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Alexis Marie Wright 2022-04-16 22:11:49 -04:00
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@ -18,15 +18,15 @@ Capturing metadata this way is useful because, with it, the feed XML file can al
*** Site structure
Because the site isn't generated from any kind of content-management system, the script has to rely on the structure of the site itself in order to find the information it needs for the feed. This is /basically okay/ because the site is consistently structured - otherwise this script would not have been possible at all. *But the site needs to /stay/ consistently structured for the script to keep working.*
Because the site isn't generated from any kind of content-management system, the script has to rely on the structure of the site itself in order to find the information it needs for the feed. This is /basically okay/ because the site is consistently structured. Otherwise this script would not have been possible at all. *But the site needs to /stay/ consistently structured for the script to keep working.*
HTML parsing is surprisingly flexible, but not bulletproof, and not all of the information this script uses is encoded in the site's HTML - some of it, notably page numbers and titles, has to come from the plain(ish) text of the Archives page. *So if you change how you structure the Archives page, or the comic pages, this script is likely to break.*
HTML parsing is surprisingly flexible, but not bulletproof, and not all of the information this script uses is encoded in the site's HTML. Some of it, notably page numbers and titles, has to come from the plain(ish) text of the Archives page. *So if you change how you structure the Archives page, or the comic pages, this script is likely to break.*
*** Dates
Put simply: There aren't any! I wasn't able to find anything in the site content that identified a publication date for each of the comic pages.
That's not a problem for the site, but it /is/ potentially a problem for RSS readers - if we don't provide /something/ for a date, it isn't safe to assume all readers will be able to show the feed items in the correct order.
That's not a problem for the site, but it /is/ potentially a problem for RSS readers. If we don't provide /something/ for a date, it isn't safe to assume all readers will be able to show the feed items in the correct order.
This script deals with that by faking it based on when the script is run. That /should/ work OK, but may behave a little strangely if there's an existing feed XML file, and more than one new item has been posted on the site since the last time the script was run. In that case, the easiest fix is probably to delete the feed XML file.
@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ This script deals with that by faking it based on when the script is run. That /
*** Error handling
The script can emit considerable debugging information to its output, and tries to be pretty good about explaining why things break when they do. The script also tries hard to ensure that, if anything /does/ break, the worst that happens is that the feed XML isn't updated - the idea is, it may not gain new pages right away, but it will at least stay correct with what it has.
The script can emit considerable debugging information to its output, and tries to be pretty good about explaining why things break when they do. The script also tries hard to ensure that, if anything /does/ break, the worst that happens is that the feed XML isn't updated. The idea is, it may not gain new pages right away, but it will at least stay correct with what it has.
That said, *I can't guarantee all errors will be caught.* It is a good idea to add the RSS feed in your own feed reader, so that you can keep an eye on how it's behaving when you add new content. If something seems to be going wrong, you should be able to get the script's output via email (or however cronjob output is handled on your host), and that will give you some idea what's wrong.
@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ You can always also run the script by hand to observe its output directly. That
2022-04-15T16:44:57+00:00 [info] writing 449526 bytes to /tmp/feed.xml
#+end_src
(On the first run, it will look a /lot/ longer, since there'll be a lot more pages the script has to fetch - it doesn't have a feed XML to work from yet, so it has to look at everything listed on the Archives page to build one.)
(On the first run, it will look a /lot/ longer, since there'll be a lot more pages the script has to fetch. It doesn't have a feed XML to work from yet, so it has to look at everything listed on the Archives page to build one.)
** ok that's cool and all but how do i use it tho
@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ Similar to the above, the script expects to find the following HTML structure in
If this structure isn't present, then the image won't be found. This /should/ produce an error in the script's output, but it's possible there may be cases where it would silently fail.
*Fix:* Update either the script or the page, as above. (Probably easier to modify the page in this case, since the script isn't really set up to handle lots of variation in the way the comic pages are structured. It /should/ be ok with changes that aren't too drastic, and the Archive page parsing is considerably more sensitive - still, better to avoid the problem entirely if possible, by keeping page HTML consistent.)
*Fix:* Update either the script or the page, as above. (Probably easier to modify the page in this case, since the script isn't really set up to handle lots of variation in the way the comic pages are structured. It /should/ be okay with changes that aren't too drastic, and the Archive page parsing is considerably more sensitive. Still, better to avoid the problem entirely if possible, by keeping page HTML consistent.)
*** New items are added, but their titles or something aren't correct
@ -152,4 +152,4 @@ More than one item might have been posted on the site since the last time the sc
*** None of that helped or something else is going wrong
Something else broke. :) Consult your server admin for advice - I'm happy to provide support with the script implementation itself, but there's not much I can do about the way the server is set up. That said, if your server admin needs to talk to me, they can hit me up via fedi ([[https://tilde.zone/@alexis][@alexis@tilde.zone]]) or email ([[mailto:lexie@alexis-marie-wright.me][lexie@alexis-marie-wright.me]]).
Something else broke. :) Consult your server admin for advice. I'm happy to provide support with the script implementation itself, but there's not much I can do about the way the server is set up. That said, if your server admin needs to talk to me, they can hit me up via fedi ([[https://tilde.zone/@alexis][@alexis@tilde.zone]]) or email ([[mailto:lexie@alexis-marie-wright.me][lexie@alexis-marie-wright.me]]).