[aur-dev] [PATCH] Add newly submitted packages functionality with json interface

[Aaron Griffin]

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 6:02 PM, elij <elij.mx at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 3:36 PM, Aaron Griffin <aaronmgriffin at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Flickr actually has two APIs - a feed based one and a REST based
>> "ajax" API. Both accept a format=foo parameter and json is allowed for
>> both sets.
>>
>> * Is the AUR's rss feed generated per request? Or is it a static output file?
>> * If it's generated, why not simply use the same "format=" thing here.
>>
>> Note that Flickr finds it totally acceptable and ideal to use feeds in
>> addition to their API
>
> As I recall, the feed is generated, then saved to a static file. This
> static file is then served up php script reads it to stdout if not
> expired, until such time as it expires. Then it is generated again.
>
> It appears to work that way as an artifact of the php class/import
> that is being used. There appears to be no option (without adding it
> yourself) to either use an alternate cache mechanism (memcached) or to
> return the feed in alternate formats (other than rss2.0).
>
> This is _mostly_ painting the shed though (or format war, tabs vs
> spaces, etc). Yet, for some reason this just doesn't 'smell' right to
> me though. I can be a bit conservative at times though.
>
> It just seems to me that, getting a list of the latest updates is ..
> wait for ... what feeds are for.

Yes, exactly... but a "feed" doesn't always have to be RSS :)