SimplePie 1.5 is now available!

SimplePie Documentation. Learn how to use this thing. It's way better than going to school.

You are here: Documentation » SimplePie Live! » Requirements and Getting Started

Table of Contents

Requirements and Getting Started

This section contains the first steps for getting started with SimplePie Live! Ready to get started?

Requirements

  1. A fundamental understanding of JavaScript is required, and an understanding of JavaScript Object Notation (aka JSON) is highly recommended.
  2. It would also be valuable to know how to generate HTML via JavaScript using DOM manipulation methods (so that you can dynamically add the feeds to your pages).
  3. Lastly, it would be valuable for you to have the latest version of Firefox installed along with the Firebug extension. Firebug is the best JavaScript debugging tool on the face of the entire planet… and it's easy to use. Even if you're a hard-core user of another browser, you should still install this combination of tools to that you can more easily dig through the data.

Web Browsers

Because SimplePie Live simply returns a JSON object of data, it is generally expected to work in ANY modern web browser. However, as we move forward, we will be following Yahoo's Graded Browser Support in supporting A-grade web browsers.

Older versions of these browsers may also work as well, but we're pretty sure that these versions DO. In truth, you're more likely to be restricted by the minimum requirements of any JavaScript Framework than you are by SimplePie Live!

Getting Started

SimplePie Live doesn't require you to download any packages or configure any installs. It pulls straight from our servers and runs entirely within your web browser. That being said, there are two steps:

Step 1: Load the base library

First, you need to load the base.js file from the server by adding it to the <head> section of your page. 

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://live.simplepie.org/app/0.5/base.js"></script>

This file is less than 1k and includes the base functionality for requesting feeds and handling callbacks. Besides gzipping it (to make it super small), we've also resisted the temptation to add non-critical code to it, so this file should always remain very small (our goal is to always stay at or below 1k).

Step 2: Call the function

Secondly, you can request a feed and define callback functions for successful and failed requests. If you've ever worked with a modern JavaScript framework like Prototype, jQuery, or MooTools this will look pretty familiar. I should also note that you don't need to use one of these frameworks to use SimplePie Live – you're free to use plain ol' JavaScript if you want. 

var feed = new SimplePie(feedUrl, jsonOptions);

Or, if you're looking for a more realistic example: 

var feed = new SimplePie('http://feeds.feedburner.com/simplepie', {
 
	// Set one configuration option
	setTimeout: 30,
 
	// Set up a handler for a successful response
	onSuccess: function(feed) {
		alert(feed.title.toUpperCase() + "\n" + feed.description);
	},
 
	// Do this if we encounter an error
	onFailure: function(feed) {
		alert(feed.error);
	}
});

That's basically the gist of it. If you need help on what configuration options are available, or what properties are available in the API, check out API Reference.


live/setup/start.txt · Last modified: 2013/08/11 04:50 by rmccue