query about RSS feed & thumbnail links

cerpintor

Hi all,

Not sure if this has been addressed before in the forums - I did a bit of searching but didn't find anything on this specific subject.

I have a question about the way feeds appear in a reader. Or at least my reader, which is the Google Reader a fair few people use these days.

When new images are uploaded and appear in Google Reader it appears like this:





There are four links contained within the reader entry:

1) The big text at the top left which says cerpintor's photo - clicking on this link makes the browser open the thumbnail image which already appears in the reader's entry. The browser page looks like this:




2) The small text just above the thumbnail which says cerpintor - clicking on this link opens up my homepage http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/

3) The thumbnail itself can be clicked, and doing this takes you to the image at its location in my smugmug, as if I had browsed to it manually: http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/gallery/3688311_jBCY9#211141622_D3WGv

4) The small text in the bottom/middle which says Original Enclosure - as with number 1 this just opens the thumbnail already displayed in the reader.


I have just under 90 different feeds I'm subscribed to on my reader, and I think that SmugMug's is the only feed on which clicking on the main subject link (number 1 described above) doesn't take you to the page on which the subscribed content is displayed on the host site.

Does this happen for all readers, and if so can is there a specific reason for the way this is implemented on the smug feed?

I'm just wondering if it can be refined a bit, although I'm not sure exactly how much of what appears in my reader is engineered by the SmugMug feed and how much by the reader itself.

Personally I can't see the point of any links which only open up the thumbnail, as this image is already displayed in the reader. While I've no issues really having a link to the user's homepage in each reader entry, this also seems a bit of overkill. However I think it would be a considerable improvement if the main link (number 1) acted in the same way as clicking on the thumbnail (number 3).

Any thoughts? Sorry if this has been brought up before and talked through, if so I'd welcome a link to the discussion.

rainforest1155

Your main concern with the item title linking to the thumb seems to be a Google Reader quirk. If you look at the feed with Firefox, that doesn't happen.
Also, you can have a look at the feed source in Firefox for some details:
source

You see that the thumbnail link is only in the 'id' part of the feed? I think this is legit as this is the news item - the photo. If you would like to see other photo sizes by default, you could make use of the size parameter as shown in our wiki.

Also, have a look with Firefox at the RSS (not Atom) feed. It gives you the direct links to the other display sizes available. Google Reader doesn't support these 'media files' as it seems.

I hope this helps,
Sebastian

cerpintor

rainforest1155 wrote:

Your main concern with the item title linking to the thumb seems to be a Google Reader quirk. If you look at the feed with Firefox, that doesn't happen.

Right, thanks for confirming that. My technical knowledge is minimal so even the relatively simple details in your post are over my head. I'm not really willing to change RSS reader as Google Reader works very well for me on scores of feeds, only the SmugMug feed doesn't work well, and it allows access from anywhere, not just Firefox.

It's odd...feeds from Flickr work better on Google Reader. I may drop Google a note about it.

Thanks for your feedback.

rainforest1155

cerpintor wrote:

Right, thanks for confirming that. My technical knowledge is minimal so even the relatively simple details in your post are over my head. I'm not really willing to change RSS reader as Google Reader works very well for me on scores of feeds, only the SmugMug feed doesn't work well, and it allows access from anywhere, not just Firefox.

It's odd...feeds from Flickr work better on Google Reader. I may drop Google a note about it.

Thanks for your feedback.

Please do leave them feedback. I'll pass your concerns on to our team as well.

Sebastian

rainforest1155

cerpintor wrote:

Right, thanks for confirming that. My technical knowledge is minimal so even the relatively simple details in your post are over my head. I'm not really willing to change RSS reader as Google Reader works very well for me on scores of feeds, only the SmugMug feed doesn't work well, and it allows access from anywhere, not just Firefox.

It's odd...feeds from Flickr work better on Google Reader. I may drop Google a note about it.

Thanks for your feedback.

I forgot to clarify: If you use the RSS feed instead of the Atom feed, it will be fine. The Atom feed is the only one showing this issue on Google Reader. Give the RSS feed a try.

cerpintor

That's odd. I'm definitely subscribed to the RSS feed and not the Atom feed.

This is what my reader is subscribed to: http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=nicknameRecentPhotos&Data=cerpintor&format=rss200

rainforest1155

cerpintor wrote:

That's odd. I'm definitely subscribed to the RSS feed and not the Atom feed.

This is what my reader is subscribed to: http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/hack/feed.mg?Type=nicknameRecentPhotos&Data=cerpintor&format=rss200

D'oh - I guess I mixed them up. Try the Atom feeds...

cerpintor

ah ha! You're right. Thanks again.

rainforest1155

Try the RSS feeds again. You may have to unsubscribe and subscribe again. It looks good to me in Google Reader now. The title goes to the photo in the gallery instead of the thumbnail.

Sebastian

cerpintor

Hi there.

I've been unsubscribed from the RSS feed since the posts above when I moved to the Atom feed (which has worked fine at all times).

Adding it back into Google reader it's showing my newest uploads but in the same way it did before.



Here's the Atom feed:



There are 3 active links:

1 - the link in the reader entry title "cerpintor's photo" goes to http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/gallery/8135952_vnJNi#530657638_JdKbF

2 - the link in the text "cerpintor" above the thumbnail goes to http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/

3 - the link in the thumbnail itself goes to http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/gallery/8135952_vnJNi#530657638_JdKbF - same as link 1.


So, 2/3 of the available links will take you to the specific image within the relevant gallery. 1/3 will take you to the home page. All good, and makes sense.


Here's the RSS feed:



There are 4 active links:

1 - the link in the reader entry title "cerpintor's photo" goes to http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/photos/530657638_JdKbF-Th.jpg - which is just the thumbnail and nothing else.

2 - the link in the text "cerpintor" above the thumbnail goes to http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/

3 - the link in the thumbnail itself goes to http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/gallery/8135952_vnJNi#530657638_JdKbF

4 - the link in the text "Original enclosure (530657638_JdKbF-Th.jpg)" below the thumbnail goes to http://cerpintor.smugmug.com/photos/530657638_JdKbF-Th.jpg - same as link 1, just the thumbnail again.


So, 1/4 of the available links will take you to the specific image within the relevant gallery. 1/4 of the links will take you to the home page. However 2/4 of the links will just open the thumbnail.

devbobo

Hey cerpintor,

I've fixed the RSS feed internally, it should be out with our next push.



Cheers,

David