BlogBridge uses OPML for various purposes. This FAQ gives a high level overview of our use of the format.

We intend to conform to the OPML 2.0 standard, and accordingly use an XML namespace (”bb:”) for attributes which go beyond the standard. Our namespace is bound to the following URI: http://blogbridge.com/ns/2006/opml.

In order to understand BlogBridge’s use of OPML all you need to know is the format and usage of <outline> tags. It’s where the action is.

Standard Feeds:

Here are the attributes on <outline> tags that represent BlogBridge Feeds and what each means.

• type = “rss”
• text - title of the feed
• xmlUrl - data URL of the feed
• htmlUrl - site URL

• bb:rating - rating of the feed in range [1;5]
• bb:customTitle - custom title of the feed
• bb:customCreator - custom author name
• bb:customDescription - custom feed description
• bb:tags - comma-separated list of tags associated with the feed
• bb:tagsDescription - short tags description
• bb:tagsExtended - extended tags description
• bb:disabled - disabled state flag

Not exposed to the outer world

• bb:readArticles - comma-separated list of read articles’ hash codes in hex
• bb:limit - purge limit (number of articles to leave in the feed)
• bb:viewType - type of the feed view (0 - text, 1 - images, 2 - links)

SmartFeeds:There are two kinds of SmartFeeds, the ones that perform a query across feeds inside BlogBridge and the ones that are simple facades in front of existing services on the web such as del.icio.us and Technorati.

Here are the attributes on <outline> tags that are used for SmartFeeds that query across Feeds inside BlogBridge:

• type = “search”
• text - title of the feed
• title - the same as text (for backward compatibility with previous clients when title attribute was in OPML spec)
• bb:query - query string in internal BB format
• bb:rating - rating of the feed in range [1;5]
• bb:limit - purge limit (number of articles to leave in the feed)

Here are the attributes on <outline> tags that are simple facades. Note that we use type=”rss” so that other aggregators can import these as if they were regular Feeds:

• type = “rss”
• text - title of the feed
• title - the same as text (for backward compatibility with previous clients when title attribute was in OPML spec)
• xmlUrl - data URL of the feed (when applicable)
• bb:rating - rating of the feed in range [1;5]
• bb:queryType - type of query (0 - feedster, 1 - flickr, 2 - technorati, 3-5 - reserved, 6 - findory, 7 - del.icio.us, 8 - connotea, 9 - amazon books, 10 - google blogsearch)
• bb:queryParam - string search parameter

Not exposed to the outer world

• bb:readArticles - comma-separated list of read articles’ hash codes in hex
• bb:limit - purge limit (number of articles to leave in the feed)
• bb:viewType - type of the feed view (0 - text, 1 - images, 2 - links)

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