Laszlo OPML viewer

September 09, 2003

Inspired by Mark Davis’ Laszlo link viewer, I created a little OPML file with some of my collected links and modified his LZX file to read the data from the there. [Moved this version of the app into this blog entry, since I am going to update my gutter]

The new app is only 60 lines of code. LZX is fun!

It took me about two hours, from inspiration to deployment. Here’s what I did:

1. I read a bit about OPML. I ended up snagging the OPML file from blogrolling.com and then hand-edited to create some categories. I wonder if I upgrade my account and have multiple blogrolls, does it generates a single hierarchical OPML? … that would be nice.
2. I borrowed the code and art assets — thanks Mark
3. I modified the LZX:

• added a dataset that references opml.xml
• added datapaths to various views
• changed color definitions to canvas attributes (although I probably should have left these as parameters)
• added rollover feedback for links

4. created a 2 frame Flash movie for the link icon, drawing two icons by hand (a little rough, but I like to have some feedback that a new window will be opened)
5. uploaded the files to the Laszlo Presentation Server that I recently set up at mediatemple
6. updated my MoveableType default template

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