rssCloud bootcamp

[scripting]

I want everyone to use rssCloud, it's very easy once you have code to crib.

right now I'm working on an OAuth connection to Mastodon, so I can hook FeedLand up to the Fedioverse.

I've heard some people are trying to get new rssCloud implementation working. I started this thread for them to ask questions, and maybe we can help (sure we can).

[colin-walker]

I think I've got it set up on my feed okay — When it gets recreated I be got the ping to rpc.rsscloud.io working and it showed in the log 🤞

What I need to look at now is subscribing to feeds and then receiving the updates in my reader. I'll look at the documentation and fire questions here if I need to.

[scripting]

@colin-walker — great!

[colin-walker]

@scripting Quick question: the feed is definitely okay and I have an endpoint (/notify) responding correctly to the /pleaseNotify challenge. The logs on rpc.rsscloud.io shows that it was notifying me when I made a change (lastbuilddate) ... but ... how is that notification sent so that I can react to it in /reader?

Thanks.

[scripting]

@colin-walker --

The cloud server will call you according to what's in the cloud element in your feed. If you want me to help figure out exactly what that is, you need to include the feed URL. (Update: At this point I misunderstood the question. It was a long day slogging through OAuth code.)

Also, it's better not to direct general questions to me personally, people are less likely to help if they think you want the help from one person in particular. Lots of years of experience with this. ;-)

[colin-walker]

Understood :)

It's my normal feed.

I copied the cloud element from other feeds:

<cloud domain="rpc.rsscloud.io" port="5337" path="/pleaseNotify" registerProcedure="" protocol="http-post"/>

I can register successfully but need to just sort out how to process the notifications.

[scripting]

@colin-walker -- I just re-read your initial question and it's confusing, and that's probably the problem. :-)

There are three actors in this setup.

1. The feed, which has a cloud element that tells a subscriber how to request notification.

2. The CMS that pings the cloud server when the feed updates.

3. The aggregator that gets notified by the cloud server when the feed updates.

I think your question is about #3?

The aggregator has to connect with the cloud server every 24 hours to renew the subscription, otherwise it ages out.

You seem to say that is already set up.

So maybe the only thing you're missing is the ping, #2?

I have code you can look at for examples if you're good with JavaScript.

[scripting]

Example code to look at --

1. For the ping -- daverss package.

2. For renewing subscriptions, River5.

[andysylvester]

@colin-walker, here is another example code I ran earlier this month (using Dave Winer code examples):

https://andysylvester.com/2022/11/09/demo-of-rsscloud-protocol-and-reallysimple-npm-module/

[colin-walker]

Thanks guys. I'm working in PHP.

Let me try to rephrase:

1. The feed has the cloud element (hopefully it's got the correct info)

2. Each time the feed is rebuilt it fires off a ping and the log on rpc.rsscloud.io showed that was successfully received

3. I was able to successfully subscribe via /pleaseNotify and the logs indicated that I should have been notified in response to the pings. (This has all been within a 24 hour period so renewing the subscription is not an issue at present.)

My question is:

• how does the notification happen and what do I need in the reader to receive it?

Is that any clearer?

Thanks again. Sorry if I'm being dumb and missing something.

[scripting]

OK I can answer that.

Here's the data that River5 sends to the cloud server when renewing a subscription.

		var theRequest = {
			url: urlServer,
			followRedirect: true, 
			headers: {Accept: "application/json"},
			method: "POST",
			form: {
				port: port,
				path: path,
				url1: urlFeed,
				protocol: "http-post"
				}
			};

The notice from the cloud server comes to you as an HTTP request on the indicated port and path.

That's it. That's how it calls you.

[andysylvester]

If you look at this function (https://github.com/andysylvester/myStatusDemo/blob/main/rssCloudTestOriginal02.js#L72), your app should be able to respond to a POST from the rssCloud server (if I understand the protocol correctly).

[colin-walker]

Thanks. That's what I was thinking but couldn't get it to work.

I've tweaked it and am now seeing "failed to notify" messages in the log.

What is the format of the http request it sends for the notification?

Does it send a challenge with the notification the same as with pleaseNotify?

[scripting]

According to the docs, it's an HTTP-POST with one value in the body the URL of the feed that updated.

http://walkthrough.rsscloud.co/

[scripting]

The challenge is exactly the same as what you receive as notification.

You can figure all this stuff out with a debugger or writing to the log. Can't you do that in PHP?

[mblaney]

I've implemented rssCloud in PHP. Here's some code if that helps: https://gitlab.com/dobrado/dobrado/-/blob/master/php/cloud.php