Symphony.

I've been wanting to use data and images from my Delicious Library 2 HTML publish files on my personal site for a while to add some "currently playing" or "reading picks" sidebars without having to manually create the graphics and maintain them in Symphony. There just wasn't an official way to create my own, so I managed to hack the templating system in DL2 so it will spit out files that I could use as a Dynamic XML data source in Symphony.

I thought I'd share. If anyone has info to add, or know a better way to do this, let me know! Oh, and be sure to back up your DL2 data before you mess with this.

I wrote up a blog post on what I learned about the template system. I'm not too impressed with it. >:-( Bruji's Pedia apps work much better for this type of stuff. They have documentation and everything, but I already have all my crap in DL2 and the cover art it produces looks better, so that's why I went to all the trouble.

How to use it

Take the template file I attached to this post and unzip it and put it in the DL2 app with "Show Package Contents" here:

 Delicious Library 2/Contents/Resources/Templates/HTML Templates/

Launch DL2 and use that template to publish what you want to your server.

Once you have the shelf published, you can pull it with Symphony as a Dynamic XML data source.

Since DL2 adds a XML namespace no matter what you do, you'll have to declare the default XHTML namespace in your data source. I just named it xhtml and gave it a URI of http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml.

To keep my XML as simple as possible, I used this XPath expression to just grab the items I wanted:

 xhtml:html/xhtml:body/xhtml:table/xhtml:tr/xhtml:td

Then I added the data to my page with some XSLT. You can see it working on the sidebar of my site.

Feel free to edit the template to your liking and let me know if you come up with anything.

I hope someone else finds this is helpful. It's not really a practical use of Symphony, but it's fun for a blog or personal site. I think we need more fun uses of Symphony to get people interested in it. It's a great CMS for mashups of data.

Pretty damn awesome :)

You have Professor Layton on the DS, awesome game :)

Looks like we have very similar taste in games.

Delicious Library 2 and Bruji's Pedia apps are exactly what I am looking for, though they are Mac only. I found MediaMan as an alternative, but unfortunately it is not so flexible as Delicous Library...

As mentioned here our beloved symphony can indeed serve many purposes. How about using the xml data from your things gtd application? anyone tried that?

@Allen Professor Layton is awesome! ;-)

@carsten Librarian Pro has a Windows version you could try.

The Bruji apps are probably the best for this purpose. I played around with a demo. You can make the HTML publishing output XML (it just has to have the .html extension.). It also has a lot more specialized information about each product that you can export. That's why the Pedia apps are separated by media type. One thing the Bruji app had problems with for me was the FTP publishing. It just didn't work at all.

FYI: Macheist just added Delicious Library 2 to the bundle. You have to participate in the Tweetblast to get it.

Great but I want espresso, hope its unlocked in time. Any idea you get free updates until espresso 1.9?

what do you guys think...

The current 400k target is only for BoinxTV. The last target, which is not public yet but is estimated above to be 1M would be for the last two apps. This is the way MacHeist works and has always worked. And it is communicated.

relax, all the apps will end up unlocked. The fact that there is even a Espresso topic should tell you that they have every intention of giving you a license for it. it's just a marketing ploy to get people to refer new buyers, and create some drama to the whole thing.

I love CSSedit, but I think Espresso is no where near as good as Coda. (If only I could have Coda use CSSedit for its CSS editor ...)

I'm pretty sure the goal will be met. It always seems to come down to the wire every year. I'm sure they have tricks to get the sales up. Even if it doesn't, the other software is still worth it. Here's what I like that apply to Web development:

• LittleSnapper: I always thought this was a bit pricy, but this app ROCKS. Within minutes, I had my entire Web portfolio snapped, categorized and saved. One slick app too.
• Kinemac: I haven't played with this much, but I can see some nifty 3D Web graphics coming out of this. Seems pretty easy.
• WireTap Studio: Great audio editing software -- helps with Podcasting.
• BoinxTV: Haven't tried this one, but it looks like something handy for video podcasting. This "Sponsored Edition" requires credit at the end of your vids. Meh ...
• The Hit List: GTD software. Would be good for managing freelance projects.
• Espresso: Code editor, FTP all in one. If you haven't ditched Dreamweaver or use Coda, this is something to try. I want to test it out some more, but I think I still like Coda better. (Heck, I still find myself going back to YummyFTP/Textmate for things.)

Not really Web development related, but good:

• World of Goo: Been wanting to play this. Almost bought it before.
• IphoneView: What's missing in iTunes. I can dump ALL of my data off of the phone and use my 16gig iPhone as a jump drive - finally!
• iSale: I use GarageSale, but I've been wanting more out of it. I am 100% convinced that the pretty templates get me more bids. These apps pay for themselves with a few auctions.
• Delicious Library 2: You have to do the TweetBlast to get this one. Been using this for years. It has some problems, but I wouldn't bother cataloging all my junk without it. It's really helped me get organized and get rid of stuff. You never really know how much you have until you see it all at once. Sobering.

It looks like MacHeist has added another app and will easily make the goal for Espresso. Woot!

Yep, looking forward to Espresso.

thanks to those clicking my referral

Here's my referral link too. I'll delete it as soon as I get one or the sale is over. :-) Thanks! I got one.

Let us know how you like Espresso. I still haven't figured out my flow with it.