Syndicating Your Articles
You have great articles or images or other content that
people would willingly put on their sites.
That is, if it was easy for them.
Well, it is easy! Your syndicating sites put two lines of
JavaScript into their pages. That's all they have to do.
Once those two lines are on their pages, the content on the
syndicating sites will update automatically -- every time
you change the master file on your server.
For example, to carry these WillMaster Possibilities
articles on your site, put this JavaScript code on your
page in the spot where you want the article to appear:
<script language="JavaScript"
src="/library/c/wmp.js">
</script>
(It's okay for the code to be in three lines instead of
two.)
Once you have that code on your page, your page will
automatically update with the new feature article every
Tuesday.
Try it. See for yourself how it works.
This article shows you the technical how-to for syndicating
your own content. It also provides a bit of information
about a commercial program for those who like to have it
really, really easy.
In addition to articles, you could syndicate recipes, poems,
source code, calendar events, anything on remote sites that
wants frequent updating. You could even use it to serve
banners and other advertisements.
This is what you do:
First --
Decide on a file name for your master file (it should have
a .js file name extension). Also, decide where it will be
on your server.
Once you know the name of your master file and where it will
be located, then you also know its URL. It will be something
like http://www.yourdomain.com/masterfile.js
When you know your master file's URL, you also know what the
JavaScript code for your syndicating sites will be:
<script language="JavaScript" src="[MASTERFILE_URL]">
</script>
Just replace [MASTERFILE_URL] with your master file's URL.
Now you have the JavaScript code to give to your syndicating
sites.
Second --
Create your master file.
It's a bit easier said than done, but once learned it could
become more boring than hard.
The thing to remember is that your content will be a part of
a web page, not an entire page by itself. So you code your
HTML tags with that in mind.
The less specific font styles you specify, the more design
control you leave for your syndicating sites. Unless yours
is an unusual circumstance, it can be good for syndicating
site owner relationships to let them fit your content into
their site design.
However you decide to code your content, put it into your
master file.
Probably the easiest way is to create a web page with your
content and then copy the relevant portion of the source
code for pasting into your master file.
Once you have your content in your master file, you need to
make it JavaScript compatible before you upload it. Do these
in order:
- Insert this as the first line of your file:
<!--
- Insert this as last line of your file:
//-->
- Precede each backslash ( \ ) with another backslash:
\\
- Precede each apostrophe ( ' ) with a backslash:
\'
- Except for the first and last lines, end each line
with:
');
(The above code is --
apostrophe - close parenthesis - semi-colon
-- for those with small font sizes.)
- Except for the first and last lines, begin each line
with:
document.writeln('
(That last character is an apostrophe.)
Save your file and upload it. Once your master file is
uploaded, every syndicating site is automatically updated.
Here are three things you can not include in your syndicated
content:
- JavaScript code that accesses other files. In other
words, you can not include other "syndicating" code
in your syndicated content. (You can use most all
of the available JavaScript language, but not this.)
- CSS when the style sheet is on your server. If you
include Cascading Style Sheet code, the definitions
must be embedded in your content.
- Server Side Includes. SSI can only include files and
launch programs that are on the same server as the
web page; SSI on syndicating site's servers can't
reach your server.
Here are two things you should not include in your
syndicated content:
- Flash, PHP, and other recent technology that
requires the domain's server to run specific
software. If you know that all your syndicating
sites are on compatible servers, then go ahead and
include the technology. But if you don't know, it
is best not to include it.
- JavaScript cookie code. It's not that you can't set
cookies, but the cookie must be set in the name of
the domain where the content is being viewed at. It
would take a bit of tricky scripting to retrieve the
cookie for use later on.
Here is a list of things you can include in your
syndicated content:
- Any standard HTML tags that would normally go into
the BODY section of a web page. This includes
- sounds,
- images,
- forms,
- tables,
- headers,
- plain text, and
- links,
Note -- there is an important restriction: ALL URLs
(including href="...," src="...," and ACTION=... URLs)
must be complete http://... URLs. The reason is
because your content will be on remote servers, and
those servers will be unable to correctly resolve
your relative URLs.
If you use forms or other links to CGI programs,
make sure those programs allow input from domains
other than your own.
- JavaScript code, except JavaScript code that
accesses other files. You can use most all
of the available JavaScript language, including
- popup windows,
- date and time presentations,
- JavaScript generated hidden form field values,
- browser detection code, and
- your own custom functions,
- Cascading Style Sheets, when your CSS definitions
are embedded in your content. The definitions must
not be on your server because the syndicating
site's servers won't be able to access it.
- Hit counters and other links to CGI programs on
your or other people's servers. Just remember to
use complete http://... URLs.
As you can see, there are very few restrictions. Just about
anything goes so long as you remember that everything your
content requires must be included in the content itself.
Okay, I promised a link to a commercial program for those
who like to do things the easy way. (Including myself --
I wrote the program in the first place because I wanted
an easy way to syndicate my articles.)
Master Syndicator makes it very easy indeed.
You can maintain multiple categories of remote content. (No
limit on the number of categories has been found yet.)
To automatically update your syndicating sites, (i) select
which category/categories you want to update, (ii) paste
your content into the form, and (iii) click the button.
The Master Syndicator program encodes your content for
JavaScript compatibility and updates the correct master
files -- no hand coding and inserting funny little
characters, no manual uploading; it's all automatic.
If you want to paste in a plain text file, you can tell
Master Syndicator to insert the appropriate HTML paragraph
tags.
One click and it's all taken care of!
There's more information at the distributor's site:
/a/5/pl.pl?58sya
Will Bontrager
©2000 Bontrager Connection, LLC
Please note:
Articles on this website are presented "as is". However -
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