Tom Smith's dashboard

I don't quite get this... And I have read the documentation in detail... but I'm a bit dense....

If I do a "feed-based" query, I assume I first get the feed_id, then make a query using that... right? Could I just use the "base site url" to compare a post to its own root?

If I do a thematic query, I pass in (at least) 2 URLs to compare and get a number for each... What does this do, are they compared by content or just by other things (like comments, diggs, etc)... Could I maybe use an "exemplar post" and see how the posts I want to compare fare against it?

For example, will this work?

######################################################
from urlparse import urlsplit

def get_postrank( url ):
# GET THE FEED ID
pr = PostRank( )
r = pr('feed_id', appkey='theotherblog.com', format='json', url=url)
if r == [None, None]:
#feed not found!
return 0.0
feed_id= r[PROCESSED]['feed_id']

#NOW GET THE PAGE'S RANK RELATIVE TO ITS ROOT
p = PostRank( )
items = urlsplit( url)
site_url = "http://" + items[1] # Make a URL that points at the root of the site (assuming the URL isn't)
f = p('postrank', appkey='theotherblog.com', format='json', url=[url, site_url], feed_id=[feed_id])
postrank_num = float( f[1][url]['postrank'] )
return postrank_num
######################################################