What tools does The Feed Network have?
There are four types of tools:
- Authoring – Creates posts/feeds supporting rssCloud
- Notification – Notifies rssCloud server that a feed has been updated
- Feed Cloud – Place that subscribers can register feed subscriptions, and place that sends notification to subscribers when a feed has been updated
- Subscriber – Subscribes to rssCloud feeds and displays posts
Tool Catalog
| Authoring | Notification | Feed Cloud | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| WordPress.com | WordPress.com | WordPress.com | |
| WordPress.org | WordPress RSS Cloud Plugin | WordPress RSS Cloud Plugin | |
| Drummer/Old School | Drummer/Old School | ||
| FeedLand | FeedLand | FeedLand | |
| River5 | |||
| MyStatusTool | MyStatusTool | MyStatusTool | |
| MST-PHP | MST-PHP | MST-PHP | |
| rssCloud Server (Node.js) | |||
| rssCloud Server (PHP) |
The following sections provide instructions for installing and using the tools listed in the tool catalog above.
WordPress.com
To get started with a WordPress.com site, go to WordPress.com and sign up for an account and create a blog, then start creating posts. Your feed URL will be at https://YourSite.wordpress.com/feed/, and you can then add that feed to a feed reader.
WordPress.org
To get started with a WordPress.org site, you will need to get a server or a hosting service. Many hosting services, such as Bluehost or Hostinger, provide support for creating new WordPress websites with just a few clicks. If you want full control of your site from start to finish, server companies such as Digital Ocean offer packages tailored to hosting WordPress sites. After your WordPress site has been set up and is live, you will need to add the RSS Cloud plugin to your site to include support for rssCloud. Your feed URL will be at https://YourSite.com/feed/, and you can then add that feed to a feed reader.
MyStatusTool
MyStatusTool is an application that provides the basic posting and reading functionality within Twitter, but using RSS and rssCloud as the enabling technologies. MyStatusTool can create posts and its own feed, ping a rssCloud server when the user creates a new post, and read other feeds supporting rssCloud and display their posts. No other application is needed, but the app does require a server on the Internet with the following base software installed:
- Node.js
- NPM
- Git
A demo install of MyStatusTool can be viewed at this URL.
Information on installation, configuration, and feed URL format is available on the MyStatusTool Github page.
PHP-MST
PHP-MST is a PHP implementation of MyStatusTool, and has most of the same user interface. To install the app, you need a server with PHP and a web server (like Apache). Hosting services such as Bluehost or Hostinger, usually provide support for running PHP applications and serving sites using Apache or other web servers.
A demo install of PHP-MST can be viewed at this URL.
Information on installation, configuration, and feed URL format is available on the PHP-MST Github page.
Drummer/Old School
Drummer is a web-based outliner tool created by Dave Winer. Within Drummer, there is a blogging function called Old School which creates weblogs based on the design of Dave Winer’s blog, Scripting News. The feeds created by the Old School blog function support rssCloud (has a cloud element) and Drummer pings a rssCloud server when a new post is created.
A demo install of an OldSchool blog can be viewed at this URL.
Information on creating an account and feed URL format is available on the Drummer website.
FeedLand (hosted)
FeedLand is a feed reader created by Dave Winer that supports rssCloud, so it can provide real-time notification of posts of other feeds that support rssCloud. FeedLand also has the ability to create a RSS feed.
Information on creating an account is is available on the FeedLand docs website.
FeedLand (server)
FeedLand is a feed reader created by Dave Winer that supports rssCloud, so it can provide real-time notification of posts of other feeds that support rssCloud. FeedLand also has the ability to create a RSS feed. More information is available here on how to get started with FeedLand.
Information on installation and configuration for a FeedLand server is available on the FeedLand Install Github page.
River5
River5 is a river-of-news RSS aggregator in JavaScript running in Node, created by Dave Winer. River5 supports rssCloud, so it can provide real-time notification of posts of other feeds that support rssCloud.
A demo install of River5 can be viewed at this URL.
More information on installation and configuration is available on the River5 Github page.
rssCloud Server
Andrew Shell has a public instance of a rssCloud server. This server is used by several of the tools listed above (MyStatusTool, FeedLand, Drummer, River5). More information on setting up an instance of this rssCloud server is available on the rssCloud server docs page.
Colin Walker has also developed a rssCloud server implemented using PHP. More information on installation and configuration is available on the php-rssCloud Github page.