Channel operations

Creating and updating channels

When creating a new channel, or updating existing ones, the channel configuration must be sent as the request's POST data. The format is the same as that returned by $/channels/list except that there is no top-level <channels> node. For example, the following POST request sent to $/channels/create will create a new channel:

<channel type="standard">
    <feedUrl> https://awasu.com/news.xml </feedUrl>
</channel>

Channel type

The type of channel is configured via the channel@type attribute:

• To create a normal channel, simply specify the feed URL e.g.

  <channel type="standard">
      <feedUrl> https://awasu.com/news.xml </feedUrl>
  </channel>
  

• To create a plugin channel, specify the path to the plugin and optionally, any plugin parameter values e.g.

  <channel type="plugin">
      <pluginChannel path="{:INSTALL-DIR:}/Samples/python-channel2/sample_python_channel2.py">
          <param name="nItems"> 3 </param>
      </pluginChannel>
  </channel>
  

• To create a search channel, specify the query string and any other parameters e.g.

  <channel type="search">
      <searchQuery searchInUrls="no" searchInTitles="yes" searchInDescriptions="yes">
          query string
          <scoreCutoff> 25 </scoreCutoff>
      </searchQuery>
  </channel>
  

Channel configuration

Most channel configuration is fairly straight-forward and values are configured via child nodes in the root <channel> node.

Basic channel details such as its name and description are usually specified by the publisher in the feed itself but can be overridden by the user e.g.

<channel type="standard">
    <name> ... </name>
    <description> ... </description>
    <homeUrl> ... </homeUrl>
</channel>

The channel summary page can be configured like this:

<channel type="...">
    <channelSummary compact="no" showItems="..." itemWindow="..." contentFormat="..."> 
        <templateFilename> {:INSTALL-DIR:}/Resources/Channel Summary Templates/Rusty.template </templateFilename>
    </channelSummary>
 </channel>

• showItems must be one of Default, All, Unread, New
• itemWindow is either a number of items to show (negative values) or a number of days to go back (positive values)
• contentFormat must be one of Default, Full, Excerpt, PlainText, None

Feed authentication

The username and/or password can be set for channels as follows:

<channel type="standard">
    <auth>
        <name> ... </name>
        <password> ... </password>
    </auth>
</channel>

To remove the authentication details from a channel, include an empty <auth> node:

<channel type="standard">
    <auth />
</channel>

Channel hooks

Channel hooks can be added to new or existing channels as follows:

<channel type="...">
    <channelHook path="...">
        <param name="..."> ... </param>   include as needed
    </channelHook>
</channel>

To update a hook that has already been attached to a channel, it must be identified by its ID. The hook itself cannot be changed and so only the display name and/or hook parameters may be altered.

To detach a hook from a channel, include a delete="yes" attribute e.g.

<channel type="...">
    <channelHook id="..." delete="yes" />
</channel>

Directory aliases

Any settings that include a directory path (e.g. template filename or output filename) can use one of the following directory aliases: