[DISCUSS] eXtensible Content Syndication (the next step for OCS)

[burtonator <burton@relativity.yi.org>]

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I just wanted to send this off as an initial discussion.  After I get some
feedback I will send off a more formal PROPOSAL document so that we can move
forward.

It is starting to become obvious that we need a replacement for OCS.  While we
have been able to do a LOT with OCS and it has taken us very far, I believe we
should use the lessons it has taught us and move forward.

Specifically OCS has the following flaws (am I missing anything?):

- - The format is too complex and it is hard to understand even for experts.  This
also make it hard to write code (Java/Perl/Python/etc) to handle parsing.  SAX
and DOM implementations end up with convoluted and obfuscated code.

- - Uses syndication elements which don't utilize the RSS 1.0 syndication module.

- - Doesn't support mime types.  XCS should support both mimeTypes (text/xml, etc)
and contentTypes.  Content types are used to provide a more precise format
explanation.  Example:

    contentType="http://my.netscape.com/rdf/simple/0.9/";

XCS should fix these problems and also address the following issues:

- - Support RSS 1.0 type modules (syndication, etc)

- - Include a resource module so that XCS can describe dependent resources
(images, shockwave, etc).  Note that while some may object to this on the
grounds that we should use the given source to determine resources, this is a
module and is optional.  I believe that this can have a lot of uses including
reduction of processing burden.

    - This should be in a separate proposal document but I could foresee a format
      which reuses some of the XCS markup.

- - Should include an XCS discovery recommendation which sites can adopt.  This
could be based on using index.xcs files within a website structure which can be
fetched based on external applications.

- - Could potentially be downlevel compliant with OCS via an XSLT which transforms
XCS -> OCS.   (is there an interest in this?)

I would like to propose a XML format similar to the following.  Of course this
is just a prelimnary example.


<xcs xmlns="http://schemas.openprivacy.org/08/10/2001/xcs";>


    <feed>

        <dc:title>OpenPrivacy (Reptile) contnt feed</dc:title>
        <dc:creator>OpenPrivacy</dc:creator>
        <dc:description>asdf</dc:description>

        <syndication>

             <dc:language></dc:language>
             <sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
             <sy:updateFrequency>4</sy:updateFrequency>

             <format mimeType="" contentType="" location=""/>
    
        </syndication>

    </feed>

</xcs>

I would be VERY interested in seeing how this works out.  I am probably going to
provide an initial XCS file within Reptile which would act as a a "primary
feed".  This would take precedence over the external OCS feeds which will just
be used to pick up content not in the original feed.
    


- -- 
Kevin A. Burton ( burton@apache.org, burton@openprivacy.org, burtonator@acm.org )
        Cell: 408-910-6145 URL: http://relativity.yi.org ICQ: 73488596 

My first job was programming binary load lifters, very similar to your 
Evaporators in many respects.



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