Using pings
From PixyWiki
Weblog update pings provide a means for you to notify aggregation and indexing sites, (for example Weblogs.com, Technorati and [http://www.pingomatic.com Ping-o-Matic) that your weblog has changed so that they will pick up your latest content from your RSS feed.
pixyBlog supports conventional XML-RPC weblog update ping mechanism used by many sites for such notifications.
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Registering with an Aggregator
Generally speaking, aggregation sites first require you to register your weblog with their site. During this registration process you normally provide both the HTTP URL and the RSS feed URL for your weblog. This is important because the ping message conveys only the normal HTTP URL of your site, and the site will use that to lookup the registered RSS feed URL to fetch from.
Aggegation sites that accept ping notifications generally publish the ping URL to use to ping their site on their (human-readable) web site. Once you have registered your site with an aggregator, you can set up your weblog to deliver pings to that site.
Common Ping Targets
pixyBlog already automatically pings the following aggregator sites whenever you publish a new weblog entry or update a published weblog entry.
pixyBlog uses the term ping target to refer to a site, such as an aggregator, that accepts weblog update ping notifications. A ping target is configured with a (display) name and the ping URL needed to reach the site.
Custom Ping Targets
These are ping targets that are configured by individual users. If you don't find the site you wish to ping in one of the common ping targets (above), you can configure your own custom ping target.
Setting up Automated Pings
Once a ping target has been configured for the site that you wish to ping, you can use the Weblog:Pings page to enable automatic pings and send manual pings.
To enable automatic pings to a ping target, find the ping target on the page and click the Enable link in the Automatic column. The status indicator turns to ON and the link changes to Disable. To disable automatic pings to a ping target click the Disable link in the Automatic column. The status indicator turns to OFF and the link changes to Enable.
Custom ping targets that you have configured are displayed on this page in a separate table below the common ping targets; they work in the same way. You may need to scroll down the page to see them.
When you have enabled automatic pinging for a ping target, pixyBlog will automatically send a ping to that site whenever you publish a new weblog entry or update a published weblog entry.
Note: In actuality, pixyBlog queues a request to send the ping and processes this request in the background, so that you can get on with your blogging. The ping queue is processed at an interval of 5 minutes. In case the aggregator site is temporarily unreachable, pixyBlog will re-queue your ping request and retry on subsequent passes through the queue; in a default configuration the ping is re-queued for up to 3 ping attempts.
Sending a Manual Ping
You can also send a manual ping to a ping target using the Send Ping Now link listed for the target on the Automatic ping configuration page; Weblog:Pings. When you send a manual ping the ping is not queued, it is sent immediately and attempted only once. pixyBlog shows you the response status (success or a failure message) that results from the ping. Using manual pings, you can test your custom ping targets to make sure that the URL you have entered is working properly.
You do not need to enable automatic pinging in order to send manual pings. You can send a manual ping whether or not you have enabled automatic pinging for that target. You can use manual pings if you ping a site very rarely, or if you are feeling a bit impatient, and you don't want to wait for the next queue processing interval.
Creating and Editing Custom Ping Targets
You should find that most popular ping targets are listed among the common ping targets and you can ping these without needing to create a new custom one. If you don't find a common target listed for the site you wish to ping, you have two options. You can contact us to request a new common ping target. Alternatively, you can add your own custom ping target using the Weblog:Custom Ping Targets page.
Before adding a custom ping target, you must determine the proper ping URL for the site that you wish to ping. You must get this information from the aggregator's web site or from another knowledgeable source. It can be hard to find the aggregator's documentation telling you the specific ping URL to use to notify their site. Commonly aggregators list this on their web site under a topic providing help about registering your feed, or under a topic providing information for developers. Keep in mind that some aggregators only use periodic polling and do not accept ping notifications at all. If you can't find any information about pinging on the aggregator's web site, the site may not support pinging.
Once you have found the proper ping URL, you can add your custom target using the Weblog:Custom Ping Targets page.
Click the Add New button to add a new custom ping target. This will bring up a form with a Name field and a Ping URL field. Fill in both fields, and click the Save button.
Once you have created a custom ping target, you will see it listed on the Weblog:Custom Ping Targets page. From this page, you can further edit it or delete it. To enable automatic pings or send manual using your custom ping targets, use the Weblog:Pings page. The ping target's name must be unique among your own custom targets, and the Ping URL must be a properly formed URL with a known hostname (or a raw IP address). If any of these conditions are not met, the Save will fail, and you will get an error indication telling you what was wrong with your entry.
More on Registering with an Aggregator
When you register with an aggregator, you will usually need to provide two pieces of information as part of the registration, your blog's base (HTML) url and your RSS feed (XML) URL. Make sure to read the aggregator's documentation and help on registering.
For pixyBlog weblogs, you get your weblog's base URL by viewing your weblog and taking the URL, e.g:
The RSS feed URL for your whole feed can be obtained by substituting page in your weblog's URL with RSS, e.g:
http://demo.pixyblog.com/feed/entries/rss
Most browsers will display this link in the status bar when you place your mouse over RSS badge (the little orange XML box) on your weblog page.
Some aggregators can also scrape (read and parse the HTML of your weblog) to discover the feed URL automatically when provided with the HTML URL. The default pixyBlog theme template pages include hints in the form of tags that many sites can use to determine the feed URL automatically.