pipes

There are a lot of people blogging about SoFoBoMo. So many in fact, that I didn't think I'd be able to keep track using Google reader, my normal blog browser of choice. So I headed over to Yahoo Pipes to build something to merge them all together. JL had told me about pipes. I was surprised to find how easy it was to build up a script using a visual flow chart style of programming. Each block performs some sort of function and you drag and drop them into a chart. Add in data sources, like RSS feeds, then drag connectors between the blocks to describe the flow of information. Throw in some filters, in this case to block things that are not SoFoBoMo related and then hit publish and you are done. There seemed to be quite a bit of complex functionality that could be created using this tool, to do more complex web aggregation and mashup sort of activities. Once published, it is a one step process to integrate it into a web site (e.g., the box to the left of this post) or add as one merged RSS feed to a reader. Quite a cool technology. You can find the SoFoBoMo pipe here. When it runs, the 'List' view is probably most useful and the various buttons along the top provide options to integrate it into a variety of other viewers. If you want your SoFoMoBo related blog added to the feed, I just need the RSS link. Feel free to add it in the comments here and I'll merge it into the pipe. I seeded the list, based on this post by Colin Jago, so if you were on his list, you are already in. Update A couple of comments. I'm going to go through and delete comments from those asking to be added, once I've added the URL to the pipe. This is just so I can keep track. If your comment is gone, it just means I've got you in. Secondly, Rafa asked about the filtering mechanism. The pipe only includes posts that say SoFoBoMo somewhere, in the title, in the body of the post or in the categories or labels. It is fairly loose in what it will let through - all caps, mixed case, camel case, all lower case, pushed up against other words (SoFoBoMoGOGOGO etc) and SoPoBoMo's are also passable. Tagging the posts with SoFoBoMo should be enough to keep your posts in the feed. Please let me know if that doesn't appear to be working. It can take a few hours for new posts to appear, due to the delays in feedburner and Yahoo Pipes refreshing the lists. Finally, only posts that have a filled out title appear to end up getting a link created in the pipe. The post will still appear but will be truncated and it isn't simple to find a link back. So please, include a title on your posts.