Sorry, for this question - I'm a noob:

What can this module (FeedAPI) be used for?

I briefly tried out the default, core rss feed features:

- I added a feed from my blog to my opera news reader
- I used the 'aggregator' to get a feed listed from the BBC news website on a page on my website.

This was my first experience with rss feeds, and I was quite impressed.
My first drupal site is going to be for a school. It will be a multi-site set-up with five subdomains.
In the back of my mind I am toying with the idea that I can aggregate feeds between the multi-sites
so that news posted on one subdomain can be shared with the other sites automatically, meaning
that users don't have to switch between sites to find out what's going on in the other 'departments'.

Then I saw this module.
I kind of understand that it makes an aggregated, incoming feed into a proper node on your site,
rather just one 'view' with the aggregated items listed. But I'm wondering what the advantages are
of this, compared with the core's feed feature? And given my situation described above, is there
an obvious advantage or usage you can think of?

Thanks.

Comments

therzog’s picture

therzog commented

Hi Anti: FeedAPI could definitely do that. We do something similar here: http://www.wri.org/wri-blogs, which is an aggregate of a lot of our different internet properties, some of which are running drupal, and some of which aren't. Basically we use feedapi_node.module to create nodes for each item on various feeds, then use views.module to create this page and the block. The feedapi_aggregator.module might work for you too (it mimics and replaces the aggregator module that comes with drupal core), but it doesn't create nodes, so it doesn't play well with views, and you lose some flexibility.

aron novak’s picture

aron novak
Primary language Hungarian
Location Hungary, Budapest
commented

The real difference is that FeedAPI has the abilty to handle any types of input sources. For example http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/2008/jul/29/surviving-information-ov... . This additional module, with the help of FeedAPI is able to handle email boxes instead of RSS sources and you have a coherent output (nodes, blocks, whatever you want). So the main advantage of FeedAPI is flexibility, you can add more features to it, only a little php knowledge is neccessary.
Of course the user has also big advantages, not only the develpers.
Check out for this blog post for a long list of features: http://www.developmentseed.org/blog/2008/feb/07/feedapi-1-0-released

alex_b’s picture

alex_b commented
Status: Active » Closed (fixed)

Closing after extended period of inactivity.