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FeedWordPress / 0.97
FeedWordPress v0.97
trunk 0.8 0.9 0.91 0.95 0.96 0.97 0.98 0.981 0.99 0.991 0.992 0.993 2008.1030 2008.1101 2008.1105 2008.1214 2009.0612 2009.0613 2009.0618 2009.0707 2009.1111 2009.1112 2010.0127 2010.0528 All 65 releases
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1 -Change Log
2 -==========
1 +FeedWordPress Change Log
2 +========================
3 3
4 +Changes from 0.96 to 0.97
5 +-------------------------
6 +
7 +* INSTALLATION PROCEDURE: Some of the changes between 0.96 and 0.97
8 + require upgrades to the meta-data stored by FeedWordPress to work
9 + properly. Thus, if you are upgrading from 0.96 or earlier to 0.97, most
10 + FeedWordPress operations (including updates and template functions)
11 + WILL BE DISABLED until you run the upgrade procedure. Fortunately,
12 + running the upgrade procedure is easy: just go to either Options -->
13 + Syndication or Links --> Syndicated in the WordPress Dashboard and press
14 + the button.
15 +
16 +* FEED FORMAT SUPPORT: Support has been added for the Atom 1.0 IETF
17 + standard. Several other elements are also newly supported
18 + (dcterms:created, dcterms:issued, dcterms:modified, dc:identifier,
19 + proper support for the RSS 2.0 guid element, the RSS 2.0 author element,
20 + the use of Atom author or Dublin Core dc:creator constructs at the feed
21 + level to identify the author of individual items, etc.)
22 +
23 + N.B.: full support of several Atom 1.0 features, such as categories
24 + and enclosures, requires you to install the optional rss-functions.php
25 + upgrade in your wp-includes directory.
26 +
27 +* BUG FIX: Running `update-feeds.php` from command line or crontab
28 + returned "I don't syndicate..." errors. It turns out that WordPress
29 + sometimes tramples on the internal PHP superglobals that I depended on
30 + to determine whether or not the script was being invoked from the
31 + command line. This has been fixed (the variables are now checked
32 + *before* WordPress can trample them). Note that `update-feeds.php` has
33 + been thoroughly overhauled anyway; see below for details.
34 +
35 +* BUG FIX: Duplicate categories or author names. Fixed two bugs that could
36 + create duplicate author and/or category names when the name contained
37 + either (a) certain international characters (causing a mismatch between
38 + MySQL and PHP's handling of lowercasing text), or (b) characters that
39 + have a special meaning in regular expressions (causing MySQL errors when
40 + looking for the author or category due to regexp syntax errors). These
41 + should now be fixed thanks to careful escaping of names that go into
42 + regular expressions and careful matching of lowercasing functions
43 + (comparing results from PHP only to other results from PHP, and results
44 + from MySQL only to other results from MySQL).
45 +
46 +* BUG FIX: Items dated Decembr 31, 1969 should appear less often. The
47 + function for parsing W3C date-time format dates that ships with
48 + MagpieRSS can only correctly parse fully-specified dates with a
49 + fully-specified time, but valid W3C date-time format dates may omit the
50 + time, the day of the month, or even the month. Some feeds in the wild
51 + date their items with coarse-grained dates, so the optional
52 + `rss-functions.php` upgrade now includes a more flexible parse_w3cdtf()
53 + function that will work with both coarse-grained and fully-specified
54 + dates. (If parts of the date or the time are omitted, they are filled in
55 + with values based on the current time, so '2005-09-10' will be dated to
56 + the current time on that day; '2004' will be dated to this day and time
57 + one year ago.
58 +
59 + N.B.: This fix is only available in the optional `rss-functions.php`
60 + upgrade.
61 +
62 +* BUG FIX: Evil use of HTTP GET has been undone. The WordPress interface
63 + is riddled with inappropriate (non-idempotent) uses of HTTP GET queries
64 + (ordinary links that make the server do something with significant
65 + side-effects, such as deleting a post or a link from the database).
66 + FeedWordPress did some of this too, especially in places where it aped
67 + the WordPress interface (e.g. the "Delete" links in Links -->
68 + Syndicated). That's bad business, though. I've changed the interface so
69 + that all the examples of improper side-effects that I can find now
70 + require an HTTP POST to take effect. I think I got pretty much
71 + everything; if there's anything that I missed, let me know.
72 +
73 + Further reading: [Sam Ruby 2005-05-06: This Stuff Matters] (http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2005/05/06/This-Stuff-Matters)
74 +
75 +* BUG FIX: Categories applied by `cats` setting should no longer prevent
76 + category-based filtering from working. In FeedWordPress, you can (1)
77 + apply certain categories to all syndicated posts, or all posts from
78 + a particular feed; and (2) filter out all posts that don't match one
79 + of the categories that are already in the WordPress database (allowing
80 + for simple category-based filtering; just load up WordPress with the
81 + categories you want to accept, and then tell FeedWordPress not to create
82 + new ones). However, the way that (1) and (2) were implemented meant that
83 + you couldn't effectively use them together; once you applied a known
84 + category to all syndicated posts from a particular feed, it meant that
85 + they'd have at least one familiar category (the category or categories
86 + you were applying), and that would get all posts past the filter no
87 + matter what categories they were originally from.
88 +
89 + Well, no longer. You can still apply categories to all syndicated posts
90 + (using either Syndication --> Options, or the feed-level settings under
91 + Links --> Syndicated). But these categories are not applied to the post
92 + until *after* it has already passed by the "familiar categories" filter.
93 + So now, if you want, you can do category filtering and *then* apply as
94 + many categories as you please to all and only posts that pass the filter.
95 +
96 +* BUG FIX: Other minor typos and HTML gaffes were fixed along the way.
97 +
98 +* PERFORMANCE: get_feed_meta() no longer hits the database for information
99 + on every call; it now caches link data in memory, so FeedWordPress only
100 + goes to the database once for each syndicated link. This may
101 + substantially improve performance if your database server resources
102 + are tight and your templates make a lot of use of custom settings from
103 + get_feed_meta().
104 +
105 +* API CHANGE: Link ID numbers, rather than RSS URIs, are now used to
106 + identify the feed from which a post is syndicated when you use template
107 + functions such as get_feed_meta(). The practical upshot of this is you
108 + can switch feeds, or change the feed address for a particular syndicated
109 + site, without breaking your templates for all the posts that were
110 + syndicated from the earlier URI.
111 +
112 +* API CHANGE: if you have plugins or templates that make use of the
113 + get_feed_meta() function or the $fwp_feedmeta global, note that the
114 + data formerly located under the `uri` and `name` fields is now located
115 + under the `link/uri` field and the `link/name` field, respectively. Note
116 + also that you can access the link ID number for any given feed under the
117 + global $fwp_feedmeta['link/id'] (in plugins) or
118 + get_feed_meta('link/id') (in a template in post contexts).
119 +
120 +* FEATURE: the settings for individual feeds can now be edited using a
121 + humane interface (where formerly you had to tweak key-value pairs in the
122 + Link Notes section). To edit settings for a feed, pick the feed that you
123 + want under Links --> Syndicated and click the Edit link.
124 +
125 +* FEATURE: The "Unsubscribe" button (formerly "Delete") in Links -->
126 + Syndicated now offers three options for unsubscribing from a feed: (1)
127 + turning off the subscription without deleting the feed data or affecting
128 + posts that were syndicated from the feed (this works by setting the Link
129 + for the feed as "invisible"); (2) deleting the feed data and all of the
130 + posts that were syndicated from the feed; or (3) deleting the feed data
131 + and *keeping* the posts that were syndicated from the feed
132 + setting the Link to "Invisible" (meaning that it will not be displayed
133 + in lists of the site links on the front page, and it won't be checked
134 + for updates; (2) deleting the Link and all of the posts that were
135 + syndicated from its feed; or (3) deleting the feed data but keeping the
136 + posts that were syndicated (which will henceforward be treated as if
137 + they were local rather than syndicated posts). (Note that (1) is usually
138 + the best option for aggregator sites, unless you want to clean up the
139 + results of an error or a test.)
140 +
141 +* FEATURE / BUG FIX: If you have been receiving mysterious "I don't
142 + syndicate...", or "(local) HTTP status code was not 200", or "(local)
143 + transport error - could not open socket", or "parse error - not well
144 + formed" errors, then this update may solve your problems, and if it does
145 + *not* solve them, it will at least make the reasons for the problems
146 + easier to understand. That's because I've overhauled the way that
147 + FeedWordPress goes about updating feeds.
148 +
149 + If you use the command-line PHP scripting method to run scheduled
150 + updates, then not much should change for you, except for fewer
151 + mysterious errors. If you have done updates by sending periodic HTTP
152 + requests to <http://your-blog.com/path/wp-content/update-feeds.php>,
153 + then the details have changed somewhat; mostly in such a way as to make
154 + things easier on you. See the README file or online documentation on
155 + Staying Current for the details.
156 +
157 +* FEATURE: FeedWordPress now features a more sophisticated system for
158 + timed updates. Instead of polling *every* subscribed feed for updates
159 + *each* time `update-feeds.php` is run, FeedWordPress now keeps track of
160 + the last time it polled each feed, and only polls them again after a
161 + certain period of time has passed. The amount of time is normally set
162 + randomly for each feed, in a period between 30 minutes and 2 hours (so
163 + as to stagger updates over time rather than polling all of the feeds at once. However, the length of time between updates can also be set
164 + directly by the feed, which brings us to ...
165 +
166 +* FEATURE: FeedWordPress now respects the settings in the `ttl` and
167 + Syndication Module RSS elements. Feeds with these elements set will not
168 + be polled any more frequently than they indicate with these feeds unless
169 + the user manually forces FeedWordPress to poll the feed (see Links -->
170 + Syndicated --> Edit settings).
171 +
172 +Changes from 0.95 to 0.96
173 +-------------------------
174 +
175 +* FEATURE: support has been added for enclosures in RSS 2.0 and Atom
176 + 0.6+ newsfeeds. WordPress already supports adding enclosures to an
177 + item; FeedWordPress merely gets the information on the enclosure
178 + from the feed it is syndicating and plugs that information directly
179 + into the WordPress database so that (among other things) that post
180 + will have its enclosure listed in your blog's RSS 2 newsfeed.
181 +
182 + Note that enclosure support requires using the optional MagpieRSS
183 + upgrade (i.e., replacing your `wp-includes/rss-functions.php` with `OPTIONAL/wp-includes/rss-functions.php` from the FWP archive)
184 +
185 +* FEATURE: for completeness's sake, there is now a feed setting,
186 + `hardcode url`, that allows you to set the URI for the front page
187 + of a contributor's website manually (that is, prevent it from being
188 + automatically updated from the feed channel link on each update). To
189 + set the URI manually, put a line like this in the Link Notes section
190 + of a feed:
191 +
192 + hardcode url: yes
193 +
194 + You can also instruct FeedWordPress to use hardcoded URIs by default
195 + on all feeds using Options --> Syndication
196 +
197 +* FEATURE: by default, when FeedWordPress finds new syndicated posts,
198 + it (1) publishes them immediately, (2) turns comments off, and (3)
199 + turns trackback / pingback pings off. You can now alter all three
200 + default behaviors (e.g., to allow pings on syndicated posts, or to
201 + send newly-syndicated posts to the draft pile for moderation) using
202 + Options --> Syndication
203 +
204 +
4 205 Changes from 0.91 to 0.95
5 206 -------------------------
6 207
7 -* BUG FIX: Fixed an obscure bug in the handling of categories: categories
8 - with trailing whitespace could cause categories with duplicate names to
9 - be created. This no longer happens. While I was at it I tightened up the
10 - operation of FeedWordPress::lookup_categories() a bit in general.
208 +* BUG FIX: Fixed an obscure bug in the handling of categories:
209 + categories with trailing whitespace could cause categories with
210 + duplicate names to be created. This no longer happens. While I was
211 + at it I tightened up the operation of
212 + FeedWordPress::lookup_categories() a bit in general.
11 213
12 214 * FEATURE DEPRECATED: the feed setting `hardcode categories` is now
13 - deprecated in favor of `unknown categories` (see below), which allows
14 - you to strip off any syndication categories not already in your database
15 - using `unknown categories: default` or `unknown categories: filter`. If
16 - you have `hardcode categories: yes` set on a feed, this will be treated
17 - as `unknown categories: default` (i.e., no new categories will be added,
18 - but if a post doesn't match any of the categories it will be added in
19 - the default category--usually "Uncategorized" or "General").
215 + deprecated in favor of `unknown categories` (see below), which
216 + allows you to strip off any syndication categories not already in
217 + your database using `unknown categories: default` or `unknown
218 + categories: filter`. If you have `hardcode categories: yes` set on a
219 + feed, this will be treated as `unknown categories: default` (i.e.,
220 + no new categories will be added, but if a post doesn't match any of
221 + the categories it will be added in the default category--usually
222 + "Uncategorized" or "General").
20 223
21 224 * FEATURE: You can now set global defaults as to whether or not
22 - FeedWordPress will update the Link Name and Link Description settings
23 - for feeds automatically from the feed title and feed tagline. (By
24 - default, it does, as it has in past versions.) Whether this behavior is
25 - turned on or off, you can still override the default behavior using
26 - feed settings of `hardcode name: yes`, `hardcode name: no`,
27 - `hardcode description: yes`, or `hardcode description: no`.
225 + FeedWordPress will update the Link Name and Link Description
226 + settings for feeds automatically from the feed title and feed
227 + tagline. (By default, it does, as it has in past versions.) Whether
228 + this behavior is turned on or off, you can still override the
229 + default behavior using feed settings of `hardcode name: yes`,
230 + `hardcode name: no`, `hardcode description: yes`, or `hardcode
231 + description: no`.
28 232
29 -* FEATURE: Users can now provide one or several "aliases" for an author,
30 - just as they can for a category. For example, to make FeedWordPress
31 - treat posts by "Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger" and "Pope Benedict XVI" as
32 - by the same author, edit the user profile for Pope Benedict XVI and add
33 - a line like this to the "User profile" field:
233 +* FEATURE: Users can now provide one or several "aliases" for an
234 + author, just as they can for a category. For example, to make
235 + FeedWordPress treat posts by "Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger" and "Pope
236 + Benedict XVI" as by the same author, edit the user profile for Pope
237 + Benedict XVI and add a line like this to the "User profile" field:
34 238
35 239 a.k.a.: Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
36 240
37 - You can add several aliases, each on a line by itself. You can also add
38 - any other text you like to the Profile without interfering with the
39 - aliases.
241 + You can add several aliases, each on a line by itself. You can also
242 + add any other text you like to the Profile without interfering with
243 + the aliases.
40 244
41 -* FEATURE: Users can now choose how to handle syndicated posts that are
42 - in unfamiliar categories or by unfamiliar authors (i.e., categories or
43 - authors whose names are not yet in the WordPress database). By default,
44 - FeedWordPress will (as before) create a new category (or new author) and
45 - use it for the current post and any future posts. This behavior can be
46 - changed, either for all feeds or for one or another particular feed.
245 +* FEATURE: Users can now choose how to handle syndicated posts that
246 + are in unfamiliar categories or by unfamiliar authors (i.e.,
247 + categories or authors whose names are not yet in the WordPress
248 + database). By default, FeedWordPress will (as before) create a new
249 + category (or new author) and use it for the current post and any
250 + future posts. This behavior can be changed, either for all feeds or
251 + for one or another particular feed.
47 252
48 253 There are now three different options for an unfamiliar author: (1)
49 254 FeedWordPress can create a new author account and attribute the
50 - syndicated post to the new account; (2) FeedWordPress can attribute the
51 - post to an author if the author's name is familiar, and to a default
52 - author (currently, this means the Site Administrator account) if it is
53 - not; (3) FeedWordPress can drop posts by unfamiliar authors and
54 - syndicate only posts by authors who are already in the database.
255 + syndicated post to the new account; (2) FeedWordPress can attribute
256 + the post to an author if the author's name is familiar, and to a
257 + default author (currently, this means the Site Administrator
258 + account) if it is not; (3) FeedWordPress can drop posts by
259 + unfamiliar authors and syndicate only posts by authors who are
260 + already in the database.
55 261
56 - There are, similarly, two different options for an unfamiliar category:
57 - (1) FeedWordPress can create new categories and place the syndicated
58 - post in them; (2) FeedWordPress can drop the unfamiliar categories and
59 - place syndicated posts only in categories that it is already familiar
60 - with. In addition, FeedWordPress 0.95 lets you choose whether posts that
61 - are in *no* familiar categories should be syndicated (and placed in the
62 - default category for the blog) or simply dropped.
262 + There are, similarly, two different options for an unfamiliar
263 + category: (1) FeedWordPress can create new categories and place the
264 + syndicated post in them; (2) FeedWordPress can drop the unfamiliar
265 + categories and place syndicated posts only in categories that it is
266 + already familiar with. In addition, FeedWordPress 0.95 lets you
267 + choose whether posts that are in *no* familiar categories should be
268 + syndicated (and placed in the default category for the blog) or
269 + simply dropped.
63 270
64 - You can set the default behavior for both authors and categories using
65 - the settings in Options --> Syndication. You can also set different
66 - behavior for specific feeds by adding the `unfamiliar author` and / or
67 - `unfamiliar categories` settings to the Link Notes section of a feed:
271 + You can set the default behavior for both authors and categories
272 + using the settings in Options --> Syndication. You can also set
273 + different behavior for specific feeds by adding the `unfamiliar
274 + author` and / or `unfamiliar categories` settings to the Link Notes
275 + section of a feed:
68 276
69 277 unfamiliar author: (create|default|filter)
70 278 unfamiliar categories: (create|default|filter)
71 279
72 - A setting of `unfamiliar author: create` will make FeedWordPress create
73 - new authors to match unfamiliar author names *for this feed alone*. A
74 - setting of `unfamiliar author: default` will make it assign posts from
75 - unfamiliar authors to the default user account. A setting of
76 - `unfamiliar author: filter` will cause all posts (from this feed alone)
77 - to be dropped unless they are by an author already listed in the
78 - database. Similiarly, `unfamiliar categories: create` will make
79 - FeedWordPress create new categories to match unfamiliar category names
80 - *for this feed alone*; `unfamiliar categories: default` will cause it
81 - to drop any unfamiliar category names; and
280 + A setting of `unfamiliar author: create` will make FeedWordPress
281 + create new authors to match unfamiliar author names *for this feed
282 + alone*. A setting of `unfamiliar author: default` will make it
283 + assign posts from unfamiliar authors to the default user account. A
284 + setting of `unfamiliar author: filter` will cause all posts (from
285 + this feed alone) to be dropped unless they are by an author already
286 + listed in the database. Similiarly, `unfamiliar categories: create`
287 + will make FeedWordPress create new categories to match unfamiliar
288 + category names *for this feed alone*; `unfamiliar categories:
289 + default` will cause it to drop any unfamiliar category names; and
82 290 `unfamiliar categories: filter` will cause it to *both* drop any
83 - unfamiliar category names *and* to only syndicate posts that are placed
84 - in one or more familiar categories.
291 + unfamiliar category names *and* to only syndicate posts that are
292 + placed in one or more familiar categories.
85 293
86 - These two new features allow users to do some coarse-grained filtering
87 - without having to write a PHP filter. Specifically, they offer an easy
88 - way for you to filter feeds by category or by author. Suppose, for
89 - example, that you only wanted to syndicate posts that your contributors
90 - place in the "Llamas" category. You could do so by setting up your
91 - installation of WordPress so that the only category in the database is
92 - "Llamas," and then use Options --> Syndication to set "Unfamiliar
93 - categories" to "don't create new categories and don't syndicate posts
94 - unless they match at least one familiar category". Now, when you update,
95 - only posts in the "Llamas" category will be syndicated by FeedWordPress.
294 + These two new features allow users to do some coarse-grained
295 + filtering without having to write a PHP filter. Specifically, they
296 + offer an easy way for you to filter feeds by category or by author.
297 + Suppose, for example, that you only wanted to syndicate posts that
298 + your contributors place in the "Llamas" category. You could do so by
299 + setting up your installation of WordPress so that the only category
300 + in the database is "Llamas," and then use Options --> Syndication to
301 + set "Unfamiliar categories" to "don't create new categories and
302 + don't syndicate posts unless they match at least one familiar
303 + category". Now, when you update, only posts in the "Llamas" category
304 + will be syndicated by FeedWordPress.
96 305
97 306 Similarly, if you wanted to filter one particular feed so that only
98 307 posts by (for example) the author "Earl J. Llama" were syndicated to
99 - your site, you could do so by creating a user account for Earl J. Llama,
100 - then adding the following line to the settings for the feed in Link
101 - Notes:
308 + your site, you could do so by creating a user account for Earl J.
309 + Llama, then adding the following line to the settings for the feed
310 + in Link Notes:
102 311
103 312 unfamiliar author: filter
104 313
105 - This will cause any posts from this feed that are not authored by Earl
106 - J. Llama to be discarded, and only the posts by Earl J. Llama will be
107 - syndicated. (If the setting is used on one specific feed, it will not
108 - affect how posts from other feeds are syndicated.)
314 + This will cause any posts from this feed that are not authored by
315 + Earl J. Llama to be discarded, and only the posts by Earl J. Llama
316 + will be syndicated. (If the setting is used on one specific feed, it
317 + will not affect how posts from other feeds are syndicated.)
109 318