Discussion:
RSS 2.0 textInput element
Clinton Gallagher
2006-01-19 22:07:12 UTC
Permalink
I apologize for what I know is OT to the focus of the folks that use this
list but having commented in the past and lurked for a long time thereafter
I do know many of you were involved and argued the initial development of
RSS 2.0. Since the usage of 2.0 is no longer arguable I hope somebody can
help discuss this arcane element; that being the channel element's textInput
sub-element.

I'm building an RSS CMS and I want to implement the entire specification
inclusing the RSS 2.0 <textInput> sub-element. The future is looking bright
for 2.0 and I know this element can come into its own if light-weights like
myself can determine how to implement it. In case you've forgotten how lame
it was written here is what the RSS 2.0 Specification [1] says...

<START>
A channel may optionally contain a <textInput> sub-element, which contains
four required sub-elements.

<title> -- The label of the Submit button in the text input area.

<description> -- Explains the text input area.

<name> -- The name of the text object in the text input area.

<link> -- The URL of the CGI script that processes text input requests.

The purpose of the <textInput> element is something of a mystery. You can
use it to specify a search engine box. Or to allow a reader to provide
feedback. Most aggregators ignore it.
<END>

However, what I want to know is how Dave Winer who created RSS 2.0 and
presumably wrote the specification claims this sub-element is a mystery when
it was Dave Winer who created the element? Should I answer that myself? ;-)
Please don't answer either question as I think we all have at least one
answer that would not be fit to print :-0

Has anybody *ever* implemented textInput? I can think of a couple of ways it
can be very useful but how to implement it? ANYBODY?

Once a parser found the textInput element in the source would it be expected
to generate an HTML form element replete with input of type="text" and so
on?

I have something to say about the cloud element in this context as well (an
XML Web Service call it seems) but for now if you would, let's focus on the
textInput element. What's the story here? Or should I go away?

<%= Clinton Gallagher

[1]
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss#lttextinputgtSubelementOfLtchannelgt




Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rss-dev-unsubscribe-***@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
James Holderness
2006-01-19 23:08:46 UTC
Permalink
Post by Clinton Gallagher
However, what I want to know is how Dave Winer who created RSS 2.0 and
presumably wrote the specification claims this sub-element is a mystery when
it was Dave Winer who created the element?
He didn't create the element. AFAIK Netscape created the element for RSS
0.91. Userland adopted the element (although renamed from "textinput" to
"textInput") when it created its own slightly different version of RSS 0.91.
Post by Clinton Gallagher
Has anybody *ever* implemented textInput? I can think of a couple of ways it
can be very useful but how to implement it? ANYBODY?
BottomFeed, FeedMagick, Shrook.
Post by Clinton Gallagher
Once a parser found the textInput element in the source would it be expected
to generate an HTML form element replete with input of type="text" and so
on?
You may find the documentation in the RSS 1.0 specs more helpful.
http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/spec#s5.6
Post by Clinton Gallagher
I have something to say about the cloud element in this context as well (an
XML Web Service call it seems) but for now if you would, let's focus on the
textInput element. What's the story here? Or should I go away?
<%= Clinton Gallagher
[1]
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss#lttextinputgtSubelementOfLtchannelgt
Yahoo! Groups Links
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rss-dev-unsubscribe-***@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
James Holderness
2006-01-19 23:15:19 UTC
Permalink
Post by James Holderness
Post by Clinton Gallagher
Has anybody *ever* implemented textInput? I can think of a couple of ways it
can be very useful but how to implement it? ANYBODY?
BottomFeed, FeedMagick, Shrook.
Sorry. My email got sent before I was finished editing it. I was going to
say that if you do a search on google for "support for textInput" and rss
you'll get a bunch of results which link to various RSS applications. That's
how I came up with the above list. I haven't actually tried it out on any of
these products though, so I'm not exactly sure what they do with it.

Also that should have been "BottomFeeder" not "BottomFeed".

Regards
James



Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rss-dev-unsubscribe-***@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Danny Ayers
2006-01-29 12:01:08 UTC
Permalink
Hi Clinton,

You may also be interested in the in-feed feedback approach described at :

http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2005/12/14/putting-rss-to-work-immediate-action-feeds.html

Basically include (X)HTML forms in the *content* of the feed. Mark
Woodman calls it "Immediate Action". Because many aggregators use full
(-ish) HTML renderers for the content (irrespective of the source feed
format), this approach has a high level of support without anybody
actually thinking about it...

Cheers,
Danny.

--

http://dannyayers.com



Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rss-dev-unsubscribe-***@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
James Holderness
2006-01-29 14:56:48 UTC
Permalink
There are a number of RSS aggregators that strip FORM elements from html
content (looks like about 35% of my small sample set). I was under the
impression that this was for security reasons, but I can't find anything to
back that up (other than that IE used to have a parsing bug in INPUT
elements that would cause it to explode). Anyone know what the security
implications are? Is it sensible or paranoid to strip FORM elements?

Regards
James
Post by Danny Ayers
http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2005/12/14/putting-rss-to-work-immediate-action-feeds.html
Basically include (X)HTML forms in the *content* of the feed. Mark
Woodman calls it "Immediate Action". Because many aggregators use full
(-ish) HTML renderers for the content (irrespective of the source feed
format), this approach has a high level of support without anybody
actually thinking about it...
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rss-dev-unsubscribe-***@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Bill Kearney
2006-01-29 23:10:54 UTC
Permalink
One good reason to strip them might have something to do with trusted realms
and sites making phishing attempts. As in, put something in a feed that
ends up running in a trusted context and have it "do something" unwelcome.

Frankly, this violates my rule of feeds solely being newsfeeds of content.
If you need a form then, by all means, use one... just keep it on the
destination WEB page and link to that from inside the feed.

-Bill Kearney
Post by James Holderness
There are a number of RSS aggregators that strip FORM elements from html
content (looks like about 35% of my small sample set). I was under the
impression that this was for security reasons, but I can't find anything to
back that up (other than that IE used to have a parsing bug in INPUT
elements that would cause it to explode). Anyone know what the security
implications are? Is it sensible or paranoid to strip FORM elements?
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rss-dev-unsubscribe-***@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
Clinton Gallagher
2006-01-31 17:05:29 UTC
Permalink
Message: 1
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 13:01:08 +0100
Subject: Re: RSS 2.0 textInput element
Hi Clinton,
You may also be interested in the in-feed feedback approach
http://www.xml.com/lpt/a/2005/12/14/putting-rss-to-work-immedi
ate-action-feeds.html
Basically include (X)HTML forms in the *content* of the feed.
Mark Woodman calls it "Immediate Action". Because many
aggregators use full
(-ish) HTML renderers for the content (irrespective of the
source feed format), this approach has a high level of
support without anybody actually thinking about it...
Cheers,
Danny.
--
http://dannyayers.com
Message: 2
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2006 14:56:48 -0000
Subject: Re: RSS 2.0 textInput element
There are a number of RSS aggregators that strip FORM
elements from html content (looks like about 35% of my small
sample set). I was under the impression that this was for
security reasons, but I can't find anything to back that up
(other than that IE used to have a parsing bug in INPUT
elements that would cause it to explode). Anyone know what
the security implications are? Is it sensible or paranoid to
strip FORM elements?
Regards
James
Thank you Danny and James. Any information regarding the use of
the "unused" elements and any consequences for having done so can
only be a good thing to learn. The next element to consider
would be the cloud which I perceive as a way to use an XML Web
Service to interact with the channel and its items.

<%= Clinton Gallagher




Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
rss-dev-unsubscribe-***@public.gmane.org

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Loading...