SUP (Simple Update Protocol) is a simple and compact "ping feed" that
web services can produce in order to alert the consumers of their feeds
when a feed has been updated. This reduces update latency and improves
efficiency by eliminating the need for frequent polling.
SUP is being developed by FriendFeed.
Benefits include:
SUP is being developed by FriendFeed.
Benefits include:
- Simple to implement. Most sites can add support with only few lines of code if their database already stores timestamps.
- Works over HTTP, so it's very easy to publish and consume.
- Cacheable. A SUP feed can be generated by a cron job and served from a static text file or from memcached.
- Compact: updates can be about 21 bytes each. (8 bytes with gzip encoding)
- Does not expose usernames or secret feed urls (such as Google Reader Shared Items feeds)
- Frequently Asked Questions about SUP
- Specification and example code
- SUP Validator (source)
- RSS/Atom Feed tester
- Public SUP feed (anyone can link to and contribute updates)
- Open source implementations of SUP are available as part of Laconica and Benjamin Golub's open-source blog software, as well as the example code provided by FriendFeed.
- See FriendFeed's SUP feed
- Discuss SUP in the SUP room on FriendFeed
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