Introduction

This manual contains information about how to use the Escenic syndication format to import content to Escenic publications from other systems and/or export content from Escenic publications so that it can be used in other systems. The Escenic syndication format is an XML file format that can be used to represent the content and structure of any Escenic publication. It can also be used to represent parts of a publication: individual content items, for example.

Here is a simple example of a syndication format file representing a single content item:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<escenic xmlns="http://xmlns.escenic.com/2009/import" version="2.0">
  <content source="cnn" sourceid="1" type="news" state="published">
    <section-ref unique-name="ece_incoming" todesk="true" />
    <field name="title">Escenic Import Format</field>
    <field name="leadtext">A short and simple example.</field>
    <field name="body">
      <p>
      All text examples should contain a bit of "lorem ipsum", so:
      Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.
      Nunc venenatis erat at nisl. In hac habitasse platea
      dictumst.
      </p>
      <p>
      And one more paragraph. Sed venenatis purus iaculis turpis.
      Duis sagittis luctus augue. Morbi vehicula, enim non congue
      cursus, purus dui lobortis libero, sed sagittis risus
      mauris et enim.
      </p>
    </field>
  </content>
</escenic>

escenic is the root element of all syndication format files.

content represents a single content item. Its source and source-id attributes together provide a unique identifier for the content item. Its type attribute specifies the content item's type as defined in an Escenic publication's content-type resource and state describes its current publication status.

section-ref references an existing publication section in which the content item appears. The section in question is identified by the unique-name attribute. The todesk attribute specifies that the content item appears in the section's default inbox. A content element can contain several section-refs since a content item may appear in several sections.

The field elements represent the content item's fields as defined by its type definition in the content-type resource. The "body" field contains a snippet of XHTML representing the main content of the content item.

This is a very simple example. A syndication file can contain many content elements. It can also contain other elements defining other publication components such as section, section-page, list, inbox or person.

For a complete description of the syndication file format see escenic-syndication. This describes all the syndication elements in detail and the combinations in which they can be used. You should read Syntax Diagram Conventions before using this reference section. It contains an explanation of the conventions used in the syntax diagrams you will find there.