syndicating mlx


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"Syndicating" the MLX Collection What does that mean? "Syndication" describes a means for other web sites to include in their own web pages, data regularly updated from the MLX. The term comes from news sites that publish their headlines and descriptions of stories in a format that allows other web sites to collect information from many sources. Huh? How about an example? No worries. One place we have self-synidcated MLX on the MCLI site is our home page, that uses a PHP include statement to insert the 3 most recent items in the MLX. How does it work? We run an automated process every hour that creates updated snapshot data files from the MLX. The primary intent is to create ways for the different Maricopa Community Colleges a way to display, on their own web site, content posted to the MLX by persons from their college. XML Syndication One syndicating technology is RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication), a text file in XML format (see Mark Pilgrim's Introduction to RSS). To syndicate this news feed, your web site would need to link to this file and use some sort of server side scripting technology (ASP, PHP, etc) to parse the XML data and output it to the web page. The 10 most recent MLX items are available for syndication in RSS 1.0 format. This link will provide a feed that is updated hourly: http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/mlx/ feed/new10.xml RSS Feed by College Also available are XML files for each of the college's contributions, either 5 random or the 5 most recently submitted: Show an example of 3 newest random packages in the MLX from RSS Feed by Subject We now provide RSS feeds for different disciplines, with the 5 newest or % random in each subject: Show an example of 5 newest random packages in the MLX in view by subject

3 Packages

1. Response Activity for Professional Readings
Originally designed to introduce teacher education students to professional journals, this assignment could be adapted to any discipline or reading requirement. The document prese...

2. Prewriting PowerPoint Lecture
This Powerpoint presentation covers the first stage of the writing process: prewriting. It discusses the process, purpose and six common invention techniques. The information was t...

3. Rule Time: Salute to Flight; An Innovative Video-Math Lesson
An interactive video ranging in scope from Introductory Algebra to Calculus 1 shall be produced for use in MCCCD mathematics courses. The purposes of this grant project are to: con...

more random packages...

Syndication Updates
As of January 2005, we now have feeds available for subjects as random in addition to the newest items (in both XML and JavaScript output options.

It is not exactly syndication, but our new direct links to the MLX allow anyone to put a hyperlink in a webpage or email that results in a customized search result view of the MLX.

See how two fictional weblogs (Boris and Lora) are syndicating MLX content. All results of MLX searches can now be syndicated by a custom RSS feed of the same results. This search can produce this RSS. See more in our experimental blog area.

All MLX items now have "TrackBack" features which allow them to be "auto-discovered" by blogs and other automated systems. Trackback allows weblog authors to write about MLX objects and for the objects to track where they have been written about. A new function of the MLX packing slip allows any web site to register a Trackback ping to a package. David Carter-Tod gave it a big thumbs up.

See below for a new feeds of newest MLX content organized by academic discipline.

Kudos...
Stephen Downes credits the MLX as the first learning object repository to syndicate its contents via RSS (Feb 26, 2003 OLDaily). However, the next day he bumped us to second, still not bad! Serious Instructional Technology calls the RSS work here the "most important post of the day.". Weblogg-Ed claims the idea "hurts the brain" (that is praise).

Syndication by JavaScript A simpler means we are experimenting with is easier than XML to implement by individuals. Where-ever you would want the content inserted to your site, you would add a one line JavaScript command. By downloading a copy of our template Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) file, you can modify it and insert one more tag to your HTML file to make the output match your own web site content.

JavaScript Feed by College Use the form below to see sample output of the JavaScript syndication by college, listing either the 3 news packages, or 3 random packages from that college. In addition, each sample includes the instructions for integrating the JavaScript technique.

Show an exmaple of 3 newest random packages in the MLX from

See how this is currently being used at:

Chandler-Gilbert Community College's Service Learning site is syndicating the MLX special collection of Service Learning projects
Phoenix College's Teaching and Learning Resources features a feed of random MLX packages contributed from their college.
Estrella Mountain Community College embedded into the web site for the Center for Teaching and Learning
GateWay Community College web site for Faculty Teaching Tools
Mesa Community College linked from the main page for the MCC Center for Teaching and Learning

JavaScript Feed by Subject Use the form below to see sample output of the JavaScript syndication by 5 newest or random in each subject.

Maricopa Community Colleges

www.maricopa.edu