"module of the day" feed idea - was Re: [GRASS-user] r.to.vect to selected locations only

[Dylan Beaudette]

On Friday 27 June 2008, Paulo Marcondes wrote:
> 2008/6/24 Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org>:
> > On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 2:54 PM, Hamish <hamish_b at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >> random idea:
> >> Maybe we could add a "module of the day" feed on the grass webpage with
> >> module name and label/description one-liner. I continue to find new
> >> modules many years after first using grass.
> >
> > Nice idea indeed.
> > I guess a bit of PHP/XML hacking is sufficient ... volunteers?
>
> I really like the idea. RSS would be great.
> I'd code it myself if I had any clue.
>
> thanks anyway, nice addition to the homepage.

A simple approach to this might involve something like:

1. extract module name / 1-liner to a database table, keep it updated from 
time to time

2. periodically query the table for a random row (via PHP)

3. convert the returned record into a formatted string, or XML for delivery 
RSS style

4. use some PHP to access the day's module/desc. and insert it into a small 
container on the main page.

if we have access to PHP / database it is a very simple matter to construct 
these queries. for something this small and specialized a file-based DB like 
sqlite would work just fine. There are several PHP XML libraries for 
constructing XML/RSS - so there wouldn't be a need for wheel-reinventing.

Dylan




-- 
Dylan Beaudette
Soil Resource Laboratory
http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/
University of California at Davis
530.754.7341