FeedAPI
-------

The FeedAPI module group has several purposes:

1) Provide a basic aggregation module that is able to handle various parsers
   and processors and give the user the ability to change how feed items are
   represented and how incoming feed URLs are parsed.
2) Provide an API for writing parsers and processors. FeedAPI defines an
   exact requirement set for both parsers and processors. For more details,
   see the developer documentation at http://groups.drupal.org/node/5301.
3) Provide a common base for existing aggregator-purpose modules to avoid
   the overlapping of tasks (for example, parsing and downloading).

Sub-modules
----------

If you only turn on FeedAPI module on the admin/build/modules page,
you won't get the functionality that you expect from an aggregator module.
Here is the purpose of each sub-module:

1) FeedAPI - This is the main module, you should always enable it.
2) FeedAPI Aggregator - If you like how the core aggregator module handles news
   items, you should enable it. This module simply tries to behave like the core
   aggregator, but it benefits from the pluggable parsers system and has more
   configuration possibilities.
   (processor)
3) FeedAPI Item - If you like the idea of feed items are nodes, you should
   enable this.
   (processor)
4) Common Syndication Parser - Only enable this if you have a PHP5-powered
   site. If PHP5 is present, this parser has excellent performance.
   (parser)
5) SimplePie Parser - This is the parser for you if your site runs on PHP4.
   In some cases it is better and more established than the
   Common Syndication Parser.
   (parser)

To get things working you must enable at least one parser and one processor.

Start using the module
----------------------

Feeds are based on content-types. Before you can create a feed, you have to go
to the admin/content/types/add page. There choose a name for the content-type,
then enable the "Is a feed content type" checkbox under the Feed API group.
Next choose the processors and parsers that you want to use. At least one parser
and one processor must be enabled. Then create the content-type. Make sure
that permissions are given to the users who will handle the feeds.

Create your first feed
----------------------

Visit the node/add page and select your newly created content-type. Supply the
URL and hit Submit. Then select Refresh at the feed node, if you want to see the
items.

Author/credits
--------------

* The author of the module is Aron Novak (http://drupal.org/user/61864).
* The module reuses SimplePie (www.simplepie.org).
* The module refactored Aggregation module's
  (http://www.drupal.org/project/aggregation) parser.
* Alex Barth (http://drupal.org/user/53995) provided very useful patches.
  (The concept of setting storage and feed = node, plus the feedapi_aggregator,
  are almost fully his work.)
* I got lots of useful responses from my mentors
  Ken Rickard, Károly Négyesi (chx), David Norman (deekayen), and Alex Barth.
--
This is a Summer of Code 2007 sponsored project.