Microformats : Subscribe To hAtom for NetNewsWire

Subscribe To hAtom is a simple AppleScript for the NetNewsWire feed reader that lets you subscribe to hAtom feeds in web pages the same way you would any Atom or RSS feed.

Subscribe To hAtom Version History

Version 0.5

Released: 5/2/2006 by Chris

Changes: Updated to include Tidy support, cleaner error handling and an updated version of hatom2atom.xsl (r41).

Version 0.2

Released: 3/27/2006 by Chris

Changes: Initial Public Release.

Feedback can be offered via this blog post or via email.

Subscribe To hAtom for NetNewsWire Documentation

Installing

Installing the script is as simple as downloading the zip file and putting the documents in the right spot.

  1. Have NetNewsWire 2.x already installed.
  2. Download the Subscribe To hAtom zip file
  3. Open the zip file linked to above to extract the following 3 files: Subscribe To hAtom.scpt, hAtom2Atom.xsl & uri.xsl
  4. Move or copy all 3 files to the NNW script folder at ~/Library/Application Support/NetNewsWire/Scripts/

The script is now “installed”.

Subscribing

Subscribing to a web page with this script is similar to subscribing to any other feed, though you’ll have to enter some additional info in the Show Info window.

  1. Instead of the typical menu or toolbar item to subscribe to a feed use the New Special Subscription menu to make a new Script subscription. File Menu:New Special Subscription...:Script...
  2. You’ll presented with a Finder window that will as you to choose what script, pick “Subscribe To hAtom@. Finder Window: Subscribe To hAtom
  3. Then you’ll be shown a standard Info panel, you may have to expand some of the sections to enter the data but the 3 important pieces of information you’ll need to check before pressing Run Script or closing the dialog are: Show Info Dialog
    1. General – Name: Name the feed
    2. Script Settings – Path: This should already be filled out with the path to to the script
    3. Script Settings – Ards: Puth the URL of the web page you’re subscribing to here
  4. You’re now subscribed to the page as you would any other feed and you should see some fresh items in your subscription window. NetNewsWire window with new subscription

Updates

To be alerted about updates to the Subscribe To hAtom AppleScript watch this site. One way of doing that is to subscribe to the hAtom feed now embedded in this page. The XSLT document the script uses to parse the documents is developed independently and is called hAtom2Atom. To update only that file you can just download a new version and replace the old file with it. No other modification needed.

Content

For a list of sites implementing hAtom that you can subscribe to check out the microformats.org wiki hatom examples page.

Last Updated 09/09/2006