Latest Blog Feed in Postbit using Carp RSS

I just posted this over at vbWebmaster Forums. I'm all excited because this is my first plugin and I know pretty much nothing about vbulletin. I got the idea from Shawn's forum at Digital Point

I just put this together for 3.5 using carp.

Step 1) Add a custom profile field for the RSS link. In my setup it was field5.
Step 2) Edit your postbit template as follows:

PHP Code:

<if condition="$post['field5']">
<div class="smallfont">Recent Blog: $blogentry</div>
        </if> 


Step 3) Create a new plugin. I named mine: Carp Configuration. Attach it to the "global_start" hook location.
Here is the code:

PHP Code:

require_once '/path/to/carp/carp.php';
CarpConf('cacheinterval',120);
/** You may want to set a cachepath specifically for your forum **/
CarpConf('cachepath','/where/you/want/your/cache/files/');
CarpConf('cacherelative',0);
/** You can omit the above two lines without a problem **/
CarpConf('cborder','');
CarpConf('poweredby','');
CarpConf('maxitems',1);
CarpConf('iorder','link'); 


Step 4) One more plugin. This one I called: Get Users Blog Entry
Attach this to hook location: postbit_display_start

PHP Code:

ob_start();
CarpCacheShow($post[field5]);
$blogentry = ob_get_contents();
ob_end_clean(); 


That's it... away you go. If you don't have carp, you can check it out at: http://www.geckotribe.com/rss/carp/
I'm not sure if this will work with the free version, as I have the paid version.

I'm thinking about using grouper to set it up so I can parse atom files, but I don't know how important that will be.

Note: carp allows you to enter local paths and http paths for rss feeds. I've tried entering both in my user profile field successfully. You may want to disallow users from entering a local path just to be on the safe side. I don't have any code for that right now, but I'm sure there are some examples for field validation out there.

Carp has an option to store it's output in a variable ($carpoutput), but it didn't seem to work for me. That's why I used the ob_start and end_clean functions. If anybody has any feedback as to how this may be improved, I'm willing to listen.

[armstrong]

Installed on http://noypi.org . Thanks!

Hey, would it be possible to have the blogs on a new window? Someone else requested this, but no solution was offered. Is this even possible with Carp?

EDIT: Answering my own question, yes it is possible using carp's linktarget config option -> http://carp.docs.geckotribe.com/conf.../item/link.php

[pmkb]

This works great with 3.6 too.

[nevetS]

Originally Posted by Loco.M

could someone please post a link to download carp, that site is extremely hard to navigate, all I done is signed up for some newsletter

You are not kidding. I saw your post and headed over there.

http://carp.docs.geckotribe.com/download.php

It LOOKS like you have to hand off your e-mail to download, but I don't know what happens if you give it to them. When I put this together originally, it was easy to download, easy to install, easy easy easy.

And frankly, since I purchased, they've been great about e-mailing me updates directly and regularly (I don't have to download them).

I know another user has developed a magpie version, which may be easier to get a copy of - here's the plugin, and a link to magpie:

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...ghlight=magpie

http://magpierss.sourceforge.net/

and the magpie rss download page:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...group_id=55691

[993ti]

Working great on 3.6.2, thx for this awesome mod

[glenvw]

Ok, I happen to find this at Digital Point as well. However, I cannot figure out in laymens terms, what it does for a forum owner?

Can someone lay it out for me in dummy language please?

Thanks!

[nevetS]

It puts the linked title of your most recent blog entry in the postbit. Take a gander at the screenshots.

[imranbaig]

this is really a nice hack.
Clicks INSTALL

[ResaleBroker]

This worked like a charm with our 3.5.x forums. What would it take to get this to work with 3.0.x versions? I can get RSS feeds to show up but I haven't found a way to get the custom user field into the feed URL. Any ideas?

[nevetS]

No idea. I don't have a 3.0x version to work with. I'll poke around a little bit this week and see if there isn't an easy fix.

[ResaleBroker]

Originally Posted by nevetS

No idea. I don't have a 3.0x version to work with. I'll poke around a little bit this week and see if there isn't an easy fix.

Thank you!