XML feeds are provided via simple URL retrieval of an XML document over HTTP. Each XML document is automatically generated from live information in our database.

Three feed types are currently available; these are our core events feed, a standalone location feed, and a standalone category feed.

Subscribing

Subscribing to a Whatsonwhen feed, aside from licensing and sales issues, requires a few extra things on the part of the implementers;

  • A DNS name under which you will access the service;
    Customers who wish to use Whatsonwhen services on either our next-generation ASP hosted solution or our XML feeds must provide us the DNS name they will use to access the service; this may be, for example, any subdomain of your site that you wish to create - such as xml.yourcompanyname.com, or wow-feed.yoursite.com. This is used so that our system can associate your request for a feed with the specific restrictions associated with your account - such as selected regions of the world, rating-restricted events (4/5 star only, for example), or events in specific categories.
  • IP addresses for all machines permitted to use the service;
    Customers of the Whatsonwhen XML feed must provide us with a complete list of all IP addresses they will use to access the service. This should be restricted to those development, staging, and live systems responsible for feed processing. Redistribution of this information is expressly prohibited unless otherwise agreed as a part of contracting, and non-company systems should not be included in the list of sites which can access the feed.

Processing Feeds

Feeds are retrieved via HTTP from our live service; during development, a different URL will be provided to customers which uses our staging service. Both services have a speed restriction in place to prevent abuse of the feed and deter developers who often reprocess feeds many times a day from impacting on our live databases.

There are four types of feeds:

  • ID Lists
    The first and most important feed provides a list of 'object' IDs which are current and visible to the subscriber according to their account limitations. These IDs can then be used, one at a time, to retrieve an XML document containing the requested information. or of only those which have been modified past a certain date and fit the above criteria.
  • Single Objects
    The other feed associated with each feed type returns a single XML document representing one single 'object' or entity in our system. For example this could return one Article in our articles feed (an Event is a type of article in our content repository), one Location (which includes its parent locations recursively in the single document, and is also embedded in each event), or one Category (ditto).
  • Object Lists
    These feeds accept a number of parameters which are used to generate a query that returns a summarised list of sorted objects. This a useful 'view' into the Whatsonwhen content repository, which can save development time. An example might be returning a the top 5 articles for a given location sorted by date. These feeds have a total result limit.
  • Object Searching
    This feed allows access to Whatsonwhen's search logic without any limitation of results. It also has extra features such as full-text searching and pagination.

Documentation for each of these feeds, and on the Whatsonwhen schema in general, is available in the left-hand navigation; in addition, a set of documents providing guidance and advice on implementing our feeds is available in the Implementation Guide.

Please see our FAQ section for an answer to a host of important questions you may have, including questions about the hosting environment, quality of service agreements, DNS name registration, and other frequently asked questions about our service.