Ever wanted to keep tabs on what your buddies are doing? Well, here is a tool you can use to generate the URL used to get your buddy’s updates feed.
The buddy updates feed is a collection of all AIM Plugin installations, away and status message changes, third-party social media feeds, and more that your buddy has associated with his or her account.
The tool generates a URL for the Web AIM API that gets a user’s feed. This API is not bound by any authentication mechanism at this time so you can use it like any other RSS feed.
Give the AIM Buddy Feed URL Generator a try. The tool lets you enter the buddy’s name, feed format (rss,xml,json), optional category, max number of items, and level of detail. [NOTE: I have to admit that the feed category option did not work for me. I will investigate and add a comment when I have an answer.]
Here is a URL that returns the full RSS format of my feed.
The AIM SDK version 1.6.8 and the one used with AIM 6.8 both expose a Buddy Feed API that you can use to push additional content. I will cover how you can use this API to push any kind of data you want in a future post.
FAQ
Q: How can I control what goes in my buddy updates feed?
A: You can control what goes into your buddy feed at the AIM Settings Website. Just click on the “My Buddy Updates” tab.
