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News Clipper Now!
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OVERVIEW
| FEATURES | SHOWCASE | COMPARISON
| COPYRIGHT ISSUES
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| OVERVIEW |
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News Clipper
is a program that allows the user to integrate dynamic information into
their web page(s). This information might be something as simple as the
time and date, or complex like a set of links to recent Usenet postings.
News Clipper
operates as an off-line preprocessor - you create a set of input files,
which News Clipper then processes, inserting the dynamic content you tell
it to. The output files are then saved in your server's HTML directory.
This method is faster than Server-Side Includes because the information
isn't generated when the page is served.
Input files
can be created with any HTML editor. You specify the insertion of dynamic
content using an HTML-like syntax. News Clipper allows the user to specify
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The source of
data
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How that data
should be filtered
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How that data
should be formatted for output
This configurability
will allow you to seamlessly incorporate acquired data easily into your
web page(s). Here are some examples...
Example
#1
The inclusion
of this in your News Clipper input file:
<!-- newsclipper
<input
name=slashdot>
-->
will generate
output to your web page like this:
IT'S THAT
EASY! Now, let's customize our output a bit more to display virtually all
the article information we can.
Example
#2
The inclusion
of this in your News Clipper source file:
<!-- newsclipper
<input
name=slashdot type=articles>
<filter
name=slashdot type=LinksAndText>
<filter
name=limit number=4>
<filter
name=map filter=limit number=200 chars>
<output
name=array numcols=1 prefix="<p>-->" suffix="</p>">
-->
will generate
output to your web page like this:
Now, let's
tell News Clipper to filter headlines from Yahoo Tech News so that only
headlines having to do with Microsoft or Y2K are shown, and that they should
be printed in one column, with these words highlighted.
Example
#3
The inclusion
of this in your News Clipper source file:
<!--newsclipper
<input
name=yahootopstories source=tech>
<filter
name=grep words="microsoft,y2k">
<filter
name=map filter=highlight words="microsoft,y2k">
<output
name=array numcols=1>
-->
will generate
output to your web page like this:
Complete customization
of News Clipper's output is:
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Simple - Easily
modify News Clipper's output to "fit" your page.
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Versatile - Display
snippets of articles, or more informational excerpts.
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Powerful - List
only the articles you choose.
Want to see some
handlers in action? Click Here
to go to our Handlers page to sample more dynamic handler output! |
| FEATURES |
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News Clipper's
automated content delivery is versatile yet powerful. Some of the more
prominent features are:
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Ability to automatically download updates when the data acquisition method changes.
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Powerful customization
ability lets you control the appearance and placement of the data you acquire.
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Flexible "handler"
architecture allows easy extension to new information sources.
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Instant access
to over 200 news and data sources. (See the handler
database.)
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Support for news
published in RDF format provides access to 200 more news sources. (See
XMLTree
for a catalog.)
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Automatic download
of missing, updated or new handlers.
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Can be easily
extended to your favorite news and data sources with the included
"Makehandler" program.
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Support for running News Clipper locally and then FTPing the output files to the server.
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Handles unresponsive
web servers intuitively and gracefully.
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| SHOWCASE |
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Below are
some sites which have utilized News Clipper to provide versatile automatically
updated web page content.
SITES USING NEWS CLIPPER
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| COMPARISON |
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One can break
down the news personalization process into a few steps:
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Finding the relevant
information.
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Acquiring the
information.
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Integrating it
into a common style.
There are many
web sites that offer services similar to what News Clipper delivers.
Typically, mega-companies make deals with other mega-companies to use their
content, which is then made available to users and webmasters for a subscription
fee.
Most of
these personalized news sources only give users a limited version of integration,
if any. They choose from a set of predefined information sources,
and have a limited choice on how the information is presented.
News Clipper
is a more flexible solution as it gives users the power of choosing and
acquiring the information only if they desire to implement it - without
worrying about subscription costs. There is no limit to the information
you can Snip and Ship
to your web page(s) with News Clipper! |
| COPYRIGHT ISSUES |
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Most information
on the Internet is copyrighted. When something is copyrighted, it means
that the expression of the idea is protected by law. The person who expressed
the idea has the right to control how that ex-pression is reproduced. So,
for example, if a journalist writes a story, then that journalist holds
the copyright to the story. The same is true for art work and even headlines.
FAIR USE
The law makes
exceptions to copyrights, which it calls fair use. Examples are a teacher
who makes photocopies of material for educational reasons, a musician who
mimics a song for satire, or a movie reviewer who plays a film clip for
an audience. Another important exception is that of personal use, which
means that a reproduction can be made by an individual for the individual’s
own use. Of course, the owners of copyrights can use the material however
they want.
When agreeing
to the licensing terms for News Clipper, users agreed that they would not
use News Clipper to violate copyright laws. What this generally means is
that material protected by copyright can not be re-published, unless prior
agreement from the copyright holder has been received. In other words,
do not make News Clipper-enhanced web pages available on the web without
verifying that copyrights are not being violated.
GETTING
PERMISSION TO PUBLISH
Spinnaker Software,
Inc. is currently working with Internet publishers to acquire syndication
rights for material that is to be re-published on the web. Most likely,
end users will have to pay royalties to the copyright holder either when
they acquire a handler that allows re-publishing of the material, or when
they actually use the handler to re-publish the material. As these partnerships
are established, announcements will be made on the News Clipper website.
In the mean
time, companies that wish to re-publish news and other content are advised
to syndicate that content from the provider whenever possible. News Clipper
can then be used to integrate that information into corporate web pages.
Of course,
authors of copyrighted works can re-publish all they like.
Below are some
links to web sites containing information regarding Copyright.
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