Yahoo! Pipes: how does it work?

Yahoo! Pipes is a new tool from Yahoo! that combines multiple data streams such as RSS. It provides a simple graphical interface for filtering, remixing, aggregating everything looks like a stream. Yahoo! Pipes is a little Swiss Army knife of data flow.

The name pipe (pipe in French) comes from a mechanism of the UNIX operating system, which consists in redirecting the result output of a command to the input of another, as if it was connected by a tube. It is somehow the result of the first command that provides the starting point of the second. This pipe is symbolized by the sour UNIX pipe character ('|'). So much for the historical moment.

Yahoo! Pipes allows for example to combine the news of your favorite sites. This is the basic use of several tools can already do the same thing but Yahoo! Pipes provides many extra features.

In fact, he gives free rein to the imagination of the programmer, the possibilities are almost endless. One can for example create a pipe that retrieves your last 10 songs played on Last.fm and then displays affiliate links to Amazon to buy these securities. This is one application among many others ...

The interface for Yahoo! Pipes is intuitive and relatively simple to understand for a geek like me, but it may take a few simple instructions. Let's go ...


To begin, go to this address . Must have a Yahoo!. Click create a new pipe (right) brings you to the visual interface creation. On the left you have the modules you can embed in your pipe by simply dragging it into the central space in the basement is the debugger that displays real-time results of the selected module.

Choosing source

It must first select a source for our pipe. There are predefined sources like Yahoo Search, Flickr or Google Base, but we'll use the Fetch module that allows you to specify your own sources. To do this, drag in the central part Fetch module available in the Source menu to the left of the window.

In the url field, enter the feed address desired. For example I have chosen to merge the flows of blogs in 2803 and Accessoweb . When applied to an address we can add more by clicking the little '+' to the left of the URL in the Fetch module. Each time we add a url debugger updates itself and you can see the result of your actions.

Sort

I will then sort the information from these flows in order of publication descending (newest first). For this I use the sort (sort in English) available in the submenu operator. I begin first by connecting the output of the module fetch with the module input out by clicking and dragging from one point to another. Then I said that sorting will be on the date of publication and I specify the order.

Filter

End Module used: the filter module that will allow me to select only certain information according to one or more criteria that I defined.

For that I drag from the menu that I filter module connects to the rest of my pipe. There I can specify different filters tons: I can block or allow certain information, filter on title, content, etc. ... specify keywords, mix multiple filters ...

In my example, I block tickets that talks about Google. Because I have other sources on this subject and I do not care to read several times the same things for example.

Finally I connected all this to the module output pipe.

Save

It remains for me to be saved by clicking on save in the top right. This pipe is now listed in my pipes. I can access it by the permanent link given to me or subscribe to this pipe using my favorite RSS reader.

I can also publish this pipeline to share with other users.

Conclusion

I've only shown the basic functionality but the possibilities are enormous. I invite you to delve into the directory pipes created by other users , it can give you an idea of what you can do with it.

Now it's your turn ...