+++
date = "2019-08-17T05:11:17+00:00"
publishdate = "2023-12-29T07:08:55+00:00"
title = "Webrings with Openring"
slug = "webrings-with-openring"
author = "Thedro"
tags = ["indieweb"]
type = "posts"
summary =  "Openring is a tool that generates a webring from a list of RSS Feeds. It's a nice way for others to discover blogs that you follow."
draft =  ""
syntax =  "1"
toc =  ""
updated =  "2020-09-14"
+++

{{< image source="/images/webrings-with-openring.png" title="Webring Generated by Openring" >}}
Webring Generated by Openring {{< /image >}}

Lately my fascination has moved towards the [IndieWeb.](https://indieweb.org/)
Maintaining your online identity and data independently of big corporations is
{{< sidenote mark="crucial." set="left" >}}Own and preserve your own
data.{{< /sidenote>}}
My website has a simple webring at the bottom of every
{{< sidenote mark="article." set="right" >}}Readers can discover even more
interesting content.{{< /sidenote>}}

> "Webrings allow ringbearers to create a network of blogs around a shared goal
> where readers can choose the next, previous, and random blog in the ring."
{{< footer >}}[IndieWeb: What is a Webring?](https://indieweb.org/indiewebring){{< /footer >}}

[Openring](https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/openring) is a neat
{{< sidenote mark="program" set="right" >}}Openring is an open source program
written in [Golang](https://go.dev/doc/) that generates a webring from a series
of `RSS` feed links.{{< /sidenote>}} that allows you to generate a webring. Pass
a series of `RSS` links as arguments to `openring` in addition to a template and
it generates an `html` file that can be included anywhere on a web page. This is
particularly nice for static site generators.

```shell
openring \
  -s https://example.com/feed1.xml \
  -s https://example.com/feed2.xml \
  -s https://example.com/feed3.xml \
< template.html \
> output.html
```

It's a matter of making my own template and including it within my custom
{{< sidenote mark="theme." set="left" >}}The original template is quickly
adapted to use the [Bulma](https://bulma.io/) CSS Framework.{{< /sidenote>}}

```html
<section class="webring">

  <h3>On the Web</h3>
  <section class="articles">
    <div class="columns is-tablet is-centered">
      {{ range .Articles }}
      <div class="column is-4">
        <div class="tile is-ancestor">
          <div class="tile is-parent">
            <article class="tile is-child box is-shadowless">
              <h2><a href="{{ .Link }}" target="_blank" rel="noopener" class="serif is-size-4">{{ .Title }}</a></h2>
              <p class="summary">{{ .Summary }}</p>
              <small class="source is-block">by <a href="{{ .SourceLink }}">{{ .SourceTitle }}</a></small>
              <small class="date has-text-grey-dark">{{ .Date | date }}</small>
            </article>
          </div>
        </div>
      </div>
      {{end}}
    </div>
  </section>

  <p class="attribution has-text-right">Generated by <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/openring">Open Ring</a></p>

</section>
```

This website uses [Hugo](https://gohugo.io/) to generate static content. It's as
simple as including the generated `.html` in the Go `HTML` template. Done.

```html
{{- partial "openring.html" . -}}
```

[Drone](https://github.com/drone/drone) is a decent
{{< sidenote mark="deployment" set="right" >}}[Drone](https://drone.io/) is a
continuous delivery tool that is super lightweight and highly
flexible.{{< /sidenote>}} tool. Add a configuration step to fetch `openring` and
generate the webring on every build.

```yaml
---
- name: openring
  image: debian:stretch-slim
  commands:

  - chmod +x openring

  - >
    ./openring
      -s https://drewdevault.com/feed.xml
      -s https://mxb.dev/feed.xml
      -s https://www.taniarascia.com/rss.xml
    < generators/openring/template.html
    > generators/hugo/themes/tdro/layouts/partials/openring.html
```

Openring is integrated into the website's deployment pipeline. The build
{{< sidenote mark="time" set="left" >}}A precompiled binary is downloaded to
demonstrate. A local binary would speed up this step
considerably.{{< /sidenote>}} is roughly `40` seconds. Not too
{{< sidenote mark="bad." set="right" >}}We can compile the Go binary from
source, but that would slow down the deployment process.{{< /sidenote>}}

{{< image source="/images/drone-ci-webring.png" title="Drone Pipeline" >}} Drone
Pipeline {{< /image >}}

This was easy to integrate and as more knowledge is gained about the IndieWeb,
new features will be added to the site.