Comments on: A brief reintroduction to Yahoo! Pipes - Part 3 of 5 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/ This is beyond marketing, it is manipulation Tue, 07 Oct 2008 10:07:56 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5 By: Ben Tremblay http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-38234 Ben Tremblay Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:00:18 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-38234 Hi - I was over at pipes trying to make an optimised version of a new copy and was headed over here. I peeked the source for my new feet (http://snipurl.com/1z2zy) and, to my surprise, found nothing obviously wrong! So at least in some case pubDate does the trick. cheers p.s. "In some cases" ... I've got one pipe that uses at least a couple of feeds with some really crappy format, so this is going to come in handy sooner than later. thanks again Hi - I was over at pipes trying to make an optimised version of a new copy and was headed over here. I peeked the source for my new feet (http://snipurl.com/1z2zy) and, to my surprise, found nothing obviously wrong! So at least in some case pubDate does the trick.

cheers

p.s. “In some cases” … I’ve got one pipe that uses at least a couple of feeds with some really crappy format, so this is going to come in handy sooner than later. thanks again

]]> By: Ben Tremblay http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-37920 Ben Tremblay Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:37:10 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-37920 Well, I don't know how it's so confusing: I thought that "use the loop and string builider" would have been better with a text description of the configuration, is all. Those modules are easily as complex and/or confusing as others you've described at greater length. I'm not accustomed to peering at an image in order to read data or instructions. Are we having language problems here? I18N? Well, I don’t know how it’s so confusing: I thought that “use the loop and string builider” would have been better with a text description of the configuration, is all.
Those modules are easily as complex and/or confusing as others you’ve described at greater length.

I’m not accustomed to peering at an image in order to read data or instructions.

Are we having language problems here? I18N?

]]> By: Justin http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-37917 Justin Sun, 03 Feb 2008 19:26:28 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-37917 I think I understand what you are suggesting, <strong>Ben</strong>. You would have liked to see more explanation for why one would want to normalize dates at all. This part does that: <blockquote>While it may seem strange to include this piece, the truth is that it is very important. All pipes have a single output, yet most have a multiple inputs. Thus, merging results into a single feed is a very important step. Much of the time people want the information from the various sources to be sorted in chronological order. The standards that define RSS were not put through a rigorous standards development process, so sometimes the format for the item dates differ from source to source, which means the sort module won’t work properly.</blockquote> What I can see now is missing is the use of the phrase "normalize dates" in that explaining paragraph to make the connection with the sentence: <blockquote>To normalize the dates, you’ll need to use the loop and string builder modules. Here is what the modules look like properly configured</blockquote> Am I understanding you correctly? Does this answer what you were looking for? I pay close attention when I'm writing to making the things I write as accessible as possible, but I spend a lot of time with this material, so sometimes it's hard to see what things need more clarity. I think I understand what you are suggesting, Ben. You would have liked to see more explanation for why one would want to normalize dates at all. This part does that:

While it may seem strange to include this piece, the truth is that it is very important. All pipes have a single output, yet most have a multiple inputs. Thus, merging results into a single feed is a very important step. Much of the time people want the information from the various sources to be sorted in chronological order. The standards that define RSS were not put through a rigorous standards development process, so sometimes the format for the item dates differ from source to source, which means the sort module won’t work properly.

What I can see now is missing is the use of the phrase “normalize dates” in that explaining paragraph to make the connection with the sentence:

To normalize the dates, you’ll need to use the loop and string builder modules. Here is what the modules look like properly configured

Am I understanding you correctly? Does this answer what you were looking for? I pay close attention when I’m writing to making the things I write as accessible as possible, but I spend a lot of time with this material, so sometimes it’s hard to see what things need more clarity.

]]> By: Ben Tremblay http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-37846 Ben Tremblay Sun, 03 Feb 2008 09:57:55 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-37846 "are you able to see the graphic below the part that reads" Yes, I surely did. And that's the point; here you've only (over-)specified what I was saying: what would easily benefit from a walk through you (rather perfunctorily) very neatly extracted to a sentence. What really should be promoted is: that normalization is required. A simple Sort by puBdate and all its variants is a wast'o' time. thanks will follow this up ^5 bdt “are you able to see the graphic below the part that reads”
Yes, I surely did. And that’s the point; here you’ve only (over-)specified what I was saying: what would easily benefit from a walk through you (rather perfunctorily) very neatly extracted to a sentence.

What really should be promoted is: that normalization is required. A simple Sort by puBdate and all its variants is a wast’o’ time.

thanks
will follow this up

^5
bdt

]]> By: Justin http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-37806 Justin Sun, 03 Feb 2008 02:31:48 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-37806 Hey <strong>Ben</strong>, are you able to see the graphic below the part that reads: <blockquote>“To normalize the dates, you’ll need to use the loop and string builder modules. Here is what the modules look like properly configured”</blockquote> I used a arrows and corresponding text to explain the way the modules had to be configured to normalize the dates. Hey Ben, are you able to see the graphic below the part that reads:

“To normalize the dates, you’ll need to use the loop and string builder modules. Here is what the modules look like properly configured”

I used a arrows and corresponding text to explain the way the modules had to be configured to normalize the dates.

]]> By: Ben Tremblay http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-37461 Ben Tremblay Thu, 31 Jan 2008 21:48:46 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-37461 I'm confused. On one hand you're writing a very detailed description of what is actually a pretty simple set of functions, but when you come to something complex you go into shorthand mode, i.e. "To normalize the dates, you’ll need to use the loop and string builder modules. Here is what the modules look like properly configured" "Normalizing dates to chronologically merge results for multiple sources" would have been a very nice thing to step through. Did I miss it somewhere? I've read the tutorials in order. I’m confused. On one hand you’re writing a very detailed description of what is actually a pretty simple set of functions, but when you come to something complex you go into shorthand mode, i.e. “To normalize the dates, you’ll need to use the loop and string builder modules. Here is what the modules look like properly configured”

“Normalizing dates to chronologically merge results for multiple sources” would have been a very nice thing to step through.

Did I miss it somewhere? I’ve read the tutorials in order.

]]> By: Justin http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-36039 Justin Sun, 20 Jan 2008 08:24:05 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-36039 That was helpful, <strong>hapdaniel</strong>. I'm going to delve into the Fetch Page module more. That was helpful, hapdaniel. I’m going to delve into the Fetch Page module more.

]]> By: hapdaniel http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-35913 hapdaniel Sat, 19 Jan 2008 09:49:38 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-35913 I haven't played much with Dapper, so comparisons will be difficult. I did try to recreate a couple of my pipes using Dapper, and failed. I think the problem was that I could not locate the advanced features for field selection as shown in the demos. I struggled to select fields for an hour and a half and then gave up. Pipes and the Fetch Page module should be at least as powerful as Dapper, if not more so. With Pipes the user has more direct access to the HTML code. The downside of this is that some understanding of regular expressions is required to extract element values. This pipe shows the processing typically required when using the Fetch Page module: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=754c259e8d530ea94bf0bad53c60e5b7 By the way, I forgot to mention that Pipes can also output KML. I haven’t played much with Dapper, so comparisons will be difficult. I did try to recreate a couple of my pipes using Dapper, and failed. I think the problem was that I could not locate the advanced features for field selection as shown in the demos. I struggled to select fields for an hour and a half and then gave up.
Pipes and the Fetch Page module should be at least as powerful as Dapper, if not more so. With Pipes the user has more direct access to the HTML code. The downside of this is that some understanding of regular expressions is required to extract element values.
This pipe shows the processing typically required when using the Fetch Page module:
http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=754c259e8d530ea94bf0bad53c60e5b7
By the way, I forgot to mention that Pipes can also output KML.

]]> By: Justin http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-35658 Justin Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:19:41 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-35658 I haven't played much with their Fetch Page module. How would you say it compares with Dapper in terms of power and ease of use? I haven’t played much with their Fetch Page module. How would you say it compares with Dapper in terms of power and ease of use?

]]> By: hapdaniel http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5/#comment-35632 hapdaniel Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:53:36 +0000 http://www.metafluence.com/a-brief-reintroduction-to-yahoo-pipes-part-3-of-5#comment-35632 Pipes has its own Fetch Page module for getting HTML pages. Processing can be quite tricky however, so it's not for the faint-hearted. Pipes has its own Fetch Page module for getting HTML pages. Processing can be quite tricky however, so it’s not for the faint-hearted.

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