Meerkat: An Open Service API
Pages: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

How about a few more real-world examples to get you started?

A few notes on constructing URLs using the various flavours and other customization parameters. Be sure to prepend the list of parameters with a ? mark; this should come right after the basic Meerkat URL like so: http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/?. Also, you must separate each parameter with an &, as in s=linux&_ca=0&_fl=xml.

Build something wonderful ... and remember to keep it open and let people know about it! And, if you're so inclined, spread the Meerkat word with a nifty "Meerkat Powered!" button. To do so, simply copy-and-paste the following HTML into your document:

<a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com">
<img 
src='http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/icons/meerkat-powered.jpg'>
</a>

Hopefully I've succeded in providing a useful and well-documented Open Service and API. As usual, I welcome any constructive criticism you might offer. Please post your suggestions, bug reports, and other feedback (maybe praise?) to the O'Reilly Network RSS Forum.

The following is a list of starting points from which to explore further some of the topics covered (or not) in this article.

• Meerkat
  • Meerkat
  • "Meerkat: An Open Wire Service" by Rael Dornfest, The O'Reilly Network
  • "Meerkat Help" by Rael Dornfest, The O'Reilly Network
• Stylesheets (CSS)
  • WebReview: Style Sheets
• RSS
  • The O'Reilly Network RSS DevCenter
  • WebReference: Web/Authoring/Languages/XML/RSS
• XML
  • XML.com
• JavaScript
  • "Specifying a File of JavaScript Code", Netscape DevEdge
  • Client-Side JavaScript Guide, Netscape DevEdge
• PHP
  • PHP.net
  • Zend
  • PHP's implode() function
  • PHP's unserialize() function
• Sherlock
  • The O'Reilly Network RSS DevCenter
  • Apple: Mac OS: Sherlock
  • Apple-Donuts: Sherlock Internet Search Archives
  • Apple Developer Connection: Technical: Mac OS: Sherlock

Rael Dornfest is Founder and CEO of Portland, Oregon-based Values of n. Rael leads the Values of n charge with passion, unearthly creativity, and a repertoire of puns and jokes — some of which are actually good. Prior to founding Values of n, he was O'Reilly's Chief Technical Officer, program chair for the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference (which he continues to chair), series editor of the bestselling Hacks book series, and instigator of O'Reilly's Rough Cuts early access program. He built Meerkat, the first web-based feed aggregator, was champion and co-author of the RSS 1.0 specification, and has written and contributed to six O'Reilly books. Rael's programmatic pride and joy is the nimble, open source blogging application Blosxom, the principles of which you'll find in the Values of n philosophy and embodied in Stikkit: Little yellow notes that think.

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