<h2>Request Patterns</h2>
<p>
    We recommend that you update every 2 minutes. A timestamp should generally be applied in every request. For bulk import load and start-up-purposes, you may employ a timestamp of 0, which will give you the maximum number of items. The standard numbers of items returned are a maximum of 1000 for Transfers and Transfer Rumours whereas Suspensions and Injuries will provide 250 items or an unlimited number of data pages of 250 items each. The maxlimit-parameter allows you to control the number of items returned, e.g. top 5 most recently updated items.
</p>
<p>
    The timestamp format is the UNIX-timestamp, e.g. 1362130707 corresponding to (03/01/13 @ 3:38:27am EST or 2013-03-01 10:38:27 GMT+1), which can be obtained on most platforms and systems by calling a time-function (e.g. PHP: time(), Java: getTime(), JavaScript: getTime(), .NET:DateTime-structure). You can also get the current timestamp (on the XML Sports Feeds-server) by calling:
</p>
<p>
    http://feed.xmlsportsfeeds.net/xml/get_servertime.php
</p>
<p>
    The recommended pattern for requests, once you have done a bulk import, is as outlined below:
</p>
<p>
    <ul>
        <li>Recall timestamp, Tlast of last update</li>
        <li>Send request to all relevant feeds with timestamp, Tlast</li>
        <li>Get current time, Tnow - the time of your updates.</li>
        <li>Set Tlast to Tnow.</li>
        <li>Wait 2 minutes (or other selected interval) and repeat from 1.</li>
    </ul>
</p>
<p>
    The advantage with this approach is that you get only the delta of items, i.e. only xml-items that are new since the last request.
</p>