RSS Feed

[Ryan]

Is the RSS feed valid to obtain Goodreads data for use on a Widget? I have been working on a Goodreads sidebar plugin for Octopress (http://www.octopress.org). Octopress blogs are commonly used in conjunction with Github Pages. Due to the public nature of code stored on Github (in public repos at least), I wanted to avoid storing a Goodreads API key in the project and noticed that it seems like the RSS feed was a viable option at one point... http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

Is it safe to store the user number / ID in a config file that will be public -- especially since the user is aware that it is public? Is it within the Terms and Conditions to use the RSS feed? The terms seem to mainly be in regard to the API key...

Additionally, the data in the widget would only updated when the site is republished -- which is often greater than 24 hours. The data should be specific to the user who is the blog owner and Goodreads account holder so is this also with in the Terms and Conditions?

I appreciate any advice -- I would really like to push my changes to github as well as display my Goodreads updates on my blog :)

[Michael]

I think that should be fine, can you walk me through what the plugin will display? Have you considered just using one of our widgets?

http://www.goodreads.com/user/edit?ta...

[Ryan]

Thank you for the response! I have considered the widgets, however, with Octopress content is generated on the user's computer and pushed as static files to the server (which is how one can run a blog off of github pages). I realize that the widgets would still work in this context but I was really hoping to keep the number of external calls to a minimum.

The plugin displays n# of updates from the RSS feed I had mentioned. Something like:

Status on Goodreads
Ryan is on page 108 of 303 on _____ (3/24/2013)
Ryan is on page 224 of 424 on _____ (3/18/2013)

The line with the status would be a link to the Goodreads item that's contained in the RSS link (something like this http://www.goodreads.com/user_status/...). I was thinking that the Status on Goodreads text would link to the Goodreads main site.

Please let me know of any thoughts you have on this -- I appreciate your help!

[Michael]

Ok, that usage sounds great.

[Marcus]

Hi,

as a fellow Octopress user looking for a more customizable plugin, I just came across this thread and wanted to ask you about the status of your project. Did you happen to finish it? Is the source code available, or could you use some additional support?

All the best
Marcus

[Ryan]

Hi Marcus,

I do have the plugin working (although I hope to add more features to it at somepoint). It is available https://github.com/ryanlanciaux/octo-...

I wrote a blog post about it : http://ryanlanciaux.github.io/blog/20...

Hopefully it does what you are looking for!

-Ryan

[Marcus]

Hi Ryan,

that is splendid indeed! I'm looking forward to giving it a try!

All the best
Marcus