Note that all channels are updated once a day.

• You can customize it because the HTML delivered to the browser is full of style definitions.

  Here's an example:

  <style type="text/css">
  	<!--
  	.ch_item {font: 8pt verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;}
  	.ch_description {font: 7pt/10pt geneva, arial, sans-serif;}
  	//-->
  	</style>
  

  This modifies the appearance of the font used for each "story" and the font used for the channel description at the end. All the attributes are:

   

  • .ch_table -- the table for the whole channel
  • .ch_head -- the table cell used for the header information
  • .ch_title -- the title text
  • .ch_titleLink -- the title text when linked
  • .ch_mod -- last modified date and time
  • .ch_image -- the channel's image tag (new)
  • .ch_body -- all the stories
  • .ch_item -- each individual story
  • .ch_item_link -- each individual story's link(s)
  • .ch_item_description -- each individual story's descriptive text (if there)
  • .ch_description -- the description of the channel at the very end

  Netscape 4.x doesn't seem to support this, but IE 4+ does. It turns out that Netscape 4.x doesn't like style definitions with "_" in them. If you want a Netscape 4.x-compatible feed, do this:

   

  1. For your styles don't use the "_", e.g. .chtable instead of .ch_table
  2. Request a Netscape 4.x-compatible feed using: &ns=true

   

• If you specify a bg parameter in the request you can change the color of the table header background, e.g.

  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript SRC=http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/news/channel.asp?c=http://www.newsisfree.com/HPE/xml/feeds/61/861.xml&bg=000000> </SCRIPT>

  will give you a black background to the table header. This is optional.

   

• If you specify a border parameter in the request you can change the border size of the table, e.g.

  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript SRC=http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/news/channel.asp?c=http://www.newsisfree.com/HPE/xml/feeds/61/861.xml&border=0> </SCRIPT>

  This is optional.

   

• If you specify a limit parameter in the request you can limit the number of stories you get, e.g.

  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript SRC=http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/news/channel.asp?c=http://www.newsisfree.com/HPE/xml/feeds/61/861.xml&limit=10> </SCRIPT>

  will give you just 10 stories (or less if that's all there is). This is optional.

   

• If the RSS file isn't registered at my.userland, you can make the c parameter the URL to the RSS file, e.g.

  <SCRIPT LANGUAGE=JavaScript SRC=http://www.wcc.vccs.edu/services/news/channel.asp?c=http://p.moreover.com/cgi-local/page?index_engineering+rss&limit=10> </SCRIPT>

   

• If you specify a &feedtype=advantgo you get essentially the same HTML except for the fact that the channel name is not linked.

   

• If you specify a &feedtype=noTable you get essentially the same HTML but using DIV tags instead of a table.

   

• If you specify &short=true then (if practical) you'll get just the title and links, not the descriptive text

   

• If you specify &imgAlign=right then the image is aligned to the right (other valid values allowed, e.g. left).

   

• If you specify &tz=3,MSK (Moscow Time), then the time is adjusted by adding 5 to EST and then re-adjusted by the number with the zone after that, e.g. &tz=-8,PST will give you the time as Pacific Standard Time (EST + 5 - 8). Since the server runs on EST, I think this is the best I can do apart from asking you to calculate your time-zone offset from EST.

   

• If you specify &target=whatever then all the links are given the target - this allows links to open in new windows, etc.

   

• If you specify &refresh=true then this server attempts to update its copy of the RSS file (but not more than once every five minutes). You can join this with &refreshTime=2 or another number to adjust the number of hours between updates - the default is 24.

I'm more than happy to add features on request.