs.ftl (see below)
:lol:
The mimetype remains text because it is really just creating an XML file that points to quicktime files. The trick is to replace the link with
<enclosure url="${hostname}${child.url}" />
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
<channel>
<ttl>Michigan Technological University (MTU)</ttl>
<title>MTU on iTunes U</title>
<copyright>Copyright © 2005 Alfresco Software, Inc. All rights reserved.</copyright>
<#assign hostname="http://localhost:8080/alfresco">
<#assign spaceref="${hostname}/navigate/browse/${space.nodeRef.storeRef.protocol}/${space.nodeRef.storeRef.identifier}/${space.nodeRef.id}">
<#assign datetimeformat="EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz">
<link>${spaceref}</link>
<itunes:subtitle>Online Learning News and Resources</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>Leroy Steinbacher</itunes:author>
<description>Recent Lectures in '${space.name}'</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<lastBuildDate>${date?string(datetimeformat)}</lastBuildDate>
<pubDate>${date?string(datetimeformat)}</pubDate>
<ttl>120</ttl>
<generator>Alfresco 1.2</generator>
<image>
<title>${space.name}</title>
<width>32</width>
<height>32</height>
<link>${spaceref}</link>
<url>${hostname}${space.icon32}</url>
</image>
<#assign weekms=1000*60*60*24*7>
<#list space.childrenByXPath[".//*[subtypeOf('cm:content')]"] as child>
<#if (dateCompare(child.properties["cm:modified"], date, weekms) == 1) || (dateCompare(child.properties["cm:created"], date, weekms) == 1)>
<itunes
wner>
<itunes:name>Leroy Steinbacher</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>lesteinb@mtu.edu</itunes:email>
</ituneswner>
<itunes:image href="http://www.techonline.mtu.edu/images/online.jpg" />
<itunes:category text="Education">
<itunes:category text="Online Learning"/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="News"/>
<item>
<title>${child.properties.name}</title>
<enclosure url="${hostname}${child.url}" />
<description>
${"<a href='${hostname}${child.url}'>"?xml}${child.properties.name}${"</a>"?xml}
<#if child.properties["cm:description"]?exists && child.properties["cm:description"] != "">
${child.properties["cm:description"]}
</#if>
</description>
<pubDate>${child.properties["cm:modified"]?string(datetimeformat)}</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">${hostname}${child.url}</guid>
</item>
</#if>
</#list>
</channel>
</rss>
:lol:
The mimetype remains text because it is really just creating an XML file that points to quicktime files. The trick is to replace the link with
<enclosure url="${hostname}${child.url}" />
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" version="2.0">
<channel>
<ttl>Michigan Technological University (MTU)</ttl>
<title>MTU on iTunes U</title>
<copyright>Copyright © 2005 Alfresco Software, Inc. All rights reserved.</copyright>
<#assign hostname="http://localhost:8080/alfresco">
<#assign spaceref="${hostname}/navigate/browse/${space.nodeRef.storeRef.protocol}/${space.nodeRef.storeRef.identifier}/${space.nodeRef.id}">
<#assign datetimeformat="EEE, dd MMM yyyy HH:mm:ss zzz">
<link>${spaceref}</link>
<itunes:subtitle>Online Learning News and Resources</itunes:subtitle>
<itunes:author>Leroy Steinbacher</itunes:author>
<description>Recent Lectures in '${space.name}'</description>
<language>en-us</language>
<lastBuildDate>${date?string(datetimeformat)}</lastBuildDate>
<pubDate>${date?string(datetimeformat)}</pubDate>
<ttl>120</ttl>
<generator>Alfresco 1.2</generator>
<image>
<title>${space.name}</title>
<width>32</width>
<height>32</height>
<link>${spaceref}</link>
<url>${hostname}${space.icon32}</url>
</image>
<#assign weekms=1000*60*60*24*7>
<#list space.childrenByXPath[".//*[subtypeOf('cm:content')]"] as child>
<#if (dateCompare(child.properties["cm:modified"], date, weekms) == 1) || (dateCompare(child.properties["cm:created"], date, weekms) == 1)>
<itunes
wner><itunes:name>Leroy Steinbacher</itunes:name>
<itunes:email>lesteinb@mtu.edu</itunes:email>
</itunes
wner><itunes:image href="http://www.techonline.mtu.edu/images/online.jpg" />
<itunes:category text="Education">
<itunes:category text="Online Learning"/>
</itunes:category>
<itunes:category text="News"/>
<item>
<title>${child.properties.name}</title>
<enclosure url="${hostname}${child.url}" />
<description>
${"<a href='${hostname}${child.url}'>"?xml}${child.properties.name}${"</a>"?xml}
<#if child.properties["cm:description"]?exists && child.properties["cm:description"] != "">
${child.properties["cm:description"]}
</#if>
</description>
<pubDate>${child.properties["cm:modified"]?string(datetimeformat)}</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">${hostname}${child.url}</guid>
</item>
</#if>
</#list>
</channel>
</rss>
Nevermind. I figured it out. I modified RSS_2.0_recent_docs.ftl (see below)
That's cool, yes it should be possible to generate RSS template for any kind of feed, it's only XML after all
For 1.4 we have added RSS feed support in the UI, there is now an extra panel on the Space Details page which allows you to select an RSS template for a space, it will generate the feed URL for you and add an RSS icon to the browse screen for that space. There is also a new folder in the Data Dictionary area specifically for storing RSS templates, so you can add yours and any others you create to that folder and they will be accessable for any space RSS feed.
Thanks,
Kevin
