NEW Modified RSS News Feed Hack

Hack originally posted by: Xyphen - RSS News Feed Hack
Modified by: wolfstream - Modified RSS News Feed Hack

I am posting this up as a new hack because of the major changes made to how the script works. Also, I didn't want people to get confused as to which one to download since there were 3 different versions on the original post.

Xyphen released the original version, then wolfstream modified the script and corrected some errors. After that, I modified wolfstreams version to change how posts were inserted. Now the post count will increase, posts will be able to be searched, and similiar threads will work.

RSS News Feed Hack for vB 3.0.x. As long as vBulletin doesn't change the database structure much, this should be good for the next release also, and those to come.

Allows you to have a live RSS news feed (such as one from Google or CNET) in a forum. The user that posts it will basically be a bot, which *should* only be used for posting the news, but you can even make it for a regular user.

Comments are welcome! Support provided through this thread.

Latest Version:
- 1.26 - for PHP 4.3.0 & above
- 1.26a - for PHP prior to 4.3.0

vBulletin Versions:
- 3.0.0
- 3.0.1

PHP Versions:
- > 4.3.0
- < 4.3.0

Installation Overview:
- Files to edit: (2) /admincp/index.php, /includes/functions_newpost.php
- Files to upload: (4) rss.php, admincp/rss_admin.php, includes/RSS/class.RSS.php, includes/RSS/rss_update.php
- Queries to run: (4) in rss_install.php

History:
Version 1.26 (23 June 2004 - Slapyo, Natch)
- listing of bot's more intuitive (Natch)
- hopefully fixed duplicate problem (Slapyo)
- stripped html tags from title and description (Slapyo)

Version 1.25 (12 May 2004 - Slapyo)
- fix for &quot; showing up
- logs action in scheduled task log if turned on

Version 1.24 (20 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- posts now deleted with delete_thread function
- post counts updated when using delete all news

Version 1.23 (14 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- added ability to delete bots
- cleaned up includes
- fix for PHP versions prior to 4.3.0 calling html_entity_decode()

Version 1.22 (13 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- duplicate posts problem fixed
- fix for problem with ' appearing as \'

Version 1.21 (12 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- bot will not be subscribed to posts now

Version 1.2 (11 April 2004 - Slapyo)
- posts now inserted with build_new_post function

Version 1.1 (28 March 2004 - wolfstream)
- file edits taken down to 1
- cron script included

Version 1.0 (28 January 2004 - Xyphen)
- original release

Common RSS Feeds:
- Yahoo!
- CNET.com
- BBC
- Wired News
- The Register
- Ars Technica
- All Headline News

[jribz]

Originally Posted by Slapyo

here is where i ran into the same problem when coding this. i couldn't find out how to insert a breakline. everytime i put in /r/n it would actually put those characters into it. this was for inserting the description then 2 lines down putting the link. i had to come up with a work around for that.

Open up your replacement variable manager (in admincp -> styles & templates -> replacement variable manager) and add the following entry:
Style: [select whichever style you are using]
Search for text: {br}
Replace with text: <br />

I already have that replacement variable active, but it seems it only serves the purpose of putting the two lines before the linked url.

[Slapyo]

yup ... that is because i couldn't figure out how to make a line break without doing it that way. if you do /r/n/ or just /n it will create a newline, but when i did that it never created a new line it just put /n in the text. what i did was a work around.

i'm sure there is a way to simulate newlines in a text box within a script, i just don't know how to do it.

[Slapyo]

<a href="https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=67078" target="_blank">https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=67078</a>

you guys might want to check out that thread. it is called Article Bot and it does the same thing as this script, however there is more control built into it. it also allows for different kinds of feeds, RSS .91, RSS 2.0, ATOM.

i don't know how posts are inserted into the database but you guys may wanna check that out for other kinds of feeds.

[bradsears]

Is it possible to combine the greatness of both of these systems? I'm all for competition but in this case it may be wasteful.

[Slapyo]

nothing to combine. it would be one or the other. the Article Bot contains everything my script does, PLUS some things that have been requested for me to add in.

Article Bot is mine +more

[Sanjiyan]

Can this hack support RDF:Syndicate feeds? I have tried this hack and other vb3 hacks for rss feeds and it appears not or I am doing something wrong.

Any ideas on when this option will be added as I would really like to use it, but if it does not support RDF feeds (.asp files) eg http://myeve.eve-online.com/feed/RDFnewsFromDevBlog.asp
then I will not beable to install it sorry.

[Slapyo]

have you tried this one sanjiyan??

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=67078

if you haven't tried that one, i suggest you try it. it offers support for more than one kind of feed.

[Sanjiyan]

Originally Posted by Slapyo

have you tried this one sanjiyan??

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=67078

if you haven't tried that one, i suggest you try it. it offers support for more than one kind of feed.

Yep I have tried it and thrown it back out, it does not work with the system I am after, but as you stated in your posts, your version (hopefully) plans to support it when you have the time to get it working, so I hope to wait till your version of the hack is ready to work with the syndicate I need to use.

[Sanjiyan]

Any ideas on when a newer version that might support the rdf feeds?

[turbidblue]

i got the hack installd and everything is working great, but i have a question about my bot that makes the news threads...

how do i get it to not show rep,age,postcount, and everything else???

i just want it to be the avatar and the name of the bot

any help??

i was told i needed to edit my postbit to identify that userid and to make it simple...

but how??