DailyUpdate version 5.0.2

DailyUpdate is an information integrator. It creates a custom web page from a
template HTML file with special tags, replacing those tags with dynamic
information acquired from the internet.

Send me email if you would like to be notified of updates.

Please send me any modifications you make. (for the better, that is. :) Keep
in mind that I'm likely to turn down obscure features to avoid including
everything but the kitchen sink.


CHANGES

New in version 5.0.2: 
- Fixed data caching.
- MakeHandler.pl now stores the URL in the comment block.
- Created POD documentation in DailyUpdate.pl
- Fixed a problem with the loading of configuration information

New in version 5.0.1: 
- Fixed a bug in MakeHandler.pl
- Improved error checking for missing Perl modules when installing new
  handlers.

New in version 5.0: This is a major rewrite.
- Handlers, implemented as Perl classes, are now used instead of the schemas
  of previous versions. The GetHtml, GetText, OutputTwoColumn,
  OutputUnorderedList, etc. functions are now part of two APIs that can be
  used by handler writers: DailyUpdate::AcquisitionFunctions, and
  DailyUpdate::OutputFunctions.
- No handlers are distributed with Daily Update.  Instead, the user is
  prompted for permission to install them as necessary. This makes using a new
  tag easy -- just put it in your input file, run Daily Update once manually,
  and tell it to download the handler.
- The handlers are real Perl, instead of the pseudo Perl used in the schemas.
  This increases the difficulty of adding new tags, but gives people a lot
  more flexibility. To help things, I've included a script "MakeHandler.pl"
  which will create a prototype handler based on user inputs.
- GetText now uses HTML::FormatText.
- Tags are now of the syntax <dailyupdate name=X>


PREREQUISITES

You will need Perl version 5.004 or newer. In addition, Daily Update needs
LWP::UserAgent from the libwww library, URI, and HTML::Parser. Get them from
CPAN at %CPAN%/modules/by-module/LWP/. Visit http://www.perl.com/ if you don't
know about CPAN.


INSTALLATION

- Quick Start

Run DailyUpdate.pl from the command line, and answer yes to the handlers that
you want to download for the example template.txt file. See
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~dwc3q/code/DailyUpdate/handlers.html for more
tags.

Since the example template isn't too exciting, you may want to take your
normal homepage and jazz it up with the Daily Update tags. Change the inHtml
and outHtml variables in the DailyUpdate.cfg file.

- Detailed Installation

If you plan to run Daily Update from a cron job, you will probably have to use
the #!/path/perl syntax for the first line of the DailyUpdate.pl file.

Handlers are put in $INSTALL/DailyUpdate/Handler/. If you later move them to
directory $SOMEWHERE/DailyUpdate/Handler/, add $SOMEWHERE to the
handlerlocations variable in the configuration file. Similarly, if you move
the DailyUpdate.pl and DailyUpdate.cfg files to another directory (like
cgi-bin), be sure to update the handlerlocations variable.


DOCUMENTATION

Go to http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~dwc3q/code/DailyUpdate/index.html. I'll try
to get some POD written one of these days...


SUPPORT

Send email to coppit@cs.virginia.edu.


AVAILABILITY

The latest version is always available at
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~dwc3q/code/DailyUpdate/index.html. In addition,
there will be archived versions on $CPAN/authors/id/D/DC/DCOPPIT/.


COPYRIGHT

Written by David Coppit (coppit@cs.virginia.edu,
  http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~dwc3q/index.html)

This code is distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). See
http://www.opensource.org/gpl-license.html and http://www.opensource.org/.

