Pipes now supports the ability to process and emit CSV and iCal data.

There’s a new module in the Pipes Editor called Fetch CSV that allows you to retrieve online data sources formatted in CSV (comma separated values). Checkout this example to see how you can start working with CSV data in Pipes.

We have also updated the Fetch Feed module so that it now supports the retrieval of iCal data. Here’s a simple Pipe that demonstrates how to start working with iCal data.

If a Pipe contains an iCal source, or contains the Fetch CSV Module, you’ll notice the appropriate links to “Get as iCal” and “Get as CSV” on the runpage.

We worked with the Yahoo! Maps team to put together two examples that demonstrate how you can take the output from a Pipe containing GeoData and overlay its content on a Y! Map. Using these examples, you can learn how you can start putting Pipes powered Maps on your website.

The Pipe being called in the below examples is called Where2 with flickr. This Pipe aggregates event listings in the San Francisco Bay Area from upcoming.org. Then, uses the location information for each event to search Y! Local for nearby restaurants and flickr for nearby pictures. The output of this Pipe contains all the data you need to decide where to head out to!

Both examples demonstrate how to take the output from a Pipe and overly its data on a Y! Map:

• The first example uses the JSON output from a Pipe.
• The second example uses the RSS output from a Pipe.

To learn more about how each example was made you can view there respective sources. There’s more information about the Yahoo! Maps AJAX API on the Yahoo! Developer Network website. If you have specific questions about the Y! Maps AJAX API we suggest you visit the yws-maps-ajax mailing list.

We’re eager to answer any questions you might have about these examples so start a thread anytime on the Pipes Message Boards.

Many Pipes developers have asked how they can get Pipes content onto their web site or blog.

We’ve put together a small piece of sample Javascript to show how you can get a Pipe’s output into your page - without using any other server!

Of course, how you present it to the user is up to you! Here’s a simple example that uses the sample code to do just that.

The IBM developerWorks website has posted a feature article on Pipes that includes both an in-depth description of the project and a great tutorial. Here’s how they describe the article:

This tutorial provides a basic understanding of Yahoo Pipes, a service that filters, transforms, and aggregates content feeds. A complete run-through of the toolset available is included, as are three demonstrations that illustrate the capabilities and features of the service. Finally, step-by-step instructions for one of the demonstrations complete the tutorial, along with a recorded movie showing the steps in detail.

The intent of this tutorial is simply to describe the Yahoo Pipes service for managing available content feeds, focusing on the features, tools, and capabilities available.

This evening we pushed a number of updates to Pipes and there are some exciting new things to tell you about. In brief, we added new ways to browse and explore Pipes, updated the design of the Pipes website, added a number of new features, introduced two new modules, and fixed many bugs.

Many users have asked for additional ways to explore all the Pipes that are being created. When you are on the Browse page you now have ability to browse all the Pipes on that page by their Tags, and by the Sources and Modules contained in them. Look for the links to these options in the sidebar.

Here are a few examples:

• browse all published Pipes tagged with ‘Digg’
• browse all published Pipes containing the Source ‘digg.com’
• browse all published Pipes containing the Module ‘urlbuilder’

We have updated the look, and some functionality, of the Pipes website:

• On the Browse page all key actions for a Pipe (run, edit, delete, publish, clone) are now a single click away, the descriptions for each Pipe are now automatically exposed, and it’s possible to browse a Pipe by its unique tags and sources. To see these options hover over any of the listed Pipes.
• The sites navigation has been moved horizontally to the top of the page and the homepage has been revamped.
• We’ve incorporated user feedback and redesigned the runpage so that it’s easier to use.
• You can now add tags to your Pipe on its runpage, look for this feature in the sidebar.
  

We also introduced two new modules in the Pipes Editor:

• The String Replace Module lets you find and replace the first, last or all occurrences of a string. You can manually enter the text in the input boxes or pipe it in from an appropriate User Input module.
• The Sub String Module cuts a range of consecutive characters from a string. Enter the numeric character starting position and the length of the characters you want to match. Here’s an example using both new modules to get you started.

Finally, we’ve squashed many bugs that were reported on the Suggestions and Discussion Boards. Thank you for taking the time to report them.

As always, we look forward to hearing your Feedback and appreciate you helping us make Pipes a more useful product.

On Wednesday, June 6th, Pipes will be offline for approximately 2 hours starting at 6:30 PM PST. We’ll be performing a routine, scheduled update and expect regular service to return by around 8:30 PM PST. Click here to find out what time the site will be offline where you are located.

O’Reilly Publishing has a series called Short Cuts that is intended to “spotlight one specific topic, usually in fewer than 100 pages.” We’re excited to announce that there is a great new Short Cut on Pipes!

This Short Cut shows you how to use Yahoo! Pipes. Examples illustrate the workings of every Yahoo! Pipes module (more than two dozen), and show how to incorporate these Pipes into your own web pages.

Thanks for being patient, the Pipes are flowing again! For those just tuning in, we had some unplanned downtime on Wednesday, May 17th. The service is back to normal.

We thought it would be useful to showcase a few Pipes that use the new Geo features we announced.

• Apartment Near Something was one of the original examples we created to demonstrate the usefulness of Pipes. Now you can search for an apartment close to something and plot the output on a map!
• Kiva Loans by Location takes a listing of open microloans on Kiva.org and GeoCodes each item based on the nationality of the entrepreneur requesting a loan. The end result allows users to browse a interactive Yahoo! map to see where Kiva is currently fund-raising.
• Photos Near Napa Wineries annotates Yahoo! Local results for Napa Wineries with images from Flickr that were taken nearby.
• Socialight Flickrin’ takes location-based Sticky Notes from Socialight.com and searches for pictures from Flickr based on the content of the Sticky Note. This example demonstrates how to use the Location Extractor Module to ensure that a feed containing GeoData is properly marked up.

We can’t wait to see how you use the new Geo features in Pipes! As always, we hope you’ll share your feedback and suggestions with us.

The Pipes team is proud to announce two new features that we’ve been working on that enhance our support for GeoData.

• First, we added a interactive Yahoo! Map to the runpage of any Pipe containing GeoData. To see this feature in action run the Apartment Near Something Pipe. Here’s a still image of what the map looks like:
• Second, we added an additional output renderer which allows Pipes containing GeoData to be emitted as a KML file. If there’s GeoData in a Pipe you can find a link to the KML output at the bottom of a Pipes runpage listed in the Tools section. It’s possible to use the KML output in a variety of ways including in Google Earth.
  

We posted a followup entry that highlights some example Pipes that make use the new Geo features.

In addition to our enhanced geolocation support there are some other improvements to announce:

• You can now inline edit the Title and Description text listed on the runpage for your Pipes.
• We’ve added the ability to filter dates using the options “before” and “after” in the Filter Module. These parameters can accept dates in a variety of relative formats such as “n days ago”, “now” and “today”.