Pushing and Pulling Content: Creating a Friends List

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One of the advantages of RSS is that you can pull content. But with Drupal's taxonomy_dhtml and syndication add-on modules, it's possible to push it the other way.

So that Terra and I can do some collaborative writing, I setup a new taxonomy on my Drupal site called friends (remember to select "types" and set to "multiple select") with a term "Terra." I then posted a blog test with "Terra" selected.

Next, I did the same on Terra's site, except I made a friend term "Charlie" and posted a test blog .

The trick is to then configure RSS. Using the advanced syndication features, I created a news feed on Terra's site which pulls from "Terra" and one on mine which pulls from "Charlie" on hers, both with terms "myfriends."

Next, create bundles on each for my friends. Install the block for each bundle. Now, when Terra or I want to share a blog or story post, we merely tag it from our friends category and it shows up as a link on the front page on the other's site once RSS is updated.

From now on, to send Terra a blog, I just select the category when creating the post. And with the "blog it" feature, it's even easier to send a reply. I can add other Drupal friends as well using the same process. RSS email :)

Note: Terra, and my drupaltest site, will be getting this post.