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

[ConqSoft]

Suggestion for a future version: Ability to give a descriptive name to the feed. If you use the same userid to post multiple feeds, they all show up the same in the dropdown.

Also, ability to delete a feed would be nice.

Good work!

[gmarik]

This seems even better...

[Slapyo]

Originally Posted by Morrus

This hack seems to be working fine!

Is there a way to change the formating of the output, though? Rather than a line break and then "View the entire article", can it be set to just append "(Read more...)" at the end of the text (no line breaks)?

if you want to change the output of the feed, just open up rss_update.php

FIND:

PHP Code:

$rss_description = $rss_allItems[$j][DESCRIPTION];
$rss_description .= "{br}{br}[url=" . $rss_allItems[$j][LINK] . "]View the Entire Article[/url]{br}"; 


REPLACE WITH:

PHP Code:

$rss_description = $rss_allItems[$j][DESCRIPTION];
$rss_description .= " [url=" . $rss_allItems[$j][LINK] . "](Read more...)[/url]{br}"; 


you can format it however you like. but this is the section where you would modify the formatting of the post itself. note, you use the {br} tag to create breaklines, not the standard <br /> tag.

[Slapyo]

Originally Posted by ConqSoft

Suggestion for a future version: Ability to give a descriptive name to the feed. If you use the same userid to post multiple feeds, they all show up the same in the dropdown.

Also, ability to delete a feed would be nice.

Good work!

ya, i noticed this problem too ... but now that i pretty much have the insertion of the post going good i can work on additional features for it.

[sjau]

Hmmmm, good work to have opened a new thread with a fixed version

[ckaosII]

Ehhh,

Sorry for not being an expert her..

I'm new to this stuff

I've followed your install instruction, and now what? How do I get to work? Can I use other rss feeds?

I've noticed a Hacks section in my admincp containing: RSS News Feed but don't know how to configure it, would have been nice with a COMPLETE install/configure instruction for dummies like me :nervous:

[ckaosII]

Hello,


Woahh, got it to work all by my self

[SnowBot]

Well i just cant understand this at all, i have it working fine on one of my boards, mostly un-hacked as its a new project.

www.thepremierleague.co.uk

But its still not working on

www.synergyforums.com I have done the exact thing but still doesnt work. I get no errors but nothing is being posted, all i can think of is that its another hack thats messing this up. synergyforums is hacked and modded a great deal.

I will PM you an admin login like was said and see if you can figure something out. Maybe you can tell what hack maybe stopping this from posting the feed.

[Slapyo]

i have added in the ability to delete bots. until i can add in the ability to give a bot a description, i include the bot id next to the bot's name. hopefully this will help clear up some confusion as to the bots.

the only file edited was /admincp/rss_admin.php if you want to just upload that file.

[Dontom]

Originally Posted by Slapyo

i have added in the ability to delete bots. until i can add in the ability to give a bot a description, i include the bot id next to the bot's name. hopefully this will help clear up some confusion as to the bots.

the only file edited was /admincp/rss_admin.php if you want to just upload that file.

perfect - thank you!
I have a problem with one feed - it just wont work (other feeds worked for me)
Can someone tell me whats wrong with this one?
http://www.procycling.de/news/news_rss.php

Thank you
Tom