04/07/04
15RSS sidebar in Safari
Those of you who are registered users of Saft will now have the latest preview version with the new sidebar feature. The plugin nature of the sidebar (each panel can be a web page, perl script or shell script) has got me wondering about what useful little widget I could put in there.
Here’s my first idea. After hacking the excellent Feedonfeeds news aggregator script, I’ve made a little OS X style RSS sidebar. Feedonfeeds is a php/MySQL solution that you can install on your site, rather than using a desktop client. From here I can click the unread number to view the latest feeds, the grey number to see all the recent entries, and the blog name to go straight to the site. The first 2 open in a simplified format – very like the RSS Reader/Sage extension for Firefox, and the upcoming Safari RSS reader.
All the menus are faked with CSS, but it helps it look like its part of the browser, rather than a separate web page:
(It makes it so much easier when you’re writing CSS for just one browser!)
The advantage of a browser based, non-local solution is that its always up to date. I can access it from anywhere, and pick up where I left off. Downsides? Just one so far – It isn’t as good as NetNewsWire at detecting feeds. Where the XML has errors it just gives up. I’m giving it a trial for a while, I’m not sure yet whether it would replace NNW. After all, NNW 2 is going to be introducing a sync feature – great if you use more than one machine.
If this looks like the kind of thing you’d like to use, let me know. If people are interested, I’ll clear it with the creator before uploading the additonal files to create the sidebar.
Next, I think I might have a crack at creating a plugin similar to the Web Developer Extension for Mozilla and Firefox.
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Sunny said 1483 days ago:
Next, I think I might have a crack at creating a plugin similar to the Web Developer Extension for Mozilla and Firefox.Yes please! Can’t wait.
Hans said 1483 days ago:
If I ever do break down and buy a Mac (or an Apple product, for that matter), you’ll be 75% responsible for it. Hmmm… maybe I’ll take a crack at doing something for Firefox…BTW, you wrote “Pith Helmet now compatible with Shirra” in the OS X browser news. (Yes, I am your personal typo assistant.)
since1968 said 1482 days ago:
I’d love to see something like the web developer extension for safari!Anthony said 1482 days ago:
Quick question: I just downloaded and paid for the latest version of Saft (6.5.8), but this one doesn’t have a sidebar feature, insofar as I know.What version does? Or, perhaps better yet, where have I gone awry?
And thanks for the pointer to the app—it’s wonderful.
Jon Hicks said 1482 days ago:
Anthony – Its not in the latest public version. Once you’re on the registered list, Hao will send you out the preview version. If you’ve not received it, just send him an email asking nicely! ;o)Agust Atlason said 1482 days ago:
Sounds good to have a web developer for Safari :)And meeen, i really like to watch down there what i am typing, in the preview!
I am using textpattern also, but this must be customized and wow…..well done!
I really like your site and it has become my daily reading now.
Regards,
Agust
Josh Hart said 1482 days ago:
John, this sounds very promising indeed! I live by NetNewsWire these days but also use a variety of macs in different locations. As the number of feeds I have subscribed to has grown (200+ now even after some recent trimming) it has become more and more difficult to keep things in sync.The problem is that I get busy and it sometimes takes a week or two to find time to do some catching up on my less oft read feeds. By then posts have often disappeared from NetNewsWire which doesn’t archive messages.
Currently I am actually running PulpFiction lite at home just for it’s archiving feature (in addition to NNW). At least I can search for a word or title as it keeps a copy of everything.
Furthermore, there are often articles which I want to mark to read later, so Flags of some kind are always great. (currently achieved by bizarrely ‘posting as draft’ from NNW to a blogger account which I log into to catch up on my reading!!!)
I can’t be doing with the web based subscribable ‘bookmark managers’ – I dunno, they just don’t do it for me..
But your solution is fascinating. Combining an archive, on my own server, of all messages, which can be kept in sync on all my machines, using PHP/MySQL (which I can cope with), administered from Saftari… with the display editable using CSS.
The really appeals to me. I can see potentially difficult interface issues when subsribed to a lot of feeds but, rather like your good self, the idea that I could work on these issues using skills I already possess (XHTML, CSS, etc) well I begin to drool.
I’ve just got my sidebar up and running so yes, please, tell me more…
Josh Hart said 1482 days ago:
I meant to say…I really do live by NNW and feeds generally these days. My company uses 37 Signals Basecamp for pretty much all company administration now and all projects have their own feed.
Clients have access too so they can constantly monitor progress and contribute information, answers, assets etc.
So in NNW, at a glance, I have an instant visual record of what messages have been posted, milestones set or completed, email transcripts, etc split on a per client feed.
It has completely revolutionised the way we run our company but the synchronisation problems drive me mad!
Enough. Keep up the great work.
Josh Hart said 1482 days ago:
Today a sidebar, tomorrow a Dashboard widget!Jon Hicks said 1482 days ago:
Josh – NNW is still pretty indispensable, and v2.0 is going to introduce all sorts of nice features, including syncing.I’m going to try this for a while though. If anything it will be handy when I’m away, and only have a internet cafe to get online.
Yes, after seeing all the stuff about Dashboard, it opens up all sorts of nice possibilities for the sidebar. Did you read the latest from Dave Hyatt, that the cocoa search bar will be given a HTML wrapper from 1.3 onwards? That’ll be a big bonus!
Neil said 1482 days ago:
Oh… (rubs hands together fiendishly) a Web developer extension-like sidebar would be amazing.I’ve been playing with the sidebar for a week or so and it’s still very much in development, but the potential is huge.
I’m right in the middle of a move, but once I’m settled I’m going to start working on some sidebar plugins. I have ideas…
John said 1481 days ago:
Hullo, I’ve just received my Saft beta, and I’m wondering how functional it is supposed to be at this point, or is it just a sample, i.e. how do you add bookmarks to the sidebar, or where are they drawn from? Mine just has a random collection upon startup, it seems, and History doesn’t show completely.Jon Hicks said 1480 days ago:
John – its still in beta, so expect quirks. History is set to show a set number of previous steps – I think its about 8. Bookmarks don’t show up at all in my version at all, and the search function for bookmarks doesn’t work at all. Give it time – I think what Hao has shown is that there are a lot of possibilities here.John said 1479 days ago:
thanks :)Jeff Adams said 1474 days ago:
What would be great is if one of you smart people could make the RSS Side bar using FeedonFeeds as an extension to Firefox.That would make me a happy man