Ask PG: Link to comments in RSS

pg · on Feb 9, 2008

There are comment links in the rss feed. Some readers show them and some don't. If anyone can give me the exact syntax that would work in the latter, I'll try it.

brett · on Feb 9, 2008

  <item>
    <title>Ask PG: Link to comments in RSS</title>
    <link>https://qht.co/item?id=112684</link>
    <comments>https://qht.co/item?id=112684</comments>
    <description>
      &lt;a href="https://qht.co/item?id=112684"&gt;comments&lt;/a&gt;
    </description>
  </item>

bd · on Feb 10, 2008

Or like this:

  <item>
    <title>Ask PG: Link to comments in RSS</title>
    <link>https://qht.co/item?id=112684</link>  
    <description><![CDATA[<a href="https://qht.co/item?id=112684">Comments</a>]]></description>
  </item>

pg · on Feb 10, 2008

Ok, does it work now? Here's what I'm doing:

  (def rss-stories (stories)
    (tag (rss version "2.0")
      (tag channel
        (tag title (pr this-site*))
        (tag link (pr site-url*))
        (tag description (pr site-desc*))
        (each s stories
          (tag item
            (let comurl (+ site-url* (item-url s))
              (tag title    (pr (eschtml (s 'title))))
              (tag link     (pr (if (blank (s 'url))
                                    comurl
                                    (eschtml (s 'url)))))
              (tag comments (pr comurl))
              (tag description
                (pr "<![CDATA[")
                (link "Comments" comurl)
                (pr "]]>"))))))))

bd · on Feb 10, 2008

Bloglines now shows the link twice, one from <comments> and one from <description>.

pg · on Feb 10, 2008

Argh. Can anyone tell me a format that will work on all readers? Is the answer to ditch the comments field?

ks · on Feb 10, 2008

I also see them twice, but it doesn't bother me. Just leave it as it is.

hugov · on Feb 22, 2008

On 20/2 at around 8:15 pm GMT, the comments link disappeared again for me (in Vienna). What's going on?

dizz · on Feb 10, 2008

Yep - another confirm - comment linked working in google reader now - thanks!

hugov · on Feb 11, 2008

Thanks PG - confirm everything appears to be completely working now!

pestilence · on Feb 10, 2008

It's working in akregator now (wasn't working before).

Cald · on Feb 10, 2008

It works in Google Reader!

Thanks!

rob · on Feb 9, 2008

I brought this up a while ago here: https://qht.co/item?id=35363

I was using Google Reader, and there was no comments link, but have since switched to NetNewsWire (OS X) where everything works correctly. It doesn't look like it'll change.

silencio · on Feb 9, 2008

That's really odd. NNW for me doesn't show links, and never has...hmm, too bad it doesn't keep track of when I subscribe to feeds, but I'm fairly sure that's how it's always been for me.

rob · on Feb 10, 2008

Hmm, actually it might depend on the theme you're using. I'm using the Ollicle Reflex theme (http://www.ollicle.com/2006/nov/28/jquery_netnewswire_style....) and it displays the comments link neatly in the right column.

BvS · on Feb 9, 2008

A while ago someone (sorry, forget the name) created an alternative feed which shows a link to the comment page: http://harumi.ath.cx/newsyc

Works fine with Google-Reader.

hugov · on Feb 9, 2008

I'm using Vienna (OS X) which as far as I can tell works perfectly for every one of the other 200+ feeds I subscribe to - but not for Hacker News. It looks like simply replacing the <comments> tag with a description tag containing (only) a hyperlink to the comments page would fix the problem. Many readers ignore the <comments> tag.

altano · on Feb 10, 2008

Whatever's up now is working with Vienna. I see a comments link.

ks · on Feb 9, 2008

I see links to comment pages for all items, so perhaps it's your RSS reader?

But it would be nice to see the submission text.

yrashk · on Feb 9, 2008

NetNewsWire shows link to comments

AxiomShell · on Feb 9, 2008

I don't see links as well. I'm using Google Reader.

dizz · on Feb 9, 2008

+1 :-) I don't see links to comment pages for all items... using google reader