?MSN Search RSS feed

Joined: 25 Mar 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Chennai, India

Hi... I've tried to plug an MSN search feed URL into the XML file variable but that doesn't seem to work. A sample search feed is:

http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=publish+RSS+website+-ebook&format=rss&FORM=ZZRE

Penny for your thoughts?

Cheers

Lucky Balaraman

Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 599

The problem is that the URL to the feed you posted contains variables in it. When you use it to call the rss2html.php script, you end up with variables inside the XMLFILE variable, which won't work.

What you can do is put a copy of the rss2html.php script on your server, and then modify the text inside the script. Inside the script set the RSS feed to use.

For example, in the script, replace the line:

$XMLfilename = "sample.xml";

with:

$XMLfilename = "http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=publish+RSS+website+-ebook&format=rss&FORM=ZZRE";

You will no longer need to include the XMLFILE variable in the URL. You can also hard-code the template in the script, or continue to set it in the URL when calling your modified rss2html.php script.

Joined: 25 Mar 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Chennai, India

(1) I really appreciate your speedy reply and the fact that you've taken the trouble to send it on a holiday (Good Friday)

(2) Thank you very much for your solution. I'll put it in place today and post feedback, which I think is going to be positive

(3) This site is a boon to webmasters who want to be on the cutting edge.

Best

Lucky Balaraman

Joined: 27 Aug 2004 Posts: 599

I know this post is old, but we have just figured out a way that you can use an RSS feed that has variables on its URL, with rss2html.php. All you need to do is encode the special characters in the parameters. For example, use these encoding substitutions:

% -> %2525
? -> %3f
& -> %26
= -> %3d
+ -> %2b
-> %20

So, when you use the rss2htm.php script, the URL to the feed you posted should now look like this:

http://beta.search.msn.com/results.aspx%3fq%3dpublish%2bRSS%2bwebsite%2b-ebook%26format%3drss%26FORM%3dZZRE

Joined: 25 Mar 2005 Posts: 3 Location: Chennai, India

Thanks a lot!

I should have given you this good news earlier, but better late than never --- modifying the rss2html program by inserting the feed URL works great! I've had it working for more than a month now and it's flawless.

Thanks for a great piece of software.

Lucky Balaraman

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