Drucegrove DragonFly User Manual 1.4
Page 45
Live Data Feeds
Information from live data feeds can be downloaded, parsed and displayed on a DragonFly display. An internet
connection is generally required for this feature, although certain local Ethernet based sensors can be used (ie, an
Ethernet temperature sensor).
RSS (XML) Feeds
Most information feeds are provided in Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format. The data is stored in XML elements
which can be easily parsed. Websites that provide an RSS feed often link to the feed via a small orange button ( ).
The following is an example of an RSS XML feed:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<rss xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss"
version="2.0">
<channel>
<atom:link
href="http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/weather/feeds/en/2643743/observations.rss" rel="self"
type="application/rss+xml" />
<title>BBC Weather - Observations for London, United Kingdom</title>
<link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2643743</link>
<description>Latest observations for London from BBC Weather, including weather,
temperature and wind information</description>
<language>en</language>
<copyright>Copyright: (C) British Broadcasting Corporation, see
http://www.bbc.co.uk/terms/additional_rss.shtml for more details</copyright>
<pubDate>Fri, 13 Nov 2015 08:35:11 +0000</pubDate>
<item>
<title>Friday - 08:00 GMT: Sunny, 9°C (48°F)</title>
<link>http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2643743</link>
<description>Temperature: 9°C (48°F), Wind Direction: South South Westerly, Wind
Speed: 10mph, Humidity: 72%, Pressure: 1020mb, Rising, Visibility: Good</description>
<pubDate>Fri, 13 Nov 2015 08:35:11 +0000</pubDate>
<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2643743-2015-11-
13T08:35:11.000Z</guid>
<georss:point>51.50853 -0.12574</georss:point>
</item>
</channel>
</rss>
Text Feeds
Feeds may be provided in a non-XML based format. In this case the feeds will have to be parsed as text files.
The following is an example of a text feed:
[{"ADHERENCE":"2","BLOCKID":"23","BLOCK_ABBR":"110-
1","DIRECTION":"Southbound","LATITUDE":"33.7964731","LONGITUDE":"-
84.3880132","MSGTIME":"11\/13\/2015 5:02:27
AM","ROUTE":"110","STOPID":"900644","TIMEPOINT":"Peachtree Hills &
Peachtree","TRIPID":"4853908","VEHICLE":"1442"}]
Note: It is possible to parse a web page’s HTML source as a text file, but be aware that the HTML structure of a
web page is likely to change without warning.
