dlvr.it: a new star on the RSS syndication market is born?

Recently, I asked via Twitter that I need a "Twitterfeed" tool that distributes RSS items evenly based on previous update rates. Almost instantly, I got a reply by @dlvrit_connect that dlvr.it provides this kind of functionality through its "trickle" mode. I also got an invite code which gave me the possibility to give this tool a try.


Before going into details, I'd like to give some background. As associate editor for Computing Now I'm using the well-known Twitterfeed to automatically feed RSS items into the CN Twitter account. It works very well but the main problem is that some source RSS feeds are published in bursts (e.g., more than 10 items at a time) and having more than three tweets at a time is probably not well received by our followers. It's difficult to change this situation and, therefore, I was hoping that with dlvr.it it is possible to distribute these "burst-ish" feeds more smoothly over time.

Fortunately, dlvr.it offers the following update mechanisms:

As others tools, it allows one to define the update period, maximum number of items to post per update period, and maximum number of items to post by day. Additionally, one may specify to trickle items over time which offers three possibilities (copy/paste from dlvr.it help):

• Trickle Off: updates your feed and looks for newly published items to post. New items (up to the "Max Number of New Items to Post per Update Period" set for your feed) will post. Newly published items not posted during an update period will be marked as 'seen' and are not eligible for posting later. For example, if during the feed update period your feed has 7 new items, and the "Max Number of New Items to Post per Update" is set to 5, then 5 new items will post and 2 will be marked 'seen' and will never post. 
• Post Oldest Items First: Items will be posted beginning with the oldest and working forward. During each feed update, the oldest, previously unposted items (up to the "Max Number of New Items to Post per Update Period") will post. Items not posted during feed update will be eligible for posting later.
• Post Newest Items First: Items will be posted beginning with the newest then working back. During each feed update period, the newest, previously unposted items (up to the "Max Number of New Items to Post per Pull") will post. Items not posted during feed update will be eligible for posting later.

I think this functionality is a major improvement over Twitterfeed which simply allows to specify the update frequency and the maximum number of items to post at a time.

Destinations other than Twitter include - among others - Facebook and LinkedIn which are equally important for Computing Now. Unfortunately, only status updates are possible but I would need updates to CN's Facebook Page and LinkedIn Group.


Finally, there are also means for defining a prefix, suffix, filters, auto-hashtag placement (based on feed categories), multiple bit.ly accounts (instead of built-in dlvr.it shortener), etc. You may also read the TechCrunch article related to dlvr.it which gives a broader overview of the actual services offered.

Filter your RSS feeds and getting into troubles?

Do you also have subtle problems when performing simple filter operations on RSS feeds? If yes, well, there's still some hope. Almost since the beginning I experience very strange problems when filtering the RSS feed of my blog for certain categories. I know this should not be problem but unfortunately, it is...

My first address for RSS filtering was Yahoo Pipes! which allows one more than doing simple RSS filtering, it basically allows one to "re-wire the Web". For some reason, if I filter for blog posts associated to a certain category (e.g., computingnow) I always get zero items as shown in the figure below. Very strange as it works for other feeds but not this one. Changing the feed and/or blogging platform is not an option at the moment.

After doing the whole troubleshooting for while, it was clear that I have to search for another solution. That's why I did a Web search to find some alternatives and I found an interesting article describing six ways to filter RSS and there are even more. I tried some (e.g., Feed Rinse just produced an error when filtering for this term and FilterMyRSS works but is currently unavailable) and after some time - quite some time acutally - I wrote the following:

It's a very simple XSLT style sheet that filters for the category 'computingnow'. Next to that I've enabled a cronjob in the home directory of my Web space that executes the following script on a regular basis (e.g., every half an hour or so):

java -jar saxon9.jar -s:http://feeds.feedburner.com/MultimediaCommunication -xsl:rss-filter.xslt -o:public_html/ct4computingnow.xml

Well, and that's the story how this article is brought to you and the feed I've filtered myself now is available here. Of course, I could make the XSLT style sheet much more flexible by adding parameter support but that's another story...