NAME XML::RSS::Feed - Persistant XML RSS Encapsulation SYNOPSIS A quick and dirty non-POE example that uses a blocking "sleep". The magic is in the "late_breaking_news" method that returns only headlines it hasn't seen. use XML::RSS::Feed; use LWP::Simple qw(get); my $feed = XML::RSS::Feed->new( url => "http://www.jbisbee.com/rdf/", name => "jbisbee", delay => 10, debug => 1, tmpdir => "/tmp", # optional caching ); while (1) { $feed->parse(get($feed->url)); print $_->headline . "\n" for $feed->late_breaking_news; sleep($feed->delay); } ATTENTION! - If you want a non-blocking way to watch multiple RSS sources with one process use POE::Component::RSSAggregator. CONSTRUCTOR "XML::RSS::Feed->new( url => $url, name => $name )" Required Params * "name" Identifier and hash lookup key for the RSS feed. * "url" The URL of the RSS feed Optional Params * "delay" Number of seconds between updates (defaults to 600) * "tmpdir" Directory to keep a cached feed (using Storable) to keep persistance between instances. * "debug" Turn debuging on. * "headline_as_id" Boolean value to use the headline as the id when URL isn't unique within a feed. * "hlobj" A class name sublcassed from XML::RSS::Headline * "max_headlines" The max number of headlines to keep. (default is unlimited) METHODS "$feed->parse( $xml_string )" Pass in a xml string to parse with XML::RSS and then call "$feed->process()" to process the results. "$feed->process( $items, $title, $link )" "$feed->process( $items, $title )" "$feed->process( $items )" Calls "pre_process", "process_items", "post_process", "title", and "link" methods to process the parsed results of an RSS XML feed. * $items An array of hash refs which will eventually become XML::RSS::Headline objects. Look at XML::RSS::Headline->new() for acceptable arguments. * $title The title of the RSS feed. * $link The RSS channel link (normally a URL back to the homepage) of the RSS feed. "$feed->pre_process" Mark all headlines from previous run as seen. "$feed->process_items( $items )" Turn an array refs of hash refs into XML::RSS::Headline objects and added to the internal list of headlines. "$feed->post_process" Post process cleanup, cache headlines (if tmpdir), and debug messages. "$feed->create_headline( %args)" Create a new XML::RSS::Headline object and add it to the interal list. Check "XML::RSS::Headline->new()" for acceptable values for %args. "$feed->num_headlines" Returns the number of headlines for the feed. "$feed->seen_headline( $id )" Just a boolean test to see if we've seen a headline or not. "$feed->headlines" Returns an array or array reference (based on context) of XML::RSS::Headline objects "$feed->late_breaking_news" Returns an array or the number of elements (based on context) of the latest XML::RSS::Headline objects. "$feed->cache" If tmpdir is defined the rss info is cached. "$feed->set_last_updated" "$feed->set_last_updated( Time::HiRes::time )" Set the time of when the feed was last processed. If you pass in a value it will be used otherwise calls Time::HiRes::time. "$feed->last_updated" The time (in epoch seconds) of when the feed was last processed. "$feed->last_updated_hires" The time (in epoch seconds and milliseconds) of when the feed was last processed. SET/GET ACCESSOR METHODS "$feed->title" "$feed->title( $title )" The title of the RSS feed. "$feed->debug" "$feed->debug( $bool )" Turn on debugging messages "$feed->init" "$feed->init( $bool )" init is used so that we just load the current headlines and don't return all headlines. in other words we initialize them. Takes a boolean argument. "$feed->name" "$feed->name( $name )" The identifier of an RSS feed. "$feed->delay" "$feed->delay( $seconds )" Number of seconds between updates. "$feed->link" "$feed->link( $rss_channel_url )" The url in the RSS feed with a link back to the site where the RSS feed came from. "$feed->url" "$feed->url( $url )" The url in the RSS feed with a link back to the site where the RSS feed came from. "$feed->headline_as_id" "$feed->headline_as_id( $bool )" Within some RSS feeds the URL may not always be unique, in these cases you can use the headline as the unique id. The id is used to check whether or not a feed is new or has already been seen. "$feed->hlobj" "$feed->hlobj( $class )" Ablity to use a subclass of XML::RSS::Headline. (See Perl Jobs example in XML::RSS::Headline::PerlJobs). This should just be the name of the subclass. "$feed->tmpdir" "$feed->tmpdir( $tmpdir )" Temporay directory to store cached RSS XML between instances for persistance. "$feed->max_headlines" "$feed->max_headlines( $integer )" The maximum number of headlines you'd like to keep track of. (0 means infinate) DEPRECATED METHODS "$feed->failed_to_fetch" This should was deprecated because, the object shouldn't really know anything about fetching, it just processes the results. This method currently will always return false "$feed->failed_to_parse" This method was deprecated because, $feed->parse now returns a bool value. This method will always return false AUTHOR Copyright 2004 Jeff Bisbee <jbisbee@cpan.org> http://search.cpan.org/~jbisbee/ COPYRIGHT This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included with this module. SEE ALSO XML::RSS::Headline, XML::RSS::Headline::PerlJobs, POE::Component::RSSAggregator