?Does rss2html script work with remote RSS feeds?

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

Hi there!

When trying to install the script it asks for the url of the xml file. i.e.

Replace '' with the full URL to your RSS feed (i.e. http://www.mydomain.com/myfeed.xml)

What about if you do not have the xml file? How would it work with remote RSS feeds like the ones created by indeed.com: "http://www.indeed.co.uk/rss?q=marketing&l=London"? or by yahoo pipes:
"http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=9843dbdb332238522f88566466ed52c9&_render=rss"

I have given it a try by pasting any of the urls above and ... obviously it doesn't work. Is there any way to make it work? Any suggestion?

My apologies if this topic has been already discussed in the forum. I have searched and found nothing relevant.

Please help!

Thanks a lot in advance for any help!
Regards

Toulousaing · Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 32 Location: Toulouse, France

It works with any valid RSS url, whatever file type you have (.xml, .rss, etc.)

Additional params are not allowed in the input parameter.

The best way for you to know the genuine rss url is to dl a free rss reader and cut/paste the url it catches when you click on any RSS icon (this is what *I* do and it works fine... :-)

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

I am already using a RSS displayer module to display the remote feeds from indeed.com and I need to convert the feeds into html so as the search engine of the CMS retrieves them.

However the URL's I meant on the original post do not work... As an alternative I have tried the option to create a valid xml file, but I am not pretty sure whether I can rely on its cache function:
www.seachd.com/php/rss2html.php?buildURL

.

Should I then save this xml file on my server and use it for setting up the link? If so...Will rss2html script update the feed according to the cache option? Will this save the new items in the xml file?

Thanks a lot for any help! As you see I am a bit lost

Toulousaing · Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 32 Location: Toulouse, France

Well, if you disconnect the rss feed from its origin, it will never be updated.
The tool is not an XML 2 HTML converter ! :-)

Give us the link of the RSS feed you are dealing with and I'll have a look.

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

Ok this is just an example, I use yahoo pipes:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=9843dbdb332238522f88566466ed52c9&_render=rss

I have many others like this one above that I would like to convert into html.

Any suggestion how to make this work? Thanks a lot again

Toulousaing · Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 32 Location: Toulouse, France

Well, to me it works very fine:

http://www.ddtl.fr/piscine/rss_reader_2.php

Try.

Source is:

$XMLFILE = "http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=9843dbdb332238522f88566466ed52c9&_render=rss";
$TEMPLATE = "http://www.ddtl.fr/piscine/1002.html";
include("rss2html.php");
?>

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

Thanks! It works for you! ;)

However when using the default template: sample-template.html, I get the error:

Code:

$errorCode = 26
xml_error_string() = Undeclared entity error
xml_get_current_line_number() = 10
xml_get_current_column_number() = 469
xml_get_current_byte_index() = 2570

and I have already added to the FeedForAll_XMLParser.inc.php:

Code:

$XMLString = str_replace(">",">", $XMLString);
$XMLString = str_replace("<","<", $XMLString);
$XMLString = str_replace("&","&", $XMLString);

So, I guess there are more exceptions I have to add?
If I finally get the HTML code for the RSS and paste it into my html page, would it update automatically?

Thanks for all your help!

Toulousaing · Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 32 Location: Toulouse, France

Yes, an error 26 is an XML entity that is not known by the rss2html parser

No, because your HTML page is not dynamic.

I'm building the same kind of stuff as you do. The goal is obviously to have the page updated as soon as it is requested by the visitor. The only way to do so is to trigger the php first, which will get the rss data, convert them to plain text, then build your page.

Think that it is the php code which builds the html code. No way to have a static html page trigger the php code to be self-rebuild, in my opinion, but I may be wrong, of course.

Consider this tool is no more maintained since ages. We are lucky that the FeedForAll web site and Paypal system are still up and running...

Good luck.

Toulousaing · Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 32 Location: Toulouse, France

Late Breaking News
Last parser version is

// $Log: FeedForAll_XMLParser.inc.php,v $
// Revision 3.24 2010/03/16 22:31:38 housley
// Fix for PHP 5.3

Available in the rssmesh.php "distribution kit".
I can send it to you if you wish. I do hope updates are free...

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

Hi there,

I think I've read somewhere that rss2html script would update the html-webpage output with the "rss contents".

So, have you figured out how to make it work out?

Could you please send me the file? THanks a lot!

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

Actually, after having reread what I have written... That's the real point of the script, isn't it?

There must be a way to trick it in a way it updates dinamically.

Toulousaing · Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 32 Location: Toulouse, France

Maybe I was not inuf clear.

The "page" where your visitors arrive will not be a static HTML page with some dynamic php inside.

It is (should be) the rss2html.php script, which will get/convert and post your feed data on a new page it populates, actually from a template one (2nd § in rss2html.php)

What I'm doing is this:

I built my page with my favourite html editor, I labelled all data with the rss2html tag syntax ~~~X~~~, then I ran rsss2html.php, giving my rss feed as input #1 and my template page as param #2

Works fine !
:-)

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

That makes more sense. However in order to implement it, I would need a further explanation when labeling all data. I am going to try anyway.

I get the same Error 26 after having overwritten the file you sent me. Should I first think about making it work and afterwards creating the page??

Thanks!

Toulousaing · Joined: 28 Apr 2012 Posts: 32 Location: Toulouse, France

Gonna be the local Guru, if this continues that way.. :-)

Here is a start of my Rss In PHP How To:

1° you need:

a) an RSS feeds provider
b) a server on which you copy rss2html.php, sample-template.html and a php script you write to trigger the whole stuff (see below).

2° you have:

a) rss2html.php, upload it
b) sample-template.html, edit it, remove the ~~~ around ItemDescription (to suppress verbose Item Descriptions) and upload it
c) Notepad++ (get it if you don't or use Notepad)

3° with rss2html.php on your server, start this command:

Code:

http://www.myserver.com/rss2html.php?buildURL

You (should) get this:

RSS2HTML.PHP LINK TOOL

To assist with the creation of properly encoded URLs for use with rss2html.php this tool has been created. Fill in the URLs or file paths for both the XML file and your template file in the boxes below and then click "Submit". The program will then return the URLs properly encoded in a string that calls rss2html.php. You can click on this link to test the results. The program will also indicate if it was unable to open either of the URLs it was given.
URL for the XML file: ___________________________
(ie. http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog?format=xml)

URL for the template file: ______________________________
(ie. http://www.myserver.com/sample-template.html)

Optional items
Maximum items: _____
(Use negative numbers for the last X items, ex: -3) (enter -3)
No future items: [ ]
(check)
XML (input) Cache Settings
Allow Caching of the feed: [ ]
(leave unchecked)
Cache Time: [ ]
(The number of seconds a file may be cached for before being fetched again) (forget it)
HTML (output) Cache Settings
Output Cache Time: [ ]
(The number of seconds the output may be cached for before being recreated) (forget it)
Output Cache Name: [ ]
(This should be a unique name to prevent conflicts) (forget it)

4° Click SUBMIT
You should get this:

Results
The XML file http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog?format=xml was SUCCESSFULLY opened
The template file http://www.myserver.com/sample-template.html was SUCCESSFULLY opened
URL for the XML file properly encoded:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog%3fformat%3dxml
URL for the template file properly encoded:
http://www.myserver.com/sample-template.html
../..
Example Usage
$XMLFILE = "http://feeds.feedburner.com/GoogleOnlineSecurityBlog?format=xml";
$TEMPLATE = "http://www.myserver.com/sample-template.html";
$MAXITEMS = "-3";
include("rss2html.php");
?>

5° create an empty .php file and cut/paste the above php code into it.
save as rss_reader.php (for example)

6° upload rss_reader.php onto your server in the same location where the two previous stuff were uploaded (MANDATORY)

7° type this in your browser:

Code:

http://www.myserver.com/rss_reader.php

You should get this:

Google Online Security Blog

Saturday 12th March 2011
MHTML vulnerability under active exploitation
ItemDescription
Thursday 31st March 2011
Chrome warns users of out-of-date browser plugins
ItemDescription
Friday 1st April 2011
Improving SSL certificate security
ItemDescription

If you don't, come back :-)

HTH

siroco1979 · Joined: 27 Apr 2012 Posts: 13 Location: London

Well I have no words! Thanks so much for all your support. You are already the GURU of this thread :)

Your guide was quite helpful and everything worked as it was expected to.

However I am having now a problem with the php file to implement it in Concrete5CMS. I have already tried to use the php file "rss_reader.php" as template for a new page in which I would just add header, footer and so on.
Unfortunately it does not work. I will ask in the CMS forum. I am hopefully lucky and make it work soon.

The last step would test if rss content is retrieved by the CMS search engine. If so... I would could move on with other secondary aspects of the website and would be very happy. I will let you know!

Thanks for everything!!!!