Nifty use of XML at ABC Broadband

Just a quick one to do a bit of self-promotion for the ABC Broadband site.

One of the things I've been impressed by is the use of XML to create instant content. I probably shouldn't be so impressed given that half this site is RSS feeds, each using XML to generate the content down the left hand side, but this is just a great way to make things easy on yourself.

In particular I point your attention to the ABC Broadband Business Bulletin and the Rural Bulletin available at ABC Broadband. In the Business bulletin the market figures are taken from a Reuters XML feed at key points during the day to reflect things such as close of certain markets, etc. The graphics are a Powerpoint slide show. Embedded in the slide is a Flash object which is set up to read the XML generated by the Reuters feed and create the content. Sometimes it can be a bit flakey, but the time savings in having to create those graphics by hand is phenomenal, especially graphic elements such as line graphs showing dollar and market fluctuations.

Similarly, the Weather in the Rural bulletin is generated through a similar technique where up to date weather maps and forecast details are gleaned from XML via a site. It really is a great system and one that deserves a bit of kudos.