Trackbacks And Rss Feeds

[owatagal]

I was thinking about adding trackbacks to my blog when I realized I don't even know if trackbacks work cross-platform. Are trackbacks a general technology, like RSS feeds, that can be used on any blog? Or do they only work within a specific platform, Moveable Type users only tracking MT users and Wordpress only tracking Wordpress users? I understand what trackbacks do, I just have no idea how they work at the scripting level. Since my blog is homegrown, I'm not sure how much of a headache it would be to find a working script, change it, and incorporate it into my system. Anyone tried doing this?

 

Along the same topic, does anyone know of a generic RSS feed generator? I've looked into RSS enough to know that I could write all the feed by hand (blah), but I'd rather have something that could update the feed automatically when I write a new entry. I know I should go over to Hot Scripts and look, but as long as I'm asking about trackbacks I thought I'd see if there are any ideas on RSS feeds as well.

 

Thanks!

[annie]

I get trackbacks from many platforms, so yes, it's a general thing.

[borfast]

Trackbacks is a "standard", so it will work across any weblog software that implements it

[TCH-Bruce]

Most blogging software will create the RSS feed for you automatically. MT and WordPress both do it.

 

What software are you currently using?

[TweezerMan]

As annie and TCH-Raul have said, trackbacks are a standard that has been adopted by most blogging platforms.

 

Since my blog is homegrown, I'm not sure how much of a headache it would be to find a working script, change it, and incorporate it into my system. Anyone tried doing this?

Sending trackback pings is not that difficult. I've never heard of anyone incorporating a script into a "homegrown" weblog in order to send them though.

 

Back in the "good old days" when I was using Radio UserLand for my weblog, they had not yet incorporated trackback functionality into Radio, so you had to use a stand-alone trackback pinging tool and send your trackbacks manually. Two of them that I knew about are the Wizbang Standalone Trackback Pinger and Adam Kalsey's SimpleTracks pinger.

 

Where I think you'd run into difficulty is finding a script that would automatically receive trackback pings for you. This is because what needs to be done with the data that is received is different for every weblog platform. Since yours is homegrown, I doubt you could find any script that would receive pings for you and store the data properly in your weblog without some massive customization.

 

Along the same topic, does anyone know of a generic RSS feed generator? I've looked into RSS enough to know that I could write all the feed by hand (blah), but I'd rather have something that could update the feed automatically when I write a new entry.

Most blogging tools will update their RSS feeds automatically when an new entry is published. Movable Type (the blogging tool I currently use) has special RSS templates included that automatically update the RSS feeds when new entries are posted.

 

If your homegrown weblog cannot output and update an RSS feed automatically when you write a new entry, I suspect you'd need something like an HTML scraper script in order to produce it. They work (I've subscribed to a few such RSS feeds in the past), but they're not always pretty.

 

For the amount of work that it appears you'd be looking into putting into your weblog to gain trackback functionality and RSS feeds, I wonder if perhaps you should consider migrating your weblog to one of many available blogging tools that already has these things (and more) built into it.

[TCH-Bruce]

I need more caffeine!

 

Sorry for asking what you are using when you stated you are using a home grown blog.

[TweezerMan]

I need more caffeine! 

Me too, Bruce!

[curtis]

Hey, I just made a fresh pot. Come on over.

[owatagal]

Hi Bruce and David,

 

Thanks for the info--good to know. I'll check out the links--now I have a better idea of what I'm looking for.

 

I did think about using an available platform when I first started, but I wanted to learn to code better, so the blog seemed like a good playground. As I learn more, the blog gets new features. And every once in a while it goes completely overhauled because I've learned better and/or more secure ways of doing things. So adding trackbacks and pings, even if it's a lot of work, is at least half the reason I have a blog in the first place because, yeah, I think I'm a geek. Or at least a geek wanna-be.