Radio Userland, in case you haven't heard of it, is a content aggregator. It collects story lists from Weblogs and other Internet sites--standardized protocols for doing this exist--and allows you to view them easily. It's also a Weblog editor that enables you to manipulate your own blog more efficiently than standard Web interfaces allow. In
Radio Userland Kick Start, Rogers Cadenhead explains how to use the software, taking into account that Radio Userland is a new kind of application with which many of his readers will not be familiar. He does an admirable job of explaining both the general ideas (Weblogging and cherrypicking content) and the specifics of Radio Userland itself.
About half of this book is concerned with user-level features of Radio Userland (that is, everything short of programming); the other half has to do with programming in the UserTalk programming language (as well as a handful of related ones). The user-level coverage is comprehensive and patient enough to get you through the moments of confusion that are sure to strike as you learn about the Radio environment. The programming coverage is similarly complete, explaining both theory (like how RSS feeds work) and practice (there are lots of code listings that illustrate popular effects). This book covers its subject fully. --David Wall
Topics covered: How to use Radio Userland, its associated Weblog hosting service, the UserTalk language, and the RSS syndication format to consume and publish news and commentary on the Internet, even if you've never Weblogged before.
Radio UserLand is a powerful tool that is well known for its Web log publishing features, but it is a much larger content management and information aggregation tool. This $40 product has been purchased by more than 200,000 people, and is gaining popularity among those who are eager to make dynamic Web content through exploiting the growing amount of data available on the Internet.
"Radio UserLand Kick Start" provides everything a Web site developer needs to get started with the software, including a primer on the UserTalk programming language and the softwareAs object database, which are considered the two main stumbling blocks for any Radio Userland user who wants to go one step further. Emphasis is placed on the softwareAs XML-RPC, RSS, and XML functionality, which makes it easy to create Web services and use the Web services and information of others.
About the Author
Rogers Cadenhead is a writer and Web application developer who has been active in Radio Userland programming since the first beta release of the software. He has written more than a dozen books on computer programming and Internet topics, including Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days and Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 24 Hours.
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