Content sharing by syndication

When the Internet was invented, one of the most remarkable aspects was the invention of the Anchor Hypertext REFerence link - the <A HREF= coding we know so well. Not only could any remote file of information be accessed, but it could itself cross-reference to any other file on the other side of the world. This cross-referencing facility does not usually exist even within related files on your own hard disk, and was never a part of the pre-internet technology of TV teletext.

Thus the Internet already provides us with a ready-made method of content sharing within a website. Rather than attempting to cover a wide field of information, a site can link to other pages which already address these issues. However, the material on such links takes the visitor away from the page, and the other content is not offered in an integrated unified fashion, but scattered across different sites.

Syndication is a good way to share content, and has advantages over merely linking to a page. The material is directly incorporated into the user's own site, and site visitors may be unaware of its source.

It can be used for material which changes every day, such as a devotional, quotation, joke, or cartoon. It is equally useful in sharing static unchanging content. There is great potential for offering Christian resource material such as this. It is also useful to offer syndicate material such as:

• ready-made testimonies and gospel presentations to insert in evangelistic sites and church pages
• apologetics and teaching material for church and resource sites
• ready-made children's or teen pages for church sites

Few churches might have the time and resources to create a large range of such pages, but using syndication, they can build a site which can offer quality material directly within their pages. Several major ministries are planning to offer a range of resource pages by syndication. It is a useful option of sharing resources for the Kingdom, and we hope that many others will see the potential for offering their material in this way. Here are some Christian pages you can insert directly into your site.

All the pages on this Guide are available for content-sharing using an insert-code offered at the end of every page.

Implementing it
The easiest way is to do it using Javascript. 95% of site visitors can view it, and if you offer a <NOSCRIPT> text with a link to the material on your own site, then these 5% will get it too.

The principle is very easy. You convert an HTML file to Javascript by:

• escaping every apostrophe in the text with a preceding backslash, e.g. they\'ve
• adding document.writeln(' to the begining of every new line in the file, and '); to every line-end
• Add <!-- on a line of its own at the top of the file and // --> on a line of its own at the end
• save the file with a .js suffix and provide the URL of the file for people to insert in their own page in an easy-to-paste form, e.g.
  <script language="javascript" src="http://www.yoursite.com/filename.js">
</script>
<noscript>
<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/filename.html">Page Title</a><br>
Page description here within noscript tags is only visible for users without Javascript-enabled browsers
</noscript>
• Graphics and links can be included in the file.
• Some but not all Javascripts will work within the Javascript file, and may or may not need a further <script> tag - coded as <sc"+"ript> or other modification.

There is online conversion tool which will add the backslashes and extra coding for each line. (You must add your own coding to the very top and end of the file.)

If you have a number of pages that you wish to offer, we have developed an automated PHP to Javascript parser which is easy to set up and is explained here.

Purple Pages and Katsuey Design give more information on how to use Javascript for syndication.

Master Syndication Gateway is a pay-for program if you plan to do a high level of regular syndication.

Small syndicated items

Instead of offering an entire page of text for syndication in another website, you can offer a small 'click-on taster'. If designed in an attractive way, this is a very useful option. Two such options are displayed on this page as a demonstration - the secular Sitepoint daily webmaster tip, and one of several Christian Answers inserts, and a Christian newsfeed service.

Scrolling 'news ticker' type feeds can be appopriate for certain types of site.

Other options

There are several alternatives. Users with PHP pages can insert content with a PHP insertion code. Note however that, unlike Javascript, the content is hard-coded into the page and is viewable by a search engine spider. Search engines do not like to see near-identical material at different domains and may penalize sites that do this. This is a strong argument for sticking to Javascript.

Another option is for people to use an inline frame with a link to your page. Because the frame must have a specified size, it seems to work best as short item in a right or left-hand margin. Providing that your page is shorter than the size of the frame, no scrollbars will appear. This is the code used on one of our pages (which actually links to a javascript-generated syndicate page which we could not link to directly because it is already within a javascript-generated page):
<iframe src="http://guide.gospelcom.net/resources/smallpage1.html" width="220" height="600" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" align="right">

If you enclose your target page in a CSS-generated border, it will set the contents off nicely. However, browser font sizing may affect the way inline frames appear.

It is also easy to link to remote site using frames, so that the page remains contained in the context of your own site. One way is with a narrow top bar as in an external link, in the way that off-site pages are linked to within this Guide.

News Feeds

Javascript newsfeeds can be inserted into a webpage from many providers.

A different way of offering content is with an RSS feed to highlight features within your site. These require users to have downloaded an RSS Reader onto their computers such as AmphetaDesk.

• There are links to Christian syndicated material offers on our Webmaster resources page, which also demonstrates several secular webmaster-tip syndicated inserts offered by different providers.

Printed from Web Evangelism Guide © 2008
Can be freely reproduced in print in any non-profit situation with attribution to web-evangelism.com. This page content can also be inserted into your own web-page by copying a simple Javascript insert code into your page - explained in the online version of this page: guide.gospelcom.net/resources/
Please do not copy the text of this page onto your own web-page - search engines do not like hard-copy duplicate content on different sites.
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