Advice on creating Rotating RSS skin

[kabott]

Hi all, i want to create a skin divided in several tabs, each tab will contain a different "sub skin" (.inc) with different RSS, wich will update every 4 hours or so, my problem is every time i want to change rss by navigating to a different tab the Main skin needs to refresh, and that will also refresh the RSS a couple times and i get banned temporarily by the site, so i was thinking on creating a skin with all the different feeds wich will "download" and write the source code of each rss page to a simple .inc file , same with images, just download them all once every 4 hours, and then have the Tabs skin pharse each .inc file and use the images downloaded by the "Updater skin", so i can go from tab to tab and back without bothering the site's RSS , so far so good, seems like a good idea, i would appreciate any advice for a better way of doing something similar, anyways i have a couple questions:

1- how do i tell web parser to get the entire source code from the site? is there a particular reg expression for this?
2- how should i write the result? as a Variable in an inc file?
3- how do i tell a parser from the RSS "viewer" to read from a file instead instead of a site?



that's all, thanks in advance for any help guys

[Mordasius]

I suspect you may have started off on the wrong foot with this one. There are dozens of RSS feedreader skins that allow you to switch between different feeds without refreshing the skin or reading the webpage each time. You'll get some idea of what is available by searching the Rainmeter section of Deviant Art http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/sysmonitor/rainmeter/?q=RSS

You could work around the problem in the way you suggest but it seems like a lot of hard work just to create a skin that allows you switch between between feeds without updating them each time.

[kabott]

yes, i know it sounds unnecessarily complicated, but i want to be able to quickly modify / edit / change skins without having to edit the whole RSS "mainframe", meaning i want to be able to change the order in wich they appear as well as even the "Tabs menu", i have many Tab menus wich I've made as dynamic as possible.

This way i can look at one rss at the time or open individual skins pressing the "Open sub level skin" .. yep sunds messy, its complicated to explain buit it isnt at all, perhaps an image worth's a thousand words






so to i have a "Large_Tab.ini" wich is the main menu that calls different "Medium_Tab.ini" wich calls different skins, RSS, clock weather, CPU, maps etc
and i have several large tabs across my monitors were i can navigate them or open the individual skin im interested in and keep navigating the "large_tab"

I can also change which "Large_Tab.ini" (Large_Tab1.ini, Large_Tab2.ini , Large_Tab3.ini, etc) will be displaying this particular RSS by changing the name of the skin to be called, but since i had to use WriteKeyvariable to accomplish this, every time i change a tab it needs to be refreshed, so.. i gotta try to minimize my "clicking" activities or i get temporarily banned from the feed..

which brings me to my current head-ech lol, the good part is once you ve done one you have done them all, just copy/rename/change feed

anyways, heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!! lol

[eclectic-tech]

Look at using StringIndex2... this parses the site with a REGEXP=, then uses another REGEXP= in the child measure, to parse the information read by the first regexp; it does not need to parse the site again.

It is not an easy concept to understand, but if you follow the tutorial, and play with it, this may help you.
The result would be that you do not need to refresh the skin every time, only hide and show relevant meters.

And if you need help, members here are always willing to help troubleshoot issues.

[Mordasius]

I sort of understand what you are trying to do but still don't understand why you need to have the RSS feedreaders loaded by Medium_Tab.ini. Why not just put the feedreaders in separate .ini files that are always loaded and running in the background and then use !Show and !Hide to show/hide them as the Tabs are clicked? e.g. LeftMouseUpAction=[!Show "MySkinFolder\RSS1"]

[kabott]

hi eclectic-tech, my problem is not the parsing per se' but i want to download and write an entire rss source code form the page, get that wrinten in a .inc and get a second parser to read from that .inc file, so i wanted to know:


1) how do i tell web parser to get the entire source code from the site? is there a particular reg expression for this?

nevermind that, just parse for <rss(.*)</rss> and will get it all

2) how should i write the result (source code from the site)? as a Variable in an inc file?

meaning something like:

[WebParserA]
x
x
x
FinishAction: [WiritekeyVariable [WebParserA] "xx" ] ??


3) how do i tell a parser to read from a file instead instead of a site?
meaning something like:

[WebParserB]
Url: C:/Folders/File.inc
X
X
X


this r my ideas on how to accomplish it, but im not sure, and dont think im getting some commands right, thats why i asked for some guidance

[eclectic-tech]

...
2) how should i write the result (source code from the site)? as a Variable in an inc file?

meaning something like:

[WebParserA]
x
x
x
FinishAction: [WiritekeyVariable [WebParserA] "xx" ] ??


3) how do i tell a parser to read from a file instead instead of a site?
meaning something like:

[WebParserB]
Url: C:/Folders/File.inc
X
X
X


this r my ideas on how to accomplish it, but im not sure, and dont think im getting some commands right, thats why i asked for some guidance

I agree with Mordasius in that you may be able to do this with hide/show each standard RSS...

Question 2.) You do not need to "save" the URL parsed, but you could use Download=1 (see webparser download options) on that measure to save the file and parse that.
Instead of saving it, you can parse the initial measure using StringIndex2 (as I mentioned earlier).

Question3.) The command in the parser for files is URL=file://C:/Folders/File.inc see URL in the webparser section of the manual for more info.

Again, I think hiding and showing individual RSS ini's is going to be the best solution... but you need to make that decision.

[kabott]

Mordasious, i know, ive done it, but there are too many rss feeds (15) changing/rearranging readers becomes a nightmare wen you have 5 readers in one single ini file, i have few skins using that method , thats why i made the main tab menus very dynamic and adjustable i can add or take out tabs very quick and easly, same with medium tabs, changing which reader/map/chart what ever gets called its just a matter of changing the name of the skin to be called in, so everything can be easily re-organized, re-editing a single multi feed skin becomes an endless task, well not endless but unnecessarily tedious :P, this way has been much more productive and practical, from adding more news indexes to customizing that rss looks

I didnt knew a thing about Rainmeter a year ago and my programming skills r still very basic but this baby is AWESOME! just wish it could handle video streaming, just imagine! XD