CODEWITHSUNDEEP
parsingfeedsyndication-feed
Brian Armstrong
Brian Armstrong

Reputation: 19873

How do Aweber and FeedBlitz report subscriber numbers to Feedburner?

I've looked all over for some documentation on this, but haven't found it. Some posts reference a user-agent string:

http://groups.google.com/group/feedburner-services/browse_thread/thread/7aee14cf6a2432e7/49464335d2228e25?lnk=gst&q=aweber#49464335d2228e25

I had assumed there would be an API or something. More generally, how does ANY rss feed reader/aggregator (like Bloglines, etc) report subscriber numbers to Feedburner?

I'm working on developing a new app that would need this functionality.

Thanks for your help! Brian

Upvotes: 1

Views: 344

Answers (2)

Stobor
Stobor

Reputation: 45132

As you discovered in your link, you put the subscriber count in your user-agent, then you contact the Feedburner Support Group and tell them what format you will be using.

The consensus format is something 

User-agent: Service Name (http://example.com/service/info/; ### subscribers ; [optional feed identifier] )

The optional feed identifier is typically used if you run several different services, and fetch the feed separately for each one; e.g. if you have a mail service and a web-based reader service, with different subscribers, then you might either use:

User-agent: SO Agg/1.3 (http://example.com/SOAgg ; 5000 subscribers ; feed-id=mail-134 )

on request for the mailer, and 

User-agent: SO Agg/1.3 (http://example.com/SOAgg ; 2000 subscribers ; feed-id=web-134 )

on the request for the website; or use

User-agent: SO Agg/1.3 (http://example.com/SOAgg ; 7000 subscribers ;  )

if your system makes only one request for both services...

You will usually need to specify what IP addresses are authorised to request the feed with that user-agent, as well.

Upvotes: 2

Anirvan
Anirvan

Reputation: 6364

Many major aggregators report user stats by including them as part of the useragent string. Examples:

There's no standard for this at this time.

To the best of my knowledge, folks will contact major feed analytics vendors like Feedburner directly, to make sure their useragent-based reporting is being counted.

Upvotes: 2

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