Adding Your AC Content to Your MySpace Page with RSS

As a content producer on Associated content, I wanted to promote my content and let my friends know what I've been up to. Putting an RSS feed of my content on my MySpace page made sense.

MySpace doesn't seem to have any intuitive ways to put your content RSS feed on your page. I found two applications (apps) and one widget that will accomplish what I wanted.

First, you need to find your Associated Content RSS feed URL. Go to the community tab at the upper right of any AC page. The blue bar options will include a tab for 'RSS/Widgets'. Scroll down to "Create a Content Producer Feed / Widget." Type your pen name in the space and click 'search'. Once it finds you click 'create' to get your RSS feed URL. This is the top one. I've been unable to figure out any way to get the widget script to work on MySpace.

I found two apps that work to put your AC content on your MySpace page. News Merger is a little more complicated for the same effect if you only want to add your AC RSS feed. If you would also like to add a blog feed or one from any other source New Merger is pretty nice. RSS Reader is the simplest and works very nicely with Associated Content's RSS feed. The widget is the spiffiest but also a little harder to set up. As it is not an app you can't put it just anyplace. It has to go inside one of the exist profile elements or in your blog.

You must log into your MySpace page before any of these will work.

News Merger

News Merger calls itself an animated widget. If you pick multiple feeds it won't actually merge them but switch between them on a 30 second or so timer. It has a scrollbar on the side. I did not see any way to limit the number of entries for CPs with a lot of titles.

Mouse over the 'More' tab at the top of your page and go to the 'Apps Gallery'. Search apps for "News Merger." Click the 'Add App' button when you get the search results. Click 'Add this App' on the next page. On the next screen, check or uncheck the appropriate options and click 'Add'.

On the next page you have several things to do. First, add your AC RSS feed URL from above in the 'Feed URL 1' box. Add your blog URLs or any others you want in the subsequent boxes. There are some common feeds available you can also add but I would worry that your important content would be lost in the clutter. Next you can choose an image for your background. It will be faded so text shows up well. Alternatively, you can pick a background color or leave it white. When you are happy with your selections click 'Save' at the bottom of the page. The widget will appear on your MySpace page.

RSS Reader

RSS Reader handles one feed and is the simplest to add. Go to the app gallery as above, and search for RSS Reader. When you find it click 'Add this App'. Check or uncheck the boxes on the next screen and click 'Add'.

On the next page, on the first line, enter your RSS feed URL from above. The second line is for the title of your feed box. Enter something that will encourage your friends to pay attention. Check the 'Display HTML' box. Leave "max characters" blank. This will automatically include your article description from the publishing pages. "Max items" is how many of your most recent articles to include. I left it blank since I don't have a lot of content. You might want to limit it at some point. Colors for text, links and background go in the next three lines. You can use color names for aqua, black, blue, fuchsia, gray, green, lime, maroon, navy, olive, purple, red, silver, teal, white, or yellow. Other colors must be entered by hex codes which can be found at:
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_colornames.asp . I use 600 pixels for height of the display. Given different variables this usually shows titles and descriptions for six most recent of my articles. There will be a scroll bar on the right to access the rest of the content but only if your MySpace profile has been upgraded to 2.0.

SpringWidget

This one is nice but it does have some drawbacks. Since it's not an "app" by MySpace's definition it is more limited in where you can place it. It must go in your blog, bulletins or "About Me." It also has a "Daily Blog" button on the bottom I couldn't get rid of. You can add multiple feeds to the Spring Widget if want to include blogs or other writings. Although it's not very clear to your reader how to access the other feeds (click 'menu' at the top.) This is also the prettiest of the three.

To install this widget go to http://www.springwidgets.com/widgets/view/23. Click 'Customize This Widget' on the left sidebar and the options available will show. Select width and height. 380 x 600 shows the last 5 of my articles with a scroll bar on the right to access the rest. Clear the existing feed in the URL box. Paste in your RSS feed URL from above. Add any other feeds you have by pasting them in the top line and clicking the "+" symbol. If you check 'show titles only' about 20 article titles will show at 380x600. 'Blurb length' doesn't matter. The description on the AC publish form limits this to 250 words so you would have to go less than 250 for any change. If you add an image it will be inside the frame at the top. Only the top 61 pixels of the image will show.

When you're happy with your widget, click on 'Share' under the actual widget. A box will pop up with the sites this widget will go to directly. MySpace is the first icon. Click on it. The next page will ask where you want to place the widget and give you a chance to add a description. Once you click 'Post It' you're done.