Using Yahoo Pipe in Blogs

Yahoo has given a great oppurtunity for non programmers to try their hand at programming without involving any codes. Being a Graphical User Interface.. or rahter in a lay-man’s term.. drag -and-drop and start building is the motto of Yahoo Pipes. Its essential we gather some knowledge about Web-feeds towards understnaing Yahoo pipes.Following which, Building your own personal Yahoo Pipe shall not be difficult

However, once you have completed and executed your yahoo pipe, you might want to use the data it gives ( after all the personalised sorting and filtering) into your blog. For this you might have to go back and Run your pipe and get the Rss -feed-of-the-Pipe using the link at the bottom of your pipe result

Using the Pipe-feed to display data within your blog

  1. By using the Blogger-Feed-Widget
    1. Select  Template-Page Elements – Feed Widget
    2. Give the Rss Feed of the Pipe
    3. If all is well.. this widget will give you the top 5 results of the pipe

  2. By using services of Feed2JS
    1. Feed2JS ( Feed to Javascript) is a site that helps us in converting our Rss Feeds into script code.. which can be used in the HTML / Javascript widget of the blogger
    2. This shall display as many result you have chosen in the pipe ( using the Truncate Module)

  1. Go to Feed2JS
  2. Give the Rss of the Pipe in the URL field
  3. Select the Various options appropriately
  4. Select the UTF-8 Character Encoding if you want to display non-english languages
  5. Click on Preview feed before generating the Javascript
  6. Use the code generated here in the HTML Widget of the blog


Your appreciation is my motivation

Insomnia

Insomnia by Shiva

Watch the stars on sleepless nights..&
Wreck the heck out of obscure remorse
Weed-out ills of clinging pasts
Wheel-out thrills of the cryptic future

May your grief wither with time
May your perceptions win over time
May your soul rebel over hurt
May your wisdom grow over hurt

Mother nature is all around us
Mother nature is all within us
Impatient to unviel maya around
Impromptu shred the viel within

Watch the stars on sleepless nights..
Watches the stars as you sleep at night

Building a Simple Yahoo-Pipe

Yahoo pipes as I said earlier has several modules(components) that you can use in a combination that best fits your idea .. however for a begginer.. I shall be using the Fetch-Feed Module , Sort Module and the Truncate module

Conceptualizing the pipe:-
This is like figuring out what you want from the pipe.. It would be rather irrelevant that you open the pipes-edit page and stare at the screen while you have no idea what you want.
My Pipe concept :- Display the result of the 3 blog fields in the latest post apprearing first and display only first 15 results
(A)Organising your concept :- This gives you a headstart in choosing the modules

  1. Give the post feed for the 3 blogs that I have chosen
  2. sort the result so that the latest post is seen first in order of the published date
  3. Show only top 15 results ( logically assuming that posts beyond the top 15 are all older posts)

(B)Building your First Yahoo Pipe :- By organising your concept.. you can very well say that you will be using the following module

Fetch Feed Module Where you give the Feed URL
Sort Module Which arranges the result in ascending / descending order of published date
Truncate Module Stops the Feed module from retrieving more results after the top 15

(C)Creating your First Yahoo Pipe:-Browse through this post to get an idea as to how to use the various modules

  1. Go to Yahoo Pipes
  2. Sign In using your Yahoo Account
  3. Click on:- Create a Pipe
  4. Drag down the workspace where the modules are inserted
  5. Drag a Feed Module
    1. By default it allows you add one Rss feed.
    2. I shall be using 3 Rss feeds for test purpose ( 3 languages)
    3. To be able to add more than 1 Rss feed click on the ” + ” of the Feed module
    4. http://beta-templatetesting.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
      http://epandit.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
      http://tamilblogging.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss
    5. Click on the Title of the Feed module and see the results of the feed in the Debugger frame

  6. Drag a Sort Module
    1. Connect the output of the Feed Module to the Input of the sort Module
    2. After the module gets updated…
    3. Select item.pubdate and sort in descending order
    4. Click on the Title-bar of the Sort module to view the results in the debugger

  • Drag a Truncate Module
    1. Connect the Output of the Sort Module to the input of the Truncate module
    2. Give the value as ” 15
    3. Connect the Truncate module to the Pipe Output

  • Save the Pipe as My First Yahoo Pipe
  • (D)Executing your Pipe and get its Rss feed

    1. Run the Pipe…and see the results in the browser
    2. Further down the page.. you will be able to see as
    3. Right click -Properties – Copy the URL in a notepad …This is the RSS feed for this particular pipe

    Using Yahoo Pipes in blogs
    Your appreciation is my motivation

    Yahoo Pipes .. Programming without codes

    We learnt a little bit about web-feed as a warm-up session towards understanding Yahoo Pipes. Now let see what yahoo pipes is all about and how it can be put to use by an average blogger / web developer However an advanced developer can work as far as his logical imagination can take him

    Yahoo Pipes – Its a A Feed Aggregator
    Yahoo Pipes is a Web-Application by Yahoo… That allows the users to create their own aggregation of feeds without any sort of coding. Yahoo Pipes uses a Graphical-User-Interface allowing users to Drag-Drop controls

    Basics – for the Average Joe / Jane
    As a blogger, I presume certain subjects / people interests you more than the other .so you would like to keep a track of upcoming posts on those areas among your blogging circle of friends. In this fast paced world.. we do not always have time to visit the entire list of friend’s blog .Subscribing to their blogs will put an update in your inbox when a new post is made.. But then with the friends list growing lengthier by the day.. you would also not prefer to see your inbox bombarded with updates alone.

    So to save you all the trouble you can create a yahoo-pipe (Create a Basic Yahoo Pipe) specifying the Web-feed URL of the respective blogs/websites ..where in the results are manipulated ( as you wish) ..say.. within a date range.. only top-15 results – sorted in ascending/descending order… displaying just the title only or along with the description …just about anyting you can think of…You can also perform custom search ..and manipulate the results

    Once you are satisfied with the results of the pipe you have created you can now use the Web-feed-of-your-pipe into your blog by either directly giving it in the feed-widget of blogger ( this displays only the top 5 results by default)…. or convert Web-feed-of-your-pipe into a script code ( Using Yahoo Pipe in Blogs ) and insert that code into the HTML/JavaScript widget of blogger and see exactly the same result as you would see when you execute the pipe

    If you are the more adventurous type.. you can configure your pipe such that it can take input ( URL / text / dates..etc etc) and execute them to give the concerned results

    Moreover… if you have the appropriate fonts installed you can use the pipe to retrieve data from blogs/ website in other languages as well ( In my Sample Pipe I have used the Rss of English – Tamil – Hindi Blogs)
    Your appreciation is my motivation

    Personalising Blogs with Fonts of your choice

    The first thing that comes to a blogger’s mind when he is setting up the visual space of this blog is to give his own personal style to the look of the blog.This is much before he even thinks about posting.

    Fair amount of personalisation can be done without getting involved in too many technical stuff … simply put – by changing the font style , color , font size etc etc

    A more generalised way to do this will be to locate this your TEMPLATE – FONTS AND COLORS

    1. Scroll down the list
    2. Slect the item whose font (type & color) you wish to modify..
    3. Slect the fontype listed and the color prefered
    4. Save and repeat the process for another one from the list

    If the list of fonts provided by the bloger does not satisfy you,, and you desperately wish that blogger has provided more choice in font names.. then acomplising this is not great feat

    However, To do this you need to identify certains areas in your template taht represent the following
    DONOT FORGET TO SAVE A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR TEMPLATE

    1. Blog title
    2. Blog description
    3. Post Title
    4. Post body
    5. Post footer
    6. Comment author
    7. Comment body
    8. Comment Footer
    To these sections in your Templates (Style sheets) you may add any / all of the following
    ( FONT NAME ) font-family:Monotype Corsiva;
    ( FONT SIZE ) font-size:20px;
    (FONT COLOR ) color:green;

    If you are not sure of what font names to give.. Open a word document – change the font of the texts – this will help you visualise and experiment with different font styles. Then you may copy paste the font name . Save and see the result

    If you feel that this post has helped you in anyway.. do leave a note
    Your appreciation is my motivation

    Passion

    Passion by Vishesh

    In pursit of passions lost…
    You lament of talents laxed
    Passion isn’t rabbit to chase
    Pursue talent in its own race
    Passion is not all that noble
    Passions blind and bind to cause
    Choose your passion..for its your choice
    Choose to persist..for it shall be your voice

    The butterfly

    The Butterfly by Vishesh

    The ripples on water dances on a moonlit night,
    This ballroom scene entices senses & hold it tight,
    The damsel you see (seek) is Master’s design,
    To conjoure your confidence in Master’s design,
    May you reach the zenith of your aspirations,
    May you see (seek) the damsel of your inspirations.

    White

    White by Priya

    Whity mountains..majestic they stand
    Whity wings of fantasy..shall hoists you
    Whity bed of clouds…shall glide you onward
    Whity peaks..they beckon you to alight
    Whity mountains…majestic they watch