Additional external.php feed format

[okrogius]

Those of you who integrate your feed in a PHP page will appreciate the simplicity of working with this :).

Once installed you can just include your therads on your site's pages (example) via simply reading contents of external.php?type=php (be it via fopen, etc), and then processing the results through an unserialize() call.

[gldtn]

Are you saying we can use php instead of JS, XML, etc..? Very cool if you are :)

[Zachery]

im not sure but couldnt this lead to some security risks? such as grabbing important varibles?

[KuraFire]

Not really important variables, and even the ones they can grab are pretty pointless to them, unless there is a security risk elsewhere in vB3 that is related to variables whose names they can figure out due to this ($threadcache).

Not much of a concern if you ask me.

[okrogius]

im not sure but couldnt this lead to some security risks? such as grabbing important varibles?
No external information is passed via this, composed to using rss/xml/etc. Prime benefit is easyness of use; say you have a PHP page which should display latest threads.

Would it be easier to just open a file, unserailize its contents, and use the array (around 3 lines of code); or, open a file, create your own array parsing xml data (30+ lines)? You decide for yourself, personally I find the previous option a lot easier.

[Detomah]

Could you possibly explain this a litte more please. :)

I would really like to be able to do this, but am not sure of the exact processes and what exactly I would have to do to get certain threads showing on my home page with this...

Could you possibly give an example of the code that would be needed to grab and display the thread please.

I'm learning fast, but still need guidance now and then. ;)

[okrogius]

sure, using this getitng yoru threads can be as simple as:


<?php

$threads = unserialize(file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/external.php?type=php'));

for ($i=0; $<count($threads); $i++) {
echo 'thread: '.$threads[$i]['title'].'<br />';
}

?>

[firenuts]

Sorry, what does this add-on do exactly? Can I specify a thread ID and allow it to export all content to XML?

[Detomah]

sure, using this getitng yoru threads can be as simple as:


<?php

$threads = unserialize(file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/external.php?type=php'));

for ($i=0; $<count($threads); $i++) {
echo 'thread: '.$threads[$i]['title'].'<br />';
}

?>

That's what I was hoping to see. :)

I'll give it a go and see how the results turn out. :)

Thanks. :)

[gmarik]

what is the difference between the RSS hack and this?

[Myr7h]

sure, using this getitng yoru threads can be as simple as:


<?php

$threads = unserialize(file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/external.php?type=php'));

for ($i=0; $<count($threads); $i++) {
echo 'thread: '.$threads[$i]['title'].'<br />';
}

?>
its not as simple as that other wise i wouldn't get this error message:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected '<', expecting T_VARIABLE or '$' in G:\wampp2\htdocs\mnracing\index.php on line 230

[Mr. Brian]

Did you change the URL to your's instead??

its not as simple as that other wise i wouldn't get this error message:
Parse error: parse error, unexpected '<', expecting T_VARIABLE or '$' in G:\wampp2\htdocs\mnracing\index.php on line 230

[Geographic2]

Same error here:

on this line:

for ($i=0; $<count($threads); $i++) {


Are you sure that is right?

ok now I see it needs to be

for ($i=0; $i<count($threads); $i++) {


I see the application of this, very nice. Quick way to flip things across. Damn I love this external.php :)

[andor]

Hey, this is a great simple mod - love it. Thanks!

[Mosh]

To get this Mod to work with KW802's replacement for external.php in this thread "FPS_EXTERNAL.PHP -- New options added & RSS compliant version of external.php" - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=69834, use the following instructions instead of the ones attached here:

Open fps_external.php (or whatever you renamed it to).

Find:

case 'JS':
break;
case 'XML':
break;
case 'RSS1':
break;
case 'RSS2':
break;
Under it add:

case 'PHP':
break;
Find:
// +================================================= ============+
// | Build the RSS feeds |
// +================================================= ============+
else if (($_REQUEST['type'] == 'RSS' OR $_REQUEST['type'] == 'RSS1' OR $_REQUEST['type'] == 'RSS2') AND $vboptions['externalrss'])
Above it add:
else if ($_REQUEST['type'] == 'PHP')
{ // PHP output
echo serialize($threadcache);
}

Hope this helps,

jd :)

[KW802]

If there are no objections I'll incorporate that into the next round of changes I'm working on. :)

[Natch]

Good idea Kev ;)

[Mosh]

To get this Mod to work with KW802's replacement for external.php in this thread "FPS_EXTERNAL.PHP -- New options added & RSS compliant version of external.php" - https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=69834, use the following instructions instead of the ones attached here:

Open fps_external.php (or whatever you renamed it to).

Find:

case 'JS':
break;
case 'XML':
break;
case 'RSS1':
break;
case 'RSS2':
break;
Under it add:

case 'PHP':
break;
Find:
// +================================================= ============+
// | Build the RSS feeds |
// +================================================= ============+
else if (($_REQUEST['type'] == 'RSS' OR $_REQUEST['type'] == 'RSS1' OR $_REQUEST['type'] == 'RSS2') AND $vboptions['externalrss'])
Above it add:
else if ($_REQUEST['type'] == 'PHP')
{ // PHP output
echo serialize($threadcache);
}

Hope this helps,

jd :)

If there are no objections I'll incorporate that into the next round of changes I'm working on. :)

Sorry it took so long to respond, I have only just rechecked this thread. I have no probs you using my instructions, it was just to get okrogius's code to work with your version instead of the original external.php.

The only problem I see with okrogius's code is that there is no mechanism to turn off the php feed in the ACP (whereas you can switch off the others), that needs to be factored in when adding the php feed if okrogius gives permission to use his code.

jd :)