I love a good API! Add a two litre of diet coke, some frustration, and a couple free hours (since PCD ended my tuesdays haven’t been the same) - and who knows what I can come up with.
For a while now, I have been using an RSS reader to be more addictivly efficient with tech news, blogs, and random sites of interest. One site that it has made an exponential impact on is Digg. I can see the headlines and pick and choose articles much quicker. For the same time I have been using their RSS feed, I was also frustrated with the need to do a click-through to get to the actual article and not the Digg commentary. So last night, using the power of the Digg API I solved that problem, and in doing so created a nice little example of a mash-up. Introducing R2-Digg2 the Digg RSS Alternative.
The Digg API gives you access to all their content and lets you slice-n-dice it up in whichever way you want. By pulling the data feed in this manner, I was then able to rearrange the content into an RSS feed which mimics the original Digg feed but adds a few extra bonuses:
- Link Directly to Article
- Show Poster and Avitar
- Digg Count
- Comment Count and Link to Digg Commentary
It worked out pretty well, the application will cache the feed and update every five minutes as to not wreak havoc on Digg’s API servers. It keeps track of everything based on the requested feed parameters, therefore, if other people use this as a Digg RSS Clearinghouse - all the feeds are shared. Best part is, it was done with no database! Since it is all based on the feed parameters, it learns what is requested, checks to see if it is already cached, grabs the latest copy and sends it to your favorite RSS reader.
I’ve been a happy camper over coffee this AM - thats for sure. While toying with a couple other features, I did find that someone else had the same desire for a Digg RSS Feed Manipulator - Diggress.com. Theirs is definitely more polished than mine - but I had fun getting my geek on!
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