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RD: It is often desirable to be able to copy text or a link from the contents on the Item Pane to other tools (editors, email, browsers, etc.)
12/23/02 BottomFeeder scripts.
RD: This item from Ben Hammersley's blog has an interesting idea: www.benhammersley.com/archives/003413.html
What if users could write Smalltalk scripts within the context of BottomFeeder's domain model of RSS feeds, items, and feedlists - and maybe even use some of BottomFeeder's internal interfaces to XML, SOAP, browsers, databases, etc. The results could be very interesting.
We'd have to have a well designed and documented architecture and domain model, but that's not a bad idea anyway. BottomFeeder could be written up as a model of an "advanced" Smalltalk application - one that really struts VW's stuff - a killer app for sucking in new Smalltalkers.
JR: The simplest thing would be to ship an unstripped version of the application that was simply saved in the proper state.
RD: Maybe we could start by incorporating the VW Workspace tool into BottomFeeder. That might be enough to whet some appetites for the real thing, while not overwhelming people who want to try a few simple things.
JR: This is at least partly fulfilled with the inclusion of the workspace and the scripting tool
02/12/03 RD: Yahoo, this is now in version 2.7!!!
03/06/03 Item titles on zoom
RD: When an item is zoomed, the entire right side of the BF window is used to browse the contents of the item. This is helpful, but the title of the item, which appears in the Item List Pane, disappears. It would be helpful in zoom mode to have the item title presented as one line above the browser. This is especially true with "Continuous Item Navigation" (see above).
JR: There's a setting for this - it adds information to the browser pane for each feed/item. This is particularly useful in newspaper mode
RD: I can see how to get a RSS feed from a Feedster query, but to make it a BF Feed, I have to create a Temp folder under Subscriptions and then add the URI of the Feedster RSS file to the Temp folder. This isn't bad, but woudn't it be better if there was an option on the BF Search window to take the results of the Feedster query as a temporary RSS feed? Of course, this assumes that I don't want to repeat the Feedster query again. If I do, then I can move it into a subscriptions folder.
Could this basic idea be applied to the results of other searches, local or through Google, and have BF take the results and create the RSS file?
JR: This is supported through the various feed builders - for Feedster, Google, etc
RD: In 2.6, the Tree Pane contains 2 different trees: for subscribed feeds and for feedlists. More trees could be added, for other purposes, but the result would be awkward to use. An alternative is to make this a tabbed pane, with a separate tree in each tab. Any number of additional tabs could then be added.
Each tab could become a tear-off window at a later date.
12/20/02 RD: The number of tabs BottomFeeder supports should be open-ended, but there is a problem with real estate for the tabs, themselves. Personally, I do not like scrolling tabs or multiple lines of tabs. An alternative is to use subcanvases instead of tab pages, and to select a subcanvas by icons in a toolbar below the window's menu.
04/29/03 RD: In BF 2.9 , but as view selection buttons, rather than as tabs.
RD: The Alerts window helps the user know when subscribed feeds (with notifiers) have been updated with new items. However, it is one more window for the user to manage and eventually close. An alternative is to add an Alerts tab tree whose elements are feeds with alerts. This tab could be automatically brought to the foreground when there are alerts. Selecting a feed in the Alerts tree would operate the same as other feeds.
1/19/03 RD: See this for a proposed addition to the User's Guide for an Alerts Tab. Please comment on it here.
02/29/03 RD: In BF 2.9, the "Alerts" view button, gives you a view of all new items in feeds with notifiers that and allows you to see and work with each.
RD: This would be one of the Internet console functions - integrate BottomFeeder with Google search functions.
2/17/03 RD: BF 2.8 can now inititate a Google search request via the Search menu. The results are presented in the Item Pane.
RD: Display additional properties of feeds in the Feed pane, including: new/old, notifier on/off, subscribed on/off, number of contained items, etc.
08/21/03 RD: The General tab of the Feed Properties window has been enhanced to show all this. A Details tab shows whatever metadata was provided by the feed. The Item properties window provides similar support for feed items.
RD: The settings file should have separate settings for the IP address, port, username, and password for each of the following:
RD: There is no way of turning off the automatic updating of a single feed short of removing it from a subscriptions folder, or of turning it back on short of adding it back to a subscriptions folder.
JR: Not at this point, no. Code is easy enough, the issue is appropriately displaying state in the icon.
JR: Added support for this awhile back. A feed may be marked inactive. I do this all the time for the internal (Cincom) feeds that I normally access via ssh tunnels
RD: Subscribed feeds have popup menu options to "Browse Feed Source" and to "Browse Feed Link" but Feedlist feeds do not.
2/26/03 RD: These menu options were added in BF 2.8.
RD: If the Item Pane has been zoomed, and the user selects a different feed from the Tree Pane, the Item Pane should be automatically unzoomed.
03/06/03 RD: Supported in BF 2.8.
RAD: The Radio aggregator uses a pretty ugly browser-based UI that doesn't give users the flexibility and control that BF does. It hides the feeds and presents new items from feeds intermixed, in reverse timestamp order, whereas BF maintains a visible realtionship between feeds and their items - perhaps too much so. It can be argued that users don't care about feeds at all, only about seeing the items in them. I'm not sure I buy this, but it would be easy for BF to provide something similar.
Just add "Next Item" and "Previous Item" arrows to the toolbar. Clicking one would select the next or previous item relative to the currently selected item of the currently selected feed. At the last item of a feed, the next item would be the first item of the next feed in the tree, and at the first item of a feed, the previous item would be the last item of the previous feed. In zoomed mode, this would be a convenient way to go from item to item without having to unzoom between items. In unzoomed mode, the user would also see the resulting selection item titles. In both modes, the user would see the selection of feeds.
04/29/03 RD: In BF 2.9 support for the "New Items" view button and in its support for additional keyboard shortcuts.
RD: Toggle Zoom should be enabled whenever anything is displayed in the Item Pane, and not just when an item is selected in the Item List Pane. For example, the results of a query entered via Feed Feedback or a Google search, are displayed in the Item Pane even though there is no selected item. There are likely to be additional examples of this as we extend BottomFeeder in other ways.
03/08/03 RD: Fixed in BF 2.8.
RD: BF 2.8 supports feedback (for feeds that allow it) at either the feed-level (for searches) or the item-level (for comments), but not both. It determines if a feed allows item-level feedback by looking for 'comments' in the title of the feed's textInput element. But some blogs (JR's Cincom Smalltalk Blog) support both searches and comments on items, so their feeds should be able to support both, too.
It would be simple for an aggregator to parse the textInput title to determine if 'comments' or 'searches' or both are supported. However, there is no RSS standard that addresses this issue, nor the more general issue of any communications between a website, its feeds and aggregators. For example, there is no defined protocol for sending comments about a specific feed item to the website, or for the website to respond to the aggregator.
BF has invented its own protocols for communications between itself and the Cincom Blog, but they don't have any RSS community blessing - at least not yet.
08/21/03 RD: BottomFeeder now supports standardized RSS modules for feedback and comments.
JR: Change over to the new VW7.1 Settings framework.
04/29/03 In BF 2.9.
RD: I often SEND (as email) a page I am browsing to other people (as either html or a link to the page). A similar capability would be useful in BF for individual feeds, feedlists or items. BF already has the ability to send bug reports, so this should be a reasonable addition
JR: Supported
RD: Whenever "alerts" or "new items" is selected, just blank out the Item Pane as is done when a new feed is selected in the "Feeds" view. Alternatively, the item at the top of the list could be automatically selected and displayed. Currently, the last item that was being displayed in the Item Pane stays there until another item in the new list is selected.
08/21/03 RD: The Item pane is now blanked whenever the user changes view.
FS: When during a File Save for parameters and subscribed sites the feature "Save All To" invokes a dialog that has an incomplete behavior in that you cannot 'drill down' into a directory path; you must type it in. This is a fairly big deal in Windows as some of the paths for 'stuff' get pretty long. In particular, I have chosen a path that is synced with a PocketPC so that I can migrate my information from work to home.
JR: On Windows, we now invoke a native directory dialog. On other platforms, we have a pure Smalltalk one
The font size in the item window (lower right window) doesn't seem to be controlled by the text size setting under the "User Interface" section. I find the default size too small, especially at 1600x1200. I took a quick dip into the code, but couldn't figure out how to change it. (I don't have any VW experience anyway)
It would be nice if I could set the font size for the item window and the list/tree text separately.
JR: Supported in the 3.x series. In 3.7, you can adjust item text via the size controls in the toolbar, or via stylesheets you add/modify yourself
I wish that it would be possible to change the font type and font size for the item text field.
JR: See above
The icon that BottomFeeder uses in the Windows Task Bar (side view of a fish) is a nice, recognizable icon. Unfortunately, the icon used in the Windows Start Menu and, therefore, in the Quick Launch toolbar is an unrecognizable blob (actually a crop of the catfish's picture used on the first spash screen). I would suggest changing it and standardizing on the Task Bar icon.
Give yourself a pat on the back that we're down to minor gripes about the UI. BottomFeeder has turned into a great program that can compete with the costliest of the readers. - Dave Patton
JR: Should be addressed now. If not, it's some Windows oddity I don't get :)
07/09/04 Support for Portable Network Graphics in feeds
Some blogs are using PNG within their feeds, however BottomFeeder can't show them :-( It would be GREAT if a further release of BottomFeeder would support Portable Network Graphics. Or is there a way to use BottomFeeder right now with PNG? - Andreas Semt
JR: Bf should support PNG now
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<rss version="2.0" xmlns:anything="http://www.anything.com">
<channel>
<title>anything.com</title>
<link>http://www.anything.com</link>
<description>I love BottomFeeder</description>
<mynamespace:myfield>The web site won't be updated for the new few months...</mynamespace:myfield>
[...]
Will add & display the "myfield" in a "mynamespace" column. Same thing for the <item> tag will be definitely awesome! Of course "myfield" & "mynamespace" could be anything else ;-).
JR: This makes BottomFeeder the 1st News Aggregator supporting namespaces!!
Charles Belov: BottomFeeder 3.2 is using an unconditional GET to retrieve RSS files. That is, the file is retrieved whether the RSS file has changed or not.
It would be better to do a conditional GET if modified since the last RSS file was retrieved for the same URL. If this is not available in HTTP 1.0, then it would be better to do a HEAD request first to see whether the RSS file was changed, and then only do the GET if the RSS file has actually changed.
Unconditional GET is a factor discouraging us from making RSS available on our Web site.
JR: Bf has been using Conditional get for a long time now. Update to the latest release
Vincent Foley: I have many friends who use LiveJournal, and some of them have private journals (meaning, only friends can read them), so a means to log in to see those would be nice. It would also be nice if the blogging tool could support LiveJournal. And while we're talking about the blogging tool, maybe a means to write macros would be nice?
JR: Bf supports both Basic Auth and Digest Auth - and LiveJournal uses the latter. When you subscribe to a feed that uses Authorization, you'll get prompted for a username and password. Bf saves that info, so you should not be prompted again (unless the back end forces it)
1/1/05 RD: Added to the Users Guide
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