A reader was asking me how I managed to keep track of all those software releases and if I had a a special method that I would use. I do use several methods but one that is working very well and gives me an overview almost instantly is by RSS Feeds. Not all sites offer RSS feeds though but there is a way to create custom RSS feeds for those websites as well.
I’m using a service called Feedity to create custom RSS feeds for websites that offer none. I suppose the best way to explain how this service works is by providing an example. I have selected the latest software releases from Betanews as the example. No feed is offered for this section which displays a list of the latest updated applications.
We begin by adding the url of this section to Feedity and selecting an overall category for this feed which is in this case Computer & Development.
Unfortunately though the results shown are not satisfactory which means that we have to refine the feed manually. Click on the Try Refining link. You will find two new parameters that we can work with in this new section, they are called Start Block and End Block and accept html strings.
We have to take a look at the source code of the Betanews website to find out where the releases begin and where they end. This will be the section that is observed in the feed. The feed will be updated whenever something changes in this block.
The content area at Betanews begins with a table which will be used as the Start Block and ends with the closing tag of that table.
The important aspect is to find unique start and end blocks. that enclose the area that you want in the RSS feed.
Before:
After:
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Says “service unavailabe” right now. You might want to try http://www.feed43.com
Martin
Ponyfish is good too.
http://www.ponyfish.com/
Feedity rocks!!! Just wat I was looking for… thnx!
I’ve been using http://feed43.com/ for quite some time .. works best for me.