OPML Editor support:

Version 0.39 converts Bloglines and RSS Bandit subscription lists

Following a discussion on the opmlsupport mail list, it seemed we should include in the OPML Editor the ability to convert subscription lists from popular feed readers and aggregators that require conversion. Since I had samples for Bloglines and RSS Bandit provided by Steve Tibbett, I started with those two formats.

Updating

To update your copy of OPML Editor, choose Get Latest Code from the Community menu. (You may have to quit and relaunch the app to see the Community menu after updating.)

How to

Suppose you have a Bloglines subscription list. Here's how to convert it.

1. Save it to your local hard disk.

2. In the OPML Editor, choose Convert Bloglines File from the OPML Conversions sub-menu of the Community menu.

3. A file dialog appears, choose the file you saved in Step 1.

4. It reads the file and opens it in a new Untitled window, which you can then edit, reorganize, combine with other files, and save where ever you like.

What it does

Continuing with Bloglines as an example, the files it produces are very close to being in a format that the OPML Editor can work with. We just change the name of the "title" attribute to "text" and add some information in the head section that makes it work with the directory displayer.

RSS Bandit omits the type attribute on RSS headlines, so we add them, and has no data in its head section, which we also add. Like Bloglines it mistakenly calls the text attribute "title" so we fix that too.

How to proceed

If you have a subscription list from another aggregator, try opening it in OPML Editor without conversion. If it works, please post a link to the file in a comment in response to this post, and say that it worked, and I'll start a list of compatible aggregators.

If it didn't work, please also post that in a comment, again, with a link to an example file, and I'll look into writing a converter for it.

# Posted by Dave Winer on 6/19/05; 5:37:29 AM - --