Show RSS Feed Icon in each forum

So I wanted to add an image link to each forum for its unique RSS feed. This would allow people to subscribe to their favorite forums with their favorite News Reader instead of email. It would always be up to date and accurate.

There are three steps to doing this.

First, I decided I needed a small plugin to determine if RSS was turned on within the forumdisplay template. Go to your plugin manager and add the following code to the "forumdisplay_start" plugin.

PHP Code:

if ($vbulletin->options['externalrss'])
{
   $show['rss'] = true;
} 


Next we will be editing the forumdisplay template itself.

Find:

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center" style="border-bottom-width:0px">
<tr>
<td class="tcat" width="100%">$vbphrase[threads_in_forum]<span class="normal"> : $foruminfo[title]</span></td>
<td class="vbmenu_control" id="forumtools" nowrap="nowrap"><a href="$show[nojs_link]#goto_forumtools" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[forum_tools]</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("forumtools"); </script></td>
    <if condition="$show['forumsearch']">
<td class="vbmenu_control" id="forumsearch" nowrap="nowrap"><a href="$show[nojs_link]#goto_forumsearch" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[search_this_forum]</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("forumsearch"); </script></td>
    </if>
</tr>
</table>

And replace with:

<table class="tborder" cellpadding="$stylevar[cellpadding]" cellspacing="$stylevar[cellspacing]" border="0" width="100%" align="center" style="border-bottom-width:0px">
<tr>
<td class="tcat" width="100%">$vbphrase[threads_in_forum]<span class="normal"> : $foruminfo[title]</span></td>
<td class="vbmenu_control" id="forumtools" nowrap="nowrap"><a href="$show[nojs_link]#goto_forumtools" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[forum_tools]</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("forumtools"); </script></td>
    <if condition="$show['forumsearch']">
<td class="vbmenu_control" id="forumsearch" nowrap="nowrap"><a href="$show[nojs_link]#goto_forumsearch" rel="nofollow">$vbphrase[search_this_forum]</a> <script type="text/javascript"> vbmenu_register("forumsearch"); </script></td>
    </if>
    <if condition="$show['rss']">
<td class="tcat"><a href="external.php?type=rss2&forumids=$foruminfo[forumid]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/feed_icon.png" height="14" width="14" alt="Feed Icon" title="Subscribe to $foruminfo[title]'s RSS Feed"></a></td>
    </if>
    </tr>
</table>

Finally the third step is to upload the attached image to represent your feed. If your site isn't set up to allow IE to view transparent backgrounds in PNG images, you will probably want to convert the image to a GIF format matted to your background.

Distibuted under the "Wayne License". You may modify to suit your needs, No Attribution Necessary, Redistribution allowed on sites which can verify legitimate vBulletin License Holders only.

[Zia]

Originally Posted by BaconDelight

I've installed your icon hack on a test board, waiting to finish a host tranfer before I go live with it.

My issue is not with the hack, but with vB's RSS generation script.

Let's say I have 5 threads, one of them started 2 days ago, the rest started today. Even if the most recent post on the forum is to teh thread starte 2 days ago, the other 4 threads are what show up first in the RSS feed because it sorts by creation time not time of most recent post. Is there any way to alter this (without adding too many queries)?

a new updated fps_external.php has been relased here.....i am using it...it works...for forum(inside)....

tho i have some other probs..validator cant valid...all the things

[Zia]

dear wane...
can u modify it that it will send ping using pingomatic.com
so the serch engn will keep informed that rss is updated

[Marv]

Originally Posted by Wayne Luke

Sorry for the delay. I will try to look into this today, however my wife and I are going away on a four day weekend tomorrow so I might not get to it until Monday...

Hi Wayne,

maybe you?d already could effort the time to have a look into my (very personal) problem ?
For some reason I cannot solve this on my own - even if it looks to me like it couldn?t be such a big thing.

I would really appreciate your help.

[mdcarlson]

Originally Posted by MrNase

What is the feed supposed to look like..?

Iam missing some information in it: http://www.pagodentreff.de/diskussio...ss2&forumids=4

Wayne,

I am seeing the same behavior as MrNase. My RSS icons were only showing upon "category" forums. But those forums don't contain any posts which makes for a pretty uninteresting RSS feed.

What do I need to change to get the RSS feed icon to show up on the forums (sub-forums really) and NOT show up on the category forums?

Mark

[Bulent Tekcan]

I have a problem for colored title....I'm already post here http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=175044

Any idea for that ?

Thanks

[Bulent Tekcan]

My problem solved...

<td class="tcat"><a href="external.php?type=rss2&forumids=$foruminfo[forumid]"><img class="inlineimg" src="$stylevar[imgdir_misc]/feed_icon.png" height="14" width="14" alt="RSS Feed Icon" border="0" /></a></td>
 

Removed title="Subscribe to $foruminfo[title]'s RSS Feed" this line.My problem solved.

[Zia]

Hello wane..

its rss..can u modify it to add
xml/my yahoo/my msn button to??

i searched it for that..didnt get

[Zia]

Hello dear wane..

its nice...tryst u can modify it.. the rss buton now showing for each forum top-right side..

can u add few more button..



thhere are few buttons who alloes rss...

in the footer of the page..in every page ..it will be linked with the forums..


Please consider it...thnakx

[Wayne Luke]

Originally Posted by Zia

Hello dear wane..

its nice...tryst u can modify it.. the rss buton now showing for each forum top-right side..

can u add few more button..



thhere are few buttons who alloes rss...

in the footer of the page..in every page ..it will be linked with the forums..


Please consider it...thnakx

This would be a completely different mod in my opinion. I don't know anything about these feed aggregators but they should provide instructions on their sites that you can follow.

[Zia]

thnx Wane....we got a way to add this....