Finding References

I was inspired by this post from Jon Udell, where he used XQuery to walk through his feeds and find all the items that made a reference to Amazon - which is a pretty good approximation for all the posts that reference a book. Well, I'd much rather play with Smalltalk than with XQuery, and - as it happens - I have a lot of the development system available to me in the BottomFeeder runtime. So - I opened a workspace (off the System menu) and ran the following script:

| amazonCollection stream matches |
amazonCollection := SortedCollection new sortBlock: [:a :b | a value size > b value size].
RSSFeedManager default getAllMyFeeds do: 
	[:each | | items |
		items := each allItems.
		matches := items select:
			 [:eachItem | | desc |
				desc := eachItem description.
				desc 
					ifNil: [false]
					ifNotNil: ['*href*amazon*' match: desc]].
		matches notEmpty ifTrue: [amazonCollection add: each->matches] ].
stream := WriteStream on: (String new: 10000).
stream nextPutAll: '<p><b>Amazon Reference Report</b></p><p>'; cr; cr.
stream nextPutAll: '<table width="100%">'; cr; cr.
stream nextPutAll: '<tr>'; cr.
amazonCollection do: [:each |
	| key value |
	key := each key.
	value := each value.
	stream nextPutAll: '<td><a href="',  key link, '">', key title, '</a></td>'; cr.
	stream nextPutAll: '<td>'.
	stream nextPutAll: value size printString.
	stream nextPutAll: '  ('.
	1 to: value size do: [:cnt | | each1 |
		each1 := value at: cnt.
		each1 getMyLink isNil
			ifFalse: [	stream nextPutAll: '<a href="', each1 getMyLink, '">', cnt printString, '</a> '].
					cnt = value size
						ifFalse: [stream nextPutAll: ', ']].
		stream nextPutAll: ')'.
	stream nextPutAll: '</td></tr><tr>'; cr].
stream nextPutAll: '</table>
'; cr.
^stream contents

By inspecting the results, I got a ready to post set of html, which I pasted below. The nice thing is, I already have objects for all the feeds and items - and those objects have a nice rich API for me to exploit. Since I have access to tools like inspectors and workspaces (no browser or debugger though), I can do this in the application, with all of the application data at my fingers. So, here's the output from my 250 feeds - all of the items in all of my feeds that make a reference to Amazon, complete with links to the matching feeds and items:

Amazon Reference Report

John Porcaro: mktg@msft	9  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 )
The Daily Brief: We'll Try To Be Nicer, If You'll Try To Be Smarter!	7  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 )
0xDECAFBAD Blog	6  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 )
Miguel de Icaza	6  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 )
PubSub: Smalltalk	5  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 )
Making it stick.	5  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 )
Jon's Radio	4  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 )
Java, .NET, and Religion	4  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 )
Ted Leung on the air	4  (1 , 2 , 3 , 4 )
WebSense	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Frank Patrick's Focused Performance Blog	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
beyond bullets	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Phil Windley's Technometria	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Planet Lisp	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Web Things, by Mark Baker	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Panopticon Central	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Matt Croydon::Postneo 2.0	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Bob Congdon	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Instapundit.com	3  (1 , 2 , 3 )
Extremetech	2  (1 , 2 )
Dare Obasanjo's WebLog	2  (1 , 2 )
WonderBranding: Marketing to Women	2  (1 , 2 )
Bill Clementson's Blog	2  (1 , 2 )
Doug Tidwell's weblog	2  (1 , 2 )
misbehaving.net	2  (1 , 2 )
d2r	2  (1 , 2 )
Sam Gentile's Blog	2  (1 , 2 )
Clemens Vasters: Enterprise Development & Alien Abductions	2  (1 , 2 )
Brad Abrams	2  (1 , 2 )
John Lam: Building Better Software, Faster	2  (1 , 2 )
freeform goodness	2  (1 , 2 )
PragDave	2  (1 , 2 )
Martin Fowler's Bliki	2  (1 , 2 )
Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life	2  (1 , 2 )
Derek's Rantings and Musings	2  (1 , 2 )
Aaron Swartz: The Weblog	2  (1 , 2 )
Radio Free Blogistan	1  (1 )
phil ringnalda dot com	1  (1 )
manicwave	1  (1 )
Don Park's Daily Habit	1  (1 )
Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger	1  (1 )
PR Opinions	1  (1 )
Incipient(thoughts)	1  (1 )
Jonathan Schwartz's Weblog	1  (1 )
The Fishbowl	1  (1 )
Ryan Lowe's Blog	1  (1 )
Larkware News	1  (1 )
Lambda the Ultimate - Programming Languages Weblog	1  (1 )
Ralph Johnson - Blog	1  (1 )
Smalltalk Tidbits, Industry Rants	1  (1 )
Bob Westergaard - Blog	1  (1 )
Joel on Software	1  (1 )
Scripting News	1  (1 )
NRO Corner Feed	1  (1 )
MOOREWATCH	1  (1 )
Lessig Blog	1  (1 )
Belmont Club	1  (1 )
Tapped Feed	1  (1 )