schlitt.info - php, photography and private stuff
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:Author: 		Tobias Schlitt
:Date:			Wed, 19 Nov 2008 23:29:46 +0100
:Revision: 		1
:Copyright:		CC by-nc-sa


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Trackbacks on PEARWeb
=====================

:Description:
    Inspired by a blog entry of Sebastian Bergmann, I implemented trackbacks
    for PEAR packages on PEARWeb.

Inspired by a `blog entry`__ of `Sebastian Bergmann`__, I implemented
trackbacks for PEAR packages on `PEARWeb`__.

.. __: http://www.sebastian-bergmann.de/blog/archives/405-On-Blogs,-Portals-and-Conference-Websites.html
.. __: http://www.sebastian-bergmann.de/
.. __: http://pear.php.net

So, what does this exactly mean? I think, everyone reading blogs should know,
what a trackback is. If not, here is a little abstract on that from the
`Movabletype website`__ (where `more detailed information`__ can be found):

.. __: http://www.movabletype.org/
.. __: http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/beginners/

    In a nutshell, TrackBack was designed to provide a method of notification
    between websites: it is a method of person A saying to person B, "This is
    something you may be interested in." To do that, person A sends a
    TrackBack ping to person B.

In general trackbacks are used in weblogs, to indicate that 2 blog entries are
related to each other: So, while writing about Sebastians "On Blogs, Portals
and Conference Websites" a trackback ping is send to Sebastians weblog. This
will result in a link to my entry presented on Sebastians blog entry. Everyone
reading Sebastians entry will know, that I refered to it and wrote something
related to it.

That so far to the system of trackbacks. But what does all that have to do
with PEARWeb and PEAR packages?

A huge lot of open source developers document their projects progress,
information on other interessting projects and other development related stuff
in their weblogs. PEAR (in some way) lacks documentation. So, if someone
writes a blog entry on a PEAR package he can send a trackback ping to
indicate, that he created another piece of documentation. A link will
automatically be placed on the package info page of the related PEAR package.

For example, I will generate a new trackback by linking to my package
`Net_FTP`__. This is then available `here`__.

.. __: http://pear.php.net/package/net_ftp
.. __: http://pear.php.net/package/Net_FTP/trackbacks

I'm personally very keen on the idea of trackbacks and I know, that several
people think that this blogging culture is just a hype without any real sense.
But, as long as this hype lasts, having trackbacks on PEARWeb will bring PEAR
some more documentation and that's good. If the idea works, it will also be
possible to add trackbacks to more elements of PEARWeb, like user info pages,
PEPr proposals,...

 `S9Y`__ currently has some problems with backtracking the shortcut URL for package info pages (like `http://pear.php.net/Net_FTP`__), since it cannot handle HTTP redirect headers, which are used on PEARWeb for the short way. I hope this is not the case with other weblogs or we can find a solution for that on PEARWeb.

.. __: http://www.s9y.org
.. __: http://pear.php.net/Net_FTP


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Trackbacks
==========

- Fighting trackback spam on PEARWeb on Mon, 30 May 2005 16:36:08 +0200 in Tobias Schlitt - Weblog
  
  Trackback spammers only needed a couple of weeks to discover PEARWeb's new
  trackback feature for their purposes. Of course I had to do something
  against that, which sadly lasted very long because I've been much too busy.
  Last week I finally managed to rel


Comments
========

- Garvin Hicking at Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:29:26 +0100

  As you mention, Serendipity doesn't deal with the redirects - but I've not
  yet seen a trackback-autodetecting blog which does.

  A workaround though is easily possible: Serendipity offers a plugin
  serendipity_event_trackback which enables you to enter the final trackback
  URL. You'd loose autodetection, but you'd gain working trackbacks. :-)

  Regards, Garvin

- Toby at Tue, 18 Jan 2005 14:36:25 +0100

  Hmmm... I don't like the manual trackback solution. It's ugly. S9Y has
  autodetection  for trackbacks to avoid the manual entry of trackback URIs.
  For that, I guess a solution on PEARWeb would be much nicer. I'll think that
  over again...