Creating DataTable From RSS Feed And YQL

Sandeep Kumar PatelFebruary 14th, 2013Last Updated: February 14th, 2013

0 53 2 minutes read

Yahoo Query Language(YQL ) is a query language like SQL.
Using YQL we can query, filter, and join data across Web services.
YQL can also read RSS feed too.
The Response can be JSON or XML.
Yahoo provides a YQL console for debugging , testing and diagnostics the YQL statements.
The Link for YQL CONSOLE is http://developer.yahoo.com/yql/console/
This Demo shows:

Reading my blog RSS Feed ( http://www.tutorialsavvy.com/feeds/posts/default) using YQL.
Getting the feed in JSON format.
Displaying the Data in YUI3 Data table.

The Project structure

This Demo uses the following yui3 modules ‘node‘, ‘yql‘, ‘datatable‘, ‘datatable-scroll‘, ‘datatype-date‘.
The YQL statement used is : select title, pubDate, link from rss where url=’http://www.tutorialsavvy.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss&format=json&diagnostics=true’
The YQL Console output is :

The HTML markup for the YQL demo script yql-demo.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>

    <head>
        <title>YQL Query Reading RSS Feed Demo</title>
        <script src='http://yui.yahooapis.com/3.8.1/build/yui/yui-min.js'></script>
        <style>
            .response-status {
                font-weight: bold;
                color:grey;
                list-style: none;
            }
            .response-text {
                font-size:16px;
                color : orange;
            }
            #yui-blogger-rss-feed-table {
                width:650px;
            }
            .yui3-skin-sam #yui-blogger-rss-feed-table .yui3-datatable-cell {
                font-size:11px;
            }
            .blogger-post-title {
                color: Green;
                font-style: italic;
                font-weight: bold;
            }
            .blogger-post-link {
                text-decoration: none;
                font-style: italic;
                font-weight:bold;
            }
            .blogger-post-link:hover {
                color:orange;
                text-decoration: underline;
                font-weight:bold;
            }
        </style>
    </head>

    <body class='yui3-skin-sam'>
        <!-- This DIV Element is for displaying posts from the YQL QUERY RESPONSE(JSON)
        details in YUI3 DATATABLE -->
        <div id='yui-blogger-rss-feed-table'></div>
        <!-- This UL Element is for displaying post count, created date,
        language -->
        <ul class='response-status'></ul>
        <script>
            YUI().use('node', 'yql', 'datatable', 'datatable-scroll', 'datatype-date', function (Y) {

                var resultItems,

                results, postTable,

                /*This YQL query is for my Blogger's RSS feed.*/
                yqlRssUrl = 'select title, pubDate, link from rss where ' +
                    'url='http://www.tutorialsavvy.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss&format=json&diagnostics=true'',

                    responseStatus = Y.one('.response-status'),

                    rssYqlFeedTable = Y.one('#yui-blogger-rss-feed-table'),

                    /*HTML template for LINK of the post*/
                    formatLink = '<td class='yui3-datatable-cell'><a  class='blogger-post-link' href='{content}'>{content}</a></td>',

                    /*HTML template for TITLE of the post*/
                    formatTitle = '<td class='yui3-datatable-cell blogger-post-title'>{content}</td>',

                    /*Formatter function for formatting a date, pubDate*/
                    formatPubDate = function (o) {

                        return Y.DataType.Date.format(Y.DataType.Date.parse(o.value), {
                            format: '%Y-%m-%d'
                        });

                    }

                    /* This will return 25 results As Blogger return 25 posts by DEFAULT.
                     * This can be changed to some other number using
                     * LIMIT parameter.
                     */
                    Y.YQL(yqlRssUrl, function (feed) {

                        results = feed.query;

                        resultItems = feed.query.results.item;

                        responseStatus.appendChild('<li> Count of Posts (in response) : <span class='response-text'>' + results.count + '</span></li>');

                        responseStatus.appendChild('<li>Created Date : <span class='response-text'>' + results.created + '</span></li>');

                        responseStatus.appendChild('<li>Post Language : <span class='response-text'>' + results.lang + '</span></li>');

                        postTable = new Y.DataTable({

                            columns: [{
                                key: 'title',
                                label: 'POST TITLE',
                                cellTemplate: formatTitle
                            },

                            {
                                key: 'pubDate',
                                label: 'PUBLICATION DATE',
                                formatter: formatPubDate
                            },

                            {
                                key: 'link',
                                label: 'POST LINK',
                                cellTemplate: formatLink
                            }],

                            data: resultItems,

                            scrollable: 'y',

                            height: '250px',

                            caption: '[ YQL READING RSS FEED FROM TUTORIAL SAVVY(http://www.tutorialsavvy.com/feeds/posts/default)' + 'AND DISPLAYING IN DATATABLE]'

                        }).render(rssYqlFeedTable);

                    })

            });
        </script>
    </body>

</html>