Ever wondered what the top news stories were for a particular week? No, neither have I, but here is something to tell you what they were.
The main aim of this is to output the most important news stories from a specified period of time so that it can be used for, well, anything. It has been caching the stories since 27/5/05, so don't bother using it for anything before then.
So how do you use it?
Firstly, there are several different output methods, which can be chosen by adding the "o" (letter, lower case) variable to the end of the address (ie. http://backstage.min-data.co.uk/topstories/?o=rss). The possible options are as follows:
rss - RSS
html - HTML
plain - Plain text
Next, you might want to specify a certain date to start from. In which case, add the "s" variable to the end of the address (ie. http://backstage.min-data.co.uk/topstories/?o=html&s=27-05-05). It should be in the format "d-m-yy" or "dd-mm-yyyy" or any combination of the two. If this is not set, it will take it from "d" days ago (see below).
Instead of viewing the top stories for a week, you might want to see them for a month, which is why we have the "d" variable, which specifies the number of days it should take the top stories from (ie. http://backstage.min-data.co.uk/topstories/?o=html&d=30). Default is 7.
And finally, You might not want 10 news items to be listed, in which case you should use the "l" (lower case L) variable. Default is 10.
That is how to use it, now for some examples:
If you need any more help, just email me at dbarclay@gmail.com.