Hello there, I'm a new user. I have added this to a typepad blog for a client, using the .js option because they can't use php. I am testing my display options and can't get the feed to update. I wish there was a force refresh or "clear cache" option on the control panel. Can you help me refresh my feed?
http://fd2005.feeddigest.com/digest/code/61228
and
http://fd2005.feeddigest.com/digest/code/61221
Editing and immediately saving your digest has the same effect, so try that, but in theory it won't have a significant effect if the feed was already crawled within a certain time period (the reason for this is so we don't over-request and get blocked). This time can be reduced manually by me where it's necessary.
I tried that and there hasn't been a changed. Can you manually refresh? That blog entry changed days ago. Thanks!
Ah.. *changes* to entries is a different matter entirely (compared to *new* entries).
We only process new items when either a) their GUID (Globally Unique ID) changes, or b) their title or destination URL changes. Items are not changed if only, say, their description changes. The reason for this is that otherwise it would be necessary for us to check every item of every feed for minor changes (and we process tens of thousands of items per minute), whereas we use the GUID of each item as a marker of uniqueness which is a lot faster. So.. if the GUID if your item changes, your item is updated. If it does not, it does not. For items without GUIDs, we use title/destination URL as the equivalent.
Separate to all of this, I can entirely wipe your feed's content and recrawl it from new, but this is a manual operation and not one that would be useful over time.
This "feature" is one that a very small percentage of users find extremely restrictive, but which most are not concerned about, so unfortunately it's a trade off (for us) of having a very fast, reliable service versus providing a feature not many users need. If you do need it though, we might not be the ideal solution (yet).
It should be noted that this problem is also caused by our support for archiving old posts, since if we just mirrored the source feed(s) exactly, we can easily just delete ALL old entries and put the existing ones in the database. With our archival feature, however, it becomes necessary to check every item.. and that's something we cannot do, hence the compromise.
It is likely we will release another product/service which takes the more absolute approach of mirroring the source feed entirely, with no room for archival.
Hey, I understand that part about editing of old posts. It seems like people make errors in headlines, and first paragraphs of blog posts a lot, and having them stuck on your feed isn't ideal. Having no way to refresh the feed from the source is a huge limitation for me.
Having said that, I have written a new post and deleted the offending old post and my feed is still not updating on its own. I posted it about three hours ago. Can you please help me? I really like the way your service works, I've already paid for a year, and I'd like to keep using it on my sites.
I've reset that feed for you. The only downside is it now only has 1 post associated with it (as that's all that's in your source feed) since the archive had to be removed. So.. you should now all be up to date anyway. If you need more posts to show, you need to get your source feed to output more items, as currently it only has one :(
The reason we don't allow people to refresh feeds by hand is because in many cases users are sharing the same feeds, and our system centralizes the storage of feed information (for efficiency). Speed and reliability are our #1 priorities, so we make a lot of trade offs.
As we are now moving towards a more paid service, the new versions of our product will focus more on features, but the system you're currently using is about two years old, so still has some limitations. New things will appear over time, however :) Do note that if within 30 days you think that Feed Digest isn't for you, we offer a money back guarantee and will refund you :)
One post? I actually have 2 posts. Someone else is currently rearranging and adding new posts, so you may have looked at it when there was only one post. The point is, the site is going live in a day and my clients are going to want to see their blog headlines on their website, and I'm really worried I'm not going to be able to deliver that to them.
What is the normal user's average update time?
Anyway. Thanks for your help, I may unfortunately have to take you up on your refund offer. I'll let you know how it goes in the next couple of days.
Just give me a push on here if you need it resetting, so we can make sure it's all good for tomorrow, and then we can look at alternative solutions.
I have just reset it again and two items are now in play.
Since this has become often requested in the last couple of weeks, please see this:
The feature is now available on a manual basis (that is, I turn the feature on for you, and it works :)). Still need to roll it out on the interface end..
I have a problem. The posts were initially entered with a spelling mistake in the title, "missle" instead of "missile". I corrected the title but the feed gives me the old spelling. Take a look at:
http://www.sderotmedia.com for the first few posts.
In addition, I need to delete the second post, which is currenlty not in the database but nevertheless, the feed has it. I'm refeering to the post on June 7 "Kassam Missle Hits on May 27, 2007" which needs to be deleted. Can I delete it by myself?
http://app.feeddigest.com/digest3/MMRJKDQ2TA.html
http://app.feeddigest.com/digest3/MMRJKDQ2TA.js
Technically you can delete the post at source and make sure "Show only live items" is on for your digest, and it'll go :)
That won't help with content changes (like title changes) though (usually).. so you might be a good candidate to use the verbatim feeds feature we're testing right now. Want me to enable it for your digest?
Whatever you can do to correct these problems.
Again, I have a post that's not in the mySQL database, but keeps on appearing on the page
http://www.sderotmedia.com
And get the correct title.
I don't really understand what you wrote about "delete the post at source and make sure 'Show only live items' is on for your digest" or use the verbatim feeds feature.
What ever you can do to help me get rid of the problem.
Please make your instructions very clear since I'm a novice at this.
Thanks a million.
David
It sounds like the Show Only Live Items feature is for you. Edit your digest, then look for the checkbox that says that next to it, tick it, and save :) Your item should, in theory, be gone. It means your digest will only show "live" items.
Is the verbatim feature available only to paid accounts? If not, I'd like to see if you could enable it for my account. Here's the page where we're using the feeds: http://econnection.umr.edu .
Typically it's been a paid only feature, since it is more server intensive (due to the need to recrawl the feed from scratch every time). However, it could be activated on any digest, although if you have any specific one or two that requires it, rather than a whole batch, it would certainly be useful. If you have a smaller choice, then do let me know the IDs.
This topic has been closed to new replies.